On the 19th of September, 2015 it will be 60 years since the last streetcar made it’s final run through Winnipeg’s well known Portage and Main. Even our oldest daughter in her mid fifties never had a chance to see a Winnipeg streetcar operating, and naturally her children and grandchildren haven’t either. What an experience they have missed! I operated the streetcars for the final 17 months of existence here, April 1954 to September 1955. I was the third youngest streetcar operator at that ti...

Unsettling Canada, a Canadian bestseller, is built on a unique collaboration between two First Nations leaders, Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson.Both men have served as chiefs of their bands in the B.C. interior and both have gone on to establish important national and international reputations. But the differences between them are in many ways even more interesting. Arthur Manuel is one of the most forceful advocates for Aboriginal title and rights in Canada a...

With prospectors, trappers, and whalers pouring into northwestern Canada, the North West Mounted Police were dispatched to the newest frontier to maintain patrols, protect indigenous peoples, and enforce laws in the North. In carrying out their duties, these intrepid men endured rigorous and dangerous conditions.On December 21, 1910, a four-man patrol left Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, heading for Dawson City, Yukon, a distance of 670 kilometres. They never arrived. The ha...

Mary Janeway is the story of a little girl's childhood while living on a farm as a domestic servant in the late 1800s. Based on extensive historical research, Mary's story begins in Scotland where family circumstances lead to her being sent to Canada as a home child. Separated from her siblings, Mary, at age eight, is sent to a farm near Innerkip, Ontario, where the Jacques family "needed a girl." Her story brings into focus the intimate details of hardship and deprivation experienced by t...

In the mid-nineteenth century, the new science of weather forecasting was fraught with controversy on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, a bitter dispute about the nature of storms had raged for decades, and forecasting was hampered by turf wars then halted by the Civil War. Forecasters in England struggled with the scientific establishment for recognition and vied with astrologers and other charlatans for public acceptance.One of the voices in this struggle was Step...

In the early morning of August 19, 1942, over five thousand Canadian troops landed on the beach at Dieppe to reclaim the shore from German troops occupying France. It was a mission doomed from the start. Mere hours later, over two-thirds of the men were dead, wounded, or taken prisoner by German forces. It was the worst disaster in Canadian military history, and historians have found no convincing explanation for why the operation was mounted in the first place.Through first-hand a...

Quill & Quire cited Unbuilt Toronto as a book filled with "well-researched, often gripping tales of grand plans," while Canadian Architect said that it is "an impressively researched exploration of never-realized architectural and master-planning projects intended for the city." Now Unbuilt Toronto 2 provides an all-new, fascinating return to the "Toronto that might have been."Discover the scrapyard statue planned for University Avenue, the flapp...

Every Newfoundlander and Labradorian knows that Joey Smallwood was “the Father of the Baby Bonus.” He told us so in his own inimitable style—many, many, many, many times. But is that really how Newfoundland’s mothers got their cheques? Or is it another Imperfect Moment from our past—one where the story is simply wrong or incomplete? Did Adolf Hitler ever fight the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the First World War? Why did William Coaker, champion of Newfoundland’s fishermen, throw an ...

Cold Case Vancouver delves into fifty years of some of Vancouver's most baffling unsolved murders. In 1953, two little boys were found murdered in the city's storied Stanley Park, and who remain unidentified to this day. In 1975, a country singer was murdered just as she was on the verge of an amazing career. And in 1994, Nick Masee, a retired banker with connections to the renegade Vancouver Stock Exchange, disappeared along with his wife Lisa, their bodies never found. Cold ...

"Beggars cannot be choosers. We wanted just companies, we gave a damn who they were, we had no prejudice against them. We went to Germany because Europe was scared of Soviet Russia and saw a communist revolution coming. The German industrialists were particularly scared. In 1950 I was the first public visitor who came to Germany from any country. The leaders of the German companies all spoke excellent English. I was impressed. I took every opportunity to speak to them and tell them that th...

In 1968, there was political ferment everywhere. In Paris, students were in the streets. In the U.S., civil rights, the Vietnam War, and protests against the draft brought out millions. In this atmosphere, a young Jewish-American professor in the quiet town of Fredericton, New Brunswick sparked a controversy that established the principles of academic freedom on Canadian campuses.Norman Strax was an unlikely figure in a conservative town with a sleepy university campus. He didn't d...

For decades Canada Steamship Lines proclaimed itself as the world's largest transportation company operating on inland waters. Its passenger and freight vessels could be found on the Great Lakes as far west as Duluth, Minnesota, and as far east as the Lower St. Lawrence River.The passenger steamers were known collectively as the Great White Fleet. These ships — from day-excursion vessels to well-appointed cruise ships — had rich histories. The sheer scope of these passenger service...