After a publication run that dates back to the year of Confederation, the ongoing record of social and economic facts and analysis known as the Canada Year Book will no longer appear in print. Tony Colasante — who works for Statistics Canada, the book’s publisher — tells about the history of the almanac and the many ways Canadians have used it.

Long before web surfing and social media became normal ways of finding information, people manually sifted through encyclopedias and various other almanacs — like the Canada Year Book — for information about our country.

You could find the Canada Year Book anywhere — resting on library shelves or under Christmas trees, on office desks, in students’ backpacks, in doctors’ offices and even on nightstands. Now, after 145 years, the 2012 edition of the Canada Year Book marks the end of an era — the book will no longer be in print.

But that doesn’t mean it’s gone entirely. You can still find the 2012 edition online, along with a historical collection. A grand total of 111 editions of the yearbook have been produced since 1867. So why not 112, you may ask? Mainly due to the ubiquity of the Internet and our resolution to make our data readily available to Canadians online, at no charge.

The Canada Year Book is Statistics Canada’s most popular, all-time bestselling publication. It’s been an invaluable source for the newest facts and analyses related to current events, important issues and trends in Canada, from both a social and an economic perspective. It’s easy-to-read, comprehensive and paints a detailed picture of living and working in Canada.

The latest edition manages to provide reliable, useful data in just over 400 pages, using attractive charts, tables and maps. It includes 31 key subjects that matter to Canadians, such as culture and leisure, business, crime and justice, the environment, the economy, education and health.

To say that the Canada Year Book’s audience is diverse would be an understatement. The Canada Year Book has something for everyone. The business community, for instance, uses it to help with strategic planning and to evaluate market and labour trends, prices and price indices. Librarians and educators use it regularly to plan course material and to stay up-to-date with current trends and major issues, while students use it as a valuable resource in their studies. Canadian enthusiasts and the general public use it to keep up with the evolving Canadian scene. Even trivia buffs use it to get the upper hand on their friends! And these are just a few of its uses.

But what exactly gave it its well-deserved reputation? How did it endure for more than a century? These are the kinds of questions that naturally come up when we take one final look at the “last ever” of anything. It’s human nature, really. And, despite being the chief promoter of the publication for a few years, I still didn’t know it all. But I can tell you that I gained some insight about the Canada Year Book when I dug deep into the publication’s history.

Few people know that the origins of the Canada Year Book date all the way back to Confederation. That's right, 1867 — which wasn’t that long ago in historical terms. Not much has happened since, if you think about it — just the sinking of the Titanic, the Great Depression, the moon landing, the disco era, the information highway…. The list goes on, but you get my drift.

The Canada Year Book has withstood the test of time because it has responded to Canadians’ need for accurate, up-to-date statistical information when they couldn’t readily find it from other sources.

Starting in 1867, what became the Canada Year Book was known as the Statistical Abstract Record of Canada, a nearly 200-page annual register of facts about Upper Canada. It included vital statistics, including births, deaths, marriages and migrations, as well as statistics about politics, trade, tariffs and excise and stamp duties — the basic information we expect from a statistical compendium.

But at the time the publication had a much bigger job than simply reporting on vital statistics. Early editions also contained a sunrise/sunset calendar, moon phases, a Jewish calendar, the previous year's meteorological observations, provincial balance sheets — the list goes on. Clearly, this was an all-in-one almanac from the start, and it provided the kind of information that citizens of a mostly agrarian society wanted to know. The first issue was theirs for 12½ cents, or 25½ cents for the colour version that included a map.

My research turned up some surprising facts. For instance, from 1867 to 1879, the book was published in the private sector, and not by government — so we can’t take all the credit! Additionally, the early editions of the Canada Year Book contained something unheard-of in the Statistics Canada publications of today — display and classified advertisements.

These ads tell a fascinating story about Canadian society around the time of Confederation. For instance, the Great Western Railway of Canada advertised tickets for rail travel between Niagara Falls and Detroit as well as connections with lake steamers. An ad for the Montréal Business College offered courses in penmanship, bookkeeping and telegraphing. There were ads for manufacturers of steam engines, sewing-machine repairmen and psychic seers who promised, for example, to help you acquire land, find a long-lost love, read the minds of people thousands of miles away or determine the success of your marriage.

As our young country was finding its legs as a nation and redefining its goals, purpose and identity, the Canada Year Book was recording our factual history. The evolving content and format of the publication reflect the gradual organization and formalization of our statistical agency.

In 1918, the Canada Year Book was given a formal mandate to chronicle facts about Canada. By 1928, its subjects and organization more closely resembled those of today’s publication, and it contained the foundational subject areas that are still included in recent editions.The fact that the section entitled “The Physical Characteristics of Canada” was placed prominently as the first entry in the table of contents says something about the importance Canadians then placed on geography, which we still do today.

Above: The Great Western Railway of Canada
advertised tickets for rail travel between Niagara Falls
and Detroit as well as connections with lake steamers.

It wasn’t until 1965 that the Dominion Bureau of Statistics was given government department status; in 1971 it was officially renamed Statistics Canada. By 1967, the Canada Year Book had earned its place in Canadian history. The preface to the centennial edition summed up the book's official status: “throughout these one hundred years, the story of the country's progress — economic, social and legislative — has been recorded in the Canada Year Book.... Thus, the whole series of this publication constitutes an official record of a century of Canada’s progress.”

Prior to the computer age, the Canada Year Book was a staple on the bookshelves of many Canadian homes. I know people who remember using it for school assignments as recently as the 1980s. Its devoted readers included business professionals, economists, policy specialists, academics, health experts and Canadian enthusiasts from all walks of life. While the Canada Year Book still appeals to these users, in more recent decades it has also excited interest from members of the general public who have been keen on knowing more about Canada. That’s what made the book so magical — it spoke to a wide range of audiences.

The success of the Canada Year Book rests on its universal appeal. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a good read?

The Canada Year Book adopted and perfected a chronicle style for explaining its data charts and tables. Key environmental issues, economic fluctuations, health concerns and advancements, crime rates, business figures — it’s all there. And, despite pressures over the years from other Canadian almanacs, the Canada Year Book has always prevailed.

Its vast contribution to Canada is legendary, and we have always boasted about how much one little book can cover. As we commemorate the last-ever print version, we as Canadians can reflect on the impressive evolution of the Canada Year Book.

The Canada Year Book has unified us. It has met our needs and excited our curiosity for information. And it always delivered. The book that has reflected Canada’s growth through war and peace as well as depression and prosperity will be no more, but it will always remain an important part of our history.

Left: The final print edition of the Canada Year Book was published in 2012.