by Doug Firby,
Big Lonely Doug Publications, 2025
“We were on a mission, not to prove something but to discover something—about ourselves, about our country, about human nature and about a moment in time,” writes Doug Firby in the opening pages of his account of a bicycle tour from BC to Newfoundland in 2021. Firby is a journalist and long-time editorial writer, previously with the Calgary Herald and now on his excellent Substack, Doug Firby Unfiltered. His book does chronicle the joy and the grind of bike touring, and includes lists of gear to take on such a trip and good recipes for cooking on the road. But in the context of what Firby calls “the political sucker punch” that Canada has taken from Trump, the heart of the book is in his encounters with fellow Canadians along the way—from Sid Ryan in Irricana to Gilbert Desjardins in rural Quebec to captain Stan Peet on the ferry to Newfoundland. “Although Canadians have struggled with persistent internal conflicts driven by regional resentments, as our group cycled across the country, we were struck instead by how much more we have in common than by what divides us,” writes Firby. “In every province we touched—and we touched them all—we were greeted by people with open hearts, good humour and genuine hospitality. These generous people fuelled our belief that those nagging regional differences could somehow be overcome if we just engaged as one Canadian to another.”
Briefly noted by Alberta Views
_______________________________________
