Encyclopedia editors have long been pegged as crusty, humourless academics, too busy researching facts and figures to enjoy the fun and quirky material world. This holiday season, The Canadian Encyclopedia staff is happy to dispel this notion with a very Canadian gift guide made up of their favourite things, from handcrafted pens to plush toys and potato vodka. Crusty and humourless? We think not!

Schramm Organic Potato Vodka
Pemberton Distillery, $30–$62
Everyone knows where Bud the Spud is from—think of PEI, and one thinks of potatoes. But tucked away in an idyllic, isolated valley, in the Coast Mountains of BC, is a village also famous for its potatoes. Pemberton, just 20 minutes north of Whistler, has long been a key supplier of high grade seed potatoes—they are used all over North America. Pemberton is a controlled agricultural area to keep its seed stock free of viruses—no outside potatoes allowed! One enterprising company is using the pristine Pemberton potatoes for a different purpose—making vodka and other spirits. While the distillery has been producing its Schramm Organic Potato Vodka since just 2009, it has already won rave reviews and double-gold at the 2010 World Spirits Awards. Sheila Keenan, Copy Editor (more…)

Winter means holidays and holidays mean cheery music, heavy food, and braving malls and long lines to shop frantically for loved ones. But not to fear! We at The Canadian Encyclopedia come bearing gift ideas for the historically-inclined Canadian in your life. Our editors have compiled a gift guide full of practical, historical, bizarre and very Canadian gifts. Enjoy!

For the discerning whiskey drinker in your life.

Glen Breton Rare 10 Year Whiskey
Glenora Distillery, $80-90.00
Cape Breton Island has been keeping many aspects of the Scottish culture alive since 1775 when the first Scots settled in this part of Acadia. An earlier colonization attempt in the 1620s failed but the Scottish influence was foretold when its fledging province received the name, Nova Scotia, Latin for “New Scotland.” In 1990, the Glenora Distillery was built to integrate another part of Scottish culture to Cape Breton. This distillery soon produced the first single malt whisky in North America. A range of aged whiskies is now available, including the Glen Breton Rare 10 Year. The scotch drinker on your list would welcome the opportunity to drink what Scotland’s Ian Buxton identified in his book as One of the 101 Whiskies to try Before you Die. Gail Kudelik, Subject Editor
(more…)

A student float drives through downtown Vancouver at the start of the Great Trek to Point Grey. UBC Historical Photograph Collection.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The UBC students' great trek is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

Students have been protesting at the University of British Columbia since the very beginning. In 1922 the university was just a muddy construction site at the tip of Point Grey. Frustrated students organized an angry march to challenge the government to live up to its promise to build the university. (more…)

The local band 54-40 rescued and restored the famed Smiling Buddha neon sign and donated it to the Vancouver Museum.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The rise and fall of Vancouver's punk scene is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]
(more…)

The 1915 Millionaires, in maroon jerseys with the Vancouver V. Cyclone Taylor is second from the left in the back row.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. Cyclone Taylor and the Vancouver Millionaires is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

Vancouver is a hockey-mad city. At the start of each season, fans expect that it will be “their time” — when their beloved Canucks will go all the way to become Stanley Cup champions. It happened once before, back in the days of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, when Cyclone Taylor led the Vancouver Millionaires to hockey glory in old Denman Arena. (more…)

Sikhs aboard the Komagata Maru.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The Komagata Maru is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

The steamer Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver harbour in May 1914 with more than 370 passengers from India on board. They were looking to begin new lives in Canada, but the authorities said No. The standoff lasted two months and ended in mayhem and murder. (more…)

Stanley Park entrance, 1890s. Bailey Bros. Studio / Vancouver Public Library 19796B

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The "Babes in the Woods" murder is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

A Parks Board gardener, clearing leaves near Beaver Lake, came across a cheap fur coat. Lifting it up, he made a grisly discovery — the skeletal remains of two young children. Dubbed the Babes in the Woods by the press, the sensational, unsolved case remains a haunting piece of Vancouver lore.

(more…)

A singer in the spotlight, some musicians and dancers, and those weird stalactites — the Cave experience.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. Vancouver's exotic Cave Supper Club is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

Vancouver may be known as a No Fun City, but in the 1950s, the city had the exotic Cave. To find sophisticated entertainment in old Vancouver you went underground, into a grotto where stalactites hung from the ceiling and pirate’s gold shimmered in darkly lit corners. The Cave Supper Club hosted the world’s most famous entertainers and beautiful showgirls for 44 years. It was the rare place in subdued Vancouver to go out on a weekend evening for some risqué entertainment and exotic drinks.
(more…)

Gastown as it was in 1870.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. Gastown's Gassy Jack is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

When Capt. Jack Deighton and his family pulled their canoe onto the south shore of the Burrrard Inlet in 1867, Jack was on one more search for riches. He had been a sailor on British and American ships, rushed for gold in California and the Cariboo, piloted boats on the Fraser River and ran a tavern in New Westminster. He was broke again, but he wasted no time in starting a new business and building the settlement that would become Vancouver.

(more…)

The Birks building in 1946, looking east on Georgia Street. Vancouver Public Library.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. Cyclone Taylor and the Vancouver Millionaires is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

The sparkling white terra cotta tiles of the Birks building lit the southeast corner of Granville and Georgia from 1913. Inside, sparkling jewelry, silver and fine china attracted the most demanding, and wealthy, clientele. It was a shock to the city when the Birks family decided to tear the impressive grand dame down in 1975.

The Montreal-based Birks jewelry chain moved its Vancouver store into the ten-storey downtown location on November 8, 1913. It had been located on the northeast corner of Granville and Hastings since 1906, when Birks bought out George Trovey’s jewelry store and adopted his trademark street clock as its own.

(more…)

Photographer Foncie Pulice.

[Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The UBC students' great trek is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

If you were strolling down Granville Street in post-war Vancouver, chances are that an affable photographer would step out from behind his camera to tell you that he’d just snapped your picture. Foncie Pulice was his name, and the sidewalk was his studio.

(more…)

The BC Electric building in 1957 (BC Archives) is now the Electra condominiums.

Editor’s Note: The Canadian Encyclopedia is proud to present its first free app, Vancouver In Time, highlighting the stories of the city. The UBC students’ great trek is one of 45 unique stories in the app. Download the app here.]

When BC Electric chairman Dal Grauer decided to move to new headquarters south of Georgia Street, he wanted a building that would symbolize optimism and progress. What he got was a gleaming 21-storey modernist structure that glowed with electric light 24 hours a day.

(more…)

Hooked on Canadian Books: the Good, the Better and the Best Canadian Novels Since 1984
T.F. Rigelhof (2010)

Even in today’s media saturated environment it’s hard to find a great list of recommendations for what you should read next, whether you’re a longtime CanLit fan or you’re just getting to know Canadian literature. Written by T.F. Rigelhof, the Globe and Mail’s stalwart contributing reviewer and a seasoned, fine critic of today’s work, this book is a collection of short commentaries on contemporary novels, arranged thematically, that the author chose because they were not only “good” but compulsively readable, books that gave him pleasure, like favourite songs or delicious food. This is a book to whet the appetite. - Susanne Marshall

(more…)