Long after I had stopped asking about Santa Claus, I still believed that hockey in this country was a creation of The Royal Canadian Legion. In the fall of 1956, the year I turned eight, my mother gave me the two dollars necessary to sign up for town league hockey. With the two-dollar bill and my birth certificate in pocket, I walked with Brent and Eric, then and still the very best friends in the world, down the hill and along the leaf-splattered Muskoka River to the Huntsville, Ont., Memorial Arena. It was a typical rink of its day, large and bulky, erected in honour of those who had fought for their country, and the women of Branch 232 ran the snack bar. I was placed on the Legion Auxiliary team, which naturally meant we would be called the "Legion Ladi...

The clock atop the Parniavuk Building in the capital city of Iqaluit on Baffin Island ticks away the days to the birth of Nunavut. Close by, construction workers, rugged against the cold of the arctic winter, are rushing to finish Nunavut’s new Legislative Assembly building. A few doors away in the igloo-shaped office of the Interim Commissioner, Jack Anawak considers his options, now that his job to oversee the design of the new Nunavut government is nearing completion. Nunavut’s first elected ministers will soon be at their desks. Further along the ice-packed street of this 4,000-strong community, John Amagoalik, nicknamed the Father of Nunavut, stands at the window of the Nunavut Implementation Commission office and checks the list of guests he’s invited to the biggest party Iqal...