Will Ferguson (born William Stener Ferguson) is a Canadian writer and novelist who is best known for his humorous observations on Canadian history and culture. His success as a writer can be attributed to an innate ability to view Canada much the same way an outsider would, as described in his debut book, the ironically named Why I Hate Canadians. Ferguson talks about this in a recent CBC radio interview as well. Ferguson was born fourth of six children in the former trading post of Fort Vermilion, Alberta, approximately 800 km north of Edmonton. His parents split up when he was 6 during a brief interlude in Regina. At the age of 16 he quit school and moved to Saskatoon, Dauphin, and Red Deer. He then joined the Canadian government funded programs Katimavik and Canada World Youth. He studied film production and screenwriting at York University in Toronto graduating with a B.F.A. in 1990.Ferguson joined the JET Programme in the early 1990s and lived in Kyushu, Japan, for five years teaching English. He married his wife Terumi in Kumamoto, Japan, in 1995. After coming back from Japan he experienced a severe reverse culture shock, which became the basis for his first book Why I Hate Canadians. He details his experiences hitchhiking across Japan in Hokkaido Highway Blues, later retitled Hitching Rides with Buddha.Ferguson has won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour twice, for Generica (later renamed Happiness) in 2002 and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw in 2005.He currently resides in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and two sons. His older brother, Ian Ferguson, also won the Stephen Leacock Medal, for Village of the Small Houses.Ferguson is also an outspoken critic of the monarchy of Canada, both publicly and in his books. He is often quoted in the media when the monarchy issue is being debated, particularly from his 1997 book Why I Hate Canadians, in which he says "Royalty exists only through an act of willful ignorance on the part of their subjects. Call it a suspension of common sense." He contrasts this with profiles of Canadian secessionist and independence movements (such as the "Republic of Madawaska") in his book Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw (2004).
