Category Archives: Canadian history

Tone Up, Tone Out, Tone Deaf: Author attitude and writing history

By Merle Massie I’m working on a new manuscript set during the Great Depression in Canada. The exploratory process of writing (for me, the weft) is threaded through the warp of reading – be that primary documents, oral history, my family history, or secondary sources. Sometimes I’ll catch myself. My writing style can change in response to whatever I’m reading…. Read more »

Lessons from the past: “So What is Government for Anyway?”

By Greg Kennedy I have recently made a habit of asking this question at opportune moments in classes and public lectures.  Hilarious bewilderment usually ensues.  Younger people shrug, while older people often get angry because of corrupt senators. I am increasingly convinced that this has become an esoteric question in our modern society.  Political scientists for example, would probably answer… Read more »

Into the Secret Archive: An Interview with the Authors of Secret Service

By Daniel Ross Discussed in this post: Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey and Andrew Parnaby, Secret Service: Political Policing in Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America (University of Toronto Press, 2012). Beginning before Confederation—but especially since the mid-twentieth century—political policing has been something of a growth industry in Canada. As a landmark new book on the subject makes clear, over… Read more »

Ten Books to Contextualize Idle No More

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ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on January 4 2013. By Andrew Watson and Thomas… Read more »

The Raccoons

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ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on August 30 2012. By Daniel Macfarlane The Raccoons… Read more »

The Need for Speedy History in the Post-War Canadian North

ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers!  The following post was originally featured on April 29 2013. By Ken Coates and Bill… Read more »

Municipal Conflicts of Interest in Canada, Old and New

ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on December 4 2012. By Daniel Ross He was… Read more »

Speak, Recipe: Reading Cookbooks as Life Stories

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ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers!  The following post was originally featured on August 23 2012. It was also published in… Read more »

A building by any other name: The politics of renaming and commemoration

ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers!  The following post was originally featured on April 2 2013. By Kaitlin Wainwright Recently, I… Read more »

Carnivorous Walrus as Country Food

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ActiveHistory.ca is on a two-week hiatus, but we’ll be back with new content in early September. During the hiatus, we’re featuring some of our favourite and most popular blog posts from this site over the past year. Thanks as always to our writers and readers! The following post was originally featured on April 30 2013. By Liza Piper In November… Read more »