Changing the Wheat Board, Part I: The First Time the Conservative Party Eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board

      No Comments on Changing the Wheat Board, Part I: The First Time the Conservative Party Eliminated the Canadian Wheat Board

By Sean Kheraj

Reposted from the Otter.

Last November, ahead of the House of Commons vote on the elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board purchasing monopsony, the federal Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, and his provincial cohorts from Alberta and Saskatchewan held a press conference to celebrate the achievement of the federal Conservative Party’s long-held policy objective. Alberta Agriculture Minister, Evan Berger proudly declared that “I believe we are giving back a property right, a freedom of choice, to farmers who make large investments, who have the wherewithal to sell their grain to whomever, whenever, at what price they see fit.” Continue reading →

Changing the Wheat Board, Part II: Understanding the Impending Transformation of the Canadian Wheat Board

      1 Comment on Changing the Wheat Board, Part II: Understanding the Impending Transformation of the Canadian Wheat Board

By Shannon Stunden Bower.

Reposted from the Otter.

The current iteration of the Canadian Wheat Board was established in 1935, during a period of regional emergency. Prairie farmers struggled amidst the difficult circumstances created by the twin crises of widespread agricultural drought and the Great Depression. The authority of the Wheat Board was expanded during World War II. In 1965, the Board’s governing legislation was amended to remove any time limit, establishing the Wheat Board as a permanent fixture on the Canadian Prairies. Continue reading →

Changing the Canadian Wheat Board, Part III: The End of the Wheat Board: What next?

      1 Comment on Changing the Canadian Wheat Board, Part III: The End of the Wheat Board: What next?

By Merle Massie

Reposted from the Otter.
Wheat. The Golden Crop of the west, what was once the backbone of prairie farms, is facing a new/old future. Perhaps the low-carb diets and labeling of wheat as a potential allergen in food products (bread: may contain wheat!) is tearing into wheat’s popularity and profitability? Not really. World population is growing exponentially, and wheat still packs a commercial punch – it is highly portable, easy to store, and full of potential food energy. Continue reading →

Living History at New York’s Tenement Museum

      2 Comments on Living History at New York’s Tenement Museum

By Jay Young

I recently spent an extended weekend in New York City.  Along with the well-known sights, sounds and tastes of the Big Apple, I was excited to visit the Tenement Museum, a restored five-storey building at 97 Orchard Street that educates visitors about life in the Lower East Side during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  The non-profit museum, which also features an exhibit space, connects people to the history of the building through the vibrant stories of immigrants who made the tenement home. Continue reading →

Keeping the Peace or Keeping a Myth?

      1 Comment on Keeping the Peace or Keeping a Myth?

By Dan Macfarlane

National Peacekeeping Monument in Ottawa

The federal government’s recent initiatives in foreign policy and glorification of Canada’s military past (particularly in light of the bicentennial of the War of 1812) have given rise to plenty of complaints, including suggestions that the country needs to return to its peacekeeping roots. While I agree with many of the criticisms, I am not so sure that the Conservatives are really taking the country in vastly new international and security policy directions.

Unfortunately, Canada does have definite elements of a militaristic and imperialist past. It therefore does a disservice, even if the aims are admirable, to contend that we need to return to our peacekeeping and altruistic glory days. To illustrate, I’m not even going to get into the many conflicts involving Canada prior to 1945, but will engage just Canada’s peacekeeping legacy. This comes out of the so-called “golden age” of Canadian external affairs, the decade or so following the last years of the Second World War. A cottage industry of shibboleths has arisen about this period, and some historians have argued that there is a peacekeeping myth (with Sean Maloney as one of the most prominent).

Continue reading →

Thoughts on the Drummond Report

      2 Comments on Thoughts on the Drummond Report

By David Zylberberg, PhD Candidate, Department of History, York University

Last week the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, chaired by Don Drummond, released its much anticipated report. Despite the numerous useful suggestions and rethinking of health-care delivery, this report feels like a missed opportunity. Commissions to fundamentally rethink what services governments provide and how they are delivered do not happen every decade. As such, they are unique opportunities to redesign administrative structures and improve services.

The most famous such commission was the Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, commissioned by the British government in 1941 and chaired by William Beveridge. The Beveridge Report was released in December 1942 advocating a comprehensive system of social insurance to protect Britons from want, “disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness” (6).  Its proposals included a national program of Social Insurance to help poor people, a National Health Care System, Old Age Pensions and benefits for disabled people.

This was done in trying circumstances as the report was commissioned a year after Britain had been nearly invaded and while it continued to be at war against a much larger power with only its former colonies as allies. The Committee deliberated while German tanks advanced through the Soviet Union and its final report was presented during the Battle of Stalingrad, a point when the defeat of its main ally seemed likely and its own invasion possible.

