Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

Larry Ostola talks to Alister Campbell about his book, The Harris Legacy: Reflections on a Transformational Premier. Elected for the first of his two terms as premier of Ontario in 1995, Mike Harris introduced some of the most sweeping reforms the province has ever seen: substantial reductions in spending and taxation as well dramatic changes to welfare, education, health care, municipal affairs,...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Sean Carleton about his book, Lessons in Legitimacy: Colonialism, Capitalism, and the Rise of State Schooling in British Columbia. Lessons in Legitimacy brings the histories of different kinds of state schooling for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples – public schools, Indian Day Schools, and Indian Residential Schools – into one analytical frame. Schooling for Indigenous...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Martin Friedland about his book, Canadian Criminal Law in Ten Cases. Canadian Criminal Law in Ten Cases explores the development of criminal justice in Canada through an in-depth examination of ten significant criminal cases. Martin L. Friedland draws on cases that went to the Supreme Court of Canada or the Privy Council, including well-known cases such as those of Louis Ri...

Larry Ostola talks to Palmiro Campagna about his book, The Avro Arrow: For the Record. The controversial cancellation of the Avro Arrow — an extraordinary achievement of Canadian military aviation — continues to inspire debate today. When the program was scrapped in 1959, all completed aircraft and those awaiting assembly were destroyed, along with tooling and technical information. Was abandoning...

Larry Ostola talks to Bill Vigars about his book, Terry & Me: Inside the Marathon of Hope. A twenty-two-year-old cancer survivor and amputee, Terry set out from St. John’s Newfoundland in April 1980, aiming to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. His first months on the road in Atlantic Canada and Quebec were not only physically taxing—he ran the equivalent of a marathon a day—but...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Heidi MacDonald about her book, We Shall Persist: Women and the Vote in the Atlantic Provinces. We Shall Persist captures both the long campaign and the years of disappointment. Suffrage victories across Atlantic Canada were steps in an unfinished and contentious march toward gender, race, and class equality. This insightful book will appeal to readers with an interest in w...

Larry Ostola talks to Robert Lower about his book, Unsettled: Lord Selkirk’s Scottish Colonists and the Battle for Canada’s West, 1813–1816. The fascinating story of the Red River Settlement, now Winnipeg, in the years 1813 to 1816, told with archival journals, reports, and letters. Unsettled takes you inside the experience, relying on journals, reports, and letters to bring these days of soaring...

Nicole O'Byrne talks to Bill Waiser and Jennie Hansen about their book, Cheated: The Laurier Liberals and the Theft of First Nations Reserve Land published by ECW Press in October 2023. Cheated is a gripping story of single-minded politicians, uncompromising Indian Affairs officials, grasping government appointees, and well-connected Liberal speculators, set against a backdrop of politics, power,...

Greg Marchildon talks to James Urry about his book, On Stony Ground: Russländer Mennonites and the Rebuilding of Community in Grunthal, published by UTP in February 2024. On Stony Ground presents a historical ethnographic account of a generation of Mennonites from the Soviet Union who, following Russia’s revolution and civil war, immigrated to Manitoba during the 1920s. James Urry examines how the...

In this podcast episode, Nicole O'Byrne talks to Lori Chambers and Joan Sangster about their book, Essays in the History of Canadian Law, Volume XII: New Essays in Women's History published by UTP in October 2023. Drawing on engaging case studies, Essays in the History of Canadian Law brings the law to life. The contributors to this collection provide rich historical and social context for each ca...

In this podcast episode, Nicole O'Byrne talks to Thomas Peace about his book, The Slow Rush of Colonization: Spaces of Power in the Maritime Peninsula, 1680–1790 published by UBC Press in February 2024. In The Slow Rush of Colonization, historian Thomas Peace traces the 100-year context that underpins the widespread Euro-American/Euro-Canadian settlement of the Maritime Peninsula. Thomas Peace is...

In this podcast episode, Nicole O'Byrne talks to Ian Kyer about his book, The Ontario Bond Scandal of 1924 Re-examined published by Irwin Law in October 2023. In 1924, Peter Smith, the former treasurer of the Province of Ontario, and Aemilius Jarvis, one of Canada’s most prominent businessmen and a champion yachtsman, were found guilty of criminal conspiracy to defraud the Ontario government in co...

