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1967: The Last Good Year

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Few Canadians over the age of forty can forget the feeling of joy and celebration that washed over the country during Canada's centennial year. We were, Pierre Berton reminds us, a nation in love with itself, basking in the warm glow of international applause brought on by the unexpected success of Expo 67 and pumped up by the year-long birthday party that had us all warbling Ca-na-da, as Bobby Gimby and his gaggle of small children pranced down the byways of the nation.

It was a turning-point year, a watershed year--a year of beginnings as well as endings. One royal commission finally came to a close with a warning about the need for a new approach to Quebec. Another was launched to investigate, for the first time, the status of Canadian women. New attitudes to divorce and homosexuality were enshrined in law. A charismatic figure, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, made clear that the state had no place in the bedrooms of the nation. The seeds of Women's Lib, Gay Pride, and even Red Power, were sown in the centennial year. (Of all the pavilions on the Expo site, Berton singles out the Indian pavilion as having the greatest impact.)

The country was in a ferment that year. Canadians worried about the Americanization of every institution from the political convention to Hockey Night in Canada. People talked about the Generation Gap as thousands of flower children held love-ins in city parks. The government tried to respond by launching the Company of Young Canadians, a project that was less than successful.

The most significant event of 1967 was Charles de Gaulle's notorious "Vive le Quebec libre!" speech in Montreal. It gave the burgeoning separatist movement a new legitimacy, enhanced by Rene Levesque's departure from the Liberal party later that year.

Throughout the book, the author gives us insightful profiles of some of the significant figures of 1967: the centennial activists Judy LaMarsh and John Fisher; the Expo entrepreneurs, Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien and Edward Churchill; Walter Gordon, the fervent nationalist, and his rival, Mitchell Sharp; Lester Pearson and his bete noire, John Diefenbaker; the three "men of the world" who helped make Canada internationally Marshall McLuhan, Glenn Gould, and Roy Thomson; hippie leaders like David dePoe, American draft dodgers like Mark Satin, women's activists like Doris Anderson and Laura Sabia, youth workers like Barbara Hall, radicals like Pierre Vallieres (author of White Niggers of America ) and such dedicated nationalists as Madame Chaput Rolland and Andre Laurendeau.

In spite of the feeling of exultation that marked the centennial year, an opposite sentiment runs through the book like dark the growing fear that the country was facing its gravest crisis. Berton points out that we are far better off today than we were in 1967. "Then why all the hand wringing?" he asks. Because of "the very real fear that the country we celebrated so joyously thirty years ago is in the process of falling apart.

"In that sense, 1967 was the last good year before all Canadians began to be concerned about the future of our country."

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

141 people want to read

About the author

Pierre Berton

179 books207 followers
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian historian, writer, journalist and broadcaster.


From narrative histories and popular culture, to picture and coffee table books to anthologies, to stories for children to readable, historical works for youth, many of his books are now Canadian classics.

Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, Pierre Berton worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean's magazine, appeared on CBC's public affairs program "Close-Up" and was a permanent fixture on "Front Page Challenge" for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star, and a writer and host of a series of CBC programs.

Pierre Berton has received over 30 literary awards including the Governor-General's Award for Creative Non-Fiction (three times), the Stephen Leacock Medal of Humour, and the Gabrielle Leger National Heritage Award. He received two Nellies for his work in broadcasting, two National Newspaper awards, and the National History Society's first award for "distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history." For his immense contribution to Canadian literature and history, he has been awarded more than a dozen honourary degrees, is a member of the Newsman's Hall of Fame and a Companion of the Order of Canada.

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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Mikey B..
1,152 reviews496 followers
November 3, 2016
“1967” is about the 100th anniversary of the birth of Canada (and the 150th is in 2017). The actual celebratory date is July 1st and the Canadian Confederation was made and signed in Charlottetown in the province of Prince Edward Island in 1867. Canada has expanded much since then, adding the vast Western Provinces and the latest acquisition was Newfoundland and Labrador in 1949.

