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

Nicole O’Byrne talks to David Frank about his book, J.B. McLachlan: A Biography: The Story of a Legendary Labour Leader and the Cape Breton Coal Miners. J.B. McLachlan: A Biography presents a vivid portrait of a significant early twentieth-century Canadian rebel. Recognized as a remarkable biography, it chronicles the life of a Canadian labor hero and provides an unparalleled account of twentieth-...

Greg Marchildon talks to Mairi Cowan about her book The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada. A timely arrival for the upcoming spooky season, this episode features a reissue from 2022 in which Greg Marchildon interviews Mairi Cowan, author of The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada. Cowan's work explores the social and r...

Greg Marchildon talks to Sandra Rollings-Magnusson about her book, Folklife and Superstition: The Luck, Lore and Worldviews of Prairie Homesteaders. The homesteading era on the Canadian Prairies (1867–1914) saw hundreds of thousands of migrants from northwestern and eastern Europe settle in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, seeking prosperity or fleeing hardship. Historian Sandra Rollings-Magnu...

Greg Marchildon talks to Eric Cline about his book, Squandered: Canada’s Potash Legacy. An exposé of the reality of Saskatchewan’s potash industry management—prioritizing private profit over public interest. Eric Cline practiced law in his hometown of Saskatoon prior to serving 16 years in the Saskatchewan legislature, where he held several senior cabinet positions, including Health, Finance, and...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Catharine Anne Wilson about her book, Being Neighbours: Cooperative Work and Rural Culture, 1830–1960. Being Neighbours takes the reader into the heart of neighbourhood - the set of people near and surrounding the family - through an examination of work bees in southern Ontario from 1830 to 1960. The bee was a special event where people gathered to work on a neighbour’s far...

Nicole O'Byrne talks to Greg Marquis about his book "Canada's State Police: 150 Years of the RCMP. Drawing upon all of the available literature related to the organization's history, Marquis lays bare what he regards as 150 years of state police action and seeks to challenge what he claims are the carefully constructed myths about the RCMP's role in Canadian life. Greg Marquis is a historian at th...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Ronald Rudin about his book, Against the Tides: Reshaping Landscape and Community in Canada’s Maritime Marshlands. Against the Tides is the never-before-told story of the Maritime Marshland Rehabilitation Administration (MMRA), a federal agency created in 1948. As farmers could not afford to maintain the dykes, the MMRA stepped in to reshape the landscape and with it the co...

Larry Ostola talks to Ross Fair about his book, Improving Upper Canada: Agricultural Societies and State Formation, 1791–1852. Agricultural societies founded in the colony of Upper Canada were the institutional embodiment of the ideology of improvement, modelled on contemporary societies in Britain and the United States. In Improving Upper Canada, Ross Fair explores how the agricultural improvers...

Greg Marchildon talks to Andrew Lawton about his book, Pierre Poilievre: A Political Life. When Pierre Poilievre was elected leader of Canada’s Conservative party in 2022, he vowed to put Canadians back in control of their own lives. He took aim at the country’s elites and “gatekeepers” as well as governments that sneer at their own citizens. Railing against the housing crisis and spiralling infla...

Larry Ostola talks to Richard White about his book, The Beaches: Creation of a Toronto Neighbourhood. The Beaches is one of Toronto’s best known and most admired neighbourhoods. It has no striking works of architecture or splendid public spaces, no must-see galleries or public institutions, and no associations with historic events or great celebrities – the sort of things that create neighbourhood...

Greg Marchildon talks to Raymond B. Blake about his book, Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity. This incredibly thorough analysis of the words of prime ministers will find an appreciative audience among scholars and students in Canadian and political history, and political science and rhetoric studies – and readers of Canadian history will discover a new take on Canada’s...

Greg Marchildon talks to Gerald Friesen about his book, The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman. John Norquay, orphan and prodigy was a leader among the Scots Cree peoples of western Canada. Born in the Red River Settlement, he farmed, hunted, traded, and taught school before becoming a legislator, cabinet minister, and, from 1878 to 1887, premier of Manitoba. Once desc...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Ian MacLaren about his four-volume set, Paul Kane's Travels in Indigenous North America. An all-encompassing exploration of the nineteenth-century painter’s documentary record and controversial place in Indigenous studies in North America. Paul Kane has been called the founding father of Canadian art, and Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America a classic...

