Active History

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: Deindustrialization and Structural Deficiency in Sydney, Nova Scotia

October 10, 2013 No Comments

By Lachlan MacKinnon

Two weeks ago, David Zylberberg wrote on ActiveHistory of the political responses to deindustrialization in Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. In expressing the relatively divergent implementation of industrial policy in these areas, he concludes that these examples “should serve as a warning against [policies of austerity] in Europe and beyond.” Today, with a new Liberal government in Nova Scotia under Stephen McNeil, I’m prompted to write about the experiences of deindustrialization, the impact of federal and provincial policies, and some concerns for the future in my own hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Sydney industrialized at the turn of the 20th century. Wealthy Boston industrialist H.M. Whitney launched the Dominion Iron and Steel Company (Disco) in 1899 and began construction of a steel mill at Sydney. The city grew alongside the plant; between 1901 and 1941 the population grew from 2,427 to 28,305 people. The plant changed hands several times before 1950, and by the mid-century it was falling behind Canadian and international competitors. The reasons for these developments are complex; historian David Frank argues that the early 20th century history of industry in Sydney is indicative of broader themes of regional underdevelopment in the Maritimes. Namely, Frank describes the national economic policies after Confederation, central Canadian political hegemony, and the neglect of secondary manufacturing in the Maritimes as primary factors of regional underdevelopment. [1] Continue reading →

History Slam Episode Thirty: The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

October 9, 2013 No Comments

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By Sean Graham

History Slam host Sean Graham with ‘Larry Walker’ at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Mary’s, ON.

The baseball playoffs started last week, which means that it’s the time of year where stuff like this happens. Of all the professional sports, baseball has the most voluminous historiography. From questions about the game’s origins to debates over who was the best player, baseball’s history has been embraced in a way that is unique from other sports. It has been argued that the sport’s emphasis on its statistics lends itself to historical discussions – that PEDs are such a major issue in baseball when compared to the other sports is certainty evidence of how important stats are in baseball – but there’s also that Field of Dreams-esque romance that leads to a nostalgic yearning for the game’s past.

In this episode of the History Slam I talk with Scott Crawford, Director of Operations for the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. We chat about the Hall of Fame’s holdings and archival collections, its exhibits, and the induction process. We also have a lively discussion over who is the best Canadian player of all time and I reveal my plan for baseball’s return to Montreal. If you’re in or around St. Mary’s, Ontario, be sure to visit the Hall of Fame – it is well worth the trip!
Continue reading →

Understanding the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report from the Perspective of a Climate Historian

October 8, 2013 1 Comment

By Dagomar Degroot

(this post originally appeared on Degroot’s personal website)

Established in 1988 by the UN and the World Meteorological Organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body that periodically summarizes the scholarly understanding of the world’s climate. In 2007, the panel’s fourth assessment report outlined in stark terms the likelihood of anthropogenic global warming. Since then, severe storms and drought have ravaged North America, Australia and Africa, yet unusually wet, cold conditions have accompanied some European winters. Through it all carbon emissions have continued to rise, now driven largely by developing nations. Late last month, the IPCC’s highly anticipated summary for policymakers was finally released, in lieu of its fifth assessment report that will be published later this year. In this article, I explore this landmark report and the responses it has inspired from the perspective of a climate historian. Continue reading →

Still Insufficient: Child Care in Canada

October 7, 2013 2 Comments

A mother drops off her two children at a day nursery in the 1940s. Library and Archives Canada, MIKAN 3196950.

By Alison Norman and Lisa Pasolli

How much does it cost to raise a child? Should the costs of child care be considered a standard expense for Canadian families? Those questions are on a lot of minds lately, thanks to a storm of controversy around the Fraser Institute’s report The Cost of Raising Children. The report’s author, economics professor Christopher Sarlo, suggests that raising a child costs only $3,000 to $4,500 per year. Parents, policy analysts, and, and labour unions — to name a few — beg to differ. These critics highlight Sarlo’s crucial omission: child care expenses. Sarlo considers this a “discretionary” expense, not one that figures into basic minimums for most families. But families who need child care are hardly an exception; 77% of Canadian mothers with children under 5 are in the labour force. Furthermore, the report obscures the fact that quality, affordable child care spaces are so hard to come by that many parents end up relying on unregulated and sometimes unsafe care.

While it may be tempting to dismiss Sarlo’s calculations and his professed anti-social welfare slant, it’s also worth noting that the report is part of a growing public conversation about child care. British Columbia’s May election highlighted the growing momentum around a $10-a-day plan for universal care, in a province where monthly day care costs can reach $1400. An attention-grabbling New Republic article brought to light “The Hell of American Day Care”, sparking Canadian comparisons. Ontario continues to work out the kinks in its implementation of full-day kindergarten.

This is also a problem that likely strikes close to home for those of us in academia. The lack of day care services was a serious concern at the 2013 Congress in Victoria. Beyond the conference circuit, though, balancing work and family responsibilities is particularly challenging for early career academics. In 2008 Alison Norman conducted a survey of graduate student members of the Canadian Historical Association, and found that the majority of respondents were putting off having children until they finished their degrees — with the expectation that they would find jobs that would provide parental leave benefits and a salary that could cover the costs of child care. The realities of an uncertain and tenuous job market, though, has meant that many academic parents, mothers especially, have scrambled to find enough work to qualify for EI and to be able to afford day care.

