"Why are We Here? by Mary Jo Leddy is filled with wisdom. It's thoughtful and brilliant. Every Canadian should read this book and take the time to pause, think, and answer the important question that Leddy asks. Reading it has made me not only a better Canadian but also a better human being. A must read for 2019!"

Marina Nemat, author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran

Mary Jo Leddy has a genre all her own, except perhaps for Marilynne Robinson. This is in-depth moral commentary on the issues of the day, delivered in a voice that is all the more challenging because it is always gentle and understanding. We are, as this book affirms, both worse and better than we think.
Ronald Rolheiser, President, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas, and author of Wrestling with God: Finding Hope and Meaning in our Daily Struggles to be Human

Mary Jo Leddy has written a powerful book about being a moral person in our own souls, in Canada, and in the world. You will want to keep it on your night table, and reflect as you read and re-read. It is that good, and that important. ”

Bob Rae, author, former federal cabinet minister, former premier of Ontario

Why Are We Here Endorsements

Mary Jo Leddy, one of Canada’s foremost and original spiritual explorers and a voice of those who arrive here as refugees, in this book offers a meditation on why we are together. It is a narrative of profound prose-poetry, a quest for the unifying and informing symbols of Canada. It will leave its readers in still, contemplative and grateful thought.

Michael Valpy is a journalist and a senior fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto

"Why are We Here? by Mary Jo Leddy is filled with wisdom. It's thoughtful and brilliant. Every Canadian should read this book and take the time to pause, think, and answer the important question that Leddy asks. Reading it has made me not only a better Canadian but also a better human being. A must read for 2019!"

Marina Nemat, author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran

“A timely, insightful book that sets out the questions we must ask ourselves if we and our piece of the planet are to survive our single-minded pursuit of personal enrichment. ”

Anna Porter, publisher and author, most recently of In Other Words: How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time

Prepare to be joyfully disrupted by Mary Jo’s invitation to create communities of responsibility flowing from gratitude for the gift that is Canada. A beautiful offering of hope for our fractured relationships with indigenous peoples and the earth at a time when most grapple with whether their efforts even begin to make a difference. Leddy leaves us certain we are powerfully weighing in with our lives and decisions, each day.

Sara Hildebrand, founder and director of Millennium Kids

"Mary Jo Leddy is one of the most eloquent and important spiritual writers of our day. In this gracious meditation, we are awakened to a profound reflection on our proper role and place in a time of climate chaos, economic exclusion and perduring oppression of Indigenous lives and lifeways. Sifted through a lifetime of reflection, activism, and deep hospitality, graced by stirring prose, this work leaves us both touched and tethered, invited to journey away from the dead zones of "globalized indifference" and insatiable consumerism and into the vibrant waters of engaged solidarity. "

Stephen Bede Scharper, Associate Professor, School of the Environment, University of Toronto, and author of For Earth's Sake: Toward a Compassionate Ecology (Novalis), and Hilary Scharper, a Canadian novelist and a professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Toronto.

Mary Jo Leddy has a genre all her own, except perhaps for Marilynne Robinson. This is in-depth moral commentary on the issues of the day, delivered in a voice that is all the more challenging because it is always gentle and understanding. We are, as this book affirms, both worse and better than we think.
Ronald Rolheiser, President, Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas, and author of Wrestling with God: Finding Hope and Meaning in our Daily Struggles to be Human

Mary Jo Leddy has written a powerful book about being a moral person in our own souls, in Canada, and in the world. You will want to keep it on your night table, and reflect as you read and re-read. It is that good, and that important. ”

Bob Rae, author, former federal cabinet minister, former premier of Ontario

Just as she describes refugee children as the “eyes of her eyes and the ears of her ears,” Mary Jo Leddy provides us with a new lens through which to view the world around us. By asking the simple and profound question of “why are we here” she challenges us to form new commitments to our communities and ourselves. In doing so aims to make a country that is good and communities that will take responsibility for their own well being.

Gavin Gardiner, a Juno and Polaris prize nominated songwriter and record producer living and working in the west end of Toronto

Through the lens of her life and work, Mary Jo Leddy redefines the way so many of us see the people and the land that surround us. In asking us “Why Are We Here, “ she asks us to put aside the many boundaries that prevent us from answering it honestly and with purpose. She challenges us to look outside of ourselves and to take responsibility for the communities we live in, and to recognize the fundamental role we each play in building them.

Sarah Creskey, an artist living and working in the west end of Toronto

Revealed in this profound meditation are provocative thoughts of who we are and how we need to be in order to be truly ourselves as Canadians. In her inimitable and thoughtful way, Mary Jo Leddy describes what it is “to assume the particular blessing and burden of Canada. ” I feel enriched by her revelations.
The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada (1999-2005)

Our TRC described Reconciliation as establishing and maintaining respectful relations between the First Peoples of the land and all Canadians, an uncomfortable disruption of the status quo. One of this country’s deepest thinkers, revered human rights activist Mary Joe Leddy, draws upon decades of cross-cultural friendships and social justice engagement to offer spiritual introspection on this crucial juncture that is now our moment in history. Why Are We Here: a Meditation on Canada is a provocative meditation for our times.

Dr. Marie Wilson, Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2009-2015

Mary Jo Leddy, one of Canada’s foremost and original spiritual explorers and a voice of those who arrive here as refugees, in this book offers a meditation on why we are together. It is a narrative of profound prose-poetry, a quest for the unifying and informing symbols of Canada. It will leave its readers in still, contemplative and grateful thought.

Michael Valpy is a journalist and a senior fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto