Acknowledgments

Preparing the first open textbook on Canadian history has been an exercise in innovation and experimentation. It has had at its heart from the start, however, a singular vision of a resource that will remove a financial barrier to students and will empower teaching faculty. It is a vision that has been shared by everyone on the team responsible for its production at BCcampus. Mary Burgess (now the Executive Director) was engaged from the start and has retained a helpful interest. Lauri Aesoph (Manager, Open Education) has been my closest daily collaborator, ally, critic, and support through this project. Clint Lalonde (then Senior Manager, Open Education) took the reins over the larger project while continuing to play the part of technical leader. He was helped throughout in this process by Brad Payne (then Web Developer-Technical Analyst) and so was I.

I am also grateful to Thompson Rivers University, Open Learning for encouraging me down this path and for making a substantial contribution to the final product. Ron McGivern, who wears several hats at TRU, gave me the first prod, and I am in his debt.

Rajiv Jhangiani teaches Psychology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and co-authored (along with Hammond Terry) another BCcampus open text, Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International Edition. His experiences were important and extremely valuable to the early stages of this project, and I happily acknowledge his generosity as a mentor. (Both Kwantlen and TRU are member institutions in the Open Educational Resource Universitat (OERu) which helps explain why there is both enthusiasm and expertise on OER and open texts at the two institutions, a happy coincidence for me.)

The idea of creating open textbooks to support the most heavily enrolled courses in post-secondary institutions originated with the Provincial Government of British Columbia. The Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills and Training invested a significant sum of money through BCcampus to accomplish this goal. Moreover, it continues to invest in this project, which means that more resources will be produced and that the resources already produced will be well maintained and capable of evolution. Good on you, Ministry.

I am grateful to colleagues who provided input, editorial, and content suggestions. I am pleased and proud to list their names and brief bios on the About the Author and Contributors page.

Finally and mostly, I am indebted to family and friends who encouraged me with their curiosity about the project and their patience. At the head of this list, as always, is Diane Purvey. Thanks, once again.