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20 of Canada's most influential historical figures, 18 of Canada's most brilliant contemporary writers

How do civilizations imagine themselves?

One way is through the people who made them. Extraordinary Canadians will rediscover twenty Canadians — rebels, reformers, thinkers, writers, painters, political leaders — who built modern Canada. Another way is through the eyes of eighteen of today's most interesting and engaged writers — people who are building Canada today.

On April 2, 2008 Penguin Group (Canada) will launch the most ambitious set of biographies ever to be published in this country. Under the direction of Publisher David Davidar and Editorial Director Diane Turbide, General Editor John Ralston Saul has commissioned eighteen award-winning Canadian writers to add their distinctive voices to the Series.

Authors Joseph Boyden, Adrienne Clarkson, Andrew Cohen, Douglas Coupland, Lewis DeSoto, Charlotte Gray, Mark Kingwell, Vincent Lam, Margaret MacMillan, Daniel Poliquin, André Pratte, Nino Ricci, David Adams Richards, John Ralston Saul, Jane Urquhart, M.G. Vassanji, Rudy Wiebe will embark on a journey that informs us who we really are as Canadians.

Over the next three years, in a series of eighteen books, with original cover portraiture by leading Canadian artists and illustrators, each bestselling writer will delve into the unique personalities of the people who made this nation and their interactions in the wider world; in Emily Carr's case, from Paris to a visual mythology of the wilderness, in Lord Beaverbrook's, from the Miramichi to Churchill's cabinet, in Nellie McClung's, from shaping the women's movement in Canada to becoming one of the most influential feminists in the world.

What did these leaders from our past mean in their own time? What can they tell us about who we are today? Think of them as mirrors in which we can see ourselves. When they made those tough decisions (whether ethical, creative or political) which would carry them away from safe, predictable lives, they were young women and men. With those gestures of courage or genius or daring, they changed our civilization and became part of our imagination forever.

Canada is now a widely diverse, multilingual country. Extraordinary Canadians will be accompanied by a television documentary series produced by Montreal's PMA Productions and broadcast in three non-official languages — Cantonese, Hindi and Italian — in addition to English on Rogers OMNI Television and the Biography Channel beginning in fall 2008. The authors will travel from coast to coast in a series of sponsored public events over the next three years. Each book will be excerpted in Maclean's, Canada's national newsmagazine.

Read the books. Meet the authors. Watch the television series. And discover what it means to be Canadian.

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Founded in 1974 as a distribution company for Penguin books from all over the world, Penguin Group (Canada) began publishing Canadian and international titles in 1977, and quickly became known as one of Canada's pre-eminent publishers of literary fiction, and non-fiction. Penguin Canada is the official publisher of the 100th Anniversary Editions of Anne of Green Gables and on its award-winning roster of bestselling authors, proudly publishes the writers of Extraordinary Canadians.

John Ralston Saul is Canada's leading public intellectual. Declared a "prophet" by Time magazine, Saul is included in the prestigious Utne Reader's list of the world's 100 leading thinkers and visionaries. His thirteen works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His new book A Fair Country: Three New Myths About Canada is a call to rethink the country's future. It will be published by Penguin in fall 2008.

PMA Productions Inc. was founded in 2003 with the objective of working with Canada's most talented creators, established and emerging, in the development and production of first quality film and television programs. While the company's primary focus is high-impact documentaries and documentary series, the company also develops and produces selected animated projects, shorts and feature films. Located in Montreal, PMA Productions draws upon Quebec's immensely talented film and television communities and works closely with its writers and directors to produce entertaining and provocative programming for audiences in Canada and abroad.

Rogers OMNI Television is a free over-the-air regional broadcasting system operated by Rogers Communications in the Rogers Media division. The OMNI stations have the collective mandate to reflect Canada's diversity through the airing of inclusive and accessible multilingual and multicultural programming. Rogers OMNI.1 and OMNI.2 are currently available across Canada to subscribers of Starchoice and ExpressVu satellite systems.

Maclean's, Canada's most popular current affairs magazine, helps over 2.7 million readers make sense of it all each week. Maclean’s leads the discussion and sparks debate with strong investigative reporting and exclusive stories from leading journalists in the fields of international affairs, social issues, national politics, business and culture.

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