Misao Dean opens the book with the story of inheriting her father’s canoe paddle and goes on to explore the canoe paddle as a national symbol – integral to historical tales of exploration and trade, central to Pierre Trudeau’s patriotism, and unique to Canadians wanting to distance themselves from British and American national myths. Throughout, emphasizes the importance of self-consciously evaluating the meaning we give to canoes as objects and to canoeing as an activity.