Find out which book was eliminated 2nd on Canada Reads 2026

Canada Reads 2026: daytime 1

A Canada Reads 2026 break up trend

Canada Reads 2026 Trailer

On Canada Reads, five Canadian celebrities each select one book they think all Canadians should read. They debate their choices with each other over the course of four days, and vote to eliminate one book every day. The last book standing is the winner.

I'll be watching live and giving you behind-the-scenes updates all week long. 

The first day of debates starts today at 10:05 a.m. ET. Stay tuned!

Quin said her “heart goes out” to Tailfeathers. 

“It's the only book in my pile that is full of highlighted moments,” she said.

“I took out two books by Billy Belcourt afterwards at the library, I'm sad to see it go.” 

“I thought that this would be the book that would go to the end, and I think it would be a very valuable read for a lot of Canadians.”

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers wasn’t shocked by the outcome of today’s vote.

“I feel like I had a dark horse with this one, and white supremacy reigns in Canada. It's very prevalent, it's common in all of the mainstream culture,” she said.

She says that she’s not surprised that “two books by white authors, about white Canadians” are making it into the next round, as well as It’s Different This Time.

Tailfeathers also noted that A Minor Chorus may have been voted off for strategic reasons.

“This is a really strong work and I wouldn't wanna argue against it,” she said.

After the vote, Steve (Dangle) Glynn, opened up that it may, in fact, have been part of his strategy.

“You're absolutely right. You wouldn't want to have to argue against that book,” he said. “The book is formidable and you're formidable.”

Tailfeathers says Canadians all have a duty to read Billy-Ray Belcourt’s novel that was eliminated on Day Two of Canada Reads. 

“We have a very complicated history in this country and if we want to move in the right direction, then we have to be having conversations with the people around us, and they have to be difficult conversations sometimes.” 

“I feel grateful that I got to come on national television and celebrate a book by a queer, Indigenous author,” Tailfeathers said after her book was eliminated. 

“As a queer, Indigenous person, I feel represented and celebrated in a way that literature so rarely offers me and I am so so proud to know Billy-Ray Belcourt.”

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Tegan Quin voted against It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard.

Morgann Book, Steve (Dangle) Glynn, Josh Dela Cruz voted against A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt.

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers says some readers have called A Minor Chorus academic or challenging, but she sees that as a strength — especially at a time when anti-intellectualism is on the rise.

She says there’s value in leaning into what feels difficult, and in being brave enough to think through complex ideas instead of turning away from them.

A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt is the second book to be eliminated on Canada Reads.

Unlike typical sports books, which often follow a predictable storyline, Steve Dangle says Searching for Terry Punchout stands apart. 

“It’s sometimes charming, crude, or dry. It’s fun, accessible [and] it has heart.” 

“This book holds up a mirror for us to realize the power to change our reality for the better is ours.” 

One of Morgann Book’s critiques of A Minor Chorus, is that she found it a hard book to understand “from the get go.”

She didn’t love the lack of quotation marks, as “someone who really loves to understand the narrator.”

“When there's no quotations around that, I find myself going back and trying to figure out if they were setting the scene, or if it was in a monologue,” she said.

“It was a bit tough for me to understand the characters in the story and connect to the narrator. I found that the casual sex and erotica in the book took away from the emotional depth.”

As a quick break in the debates, the remaining panellists were just surprised by words of encouragement from their famous friends. 

For Tegan Quin, we heard from Arkells frontman Max Kerman, and for Morgann Book, her favourite audiobook narrator, Julia Whelan, had some nice things to say. 

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers got a pep-talk from actor Michael Greyeyes, and for Steve (Dangle) Glynn, hockey broadcast icon Ron MacLean shared some wisdom. 

Fun fact: both Greyeyes and MacLean have been Canada Reads champions themselves, so they really know what they’re talking about!

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