In this podcast episode, Larry Ostola talks to Graham Broad about his book, Part of Life Itself: The War Diary of Lieutenant Leslie Howard Miller, CEF published by the University of Toronto Press in October 2023. This extensively annotated wartime diary illuminates the military service of Leslie Howard Miller (1889–1979), a Canadian soldier who served in the First World War. Miller joined the Cana...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon talks to John Ibbitson about his book, The Duel: Diefenbaker, Pearson and the Making of Modern Canada published by Signal in October 2023. One of Canada’s foremost authors and journalists, Ibbitson offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between the...

In this podcast episode, Larry Ostola talks to David MacKenzie about his book, King and Chaos: The 1935 Canadian General Election, published by UBC Press in June 2023. In 1935, Canadians went to the polls against a backdrop of the Great Depression and deteriorating international conditions. This election was like no other, as five major parties competed for voters who were used to a traditional sl...

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to James Naylor, Rhonda L. Hinther, and Jim Mochoruk about their book, For a Better World: The Winnipeg General Strike and the Workers' Revolt, published by UMP in September 2022. Canada’s largest and most famous example of class conflict, the Winnipeg General Strike, redefined local, national, and international conversations around class, politics, re...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon talks to Richard Menkis and Pierre Anctil about their book, the 2023 volume of the Champlain Society, In a ‘Land of Hope’: Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627-1923, published by University of Toronto Press in 2023. The first of two volumes, In a Land of Hope presents a uniquely complete overview of Canadian Jewish history up to 1923, from prim...

Larry Ostola talks to Patrice Dutil about his book, Statesmen, Strategists & Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy, published by UBC Press in June 2023. Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats explores how prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau have shaped foreign policy by manipulating government structures, adopting and rejecting options, and im...

Greg Marchildon talks to John M. Dirks about his book, A Co-operative Disagreement: Canada-United States Relations and Revolutionary Cuba, 1959-93, published by UBC Press in August 2022. John Dirks investigates efforts at the senior and working levels of Canada-US diplomacy and bureaucracy to find mutually advantageous ways of cooperating, despite their respective approaches to revolutionary Cuba....

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to Jonathan Swainger about his book “The Notorious Georges: Crime and Community in British Columbia’s Northern Interior, 1909-25”, published by UBC Press in 2023. In The Notorious Georges, Jonathan Swainger explores how the local pursuit of respectability collided with caricatures of a riotously ill-mannered settlement frontier of Prince George, Britis...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon talks to Tim Cook about his book, Lifesavers and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and the Struggle for Survival in the Great War, published by Penguin Canada in 2023. Based on deep archival research and unpublished letters of soldiers and medical personnel, Lifesavers and Body Snatchers is a powerful narrative that reveals how medical services supported the sol...

In this podcast episode, Simon Nantais talks to Myra Tawfik about her book, For the Encouragement of Learning: The Origins of the Canadian Copyright Law, published by the University of Toronto Press in 2023. For the Encouragement of Learning addresses the contested history of copyright law in Canada, where the economic and reputational interests of authors and the commercial interests of publisher...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon talks to Ken McGoogan about his book, Searching for Franklin: New Answers to the Great Arctic Mystery, published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2023. Arctic historian Ken McGoogan approaches the legacy of nineteenth-century Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin from a contemporary perspective. Franklin’s expeditions were monumental failures, yet, many still see the R...

In this podcast episode, Nicole O’Byrne talks to Kent Roach about his book, Wrongfully Convicted: Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do to Safeguard Justice, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2023. In Wrongfully Convicted, Kent Roach raises awareness about wrongful convictions in Canada at a time when DNA exonerations are less frequent, and the memories of most famou...

In this podcast episode, Simon Nantais talks to Russell Field about his book, A Night at the Gardens: Class, Gender, and Respectability in 1930s Toronto, published by University of Toronto Press in 2023. In A Night at the Gardens, Russell Field delves into the history of Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens and the social mores and norms that influenced both its architecture and operation. Drawing on arch...