Cahier du Canada
Most countries have their own peculiar school exercise book systems and histories. Rad and Hungry has even made a whole business out of finding and distributing them. I have the benefit of living in a country within a country, so can find two overlapping nationalities’ worth of school exercise books in my vintage searches.
The Hilroy Cahier is the most well-recognized item across Canada in any student’s binder today. Mostly the Am4 (eg. American non-A4 8.5” x 11”) size are seen in shops but there’s also an Am5 size (6” x 9”) commonly available, especially during back-to-school season. Characteristically bilingual, at least since the 1970s, they are a necessary part of all student backpacks. They come in graph, wide rule, and I swear I once saw blank unlined ones, but all recent efforts have failed to turn these up again.
Québec shops still usually have French-only ones, typically lacking the characteristic Canadian map. Rather than evidence of a nefarious separatism in kids’ stationery, it’s just easier to distribute since many of these are still manufactured and printed here in Québec (unlike just about all other stationery effects, including the notorious “Canadiana” pencils).
I have occasionally found a vintage picture of books from the 60s in English-only. This was only partly due to Anglo-chauvanism. Back in those days the English school systems were largely the only ones available with a secular curriculum. In the case of west coast pupils, these Vancouver School Board books show that they could even print something radically individualistic without all those pesky French students around. And note the handsome hipster beards on those stylish Vancouverite men…
If you wanted to be taught in French, you had to be taught by the Catholic Church, which had their own exercise books, known as L’oiseau Bleu. They even had a slightly narrower form factor, a more firm card stock cover, and mostly disappeared by the 90s. Thank gods.
I especially love these half-blank-half-ruled ones which give kids space to be creative in multiple media. The form factor is much less intimidating than a big thick composition book with 100+ pages, sitting there mocking you when you have writer’s block.
One of my favourite hauls of all, though, are these beautiful photo-print books. Full of the rural WASP splendour that Canada has always aspired to. Maybe we could release a new edition with a more diverse, more urban, more indigenous, more northern cast. I can dream, can’t I?
