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The Canadian Encyclopedia (abbreviated as TCE) is a fact-checked and peer-reviewed source of information on Canada available in English and French. Available for free online since 2001, it was originally published in 1985, with subsequent print editions in 1988 and 1999.
Used by more than 10 million people a year, The Canadian Encyclopedia includes over 19,600 entries in each language on numerous subjects including history, popular culture, events, people, places, politics, arts, Indigenous peoples, sports and science. In addition to entries, 3,000 of which were absorbed from the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada in 2003, The Canadian Encyclopedia has interactive timelines, education guides, organized collections and over 15,000 multimedia items. The resource is continually updated and has more than 5,000 accredited authors.
History
Background
Canada had been without a national encyclopedia since the 1957 Encyclopedia Canadiana. When looking through the Canadian entries in existing encyclopedias such as Random House, Canadian nationalist Mel Hurtig found blatant errors and omissions. In response, in the late-1970s he launched a project to create a wholly new Canadian encyclopedia with support from Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed, who saw the project as a way to commemorate Alberta’s 75th anniversary in 1980.
Original Publication
The Canadian Encyclopedia was accurately described by Hurtig as “the biggest publishing project in Canadian history,” and was hailed by one reviewer as “the intellectual equivalent of the building of the CPR.”
Encoded in a markup language precursor of HTML, it was the first encyclopedia in the world to use a computer to help compile, typeset, design, and print it. The Editor-in-Chief, James H. Marsh, recruited more than 2,500 contributors, including such Canadian luminaries as Margaret Atwood, Peter C. Newman and Pierre Berton. An additional 500 people were enlisted in its editing, fact-checking, proofreading and publication.
Marsh and his editorial team made index cards for every fact in the encyclopedia, signed off by the researcher and backed by at least three other sources. Each entry was reviewed by three outside readers, and the encyclopedia as a whole was then proofread by an independent source.
Print Editions
The first edition, containing three million words and 1,800 visual aids in 14,000 entries, was published in three volumes in 1985 (ISBN 0-88830-269-X). It was available for $125 per set and was an immediate Canadian bestseller. The initial print run of 154,000 sold out within six months and was increased by more than 300,000 copies to meet demand.
A revised and expanded edition, in four volumes with 1,700 new entries, 647 more pages and over 500,000 more words than the first edition, was released in 1988 (ISBN 0-8883 0-326-2).
In September 1990, Hurtig published the five-volume Junior Encyclopedia of Canada (ISBN 0-88830-334-3), the first encyclopedia for young Canadians. It contained some 4,000 articles, 3,000 illustrations and 2,000 photographs in 1,960 pages.
Purchase by McClelland & Stewart
Hurtig sold his publishing company to McClelland & Stewart in May 1991 and with it the encyclopedia. In 1995, McClelland & Stewart published the first digital CD-ROM edition (ISBN 0-7710-2041-4) and followed that in 1999 with the Year 2000 Edition, which was published in a single volume of 2,640 pages. Later that year, publishing house Stanké released a single-volume French edition.
Online
In 2000, Avie Bennett, noted philanthropist and chair of McClelland & Stewart, donated The Canadian Encyclopedia to the non-profit Historica Foundation of Canada (now Historica Canada), of which he was a founding member. Historica published the Encyclopedia online in 2001. In 2003, it acquired the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada and absorbed its 3,000 entries.
Historica Canada launched a revitalized version of the Encyclopedia website in 2013. The Encyclopedia’s growing collection contains more than 19,600 bilingual, fact-checked articles by over 5,000 authors, as well numerous historical timelines, education guides, organized collections, and articles from Maclean's magazine.