Interestingly the book was written in 1997, so much had passed in the interim.

The first half of the book I found dull; uninspiring and tediously long. It consisted of some celebrations and events across Canada. This was a mishmash of different stories; of course there had to be one about the Toronto Maple Leafs (a hockey team) winning the Stanley Cup, and the Leafs have been hapless ever since. Mr. Berton laments the expansion of the National Hockey League, but did he really think it would remain at just six teams?

I found this portion of the book to be very Anglo-centric with many articles on Toronto and Vancouver. Also Mr. Berton quoted or cited journalists from many Anglo newspapers but no French newspapers like La Presse, Le Devoir, Le Soleil. There was an examination of the growing counter-culture (hippies and the like), but this was not just a Canadian phenomena.

There is a Canadian obsession with the pervasive American influence – as Mr. Berton explains we are a horizontal country with most of our population and cities residing close to the U.S. border. There were chapters on Marshall McLuhan (media) and Glenn Gould (pianist) which I found interesting.

But why a chapter on Roy Thomson and his investments (London Times) and lifestyle in England? Perhaps Mr. Burton could also have written a chapter on the veneration many Canadians have for the U.K.

Only in the last half of the book with the passages on Expo 67, held in Montreal, did I feel any sense of exhilaration. I am being subjective because I attended Expo 67 many times (I was 12 years old). As Mr. Berton says it was a stupendous achievement outdoing all post-World War II Fairs before and after. The attendance was over 50 million. Think of that! Canada’s population at the time was just slightly over 20 million.

The Expo site was a glorious mix of colourful modern architecture and landscapes – there were canals, mono-rails and sculptures both small and large. It was a film-lovers paradise – apparently there were over three thousand films of all types. In many ways it was the advent of modernism in Canada. Canada was turning from the parochial, rural church-going society to the multi-cultural urban blend that it is today.

The other “thing” that Pierre Berton writes well of is Canada’s elephant in the living room – Quebec nationalism. That loomed big and suddenly during the de Gaulle visit in ’67 when the General, with hands upraised, said “Vivre le Quebec Libre” to a large crowd in Montreal. All of Canada, Anglo and French, could not help but notice the jubilation with which de Gaulle was received by the flag waving Quebec nationalists.

There was a rather sympathetic chapter on Quebec separatist-nationalist Pierre Vallieres who was an obsessed fanatic and a terrorist bomb-maker. A most cogent and affecting chapter was one on Andre Laurendeau who co-authored the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Bi-Culturalism – meaning English and French and how to unify Canada to resolve the never-ending polarities.

I do rather question the sub-title of the book “The Last Good Year”. It wasn’t so good for women, as Mr. Berton points out, who had far less rights then men (women needed their husband’s signatures on many documents like a bank account), birth control information was almost illegal and unmentionable (condoms, for example, had to be requested at a drugstore), divorce laws were antiquated, and homosexuality along with other “sex acts” were a criminal offense.

It took a new Justice Minister, Pierre Eliot Trudeau (who became Prime Minister in 1968) to start to unravel this medieval Christian Code. In December, 1967 Trudeau made this rather remarkable statement to the press

“There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”

Thus did Canada close off her Centennial Year!




