Owen Deis and Andrew Kelly Graphic created by the authors. Statue photo from Getty Images. Throughout their undergraduate studies, history students are often told two things: that their degree is invaluable and that it will likely lead to unemployment. As a result, prospective and new history students are often unsure what the degree can do for them. As recent graduates… Read more »
By Maren Savarese Knopf This post was originally published by NiCHE in collaboration with the Indian Act 150 series. “Sir, We are looking anxiously for your report as to Indian titles both within Manitoba and without; and as to the best means of extinguishing [terminating] the Indian titles in the valley of Saskatchewan…We should take immediate steps to extinguish the… Read more »
By Theodore Aretakis In the recent 2026 Québec elections, one topic once again captured the electorate’s attention: immigration. The Parti Québecois (PQ), which formed a minority government, presented twelve points on immigration during their campaign, notably setting permanent targets to roughly 35,000/year—a stark drop from last year’s figure of 60,000. PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon describes this initiative as important… Read more »
As the teaching of history in Canadian universities seeks to incorporate decolonization, anti-racism, and truth-telling, the work of how to realize these commitments in practice remains emergent. As a Nuu-chah-nulth and a White settler co-teaching team, we delivered a 12-week undergraduate history course at the University of Victoria (UVic) that focused on these commitments. In so doing, we treated relationship and responsibility as essential parts of the work of teaching history at a Canadian university.
This post is an introduction to the series Tomorrow’s Historians: A Reflection on the Graduate Student Experience By Katie Carson and Tiffany Chénier In a pervasive climate of anti-intellectualism and cuts to humanities programs, the decision to pursue a degree in history is an existential one. It is not uncommon for prospective students applying to PhD programs to receive “The Talk.” It… Read more »
By Sarah Kittilsen As a tour guide, I answer a lot of questions. Some are related to the tour itself, but many are not. Guests ask about my life just as much as, if not more than, they ask about the history of Montreal. I wasn’t surprised, then, when a woman turned toward me one summer morning and asked, “So,… Read more »
Shannon Stettner Exterior of Woodside National Historic Site. Photograph by the author, December 2025. Last December I visited Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of Canada’s tenth Prime Minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King (WLMK). It was my first visit to the house since 1998 when I was a public history graduate student at the University of Waterloo. Back then,… Read more »
By Annabelle Penney I did not expect to cry on the way home from the Calgary airport. It had been over a year since my last homecoming, and recently I’d wondered if ‘home’ still fit Alberta. I’d forged newfound allegiances to Quebec, a province embroiled in its own separatist debates. While working on my thesis for some of the flight,… Read more »
By Scott Berthelette On August 27, 2026, President of the United States Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the U.S. federal government to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The order requires the U.S. Board on Geographic Names and federal agencies to use the new name on federal maps, databases, documents, and communications. Immediately after Trump’s executive order, Canadian Prime… Read more »
Cynthia Wright and Franca Iacovetta In November 1926, Emma Goldman, then 57 and beginning a first period of exile in Toronto, enthused over a “radiant” young Italian woman seated at a welcoming dinner for Goldman organized by the city’s Jewish anarchist comrades.[1] Just over six months later, Goldman dubbed Marie Tiboldo “a terrible prude” who did “not feel anything deep… Read more »
