The best moments from Canada Reads 2023
The great Canadian book debate has come to another amazing finish! The 22nd season of Canada Reads was won by Kate Beaton's 2022 graphic memoir Ducks, championed by Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach.
Roach faced off against four other debaters — actor Keegan Connor Tracy, bhangra dancer Gurdeep Pandher, TikTok star Tasnim Geedi and actor Michael Greyeyes — and sealed their victory in the finale with a 3-2 vote.
All of the champions felt personal connections to the books they were championing and made powerful arguments throughout the week of debates.
Roach is the most successful Canadian competitor in Jeopardy! history. In the spring of 2022, they won a record-setting 23 games. They talked about how Ducks, which chronicles Beaton's experience moving from Cape Breton to the Alberta oil sands in hopes of paying off student debt, resonated with their own journey of migrating away from the Maritimes in search of opportunities.
Michael Greyeyes was a measured and kindhearted defender in championing runner-up Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. The actor, choreographer and director from Muskeg Lake Cree said Mandel's novel "at every single moment, is it turns away from despair and chooses grace."
In a conversation that happened after the final vote, Greyeyes shared his appreciation for the fulsome discussions and ended by noting that Station Eleven is "a book you can return to and continue to mine."
Gurdeep Pandher, a bhangra dancer, artist and educator who currently lives in an off-grid cabin in Yukon, brought his signature positivity to championing the novel Hotline by Dimitri Nasrallah. He felt a deep connection to novel's main character and focused on the book's power to change Canadian's perspective on racism.
TikTok creator and nursing student Tasnim Geedi, who championed the horror Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, discussed how genre fiction can be used to explore difficult topics like colonialism and white supremacy. "Silvia was able to use the Gothic horror genre as a vehicle to explain how colonialism and white supremacy still persists today," said Geedi during the first day of debates.
Michael Christie's novel Greenwood was championed by actor, director and writer Keegan Connor Tracy. The Once Upon a Time star talked about how lush and complex writing can capture and shift your perspective."
Relive the Canada Reads debates by watching some of the most powerful moments from the show above. Find the full episodes below:
- DAY ONE replays: CBC Books, CBC Gem, YouTube, Facebook
- DAY TWO replays: CBC Books, CBC Gem, YouTube, Facebook
- DAY THREE replays: CBC Books, CBC Gem, YouTube, Facebook
- FINALE replays: CBC Books, CBC Gem, YouTube, Facebook
PODCAST: Listen to the debates as a podcast on CBC Listen. The episode will be posted each day after the live airing.
WARNING: The books chosen for Canada Reads deal with difficult topics, such as trauma and abuse. These stories may be shared during the broadcast. Click this link to find publicly available resources for support.