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Stories From Canada

Jul 21,2026 / By Trixie Raboy / No Comment

From coast to coast to coast, Canada is shaped by the stories, cultures, and people that make this place feel like home. Beyond the fireworks and red and white, it’s about shared moments, diverse voices, and the memories we continue to create together.

With that spirit in mind, we’ve put together a Tellwell booklist featuring stories that reflect journeys, perspectives, and voices from across the country, each one offering a glimpse into the richness of life in Canada.

Canada 1867–2017 by Paul Taillefer

A lifelong collection of Canadian history comes together in a passion project decades in the making.

In compiling, writing, and illustrating the most important event that marked the History of Canada each year since Confederation, the author restricted his choices to history, political, economic, and cultural phenomena.In the 1960s, the author acquired hundreds of clippings, magazines, encyclopaedias, and history books pertaining to Canada’s history. He had contemplated preparing a special project for Canada’s Centennial with them, but was forced to drop the idea for lack of time.In retirement, he was urged by his wife Pierrette, who saw his archives lingering in filing cabinet

Positively Canadian by Heather Ann Pattullo

Discover Canadian culture through fun stories and engaging insights.

Want to know more about this great country of Canada?
Want to improve your English as you “share a conversation” with the author?
Then this book is for you!

The informal writing style makes it utterly readable and delightfully entertaining. You could read it just for the fun of knowing more about Canada and skip the English exercises.
Or, you could just do the exercises to give you a little help in improving your English grammar. Either way, you can’t help but learn more about Canada as every sentence in the exercises tells you a bit more.
The author’s light-hearted comments and personal experiences regarding many of the “facts” on each province and territory add a delightful informality to the writing.

Whether you are an adult wanting a ‘refresher’ on Canada, an ESL student wanting grammar practice while learning zany Canadian facts or a new citizen of Canada, there is something here for everyone.

Canadian Encounters of a Human Kind by David Watts

Stories that reveal the ever-changing Canadian identity.

A Canadian is essentially a citizen of the world and the Canadian spirit is a sense of connection that makes the world work. Beyond that, nobody can define what it means to be Canadian because it’s always changing. The moment we think we’ve got it, we find we’ve left something out.

We can however describe what it is based on the relationships of flesh and blood people who have lived and met here. Of more than two dozen people in these sketches, less than half were born or died in Canada or would be considered long term residents.

Some lived before there was a “Canada:” when the word referred to a postage-stamp province or string of villages along a great river. All these figures became leaders in communities. Not all were well known in their time here or afterwards. Here are some of their stories.

That Little Blue Car by Ronda Potts

An unexpected journey from stillness to adventure sparked by a single message.

You get a medical order to stay in bed indefinitely, and take some time to let that sink in, with the help of family. You stare at the new smartphone in your hand, which has a mind of its own. There’s a whirlwind of activity around you—the arrangement of a Personal Support Worker you like, and soon you’re adapting to a new routine.

Then…a text message appears on your phone. You’re invited on a road trip. You know you can’t go, but you text back anyway, enthusiastically accepting the offer.

How did that happen?

Then…at a California gas station, a little toy car with a for sale sign and an adorable Alabama drawl captures your heart. Giddy with your newfound freedom, the two of you barrel down a Death Valley highway, scouting for roadrunners and coyotes.

How did that happen?

That Little Blue Car calls, so hop in! Join an epic Canadian/American roadtrip.

Embracing Canada by Jan Soukup

An immigrant’s journey shaped by Canada’s wild beauty and spirit of freedom.

Canada has had a special appeal for the author from an early age. Its image in the mind of the nature-worshipping ambitious European youth was combining the vastness of the wild northern land—bounded by oceans on three sides, the unfathomable beauty of endless boreal forests, sun-kissed prairies, snow- and glacier-capped mountains and toughness-testing winters—with the lore of its Indigenous past and the relatively young history of the accomplishments of its newcomers from the outside of the continent. His image of Canadians was that of straight honesty, physical and mental strength, determination in achieving their goals, and a love of peace and freedom. In spite of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, all this culminated in his decision to choose Canada as his homeland. He immigrated to Canada in 1968 after the Warsaw Pact invaded his birth country of then Czechoslovakia. He arrived with a fresh MSc in Nuclear Engineering and settled with his Czech fiancée in Edmonton. Here, after “seven skinny years,” he obtained a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Alberta. Using his qualifications as a means of earning a living, he ended up working at UCLA and in world-renowned research establishments of particle physics in Canada, the USA and Europe, including the LHC Supercollider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. He finally settled back in Edmonton working at the UofA as a Detector Engineer/Physicist until 2011, when he retired.

Throughout his modern frontier science work in Canada, there has always been the awareness of his wilderness backyard in the back of the author’s mind, which drew him to Canada in the first place. He devoted most of his spare time to his hobbies: wilderness hiking, canoeing, skiing, cycling, dog sledding and riding, especially after his children grew up and left home

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