Curious Canadian History

David Borys has started a brand new podcast and we here at CCH are bringing you its very first episode. The Conflict and Culture Podcast explores everything and anything to do with military history beyond the battlefield. Please head on over to the show page on Apple and Spotify and click follow! For the first episode we look at the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht," the false belief that the reg...

While the summer may be coming to an end it's not all bad news because Curious Canadian History is coming back for Season 11! The first episode airs September 23rd and we are pumped for what is going to be a fascinating season! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Surprise! We here at CCH decided to drop a special final episode for Season 10. The Canadian flag is iconic. In almost all parts of the globe people recognize the red maple leaf as distinctly ours, or at the very least a symbol of us…Canadians. Yet, the modern flag’s birth is a story of complexity and is utterly fascinating. It comes out of a distinctly unique period where Canada was changing dram...

The 2025 Federal Election was one of the most dynamic and issue-filled elections to have occurred since the 1980s. Threats to Canadian sovereignty, an unpredictable US president, issues over Canadian defence, a glaringly vulnerable economy, a global order that seems to be more and more unstable coupled with a brand new Prime Minister attempting to prove to the voting public that he is the right ma...

The Trans-Canada highway is such a part of the everyday Canadian experience that we often take this lengthy route for granted. Across this country many Canadians drive on it every single day, most without realizing that they are on one the most important infrastructure projects in Canadian history. But this highway is so much more than just a simple strip of asphalt. It represents a period in Cana...

In 2024 Jared McBride, Professor at UCLA, conducted a research methodology class with his students. As Jared is an expert on war crimes they investigated war criminals in North America and through their research shifted focus to Nazi war criminals who were able to settle in Canada in the aftermath of the Second World War. In the process of this project, they uncovered an incredible list. Known as...

The St. Lawrence River can turn treacherous in a second. What was just a moment ago clear sailing can suddenly into dangerous fog and almost no visibility. In 1914 the Empress of Ireland learnt this firsthand and what ensued is the deadliest maritime tragedy in peace time Canadian history.  To help us dive into this subject today we’ve brought on Eve Lazarus. Eve is a reporter, author an...

The town of Frank, Alberta is tucked into the bosom of Turtle Mountain which sits in the beautiful Crows Pass of the majestic Rocky Mountains. In the early 20th century, the town revolved around the local coal mine. 100 men (out of roughly 600 people who lived in Frank) worked at the mine. A couple dozen were working the night shift when in late April 1903 over 100 million tonnes of limestone...

Today we are changing things up! Several months ago David published his newest book titled  Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867  which is a single-volume history of the Canadian Armed Forces at war since confederation. This book has proved timely. In recent months the Canadian military has been in the news frequently, more so than at any point since the end...

The Beatles are one of the most influential bands in the history of popular music. When they arrived in North America in the early 1960s, they forever changed the musical landscape. Countless musicians in both Canada and the United States speak of the arrival of the Beatles as if it was their own personal musical awakening and there are untold numbers of modern day rock stars who publicly state th...

While Canada is in the midst of immense economic uncertainty as a result of Donald Trump’s wildly unpredictable tariff threats, the border is continuously brought up by the American president as a key issue in why he seeks to create such economic chaos. In today’s episode we wrap-up a two-part conversation with Benjamin Hoy on the history of the Canadian-US border. We chat about cross-border coope...

Since the election of Donald Trump, one of the most frequently discussed issues has been that of the Canadian-American border. President Trump has labelled accusations that Canada has not done enough to stem the tide of fentanyl and illegal immigrants into the US. While the veracity of Trump’s claims is hotly debated, his emphasis on the border as a concern in Washington brings up some interesting...

You cannot turn on the news right now without hearing about President Donald Trump’s threat to apply a 25% tariff to Canadian goods. While his claim that our border is contributing to America’s fentanyl and illegal immigrant problem may be dubious, the ramifications of a tariff war are very real. Has a tariff war like this ever happened before? How has Canada historically responded to American eco...

William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister, from 1922 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1948. Historians have ranked him as Canada's greatest Prime Minister for his political leadership in winning Canada's autonomy from the British Empire and for organizing Canada's enormous war effort that enabled Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt to lead the western allies to victory...

For today's episode we've done something a little different. Craig Baird is a friend and fellow podcaster over at the great Canadian history podcast  Canadian History Ehx  and today CCH has opened up its floors to a CHX episode on a legendary moment in Canadian musical theatre history. In 1972 the hottest new Broadway production,  Godspell , came to Toronto and hundreds of young act...

It is impossible to deny the legendary status that Jackie Robinson has had in the game of baseball. There have been movies, songs, poetry, books and essays about his career and countless tributes and celebrations of his life and impact on the game. Jackie was born in Georgia in 1919 but spent most of his life growing up in Pasadena, California. By the time he went to college he was already a star...

On the 7th of June 1939 a ship sailed for Cuba, on board were 907 Jewish refugees fleeing the violent antisemitic state that had become Nazi Germany. When arriving in Cuba, their visas were no longer accepted, and the passengers were told they could not disembark. The ship then sailed to the United States, where the passengers were once again refused asylum. Finally, the ship sailed to Canada...

November 30, 2024 marks 150 years since Lucy Maud Montgomery’s birth, and her legacy continues to endure. Best known for  Anne of Green Gables , Montgomery created characters that embody resilience and imagination and  some have gone on to become Canadian fiction icons. In this episode her granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, shares family stories, preserves her grandmother’s legac...

The Group of 7 are some of the most iconic and well-known Canadian painters in the history of Canadian art. While forming on the heels of the First World War, during a dramatic period of social and political upheaval, the painters in the group came to define a uniquely Canadian style of art. One that reflected a country that was searching for new ways to express itself after the incredible and tra...

Across Axis occupied Europe a shadow war raged as numerous resistance groups in all occupied countries sought to dismantle or disrupt the Axis forces implementing their brutal occupation regimes. In some cases, these groups were quite successful, in others only marginally so, in all, though, the Allies ensured that they supported these movements to continue to strike against their daunting enemy....

When one thinks of an iconic Canadian painter one does not have to go through many names before thinking of Emily Carr. And if one is looking for an influential west-coast painter than generally one’s first thoughts land on Emily. It is undeniable that Emily Carr has had a significant impact on the Canadian artistic landscape, as a woman, as a modernist, as an author, and as developing a particula...

All around the world today there are people who listen to music made by Canadians. Most of us are familiar with Drake and Justin Bieber but long before those two superstars, all over the world Canadian musical acts had been transmitting into the ears of humans. But in some alternate reality, none of the Bieber’s or Drake’s exist. In fact, there is probably an alternate reality somewhere where Cana...

Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 is officially out! Check out this photograph-rich single volume history of Canada's military at war. You can purchase a copy right now at the below links: Amazon Indigo Dundurn Goodreads Indiebookstores.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For 113 terrifying days in 1940, Nazi Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, threw everything it had at Great Britain in hopes of early victory in World War II. The task of defending southern England from airborne attack fell to pilots in the Royal Air Force, supplemented in their darkest hour by more than 100 flyers from Canada. These Canadians, some from famous families, some straight off the farm,...

Our very own David Borys has a new book coming out in September titled “Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867” published by Dundurn Press. The book is an easy to read, single volume history of Canada at war since 1867. This photograph-rich volume covers nearly 150 years of the Canadian military, tracing its evolution from a small, underfunded, poorly trained milit...