Of course, none of this recent attention to child care is new. Calls for reform have been on the national agenda since at least 1970, when the Royal Commission on the Status of Women insisted on the need for a national day care program. Continue reading →

Tonight on TVO: A Desert Between Us & Them: Raiders, Traitors, and Refugees in the War of 1812

October 5, 2013 1 Comment

A story that has been two hundred years in the making will have its broadcast debut tonight at 9:00 P.M. on TVO. Narrated by R.H. Thomson, A Desert Between Us & Them: Raiders, Traitors, and Refugees in the War of 1812 is a 120 minute cinematic documentary that explores those stories that make the War of 1812 a “modern war” by stepping back in time to experience the conflict through the eyes of the people of Southwestern Ontario, who spent several years living in a War Zone.

For much of the war, the area know today as Southwestern Ontario was a no-mans land, controlled sometimes by the British, sometimes by the Americans, and sometimes by nobody in particular. There were insurgents and bands of vigilante groups loyal to both sides. There were refugee camps and rampant plundering and theft. The vast majority of the population were recent immigrants from the United States, who had to decide if they were going to fight for the British, “turncoat” and fight for the Americans, or do what most people did and simply try to stay out of the conflict by whatever means possible.

Today, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of the Thames, is a fitting date for the broadcast. One of the featured topics explored in the film is the fate of the Moravian Delaware from Fairfield (now the Moraviantown Delaware First Nation) whose dramatic experiences leading up to and following the Battle of the Thames are brought to life in vivid detail thanks to diaries kept by the Moravian Missionaries.

Director Zach Melnick notes that the stories in the film come from throughout Southwestern Ontario – running the gamut from Windsor to Burlington. “When we began our research, we knew that we wanted to cut through the veneer of romanticism that often surrounds the War of 1812,” says Melnick. “Our film imagines what it would’ve been like for you or I during the War of 1812, which was a truly brutal conflict for residents and soldiers in Upper Canada. But it’s worth remembering so that we can gain a greater understanding of our own history, as well as perhaps to better empathize with people today who are living in War Zones all over the world. In many ways, not much has changed in the last 200 years.” Continue reading →

The Royal Proclamation and Colonial Hocus-Pocus: a learned treatise

October 4, 2013 2 Comments

By Victoria Freeman

We do further declare it to be our Royal Will and Pleasure, for the present, as aforesaid, to reserve under Our Sovereignty, Protection and Domain, for the use of said Indians, all lands and territories not within the limits of …etc., etc..

DON’T GET ME STARTED

Someone should write a PhD thesis on the number of Indigenous lifetimes wasted on litigation because of these words. Someone should quantify exactly how much money lawyers (and historians) have made from them since 1763, or perhaps real estate developers, past and present. Someone else should write a dissertation on Stephen Harper and the concept of “protection.” I could go on…

I tried to write something balanced and thoughtful about the Royal Proclamation for this collection of essays. But the truth is that it just makes me mad. It is embarrassing, but my contribution to this discussion of the historical legacy of the Royal Proclamation is a rant. Oh dear, there goes my career… Continue reading →

The Spirit of 1763: The Royal Proclamation in National and Global Perspective

October 3, 2013 No Comments

By Ken Coates

It is an auspicious moment for Canadians to revisit one of the founding documents in Canada’s legal and political history. After a century of near neglect from politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers, the last forty-to-fifty years have seen this document brought to new life and vigor. The renewal of interest in the Proclamation, however, was not solely a domestic event. The Royal Proclamation re-emerged in First Nations and Canadian legal cultures at a time when Indigenous Rights became increasingly important around the globe. Though not anchored in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 per se, countries around the world grappled with similar histories of promises and neglect. As we look forward, beyond this 250^th anniversary, it seems prudent to situate this document in the broader context, asking the question: “What does the Royal Proclamation mean for Canadians today?” Continue reading →

The life and times of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in British Columbia

October 3, 2013 No Comments

By Neil Vallance and Hamar Foster

[The Royal Proclamation’s] force as a statute is analogous to the status of Magna Carta which has always been considered to be the law throughout the Empire. It was a law which followed the flag as England assumed jurisdiction over newly-discovered or acquired lands or territories. It follows, therefore, that the Colonial Laws Validity Act applied to make the Proclamation the law of British Columbia. (Per Hall, J. S.C.C., in R. v. Calder, 1973)

The above extract from the dissenting decision of Justice Emmett Hall in R. v. Calder represents the high point of a long struggle by First Nations for recognition of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 (the “Proclamation”) as part of “the law of British Columbia.” For over one hundred years the Proclamation has played an important, though hotly contested, role in what was known until recently as the “British Columbia Indian Land Question.” Continue reading →

Much ado about nothing: The Royal Proclamation on the edge of empire

October 3, 2013 No Comments

By Robert Englebert

On October 7, 1763, only months after signing the Treaty of Paris and ending the Seven Years’ War, Britain sought to confirm sovereignty over its newly acquired territories in North America through a Royal Proclamation. ‘The Royal Proclamation’ – as it is now known – was a document designed to address the challenges born of conquest. The exigencies of an expanded empire necessitated imperial directives to bring new peoples and lands into the British imperial fold. In short, the Royal Proclamation prescribed a series of changes that attempted to redefine North America. Continue reading →

“the said Lands…shall be purchased only for Us”: The Effect of the Royal Proclamation on Government

October 2, 2013 No Comments

By Brandon Morris and Jay Cassel

The Royal Proclamation is not an ancient document but it has remained in effect for 250 years, even if it is not well known by Canadians. It became the framework for treaty-making in relation to land rights in the decades after 1763 and as such it is a core document in Crown-First Nations relations. The principles that it established underlie a large part of the work of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs (MAA). Simply put, there would not be any territorial treaties, land claims, or Ministries of Aboriginal Affairs without the Royal Proclamation. Continue reading →

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