The Beveridge Report’s proposals were implemented between 1945 and 1950, a point in which the British government’s fiscal situation was much worse than Ontario’s currently is. The government owed a massive debt to the United States that was incurred to fund the war, required exports to be one-third larger than imports to meet its debt payments and had converted most of its consumer manufacturing to military needs during the war. Given what the Beveridge Report proposed and Atlee government did, Drummond could have proposed more. Continue reading →

Outreach and Collections. Encouraging Community Members to Play a Role in Saving History

      No Comments on Outreach and Collections. Encouraging Community Members to Play a Role in Saving History

Unidentified “orphaned” class photo from the author’s collection

By Melissa Mannon

History by its very nature is a collaborative field. Those working in the field aim to tell the stories of communities. We aim to shed light on diverse groups; to find similarities among us; to tell stories that shed light on the constant evolution of civilization. To properly accomplish the work of history, professionals need to actively reach out to members of our communities so that we develop relationships that invite understanding. Those of us who work to maintain the “stuff” of history – the documents, artifacts, and books – need to explain the value of family items to communities and to encourage unofficial family archivists to value history through a personal lens. We do this through effective “outreach.”

The word “outreach” is an umbrella term used to discuss the work library, archives and museum professionals do to encourage community engagement. Outreach can take the forms of programming and exhibits. Or, when people say “outreach” they may mean going outside of their institution to attend a community event in order to get the word out about their work. Outreach can also mean adopting a social media strategy that encourages the public to talk about collections and cultural heritage.

Continue reading →

Active History on the Grand: Historic Gardens

      2 Comments on Active History on the Grand: Historic Gardens

By Karen Dearlove

Restored tall grass prairie at Chiefswood National Historic Site

Historic house museums and other restored living history sites provide visitors with firsthand experiences of what life was like during different periods of the past.  These types of sites generally involve restored historic buildings filled with period furniture and furnishings, as well as costumed interpreters.  Many of these sites now include historic gardens and other historic landscape re-creations as part of the visitor experience.  Like historic houses and artifacts, historic gardens offer a glimpse into the past. Continue reading →

In Dubious Battle: Inequity in Canada’s Migrant Work

      No Comments on In Dubious Battle: Inequity in Canada’s Migrant Work
By Ryan Kelly
It was with a heavy heart that I read about the recent deaths of eleven workers in Hampstead, Ontario. This tragedy brought to the forefront of my mind a crisis I’ve let stir in its recesses far too often. How do we become complacent in affording migrant workers a different standard of employment than that which is provided to local workers? Specifically, why can employers of migrant workers neglect health and safety legislation, and labour practices, with the lightest of consequences?

Employers caught abusing the legislated protections of migrant workers can most severely be banned from accessing migrant labour for a year. Of the four employers charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act last year for the workplace deaths of two migrant workers, one was convicted and charged $22,500. Without sounding too insensitive to these employers, these penalties are nothing less than a license to enjoy the pleasures of property and profit over the well-being of people. Service Canada suggests we have migrant worker programs to match seasonal workers with farmers who need temporary support… when qualified Canadians or permanent residents are not available. Is this really the cooperative structure we’re led to believe it is? Why would an employer opt to hire a worker from Central America and the Caribbean instead of an un(der) employed local person? What are the defining differences between local and migrant workers? Is there a culturally-instilled work ethic, a skill set, or a physical advantage to one over another? Concerns raised by migrant workers include working for 12 to 15 hours without overtime or holiday pay, denial of necessary breaks, and use of dangerous chemicals/pesticides with no safety equipment, protection or training. Furthermore, migrant workers contribute to EI, a fund they struggle to access, and are responsible for paying a portion of their air fare. Migrant workers face many barriers in challenging health and safety violations, most especially as employers have the power to initiate deportation proceedings. This a system that prevents farm workers to unionize and collectively bargain in Canada. Continue reading →

Hark! An Agent of Historical Change (and Jokes)

      1 Comment on Hark! An Agent of Historical Change (and Jokes)

by Ian Mosby

Historians are not usually known as being a very funny group of people. I can’t remember laughing out loud even once during the dozen or so hours it took me to read E.P. Thomson’s Making of the English Working Class and my own attempts at humour in lectures typically lead to more glazed eyes and groans than actual laughs.

To a certain extent, this makes sense. Most of us study some pretty serious stuff and the last thing we want to do is seem like we’re making fun of our historical subjects or being condescending towards the past. And, while academic life is often absurd, it’s usually unintentionally so and, in the current job market, often leans towards the tragic rather than the comic end of the literary spectrum.

This is what makes the work of Canadian comic book artist Kate Beaton’s work so amazing. In Beaton’s skillful hands, even Canadian history is funny. (I know!?!)  Take our Prime Ministers, for instance. Continue reading →