Thirty years ago dozens of scholars, critics, authors and publishing types gathered for four days in Calgary for what was billed as the National Conference on the Canadian Novel. They chose a list of the country’s best books. So what would a current list look like? “.As it turned out, not all of the 1978 canon ended up on the trash heap of history. Still, 70 per cent of the works chosen 30 years ago didn’t receive any “votes.”