It will be a busy weekend for author and former Montreal West town councillor Andrew Caddell. He will be in Montreal promoting his book The Goal: Stories about Our National Passion on CTV Montreal with Mutsumi Takahashi on Friday at noon, and then will be signing books on Saturday afternoon at Bonder Bookstore on Westminster in Montreal West, then off to The Samuel Moskovitch Arena on Mackle Road in Côte Saint-Luc that evening for more signing and selling. The book, which features stories from former Montreal Gazette writer Dave Stubbs, has received great reviews and reached the top 100 on Amazon winter sports books last year.
Last year I brought Andrew to Royal West Academy to do a reading of his fabulous book.
It features 14 true short stories about hockey and life, from the title story, “The Goal” about Andrew’s trials as a 10 year old goalie on the outdoor rinks in Montreal West, to a touching story aout his great-aunt and her idol, “The Gentleman,” Jean Béliveau. There is hockey history about Montreal Maroons fans who supported the Boston Bruins when the Maroons folded in the 1930s, women’s hockey, the Habs-Leafs rivalry, and the longest ever NHL game, in 1936, which Andrew’s dad, “Pip” Caddell attended.
The book was originally self-published and launched in 2015, but picked up by Rock’s Mills Press in Oakville last year and expanded, with colour photos and four new stories. I heartily recommend it. Andrew is now retired from the department of Global Affairs in Ottawa, but is busy: along with the book, he writes a weekly column on politics in the “Hill Times,” and is partnering with an Australian company in emergency services technology for municipalities, QITCanada. He has plans to move back to Montreal in 2019.
