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Summary Chronologies

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Did you know that Canada’s earliest Year Book, the Year-Book and Almanac of British North America for 1867, had cost only 12 ½ cents to buy?

There is no history without context, and the same can be said for the historical editions of the Canada Year Book. For well over 140 years, the Canada Year Book has summarized the demographic, social, political and economic changes affecting Canada and its people. Its editors, contributors and supporters have shaped and moulded this well-known flagship publication into one of Canada’s most prestigious annual statistical volumes.

These 12 ‘chronologies’—short chapters in the history of the Canada Year Book—highlight the stories and struggles behind the first 100 years of its publication. Spanning the period from 1867 to 1967, the chronologies support the Canada Year Book Historical Collection website by introducing the reader to the historical events and individual Canadians that have made the Canada Year Book what it is today. In the words of Dominion Statistician, Walter E. Duffett:

“Year by Year, the Canada Year Book endeavours to fulfill the formidable task of keeping pace with the rapidly changing economic life of the country. Thus, the whole series of Year Books constitutes an official record of a century of Canada’s progress (1967).”

The start of the Canada Year Book

[ 1867| 1879 | 1886 | 1892| 1905 | 1914 |

1922/1923 | 1936 | 1943/1944 | 1955 | 1967 ]