Indigo, indies ask Carney to turf book tariffs

Canada’s independent booksellers and Indigo have banded together to ask Prime Minister Mark Carney to exempt books from the anticipated counter-tariffs set to be imposed on U.S. goods beginning on Wednesday.

In a March 20 letter to Carney, Indigo founder and CEO Heather Reisman and Laura Carter, executive director of the Canadian Independent Booksellers’ Association, requested books be excluded from the forthcoming 25 per cent counter-tariffs, noting that said tariffs would have “devastating consequences for Canadian readers, our businesses, and our cultural landscape,” according to a story on Quill & Quire.

The letter notes most books sold in Canada are published by Canadian divisions of American or international publishers and that many of said books are printed in the U.S. and be subject to the counter-tariffs.

The story also notes that Canadian distribution centres for most of the big publishers have been shuttered, although independent publishers, which are home to a number of Canadian authors, don’t tend to be printed in the U.S. or arrive in Canada from there.

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With a federal election set to take place in just under a month, Canadians want to know more about Canada’s current and future prime minister(s).

The paperback version of Mark Carney’s 2021 book Values: Building a Better World For All has crept back into many Canadian bestseller lists, including at McNally Robinson Booksellers.

In Values, Carney posits that the core ideas and notions we hold dear (resources, natural diversity, economic security and the like) will become casualties of our present-day society if more humane and practical steps aren’t taken to preserve what many consider the benchmarks of our day-to-day lives.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

Meanwhile, for those looking for insight into the Conservative Party leader, a new book about Pierre Poilievre by award-winning author Mark Bourrie has landed on shelves.

Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, published by Biblioasis, chronicles the rise of the Opposition leader, his scrappy nature and tendency to deliver cutting soundbites, and what the future of Canada might look like with him at the helm.

“Ripper” refers to a piece by New York Times columnist David Brooks, who identified two types of politicians: rippers (who see politics as war and fight for power) and weavers (who try to fix things and bring consensus).

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

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Long-running poetry reading event Speaking Crow returns with another in-person event on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., to be held once again at the Saint-Boniface Library (100-131 Provencher Blvd.).

This month’s featured poet is John Weier, whose collection New & Selected Poems of John Weier was recently published by CMU Press and edited by Manitoba-born, B.C.-based Nathan Dueck.

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Inuvik-born, Edmonton-based Gwichyà Gwich’in author Crystal Gail Fraser visits Whodunit Mystery Bookstore (163 Lilac St.) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. to launch her book By Strength We Are Still here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

The book, published in December 2024 by U of M Press, shares the experiences of Indigenous northerners from 1959 to 1982, when a comprehensive plan for educational reform was introduced.

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Winnipeg-based agricultural journalist Rosalie Tennison visits McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location on Thursday at 7 p.m. to launch her recently published book Naomi’s House: A Memoir (Heritage House).

Tennison reflects on her humble upbringing in postwar Manitoba by her mother Naomi, the financial struggles they endured and the resilience they found to make it through. She’ll be joined in conversation by former U of M professor and soil scientist Don Flaten.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

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University of Toronto professor emeritus Gregory Marchildon lands at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on Friday at 7 p.m. to discuss his new book on the father of universal health care in Canada.

In Tommy Douglas and the Quest for Medicare in Canada, published in December 2024 by the University of Toronto Press, Marchildon explores the pivotal events in Douglas’ life and the decisions that led to Medicare in Canada. He’ll be joined by retired U of M historian Gerry Friesen.

books@freepress.mb.ca