By Jill Campbell-Miller On March 21st, the Canadian government released the 2013 federal budget and in a paragraph did away with the 45-year-old Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The budget announced that CIDA would be amalgamated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to become the newly-renamed Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. The budget justified… Read more »
By Kaitlin Wainwright Recently, I was lamenting the challenges historians face in the form of changing names of various government organizations in Canada: The Canada Food Board, the Health League of Canada, and Board of Broadcast Governors are now the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the CRTC respectively. Researching the past often means paying attention… Read more »
By Kaitlin Wainwright Last Wednesday, Canada lost its “national troubadour”, an “icon”, and “one of [its] most prolific and well-known country and folk singers”; a man who ranked 13th in CBC’s The Greatest Canadian list. Stompin’ Tom Connors is credited with writing three hundred songs, many of which are loudly and proudly Canadian. Upon his death, online tributes poured in… Read more »
https://activehistory.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Tim-Stanley-Edit.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadBy Sean Graham B.C Premier Christy Clark has spent the better part of the last week apologizing for the provincial Liberals’ classified plan to win the “ethnic vote.” While the scheme had clear ethical issues by using provincial staffers for political purposes, what has garnered the most attention is the disingenuous manner in which… Read more »
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 »
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 »
By Tobold Rollo [This post first appeared on Tobold Rollo’s website.] As Chief Theresa Spence continues her hunger strike, her request that Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Governor General meet with Chiefs to discuss treaties has many Canadians wondering what relevance treaties could possibly hold today. Anticipating this uncertainty, I wrote a pamphlet with the Mohawk scholar, Taiaiake Alfred,… Read more »
By Daniel Ross He was a controversial mayor from the start. An unabashed populist, he rallied support during his campaigns by promising to cut taxes and reduce waste at city hall. As a result, he won an impressive share of the popular vote. He never denied having links to the city’s business and development community—he ran a successful business himself—and… Read more »
This past Remembrance Day, historian Ian McKay gave a lecture titled “What’s Wrong With Flanders Fields.” He argues that Remembrance Day in general and the poem in particular have been conscripted as part of what he calls the “right-wing militarization of Canadian society.” McKay delivered the talk to the Queen’s University Institute for Lifelong Learning on November 11, 2012. You… Read more »
By Christine McLaughlin I recently wrote about an ongoing struggle in Oshawa around the city’s waterfront – the federally-appointed Oshawa Port Authority (OPA) has approved an ethanol refinery at the harbour, despite longstanding local opposition. The battle over public opinion has coalesced around two polls conducted on this topic. The first, commissioned by the OPA, shows a majority in support… Read more »