Larry Ostola talks to Allan Greer about his book, Before Canada: Northern North America in a Connected World. Showcasing the exciting work of historians, archaeologists, and literary scholars who are rewriting North America’s ancient past. Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptio...

Mi’kmaq Who Left a Mark on the History of the Northeast, 1680-1980 Nicole O’Byrne talks to Janet E. Chute and Donald M. Julien about their book, Muiwlanej kikamaqki "Honouring Our Ancestors": Mi’kmaq Who Left a Mark on the History of the Northeast, 1680 to 1980. Drawing upon oral and documentary evidence, this volume explores the lives of noteworthy Mi’kmaw individuals whose thoughts, actions, and...

Greg Marchildon talks to Dennis Gruending about his book, A Communist for the RCMP: The Uncovered Story of a Social Movement Informant. In 1941, the RCMP recruited Frank Hadesbeck, a Spanish Civil War veteran, as a paid informant to infiltrate the Communist Party. For decades, he informed not only upon communists, but also upon hundreds of other people who held progressive views. Hadesbeck’s “Watc...

Greg Marchildon talks to Mark Maloney about his book, Toronto Mayors: A History of the City’s Leaders. The first-ever look at all 65 Toronto mayors — the good, the bad, the colourful, the rogues, and the leaders — who have shaped the city. Toronto’s mayoral history is both rich and colourful. Spanning 19 decades and the growth of Toronto, from its origins as a dusty colonial outpost of just 9,200...

Larry Ostola talks to Matthew Reeve about his book, Casa Loma: Millionaires, Medievalism, and Modernity in Toronto’s Gilded Age. Leading architect E.J. Lennox designed Casa Loma for the flamboyant Sir Henry Pellatt and Mary, Lady Pellatt as an enormous castellated mansion that overlooked the booming metropolis of Toronto. The first scholarly book dedicated to this Canadian landmark, Casa Loma situ...

Larry Ostola talks to Dimitry Anastakis, Elizabeth Kirkland and Don Nerbas about their book, Montreal's Square Mile: The Making and Transformation of a Colonial Metropole. In nineteenth-century Canada, the Square Mile was an elite residential district in Montreal that represented a dramatic new concentration of wealth. Montreal’s Square Mile chronicles the history of the neighbourhood, from its or...

Greg Marchildon talks to Murray Knuttila about his book, Eroding a Way of Life: Neoliberalism and the Family Farm. An analysis of how neoliberal policies have radically restructured farming in Western Canada. The establishment of a Western Canadian economy dominated by family farming was part of the government’s post-Confederation nation building and industrial development strategy. During this er...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to John Andrew Morrow about his book, The Legacy of Louis Riel: Leader of the Métis People. Based on a comprehensive review of Riel’s writing, Morrow uncompromisingly examines Riel’s views on vital subjects. These include the term Métis, Métis identity, “Indians,” Jews, Islam, Quebec, French Canadians, the Irish, the United States, women, liberalism, and Métis unity. Riel’s vi...

Greg Marchildon talks to Royden Loewen about his book, Mennonite Farmers: A Global History of Place and Sustainability. The book reveals the ways in which modern-day Mennonite farmers have adjusted to diverse temperatures, precipitation, soil types, and relative degrees of climate change. These farmers have faced broad global forces of modernization during the twentieth and early twenty-first cent...

Larry Ostola talks to Stephen R. Bown about his book, Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada. In the late 19th century, demand for fur was in sharp decline. This could have spelled economic disaster for the venerable Hudson's Bay Company. But an idea emerged in political and business circles in Ottawa and Montreal to connect the disparate British colonies into a single entity that would stre...

Nicole O’Byrne talks to Peter Ludlow about his book, Disciples of Antigonish: Catholics in Nova Scotia, 1880–1960. For generations eastern Nova Scotia was one of the most celebrated Roman Catholic constituencies in Canada. Occupying a corner of a small province in a politically marginalized region of the country, the Diocese of Antigonish nevertheless had tremendous influence over the development...

Greg Marchildon talks to Ronald F. Williamson about his book, The History and Archaeology of the Iroquois du Nord. In the mid-to late 1660s and early 1670s, the Haudenosaunee established a series of settlements at strategic locations along the trade routes inland at short distances from the north shore of Lake Ontario. From east to west, these communities consisted of Ganneious, on Napanee or Hay...