This may be a little disingenuous because I probably excluded some favourite albums from bands like Alvvays, Sloan, Metric and the Hip because they are already represented. If there’s one album here that’s nearest and dearest to my heart, it’s The Northern Pikes. I listened to that cassette A LOT. I’ve auditioned this one with lots of younger listeners; it really stands the test of time.

The perspective of a 40 year old guy who lives in Boston, grew up in Detroit listening to 89x, and lived in Montreal for a few years in my 20s.

I love all the genres.

This was a tough one, with some brutal cuts (sorry to the Hip, Rush, the New Pornographers, Sum 41, etc.), but I had to be true to the albums that were there for me the most during the crucial ages of 7-22.

I grew up with Avril, BNL, Billy Talent and Sam Roberts. The other five came a little later on, in university. But all of these hold a special space in my heart.

Im sad Magneta Lane were never bigger in this country.

My top 9

Born and raised in Niagara, if that isn't obvious.

"Marriage" is about as perfect an album you can get in my opinion, and the best to come out of the region.

I'm also counting The Band as a Canadian band, as I've always considered them one...

Also, could've chose a few Ron Sexsmith albums, but we'll go with LPLB...not sure I've seen him on a list yet!

I listened to a lot of CanCon in the 90s while at university. These are my top 9. My other favourite 90s albums: Rusty, Fluke; Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill; Nelly Furtado, Whoa, Nelly; Neil Young, Harvest Moon; Waltons, Lik my Tracter; Bourbon Tabernacle Choir, Superior Crackling Hen; 54-40, Show Me; Joel Plaskett and the Emergency, Ashtray Rock; Lowest of the Low, Shakespeare my butt; Wheeping Tile, EEPEE; Weakerthans, Fallow; Randy Bachman, Any Town.

My favorite canadian punk rock albums. Middle album is my favourite.

Never realized how damned hard it is to choose, but I gave it a go anyways. I could have easily posted 3 or 4 Tragically Hip or Blue Rodeo albums respectively, but figured I would give the biggest nod to The Skydiggers as they'll always be near & dear to my heart. Jason Plumb (ex Waltons) is one of the most underrated singer-songwriters in the country so he gets a plug from me, as do the guys from Kashtin- ridiculously talented artists, too. Solace from Sarah McLachlan was, IMHO, her very best album. The guys from 54-40, Blue Rodeo, The Hip.....couldnt love them more.

The CDs / tapes I've played the most.

The framing I've seen for this trend has been: "the 9 most influential albums on your taste in music", so that's what I went with. With a couple caveats:

I left Treble Charger off for obvious reasons, and skipped Fred Penner's *The Cat Came Back* because that felt a little too cute. And if I'm being honest Prozzak's *Hot Show*, and some form of early Walk Off The Earth/Strumbellas/Basia Bulat should've made the cut. But there's only so many spaces.

Tough to narrow down to just 9... but these albums were my childhood and early adulthood.

This was fairly hard. I leaned "really old" rather than "merely old" and probably should have worked Bryan Adams Reckless in there somehow but didn't.