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Did you hear the one about the canal builder who forgot canals need water? The battle where everyone ran away? Or the boat made of ice, and the town that mixed up time? How about the shovel invented for soldiers with a hole in it? Colossal Canadian Failures is a lighthearted look at Canada’s unsung heroes the eccentrics, the failures, the misguided, and the just plain overoptimistic who never met an idea they could resist, no matter how crazy. From engineering blunders to business and political failures and more, Colossal Canadian Failures provides a muchneeded ego boost for anyone who thinks they’ve said "oops" one too many times.
— National Post
a light-hearted look at plans and dreams that sounded better in theory than they were in practice.
— London Free Press
a lighthearted look at Canada's unsung heroes or the just plain misguided who never met an idea they couldn't resist
— The Telegram (St. John's, NF)
An all-round good read.
— Packet and Times (Orillia, ON)
a fiesta of fabulous flops.
— The Beaver (now Canada's History) June/July 2003
Randy Richmond is a newspaper reporter and author of The Orillia Spirit, published by Dundurn Press in 1996. He lives with his wife and three children in London, Ontario, where he gets inspiration for stories about failure from looking at his home improvement projects.
Tom Villemaire is a newspaper reporter and editor and a freelance writer. He lives alone in Balaclava, Ontario, and, at times when she permits, with his girlfriend in Toronto. A failed astronaut and garbage man, Villemaire lowered his sights and settled upon writing as a career.