Former National Archives building, Ottawa

By Sean Kheraj

The conversation has been ongoing among Canadian historians for the past few years, especially since the federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, altered the contents of the official citizenship guide for new Canadians to place greater emphasis on military history and the monarchy while ignoring or downplaying the country’s history of progressive social policy, multiculturalism, and social justice movements. Many Canadian historians have been concerned that the Conservative Party of Canada is attempting to reinvent the narrative of the country’s past for its own political purposes. [click to continue…]

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What’s Wrong With Celebrating the War of 1812?

May 16, 2012
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This is the third in a weekly series of posts leading up to the mini-conference The War of 1812: Whose War was it Anyway? being held at the University of Waterloo on May 30th. By Ian McKay and Jamie Swift Warmonger politicians customarily indulge in high rhetoric, attempting to rally the citizenry round the flag [...]

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McGill’s Conclusions on its Ties to the Asbestos Industry: A Historian’s Response

May 14, 2012

By Jessica Van Horssen So the winter semester is over, and for those of us at Quebec universities, what a semester it’s been! Specifically, McGill University has had its share of drama this year, with strikes, occupations, computer hacking, and demonstrations against the Quebec government’s plans for tuition hikes. With all of these things going [...]

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Who Is A Founder? A Look at the Origins of the Canadian Environmental Movement

May 10, 2012

By Ryan O’Connor One of the challenges I confronted while researching my dissertation was figuring out who the founders were of Toronto’s pioneering environmentalist organizations. This might sound like a simple task, but records of this sort are often difficult to find. Sometimes the records that exist present a one-sided story. In Front Row Centre: [...]

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Upper Canadian War Resisters in the War of 1812

May 9, 2012
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This is the second in a weekly series of posts leading up to the mini-conference The War of 1812: Whose War was it Anyway? being held at the University of Waterloo on May 30th. By Jonathan Seiling It is widely recognized that many Upper Canadians did not demonstrate utmost loyalty toward the British Crown on the [...]

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Approaching the Past: Historical Landscapes and Hauntings

May 8, 2012

Wednesday May 9th, 5pm meeting time, 5:30 start time “Historical Landscapes and Hauntings: Connecting place to the history and social studies curriculum” Meet at the outside C5 entrance of the ROM (the ROM’s “crystal” overhang) A spring walk around the University of Toronto campus Talks by Helen Mills from Lost Rivers, Richard Fiennes-Clinton from Muddy [...]

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Mad Men and Wonder Years: history, nostalgia, and life in The Sixties

May 7, 2012

By Jay Young Like many people, I anticipated the return of Mad Men (AMC, Sundays, 10 pm EST), one of television’s most acclaimed series of the past decade.  Now in its fifth season, the show looks at the life of Don Draper and other workers in the New York advertising industry during the 1960s. At [...]

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CFP Reminder – “Knowing your Public(s)—The Significance of Audiences in Public History” (Proposals due 15 July)

May 5, 2012

“Knowing your Public(s)—The Significance of Audiences in Public History” 2013 Annual Meeting, National Council on Public History Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, April 17-20, 2013 In 2013 the National Council on Public History will meet at the Delta Ottawa City Centre, in the heart of downtown Ottawa, Canada, with Canada’s Parliament buildings, historic ByWard market, national museums [...]

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Tecumseh Lies Here

May 2, 2012
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Tecumseh Lies Here is an augmented reality game developed by faculty and students at the University of Western Ontario.

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Celebrating Three Years

May 1, 2012

By Jim Clifford Three  years ago, in the lead up to the Canadian Historical Association meeting, Christine McLaughlin, Ian Milligan, Thomas Peace, Jay Young and I founded ActiveHistory.ca.  At the time we were all graduate students in the history department at York University. The website emerged out of the Active History symposium held in September [...]

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