The Canadian Encyclopedia: Year 2000 Edition

This edition of The Canadian Encyclopedia is the largest, most comprehensive book ever published in Canada for the general reader.

It is COMPLETE: every aspect of Canada, from its rock formations to its rock bands, is represented here.

It is UNABRIDGED: all of the information in the four red volumes of the famous 1988 edition is contained here in this single volume.

It has been EXPANDED: since 1988 teams of researchers have been diligently fleshing out old entries and recording new ones; as a result, the text from 1988 has grown by 50% to over 4,000,000 words.

It has been UPDATED: the researchers and contributors worked hard to make the information as current as possible.

Other words apply to this extraordinary work of scholarship: AUTHORITATIVE, RELIABLE and READABLE. Every entry is compiled by an expert. Equally important, every entry is written for a Canadian reader, from the Canadian point of view.

The finished work – many years in the making, and the equivalent of forty average-sized books – is an extraordinary storehouse of information about our country. This book deserves pride of place on the bookshelf in every Canadian Home.

It is no accident that the cover of this book is based on the Canadian flag. For the proud truth is that this volume represents a great national achievement. From its formal inception in 1979, this encyclopedia has always represented a vote of faith in Canada; in Canada as a separate place whose natural worlds and whose peoples and their achievements deserve to be recorded and celebrated.

At the start of a new century and a new millennium, in an increasingly borderless corporate world that seems ever more hostile to national distinctions and aspirations, this Canadian Encyclopedia is offered in a spirit of defiance and of faith in our future.

The statistics behind this volume are staggering. The opening sixty pages list the 250 Consultants, the roughly 4,000 Contributors (all experts in the field they describe) and the scores of researchers, editors, typesetters, proofreaders and others who contributed their skills to this massive project. The 2,640 pages incorporate over 10,000 articles and over 4,000,000 words, making it the largest – some might say the greatest – Canadian book ever published.

There are, of course, many special features. These include a map of Canada, a special page comparing the key statistics of the 23 major Canadian cities, maps of our cities, a variety of tables and photographs, and finely detailed illustrations of our wildlife, not to mention the colourful, informative endpapers.

But above all the book is “encyclopedic” – which the Canadian Oxford Dictionary describes as “embracing all branches of learning.” This means that (with rare exceptions) there is satisfaction for the reader who seeks information on any Canadian subject. From the first entry A mari usque ad mare – “from sea to sea” (which is Canada’s motto, and a good description of this volume’s range) to the Zouaves (who mustered in Quebec to fight for the beleaguered Papacy) there is the required summary of information, clearly and accurately presented. For the browser the constant variety of entries and the lure of regular cross-references will provide hours of fasination.

The word “encyclopedia” derives from Greek expressions alluding to a grand “circle of knowledge.” Our knowledge has expanded immeasurably since the time that one mnd could encompass all that was known.Yet now Canada’s finest scientists, academics and specialists have distilled their knowledge of our country between the covers of one volume.

The result is a book for every Canadian who values learning, and values Canada.