If we were to visit every province and territory in search of the unique experiences available only in Canada, who would we meet, and what might we learn along the way? It’s a bold proclamation that anything should be done before kicking the bucket, so I asked myself: what makes these homegrown activities and destinations so special in the first place? Nobody had set out to write a book like this before. My publisher took a chance, wired me a modest advance, and so the adventure began.

For this reinvented guidebook, I envisioned a slim volume of stories about my personal hunt for the exceptional. As a travel writer, I had already reported from more than 100 countries, and I thought I’d seen it all. Like many Canadians, I assumed the really good bucket list stuff was overseas. Arrogance has never been in our national psyche, and nobody was beating a maple chest to convince me otherwise. I was also told to lower my expectations because a) travel books don’t sell and b) domestic tourists are not as important as those from the U.S., Europe, Mexico and China. Fifteen years later, with multiple editions, a booming domestic tourism industry, and more than 120,000 books sold, I beg to differ.

We know luck is when hard work clangs against opportunity, but let’s hear it for the role of timing. When The Great Canadian Bucket List’s first edition was published in 2013, a national book tour generated significant TV, print, and radio exposure, as those media still held significant cultural influence. On the publication of the second edition in 2017, the country was in the throes of Canada150, a patriotic celebration of our national sesquicentennial. This winter, on the publication of the third edition, we see the disintegration of our special relationship with the U.S., recoiling in collective shock as their president insults our national identity, threatens our economy, and issues thinly-veiled threats to our sovereignty. As a result, Canadians have their Elbows Up ­— a fighting hockey phrase — reflecting a national mood to toughen up, stand firm, show our resilience, and support Canadian products and services.