Category Archives: Canadian history

The Drake “Smoke Screen” Phenomenon: A Podcast Discussion with Dalton Higgins on Drake and Canadian Hip Hop History

On December 8, 2012, Accents on Eglinton, a community bookstore that specializes in publications on Africa and its diasporas, along with host Francesca D’Amico (PhD candidate in music history at York University), hosted an evening with Dalton Higgins, award-winning journalist, radio and TV broadcaster, to discuss his latest book Far From Over: The Music and Life of Drake (ECW Press)…. Read more »

Trunks & Trains: Summers at Winnipeg Beach

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By Ruthann LaBlance Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900–1967 Dale Barbour University of Manitoba Press Paperback, 264 pages, $24.95 Dale Barbour’s Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900–1967 chronicles the rise and fall of a Manitoba resort community. Not only does Barbour craft a history of Winnipeg Beach, he explores how ideas of… Read more »

2013: It’s time to commemorate the 1763 Royal Proclamation

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair made a good suggestion last week.  After the Prime Minister publicly outlined the marching orders for his ministers – which did not address recent tensions with First Nations but did emphasize the allocation of funds and resources towards a handful of historical celebrations – Mulcair took him to task. Picking up perhaps on the contradiction of… Read more »

History on Steroids: How a Local Community is Using New Media to Explore its Past

By Glenn McKnight The Foundation for Building Sustainable Communities (FBSC) has launched its own War of 1812 commemoration project in Oshawa, sponsored in part by the Government of Canada with a combination of tried and true presentations and displays along with some added “muscle enhancers.” FBSC is known for its Oshawa Remembers audio recordings of World War Two and Korean… Read more »

The Maritime Treaty Context of #IdleNoMore

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https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/John-Reid-January-17-2013.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadOn January 17th the students and faculty at Acadia University invited historian John G. Reid to provide historical context to the #IdleNoMore movement.  This hour long lecture builds on Reid’s forty-year career as a historian of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century northeastern North America and expert witness in a number of court cases involving Treaty and… Read more »

A Web of History: How Digital and Social Media is Changing Heritage Awareness in Toronto

By Jay Young A common cliché of our time is to observe that the internet has made us more connected than ever.  Although historians might question the accuracy of this statement, the web, social media, and smart phone apps have allowed new opportunities for engagement with historical artifacts, stories, and landmarks. One only has to look at Canada’s largest city. … Read more »

Graphics in the Archive: History and Comics Unite!

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By Krista McCracken I have a love for most things history related and I thoroughly enjoy all kinds of comics.  So when these two interests collide I take note. There are a number of great contemporary history themed comics such as Machiavelli and Hark! A Vagrant (check out Ian Mosby’s great post about this webcomic).  The idea of using comics… Read more »

Photographing History and a Desire to See the Past in the Present

By Kaitlin Wainwright At December’s public consultations on the new Museum of Canadian History, Sean Kheraj, an assistant professor of history at York University, made a comment that stuck with me: by commemorating moments in history we actually learn as much about our present as our past. In trying to see the past through a contemporary lens, we blur history… Read more »

Gun Control: Filling-in the Missing History in Canada

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By Paul W. Bennett A Review of Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada R. Blake Brown The Osgoode Society/ University of Toronto Press Hard Cover, 349 pages, $70.00 Guns in and around children in schools are frightening.  That is why gun culture and firearms control totally dominated the news media in the wake of the horrific… Read more »

Elites, Social Networks, and the Historical Profession

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By Mark Sholdice My research examines the role played by small groups of people working towards common ends.  In other words, I am fascinated by elites.  Having spent almost ten years of my life in several universities, I am also intrigued by the role of elites in academia. In early December I came across a study which reported that a… Read more »