Profile Image for Stephen.
28 reviews
November 13, 2012
Ah, 1967, the year Canada had its Centennial celebrations and welcomed the world at Expo 67. This book explores the national mood during this memorable year. Not everything was rosy though, and Berton explores the last few years before divorce, homosexuality and abortion were still illegal or much more tightly controlled. For example, did you know that until 1969, each and every divorce had to be passed as an act of Parliament? And that there was no such thing as no-fault divorce, so someone had to claim infidelity, even if it wasn't true?
Profile Image for Gerry.
16 reviews1 follower
April 6, 2016
Pierre Berton was one of Canada's greatest storytellers and popular historians. Here he discusses Canada's centennial year, the events surrounding it, and the characters who populated it, for better and for worse. He brings to life the famous, the infamous, and people you probably have barely heard of, who played crucial roles in the creation of Expo67, the centennial celebrations, and the disquiet in Quebec that almost led to the breakup of our country in the years ahead. A must-read for anyone who was there, or who wasn't and wonders what all the hype was about.
Profile Image for DipShitBookClub.
234 reviews9 followers
December 22, 2018
Berton catalogues each petty drama in the planning of Canada’s big birthday party. Anyone who finishes this book should be given citizenship.
Profile Image for Christina Barber.
154 reviews2 followers
August 13, 2022
Pierre Berton’s “1967: The Last Good Year” (1997) is a journey through Canada’s Centennial told in a way only Berton could do it, storytelling and history as entertaining as any fiction. Working through the fanfare of the year, including personal and community journeys done in recognition and celebration of the centennial lead into the country’s greater journey, Centennial and Expo. Berton highlights the events and details the characters that made 1967 so memorable. “The Last Good Year” is somewhat ironic given the challenges that the nation faced, but in Berton’s conclusion he justifies his title. While 1967 saw many Canadians of minority groups facing grave challenges and inequalities, it also marked the beginning of the move towards greater equality in this country. From the Women’s Lib movement gaining momentum on everything from divorce rights to birth control rights, Homosexuals finally being seen and the State beginning to remove themselves from “the bedrooms of the nation”, French Canadian voices being heard as a result of De Gaulle’s gaffe “Vive le Québec Libre!” and a Royal Commission into the state of bilingualism in this country - eventually leading to the bilingual status of the country - to the greater establishment of Indigenous voices in this country. First Nations people, through the Powow at Duck Lake and more impressively through the Indian Pavilion at Expo, brought the nature of their treatment at the hands of the Canadian government to the public - reservations and residential schools.

A great read to get a sense of who we were as a country in 1967, both in what connected us and in what made us feel apart - in the negative, but also in the positive, witnessed as strong cultural identities that have stood for another fifty+ years. Berton is a master storyteller and this book doesn’t disappoint.
77 reviews
March 28, 2021
Pierre Berton writes of Canada's Centennial in his trademark breathless, compressed style. Most topics are covered a handful of pages, short enough to be readable, providing the bare facts without delving into detail. Thus he can cover many topics in a decent-sized book.

My only memories of the Centennial are the Confederation train and the Ca-na-da song. (While catchy, the song quickly becomes an earworm.) Berton fits these memories into the larger picture of how the celebration took place across the counry and throughout the year.

Much of the book could be titled "Canada: A Year-End Report". Topics include social change, the state of Canadian politics, the rise of Quebec nationlism and notable people such as Glenn Gould, Marshall McLuhan and René Lévesque.

Berton's premise is that Canada peaked as a nation in 1967. It's a mug's game to take that one on. There was certainly a string of accomplishments that began with World War Two and ended with Expos 67. He also make the case that it is the beginning of our self-doubt as a country, in part but not entirely due to Quebec nationalism. The consequent and endless self-examination occupies the center stage of our national consciousness, at the expense of getting out there and actually accomplishing the very things which would define us in the world.
Profile Image for Marc  Chénier.
337 reviews7 followers
April 15, 2024
Although it is a good book, it is so far my least favorite of Pierre Berton's works. It is more politically driven, and personally I find less coherent. Even the title is misleading, "The last good year" gives you the impression that everything went downhill for Canada after the Centennial but as you're reading you realize that things got better. Gay rights, multiculturalism and bilingualism, a greater sense of identity, reproductive rights, etc. are all things that emerged near or around the time of Canada's 100th year. Not a bad book but not a great one either.

Next hardcover: "Marching As To War" by Pierre Berton (2001).
Profile Image for Ron.
436 reviews2 followers
May 5, 2017
From the great Pierre Berton, a loving tribute to 1967, which to this day remains a magical year in Canada. Expo 67, the Centennial, the Maple Leafs last winning the Stanley Cup, all happened in 1967. His title is no exaggeration; to many it was the last year before our innocence was lost, when everything seemed possible.

