Book Review by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, London Ontario Golf
The Big Book of Canadian Trivia
Authors: Mark Kearney and Randy Ray

Mark Kearney and Randy Ray are two talented writers with local ties, and obviously proud of their Canadian roots. One of their previous books, The Great Canadian Book Of Lists, chronicles a century of achievements, trends, important and influential people, plus fascinating events which have shaped our country’s character. The duo’s last book, Whatever Happened To ...? Catching Up with Canadian Icons, demonstrates that these two scribes wear the Canadian flag on their chests.

Such is also the case with, The Big Book of Canadian Trivia, a 370-page cornucopia of Canadiana. Of course, you can’t ignore golf – an important and historic part of Canadian sports – when discussing sports trivia north of the 49th Parallel. In The Big Book of Canadian Trivia, Sandra Post gets a mention as the first foreign player to win the LPGA Championship on June 24, 1968. As well Bright’s Grove, Ontario’s Mike Weir earns some ink as the first Canadian golfer to win the Masters Tournament on April 14, 2003.

Perhaps Weir’s collapse at the 2004 Canadian Open, where he lost in a three-hole playoff to Vijay Singh, should have been listed in The Big Book of Canadian Trivia’s list of Ten of Canada’s Worst Disasters. OK, so it was a big blow to Canadian golf, but not so big when you consider disastrous events such as a Spanish Influenza outbreak killing more than 50,000 Canadians between 1918 and 1925, and the 1985 Arrow airplane disaster killing 256 at Gander, Newfoundland made the list.

The Big Book of Canadian Trivia is just that – a great, big book of trivia related to Canadiana, and the authors do an excellent job in capturing that theme. Other golf firsts they could have included, though, are Londoner Sandy Somerville’s win at the 1932 U.S. Amateur –a first for a Canadian – and his participation in the first Masters in 1934 where he also recorded the tournament’s first-ever hole-in one.

There are 25 great chapters in The Big Book of Canadian Trivia, plus a Canada Timeline and, of course, Quiz Answers.

Kearney, a Londoner and fellow member of the local chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and Ray, a former London Free Press scribe now living in Ottawa, have assembled a well rounded compilation of trivia which will wet the whistle of any Canuck. It’s a solid summertime read and will make for some great debates amongst family and friends.

The Big Book of Canadian Trivia
by Mark Kearney and Randy Ray
The Dundurn Group
ISBN 978-1-55488-417-9
$29.99