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Creating canons is many things. It can be fun, frustrating, time consuming, and instructive. Sometimes it can be fruitless, in the sense that lists change according to a host of factors ranging from changing tastes, historical re-evaluations, to change in criteria. Based on who is compiling the list and what their agenda might be, the act of making a list presupposes that the list maker has given some thought to his or her choices, and the list reflects a certain state of mind at a point in time. Most people when asked to come up with a list will qualify their consent by saying that the list is subject to change. Ask them tomorrow and they will come up with a different list. Which is a reason why lists change over time (because people change over time) and it is rare if not impossible to come across two identical lists (regardless of the category). Lists differ because the goal of the list maker will differ. When it comes to a list like this one, which is to come up with ten (or more) representative or ‘best’ Canadian films, some people will try to make the list as representative as possible (of genre, of gender, of time frame, etc.). Some will be sure to pick films from throughout the Nation’s film history, while others might pick only more recent work. Some will assume the list to be populist and pick only narrative films. Some will err on the other end and list only non-narrative films. For example, joining in on the 150th Anniversary celebrations was the Canadian film magazine POV. As a magazine that focuses on documentary culture, POV published an excellent Spring 2017 issue that focused on the “best” documentary as an expression not only of Canadian film but our sense of who we are as a people and a Nation. The issue’s title, “The Stories We Tell”, is a reference to the Sarah Polley film and also the idea that the documentary form is a vital portal into the events and people that have given shape to our Nation. The issue has some excellent, well researched and well written essays on the many different facets of the documentary, including an annotated list...