Much recommended. In 1967 I was a grade one pupil in Etobicoke (west side of Toronto) and I wish I still had the Centennial patch that came with my report card. Still have the school photos though, with the Centennial logo everywhere.
Profile Image for Jeff Cliff.
244 reviews9 followers
June 25, 2021
Solid canadian history book. At times I couldn't help but feel patriotic reading it. There was definitely a couple of things in here that Canadians should be taught in school, but yet somehow never made the curriculum
Profile Image for Poppy Bobrowicz.
9 reviews
January 21, 2026
Phenomenally written and totally captivating. A must read for anyone interested in Canadian history.
Profile Image for Chris Sutton.
52 reviews1 follower
September 6, 2021
I'm attracted to the idea of a book devoted to a single year in history; in fact, I wish Pierre Berton, or anyone, had written other books focused on a single year in Canada's history. I've enjoyed other books about a single year, like Margaret MacMillan's Paris 1919, or a specific century, like Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. And I see Good Reads has a few lists of books about a single year that I'll have to check out.

Pierre Berton's 1967 The Last Good Year was a highly interesting dive into a time just before I was born. I wasn't yet alive for the events Berton describes, but I felt a mild sense of recognition, a strange remembrance of the mood in the country that carried over into my earliest years. It's been a while since I've read Canadian history, and even longer since I reflected on what the country was like in my childhood. I enjoyed doing both with this book.

Six months have passed between reading Berton's book and writing this review. Some things I still remember:
1. Bowsman, Manitoba celebrated the Centennial by burning the town's outhouses in a massive bonfire - a reminder that there were still plenty of communities in the late 60's without indoor plumbing!
2. Judy LaMarsh, as Secretary of State, and the government's public face of the Centennial, was expected to have an expansive wardrobe to impress diplomats and other VIPS, yet her clothing budget was no larger than her male counterparts, who could get away with re-wearing the same two or three drab suits. The double standard was striking.
3. Well-known Canadian personalities from the era Marshall McLuhan, Glenn Gould and Roy Thomson, were exceptional I suppose, but I found all three hard to like, or even respect, at least from Berton's telling.
4. Much more likeable, and impressive, was Chatelaine magazine editor Doris Anderson and her fight to gain acceptance and recognition in a male-dominated industry - how novel to think a woman is best placed to run a woman's magazine.
5. Howard Szafer bucking the system, enduring the wrath of the establishment, for - horrors -- letting his hair grow, was a really entertaining reminder of what animated the culture wars of the period.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable time capsule, balancing politics, culture, sports and newsworthy events in equal measure.

Profile Image for Marc.
Author 2 books9 followers
February 11, 2014
Published 30 years later, Berton thinks our centennial year was where we peaked as a society. It's largely tongue-in-cheek and typical Berton ranting. But it is quite good for any Canadian that was alive in this pivotal year.

Quotes:
[Canada] is an archipelago of population islands,separated by impossible barriers...p.49
Marshal McLuhan; "People make a great trying to read me as if I were saying something." p. 207

For Canadian audiences only!
Profile Image for Daniel Kukwa.
4,812 reviews127 followers
January 22, 2011
The book's thesis is simple (and I quote): "...1967 was the last good year before all Canadians began to be concerned about the future of our country."

It moves heaven and earth to prove it, with Burton's usual attention to detail, drama, and distinctly Canadian humour. It's one of his less remembered books...and it doesn't deserve such neglect.
Profile Image for Debbie.
1,225 reviews7 followers
August 10, 2011
Love Pierre Berton books in general and this one in particular. I was 10 years old in 1967 and actually remember quite a bit that is in the book. However, to have everything put together like this, you really appreciate what a phenomenal year it was for Canadians and Quebecers in particular.
Profile Image for Larry.
50 reviews
December 5, 2012
a good walk down memory lane for 1967, plus some nuggets that I did not know about.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews