Larry Ostola talks to Patrice Dutil about his book, Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy, published by UBC Press in June 2023.

Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats explores how prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau have shaped foreign policy by manipulating government structures, adopting and rejecting options, and imprinting their personalities on the process. Contributors provide fresh, sometimes surprising perspectives on a wide range of policy decisions – increasing or decreasing department budgets, forming or ending alliances, pursuing trade relationships, and the management of the prime minister’s personal diplomacy – particularly as these choices affected the bureaucracies that deliver foreign policy diplomatically and militarily.

No other book has been devoted to a systematic analysis of the central role of Canadian prime ministers in fashioning foreign policy. This innovative focus is destined to trigger a new appreciation for the formidable personal attention and acuity involved in a successful approach to external affairs.

This original work will appeal to those interested in the work of Canadian prime ministers and the making of foreign policy; to scholars and students of Canadian foreign policy and its history; and broadly to Canadian historians, political scientists, and scholars of public administration.

Patrice Dutil is a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is the author of Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden and Devil’s Advocate: Godfroy Langlois and the Politics of Liberal Progressivism in Laurier’s Quebec. Among his many edited books are The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent: Politics and Policies for a Modern Canada and Macdonald at 200: New Reflections and Legacies (with Roger Hall). He was the founding editor of the Literary Review of Canada (1991–96) and president of the Champlain Society (2010–17).

Image Credit:  UBC Press

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Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy

Greg Marchildon talks to John M. Dirks about his book, A Co-operative Disagreement: Canada-United States Relations and Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-93, published by UBC Press in August 2022.

John Dirks investigates efforts at the senior and working levels of Canada-US diplomacy and bureaucracy to find mutually advantageous ways of cooperating, despite their respective approaches to revolutionary Cuba. When Washington sought the downfall of the communist regime through political isolation and economic strangulation, Canada had deep commercial ties with Cuba and chose engagement instead. These differences in policy created the potential for significant friction, but the burden fell on Canada, as the smaller power, to initiate mitigation strategies. Ultimately, these two North American powers continued to adhere to the hard policy boundaries set by their own governments while establishing a mutually beneficial relationship on issues of intelligence, travel, and other areas of engagement with Cuba.

Drawing on archival documents from both sides of the border, many newly declassified, this comprehensive study reveals how officials in Ottawa and Washington managed to preserve bilateral harmony despite ongoing policy divergence.

Based on deft and thorough archival research, this work will appeal not only to scholars of Canadian foreign policy, diplomatic history, and political history but also to diplomats and others working in the foreign policy field.

John M. Dirks is a historian and professional archivist. Now with the City of Toronto, he taught for several years in the International Relations Program at Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Image Credit:  UBC Press

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A Cooperative Disagreement: Canada-United States Relations and Revolutionary Cuba, 1959–93

Holden Pond tells the story of hydroelectric development of the Ottawa River in the 1950s, and how that affected the early settlers that cleared lands and made a life along the shores of the river (the Taits, Charboneaus, Heaneys, Jennings, and many other families). The story starts in 1929 when Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario conducted land surveys along the shores of the Ottawa River to map out the elevation of the reservoir (Holden Lake). Several small villages were flooded, along with farms, trout lakes, churches, cemeteries and everything else that had been carved from the Canadian wilderness. The song was inspired from sitting on the concrete steps of the church at Stonecliff under 20' of water in the dim light, thinking about the decades that early people walked on these very steps before the river was dammed. The people that were affected were not happy with being uprooted. This is not a protest song; it just tells the story of how people felt as they watched the water inch upward day by way when the reservoir was filled.

Open Water

Holden Pond

Holden Pond (Open Water)

The Ottawa River, extending roughly 1270 km and with its watershed larger than twice the size of New Brunswick, was one of several major routes for indigenous people to travel throughout the Canadian wilderness for decades. Starting in the 1600s, European explorers and fur traders used the routes of indigenous people, accessing broad areas of the country further west and north. In the 1800's the lumber trade prospered from using the river for floating logs to European markets. In the 1900's, hydroelectric power plants were built at strategic locations, transforming the river (Holden Pond). This song pays tribute to travelers of the river; the Coureur des Bois, Voyageurs and indigenous people.  Wording in the chorus “the tracks of these men are marked in the stones …”, refers to a sacred place on the Madawaska River, where the names of men who perished in the river are carved into the smoothly shaped bedrock.  As an avid wilderness canoeist (and a 10th generation Canadian), I have a great deal of respect for our forefathers that traveled through the rugged Canadian Shield from spring to early winter.

la Riviere

La Riviere (Open Water)

Development of the Ottawa Valley in the early to mid-1900s involved large blocks of land being expropriated to make room for industrial development (hydroelectric) and for government institutions such as Garrison Petawawa and Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Historical records show the old settlement roads and the locations of homesteads, stopping places and early farms. Some of the names of the old farms and stopping places have been adopted in our modern world, but otherwise all that remains are the traces of old homesteads; house foundations, steamboat wharfs, stage coach trails. These lands have also become wildlife refuges with access controls allowing the wild lands their privacy.  This song pays tribute to the sadness that affected folks felt when they were told to move. These folks include the Richards, Forans, McQuestions, Shields, Nadeaus and many more. Like with the song Holden Pond, this is not a protest song; it simply tells the story of a time and place in the Upper Ottawa Valley.

Not Forgotten

Not Forgotten (Open Water)

The old stones fences throughout the Ottawa Valley inspire me, and there's nothing quite like the fences on the old farms along the Opeongo Colonization Road that runs from Farrell’s Landing on the Ottawa River near Renfrew to Opeongo Lake west of Barry's Bay. What I see in these fences is the decades of determination and hard work that European settlers had to endure in the late 1800s to turn forested stony hills into marginal farmland. With many farms long since abandoned, forests now occupy the fields, with moss-covered stone fences permanently marking this period of development of the Ottawa Valley.

Stone Fences

Stone Fences (Open Water)

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to James Naylor, Rhonda L. Hinther, and Jim Mochoruk about their book, For a Better World: The Winnipeg General Strike and the Workers' Revolt, published by UMP in September 2022.

Canada’s largest and most famous example of class conflict, the Winnipeg General Strike, redefined local, national, and international conversations around class, politics, region, ethnicity, and gender. The Strike’s centenary occasioned a re-examination of this critical moment in working-class history, when 300 social justice activists, organizers, scholars, trade unionists, artists, and labour rights advocates gathered in Winnipeg in 2019.

Editors Naylor, Hinther, and Mochoruk depict key events of 1919, detailing the dynamic and complex historiography of the Strike and the larger Workers’ Revolt that reverberated around the world and shaped the century following the war. 

For a Better World interrogates types of commemoration and remembrance, current legacies of the Strike, and its ongoing influence. Together, the essays in this collection demonstrate that the Winnipeg General Strike continues to mobilize—revealing our radical past and helping us to think imaginatively about collective action in the future.

James Naylor is the author of The Fate of Labour Socialism: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Dream of a Working-Class Future (2016). He is a professor of history at Brandon University.

Rhonda L. Hinther is a professor in the Department of History at Brandon University, and an active public historian. Prior to joining BU, she served as Director of Research and Curation at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and, before that, as Curator of Western Canadian History at the Canadian Museum of History. She is the co-editor of Civilian Internment in Canada: Histories and Legacies.

Jim Mochoruk has taught at the University of North Dakota since 1993. His books include Formidable Heritage: Manitoba’s North and the Cost of Development, 1870 to 1930.

Image Credit:  UMP

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

For a Better World: The Winnipeg General Strike and the Workers' Revolt

We are thrilled to bring our hit Virtual Museum Lecture Series to the podcast. With over 40 lectures on Youtube, we’re so happy to bring the lecture audio to the podcast format so that more of you can enjoy these fascinating stories and join in on the historical adventures.

On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast we’re sharing the exciting story of the First World War as it looked to the residents in St. Catharines with a lecture given by our curator Kathleen Powell titled ‘When the World Changed.” This lecture was originally recorded on December 1, 2021.

Enjoy the lecture.

VMLS via Podcast

VMLS via Podcast - When the World Changed

In this podcast episode, Larry Ostola talks to David MacKenzie about his book, King and Chaos: The 1935 Canadian General Election, published by UBC Press in June 2023.

In 1935, Canadians went to the polls against a backdrop of the Great Depression and deteriorating international conditions. This election was like no other, as five major parties competed for voters who were used to a traditional slate of Liberals versus Conservatives. King and Chaos examines the issues, personalities, and significance of this turning point in Canadian political history.

More than anything else, the election was a referendum on Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett, whose name had become synonymous with hard times. As his government and his party splintered under the weight of outdated Tory policies, the opposition Liberals watched the destruction. Meanwhile, the newly minted Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, Social Credit Party, and Reconstruction Party broadened the electoral base, bringing working-class Canadians – and working-class issues – more directly into the political process.

King and Chaos demonstrates that the advent of third parties permanently changed the political landscape. And while other countries turned to dictators and demagogues, King delivered a less radical, but equally important, change: an effective electoral machine and a national coalition comprising the two major linguistic groups that dominated Canadian politics for the next generation.

David MacKenzie is a professor with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of History. His main areas of academic interest are in Canadian history and international relations and the study of international organizations.

Image Credit:  UBC Press

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

King and Chaos: The 1935 Canadian General Election

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon talks to John Ibbitson about his book, The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada published by Signal in October 2023.

One of Canada’s foremost authors and journalists, Ibbitson offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today’s Canada.

The Duel is a tale of two men, children of Victoria, who led Canada into the atomic age: each the product of his past, each more like the other than either would ever admit, fighting each other relentlessly while together forging the Canada we live in today. To understand our times, we must first understand theirs. 

John Ibbitson is Writer at Large for the Globe and Mail, having also served as chief political writer, political affairs columnist and bureau chief in Washington and Ottawa. A winner of the Governor General's Award, Ibbitson has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize, the National Newspaper Award, the Trillium Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award.

Image Credit:  Signal

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada

In this podcast episode, Larry Ostola talks to Graham Broad about his book, Part of Life Itself: The War Diary of Lieutenant Leslie Howard Miller, CEF published by the University of Toronto Press in October 2023.

This extensively annotated wartime diary illuminates the military service of Leslie Howard Miller (1889–1979), a Canadian soldier who served in the First World War. Miller joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in 1914. In his off-duty hours, he kept this extraordinarily eloquent diary of his training, deployment overseas, service on the Western Front, and periods of leave in the United Kingdom.

Graham Broad, working from a transcription of the diary produced by Miller’s family, includes a thorough introduction and afterword, as well as over 500 notes that situate and explain Miller’s many references to the people, places, and events he encountered.

Unpublished for over a century, written in bracing and engaging prose, and illustrated with Miller’s own drawings and unseen photographs, Part of Life Itself illuminates a bygone world and stands as one of Canada’s most important wartime diaries.

Graham Broad is an associate professor of History at Kings College at Western University.

Image Credit:  UTP

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Part of Life Itself: The War Diary of Lieutenant Leslie Howard Miller, CEF

In this podcast episode, Nicole O'Byrne talks to Ian Kyer about his book, The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-examined published by Irwin Law in October 2023.

In 1924, Peter Smith, the former treasurer of the Province of Ontario, and Aemilius Jarvis, one of Canada’s most prominent businessmen and a champion yachtsman, were found guilty of criminal conspiracy to defraud the Ontario government in connection with the repurchase of three series of succession duty–free bonds four years before. Were they truly guilty? Academics and the general public have differed dramatically in their answer to that question. Based on extensive research and his own knowledge of corporate finance and government, Kyer skillfully takes us through the bond transactions, the investigations, the criminal charges, the trial, the extradition and subsequent trial of another of the alleged conspirators, the appeals and the extensive efforts of Jarvis and his supporters to overturn the verdict. Kyer explains how and why the jury came to the wrong verdict and why the legal appeals were unsuccessful. Although the subject matter is somewhat technical, Kyer makes everything clear to the general reader.

Ian Kyer is an independent scholar and has published three books with the Osgoode Society.

Image Credit:  Irwin Law

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-examined

We are thrilled to bring our hit Virtual Museum Lecture Series to the podcast. With over 40 lectures on Youtube, we’re so happy to bring the lecture audio to the podcast format so that more of you can enjoy these fascinating stories and join in on the historical adventures.

On today’s episode of VMLS via Podcast we’re sharing the history of early black residents of St. Catharines with a lecture titled: ‘The Daily Grind: The Records of Freedom Seekers in St. Catharines’ presented by Abbey Stansfield. This lecture was originally recorded on February 1, 2022.

VMLS via Podcast - The Daily Grind: Records of Freedom Seekers in St. Catharines

In this podcast episode, Nicole O'Byrne talks to Lori Chambers and Joan Sangster about their book, Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII: New Essays in Women's History published by UTP in October 2023.

Drawing on engaging case studies, Essays in the History of Canadian Law brings the law to life. The contributors to this collection provide rich historical and social context for each case, unravelling the process of legal decision-making and explaining the impact of the law on the people involved in legal disputes. Examining the law not simply as legislation and institutions, but as discourse, practice, symbols, rhetoric, and language, the book’s chapters show the law as both oppressive and constraining and as a point of contention and means of resistance.

This collection presents new approaches and concerns, as well as re-examinations of existing themes with new evidence and modes of storytelling. Bringing to light how the people embroiled in these cases interacted with the legal system, the book reveals the ramifications of a legal system characterized by multiple layers of inequality.

Lori Chambers is a professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at Lakehead University.

Joan Sangster is a Vanier Professor Emeritus at Trent University.

Image Credit:  UTP

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII: New Essays in Women's History

Greg Marchildon talks to James Urry about his book, On Stony Ground: Russländer Mennonites and the Rebuilding of Community in Grunthal, published by UTP in February 2024.

On Stony Ground presents a historical ethnographic account of a generation of Mennonites from the Soviet Union who, following Russia’s revolution and civil war, immigrated to Manitoba during the 1920s. James Urry examines how they came to terms with a new land and with their new neighbours, including other Mennonites, Ukrainians, French Canadians, and Indigenous Peoples.

The book discusses the impact of the Great Depression and how the immigrants struggled with their identity in Canada as Hitler and Stalin rose to power in Germany and the USSR. It reveals the immigrants’ desire to maintain their faith, language, and culture while encouraging their children to take advantage of an education conducted mainly in English. On Stony Ground explores how prosperity following the Second World War helped the immigrants to build a community in conjunction with others, including Mennonites and non-Mennonites, and to accept their new home in Canada.

James Urry is an anthropologist and historian who has published widely on Mennonites and the history of anthropology.

Image Credit:  UTP

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

On Stony Ground: Russländer Mennonites and the Rebuilding of Community in Grunthal

Nicole O'Byrne talks to Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen about their book, Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land published by ECW Press in October 2023.

Cheated is a gripping story of single-minded politicians, uncompromising Indian Affairs officials, grasping government appointees, and well-connected Liberal speculators, set against a backdrop of politics, power, patronage, and profit. The Laurier government’s settlement of western Canada can never be looked at the same way again.

Bill Waiser is the author of more than a dozen books, including A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan before 1905, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. He is also the recipient of the Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media (the Pierre Berton Award). Bill lives in Saskatoon, SK.

Jennie Hansen has been involved in numerous projects that investigate how nature was understood, appropriated, and administered under British imperialism. She lives in Saskatoon, SK.

Image Credit:  ECW Press

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Heidi MacDonald about her book, We Shall Persist: Women and the Vote in the Atlantic Provinces.

We Shall Persist captures both the long campaign and the years of disappointment. Suffrage victories across Atlantic Canada were steps in an unfinished and contentious march toward gender, race, and class equality.

This insightful book will appeal to readers with an interest in women’s history, as well as to historians, political scientists, and women’s studies scholars and students.

Heidi MacDonald is the author of numerous articles on women’s and gender history in Atlantic Canada. She is co-author, with Rosa Bruno-Jofré and Elizabeth Smyth, of Vatican II and Beyond: The Changing Mission and Identity of Canadian Women Religious. From 1999 to 2018, she taught at the University of Lethbridge and served as the founding director of the Centre of Oral History and Tradition from 2013 to 2017. In 2019, she became dean of arts and professor of history and politics at the University of New Brunswick Saint John.

Image Credit:  UBC Press

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

We Shall Persist: Women and the Vote in the Atlantic Provinces

Larry Ostola talks to Bill Vigars about his book, Terry & Me: Inside the Marathon of Hope.

A twenty-two-year-old cancer survivor and amputee, Terry set out from St. John’s Newfoundland in April 1980, aiming to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. His first months on the road in Atlantic Canada and Quebec were not only physically taxing—he ran the equivalent of a marathon a day—but frustrating as Canadians were slow to recognize and support his endeavor. That all changed when he met a young man named Bill Vigars, who on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society led a campaign to ensure that every person in Canada knew the story of this outstanding young man. Vigars was by Fox’s side through all the highs and lows until the tragic end of his journey in Thunder Bay. A recurrence of his cancer cut short Terry’s dream and, soon, his life. Now, for the first time, Vigars tells the inside story of the Marathon of Hope—the logistical nightmares, boardroom battles, and moments of pure magic—while giving us a fresh, insightful portrait of one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived.

Bill Vigars was the Director of Public Relations and Fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division, and acted as Terry Fox’s public relations organizer, his close friend and confidante. He set up several key events as the Run entered Toronto.

Image Credit:  Sutherland House

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Terry & Me: Inside the Marathon of Hope

Larry Ostola talks to Alister Campbell about his book, The Harris Legacy: Reflections on a Transformational Premier.

Elected for the first of his two terms as premier of Ontario in 1995, Mike Harris introduced some of the most sweeping reforms the province has ever seen: substantial reductions in spending and taxation as well dramatic changes to welfare, education, health care, municipal affairs, labour relations, energy, the environment, and much more. He altered the way elections were fought, how the provincial government is held accountable, how it works with its counterpart in Ottawa, and on his retirement in 2002 said his only regret was “I wish I had done more… faster.” Three decades after the launch of his famous Common Sense Revolution, Mike Harris and his policies still galvanize emotions on all sides of the political spectrum. In this comprehensive and highly readable examination of The Harris Legacy, an all-star collection of political experts reviews what worked, what didn’t, and what’s still up for debate.

Alister Campbell has served as CEO of several Canadian insurance companies. He was the “Message Guy” in the 1995 Mike Harris campaign, responsible for policy, speech, communications, advertising, and media.

Image Credit:  Sutherland House

If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

The Harris Legacy: Reflections on a Transformational Premier

Marc Audet is a folk music singer/songwriter specializing in historical songwriting. Hailing from Deep River, Ontario, he has been performing throughout the Ottawa Valley since 2014, accumulating over 450 shows. The history and heritage of the Ottawa Valley is a focus of Marc’s songwriting, reflecting his keen interest in history. 
In 2019, Marc released his debut album “The River”, a studio album with a full band backing him. In 2020, Marc developed a unique show involving storytelling and songs about the Ottawa Valley, “Forgotten Memories of the Ottawa Valley”, earning him a Certificate of Congratulations from MPP John Yakabuski. In 2021, this folk show was recorded and it is available to audiences interested in historical songwriting. Starting in late 2021, Marc launched a “Winter Folk Show” (a variety folk show) at venues throughout the Ottawa Valley and Eastern Ontario, sharing his music and stories with cultural content. In 2022, Marc brought together other musicians to form the folk music group North Renfrew, available for folk music festivals. In 2023, songs from The River were remixed and released in a new album (EP), Open Water. Recording new songs is a focus for Marc, with a second studio album in development released in January 2024.  Musically, Marc has something to say.

Visit www.marcaudetmusic.com

The official podcasts of the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre: Museum Chat Live! and One Hour in the Past. Find footnotes to podcast episodes at stcatharinesmuseumblog.com. Find us online at facebook.com/stcatharinesmuseum, Twitter and Instagram: @stcmuseum, and at stcatharinesmuseumblog.com.

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its relevance to today. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. To learn more about the Society and Canada’s history, subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/news_WTY.

New tracks tagged #Canadian history