As you may have heard, Canada, as we've known it, turned 150 in July 2017. We took the opportunity to create a series of four regional bestseller blog posts. The first looked at the bestselling books in each of Canada's provinces and territories over the last decade. For the next three posts, we randomly paired up provinces and territories to compare their bestsellers for a particular subject over a four-week period (for example, the bestselling Mystery & Detective books in New Brunswick vs. Quebec). You can see the whole series of posts here.
Not ones to let a good idea die, we decided to look at the Canadian-authored bestsellers in each province and territory for the sesquicentennial month.
A note on our methodology: We gathered our data from BNC SalesData, the national sales tracking service for the English-language print trade market. The top 10 Canadian-authored titles were identified according to total units sold in July (the specific reporting period was from July 3, 2017 to July 30, 2017) along with the appearance of the publisher-supplied Canadian contributor marker in the metadata.
Interestingly, no one title showed up on all of the bestseller lists. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur came the closest, placing in the top 10 in all but the Northwest Territories/Nunavut list. The Witches of New York by Ami McKay and the TV tie-in edition of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood both appeared on 10/12 lists; Paul Covello's Canada ABC appeared on 9/12; the non-TV tie-in edition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale made it onto 7/12; and Oh She Glows Every Day, the cookbook by Angela Liddon, made it on to half of the lists.
Conversely, the number of books that made it onto just one list was fairly high: 35 of out 120 titles. Those titles are highlighted in green in the lists below.
Other points of interest: Saskatchewan and Ontario have no titles unique to only their lists; each of their bestsellers appeared on at least one other list. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Northwest Territories/Nunavut has the most titles unique to their list.
See the similarities and differences for yourself below!
Top 10 bestselling titles in Canada's provinces and territories, July 3-30, 2017
Titles that made it onto only one province or territory's list are highlighted in green.
Alberta
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
- The School Year Survival Cookbook by Laura Keogh and Ceri Marsh
- Hugs written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
British Columbia
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
- Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- By Gaslight by Steven Price
Manitoba
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- The Break by Katherena Vermette
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew
- Love You Forever written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw
- You Might Be from Canada If... by Michael de Adder
- No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
New Brunswick
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- You Might Be from Canada If... by Michael de Adder
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver
- Now You Know Canada by Doug Lennox
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Smokeroom on the Kyle written by Ted Russell, illustrated by Tara Fleming
- Brazil Street by Robert Hunt
- As the Old Folks Would Say by Hubert Furey
- The Trawlermen by Clarence Vautier
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- All Around the Circle written and illustrated by Cara Kansal
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- Life on the Great Northern Peninsula by Adrian Payne
- Moose! written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Nova Scotia
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- You Might Be from Canada If... by Michael de Adder
- On South Mountain by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis by Lance Woolaver
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
Northwest Territories/Nunavut
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- Teaching Green edited by Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn
- Northern Voices by Penny Petrone
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Blackflies written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Jay Odjick
- Spectacular Northwest Territories Canada by George Fischer
- Purple, Green and Yellow written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Hélène Desputeaux
- A Northern Alphabet by Ted Harrison
- Braids! written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Dave Whamond
- Angela's Airplane written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Ontario
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
- Love You Forever written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw
Prince Edward Island
- After Many Years by L.M. Montgomery
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
- Maud by Melanie J. Fishbane
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Finding Forgiveness by Adrian Smith
- Unpacked by Mo Duffy Cobb
- Port of Call by Allan Billard
- You Might Be from Canada If... by Michael de Adder
Quebec
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
- Montréal by Alan Hustak and Johanne Norchet
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- No Is Not Enough by Naomi Klein
Saskatchewan
- The Handmaid's Tale (TV tie-in edition) by Margaret Atwood
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Hugs written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
- Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Moose! written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
- The Lightkeeper's Daughters by Jean E. Pendziwol
- Love You Forever written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Sheila McGraw
Yukon
- Moose! written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
- Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
- Canada ABC by Paul Covello
- In This Moment by Karma Brown
- The Witches of New York by Ami McKay
- Oh She Glows Every Day by Angela Liddon
- Love Her Wild by Atticus
- The Paper Bag Princess written by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
- Cookies by Jean Paré
- From the Klondike to Berlin by Michael Gates