The 1972 hockey showdown with Russia was a central moment for all Canadians, including the great hockey fan Mordecai Richler, who returned to Montreal after his apprenticeship in England. In French his equivalent was Anne Hebert, a Quebecoise exile in Paris for many years. Unlike Mavis Gallant, she found that living in Paris did not harm her Canadian standing. Her 1970 novel Kamouraska was hailed as the best Quebec novel written in French.

Thanks to Dennis Lee's Alligator Pie, children's books took off in Canada, and thanks to Vancouver Island's Jack Hodgins, magic realism reached Canada's shores.