Book Review - Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

Original Highways is a series of essays on 16 “great rivers” of Canada by journalist and author Roy MacGregor. Despite the title this is not a travelogue but rather a look at the story of Canada through the history of these great rivers, and what they each mean to Canada today. It’s based on a set of stories MacGregor wrote for the Globe and Mail.

MacGregor has written a large number of books (more than 50) on a variety of topics. As a good Canadian McGregor is a hockey fan and many of his books deal with hockey - stories about hockey, the history of hockey, the meaning of hockey. He has been called “the Wayne Gretzky of hockey writing" by one of his fellow journalists.

He’s also written a series of mysteries for young readers; a book about what Canadians call “Cottage Country”; and other wilderness related nonfiction. He has been a columnist at the Globe and Mail for over twenty years. His work has earned him the title of “Officer of the Order of Canada” which came along with the accolade as one of Canada’s most gifted writers.

All of which makes me somewhat ashamed to say that, as an American, I’d never heard of him. Canadians are all over American entertainment - Ryan Renolds, Justin Beber, Mike Meyers, Celine Dion, etc. There are other Canadian authors whose names and books I know, and likely you do too - Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro and Farley Mowat for example.

But looking at the list of books MacGregor has written it strikes me that they are all distinctly Canadian and written for a Canadian audience. Which explains why I didn’t pick this book up in the US. I came across it while shopping in the Indigo bookstore in Mississauga, Ontario on a trip to Canada last year to visit family. I don’t think I’m really part of the target audience.

Well, maybe a little bit into the target audience. I do have a bit of Canada in me - my family on my dad’s side came to Ontario from Ireland back in the 1800s and eventually a few of them made their way to the US. I still have family in Canada. And my trip last year was to visit Canadian cousins of my husband’s.

I really liked this book. Each essay meanders like a river. MacGregor throws in a bit of history, a bit of current events, and a dash or two of environmentalism into each essay. He manages to convey the sense of place that each of these rivers represents, both geographically and in the hearts and minds of those who depend on them.

McGregor makes the case that rivers, and the canoes in which earlier people traversed them, are at the heart of both Canadian history and what it means to be a Canadian. The rivers were the routes of the original peoples and of the early European explorers - the original highways.

Rivers don’t serve that purpose anymore. But because they once did, they have shaped the country. As MacGregor says in the introduction, “There is hardly a major settlement in Canada that cannot trace its origins to the confluence of different rivers or a particular bend in a large river. Most towns were founded on rivers, as the force of water was required for grist and saw mills, later for electricity.”

Over the course of these sixteen essays by a truly gifted writer you get a real appreciation for the geography and history of Canada. If you are looking to learn more about Canada and Canadians, this is a great place to start.

RATING: Four and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠

Rating Comment: A peek into Canadian history and culture as you travel sixteen of the great rivers of the country with a truly gifted writer.

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Title: Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada

Author: Roy MacGregor

Publisher: Vintage Canada (an imprint of Penguin Random House)

ISBN-13: 9780307361394

Publisher’s List Price: $23.00 (Paperback)