It occurred to Prince George author Ian Gibbs that the best way to write a book covering a lot of Canada is through the eyes of a weary traveller on a paranormal road trip.
It was actually his editor who channelled the thought for his book Canada’s Most Haunted: Ghostly Tales and Paranormal Encounters Across the Great White North. So, when readers flip open the book, they’ll see a two-page spread of Canada with a connect-the-dots path winding its way through all 10 provinces and three territories.
“What I loved most about it was that it reawakened my love for Canada,” Gibbs admitted during a late October phone conversation. “We’re at a pretty high watermark nationally anyway — in terms of national pride.”
Each province and territory has no more than three stops. And Gibbs, born in the U.K. and well-travelled across the country, is especially familiar with the cities he knows best: Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary.
Now, drawing inspiration from one of his best friends and fellow ghost story collector, Barbara Smith, he’s tackling what the rest of Canada has to offer.
“She’s 75 going on 35,” he said with a laugh. “We probably talked once a month. I said, ‘Listen, I’d like to do a national book,’ and she goes, ‘Oh, you have to.’”
From that conversation, she lent Gibbs some of her leftover stories from the many books she has written on the paranormal.
“Barbara’s one of the most generous writers I’ve ever met,” he admitted. “She did give me a story for the book.”
That story is about Edmonton’s Gibbard Block. It spent over 30 years as the city’s La Bohème Restaurant as well as a bed and breakfast. Its backstory revolves around a Great Depression-era caretaker murdering his wife in their third-floor apartment, or Suite 7. Guests had experienced their sheets being pulled off the bed, lights flickering and unexplained cold spots in the room where the alleged murder had happened.
Gibbs also features stories from the Plains of Abraham, Fort Henry, the Caribou Hotel and the Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews By-the-Sea. He had lived there in his early 20s and scratched his music-making itch while there.
“I loved my time in New Brunswick,” he said. “I mean, that’s where I recorded my album when I was 23 and the people there were so kind.
“This was a nice way to revisit a lot of places, even if I couldn’t physically afford to revisit them.”
Gibbs has had the opportunity to call a lot of places in Canada home. He grew up in Calgary, lived in Toronto, moved to New Brunswick and made his way out west to Victoria. Now he calls northern B.C. home, where he runs a ghost walk.
With everything that’s happening, he’s looking at retooling his walk. It’s on hiatus, but it will be back with a true crime route.
“Everyone’s getting super excited about that one,” he said.
Canada’s Most Haunted: Ghostly Tales and Paranormal Encounters Across the Great White North was released on October 6. It’s available for purchase from Touchwood Editions as well as wherever you buy books.