How Scholastic became so tight with Canadian schools

January 9, 2026·28 min·2 clips

Why has Scholastic, the American book fair giant, maintained exclusive access to Canadian schools for over a century?

Scholastic gets the school-memory treatment. The show starts with a Canadian memory that cuts across age: whether you were seven or seventy, Scholastic was probably somewhere in your school life. Then the budget angle arrives. The transcript says the company's book clubs and book fairs raised about $1.20 million for Canadian schools last year, so the nostalgia comes with a price tag. That is a very CBC turn. A familiar book fair becomes a way into how schools scrape together extra resources. Parents get a bit of room too. Krista Wiebe likes the book fair and does not sound especially worried if her kids come home asking for a poster. Paul remembers the posters fondly. Danielle plays with the bit, because apparently the motivational cat poster still has a job to do in principal offices. The mood stays easy. Underneath it is the sharper question: if Scholastic money disappeared, schools would likely need to find another source. Then the episode widens out. Paul asks listeners for their Scholastic stories, with the show's call-in number and email doing the familiar CBC thing. After that, groceries take over. Leah Hendry introduces Ron Robinson at a Montreal ultra-discount grocery store where prices can be as much as 50 percent lower than regular supermarkets. The catch is that bargain shopping comes with a catch: best-before dates. With grocery sticker shock still around, the show asks whether ignoring those dates is becoming a sensible way to save. Happiness gets the last stretch. Paul talks with Sonia Lubomirsky, a happiness researcher at the University of California, Riverside, about whether happier people may become more successful over time. The show does not oversell it. Happiness is not a magic path to a raise, but it might help around the edges. By the credits, the episode has moved from book fairs to grocery deals to happiness and money, while keeping one plain thread: ordinary household choices often come with bigger economic tradeoffs.

As heard by us

A concise look at how Scholastic became both a school ritual and a fundraising engine in Canada.

Scholastic's long run in Canadian schools comes through as a sharp little business story about access, nostalgia, and fundraising. The segment is strongest when it shows how book clubs and fairs became part of school life for children and parents alike, with schools getting…

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Why you'd press play

Book-fair nostalgia, grocery bargains, and a happiness check on money.

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