The Ontario Book Publishers Organization is drawing attention to the longstanding under-representation of Canadian books in Ontario schools and calling on the provincial government to create a fund that would allow public schools and libraries to purchase Canadian books to remedy this imbalance.

Under a letter-writing campaign launched by the OBPO this month, more than 1,600 emails have been sent to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Education Paul Calandra, and other government representatives.

The OBPO, which found in a 2018 study that only three of the top 20 books taught in Ontario schools are Canadian, has been advocating for the last five years for the creation of a dedicated fund that would be earmarked for public schools and libraries to purchase Canadian-authored, Ontario-published books.

“While feedback from educators, parents, and even government representatives (including from the Ministry of Education) has been consistently positive, progress has always stalled before the fund could be realized,” OBPO executive director Holly Kent said in an email. “With increased focus on representation and identity in education, and with the need to support Canadian businesses as tariffs threaten our economy, we felt it was essential to demonstrate the broad public support for this initiative.”

“At the heart of this campaign is a very simple belief: Canadian students will be enriched by reading Canadian books.”