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

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Molly P. Rozum, the author of Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies . This book was jointly published by the University of Nebraska Press and the University of Manitoba Press in 2021. Molly Rozum is currently the Ronald R. Nelson Chair of Great Plains and South Dakota History at the University of South...

Patrice Dutil considers the fates of the Liberal Party of Canada since 2006 with Brooke Jeffrey, professor of Political Science at Concordia University and the author of Road to Redemption: The Liberal Party of Canada 2006-2019, published by the University of Toronto Press. They examine the special challenges of the Liberal Party as it adapted under the leadership of Stéphane Dion, Michael Ignatie...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews, the editor of Harper’s World: The Politicization of Canadian Foreign Policy, 2006-2015. Published in 2022 by the University of Toronto Press, this book brings together a range of essays examining the foreign policies and actions of the Harper government and whether that Conservative administration changed the historical trajectory of Canadian fo...

Patrice Dutil interviews Jennifer Elrick, professor of Sociology at McGill University and the author of Making Middle-Class Multiculturalism: Immigration Bureaucrats and Policymaking in Postwar Canada, published by the University of Toronto Press. The discussion covers the origins and intentions of the 1967 reforms in the Lester Pearson government. Elrick also discusses the particular roles of sen...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Graham Fraser who edited F.R. Scott’s journal that he kept while he was a member of the Royal Commission on Bilinguiism and Biculturalism – the famous Bi and Bi Commission. The book is entitled The Fate of Canada: F.R. Scott’s Journal of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, 1963-1971 and was published by McGill-Queen’s Universi...

Patrice Dutil explores the politics and ambitions of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893 who is best known for having donated a silver punch bowl to honour the best hockey team in the country, with Jordan Goldstein, Professor of Kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University. His book is entitled Canada’s Holy Grail: Lord Stanley’s Political Motivation to Donate th...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews David R. Cameron. The book is The Daily Plebiscite: Federalism, Nationalism, and Canada and is a collection of his essays written over the past four decades. The book is edited by Cameron’s colleague, Robert C. Vipond, and published by the University of Toronto Press. These essays focus on the constitutional and political turmoil experience...

Patrice Dutil discusses the evolution of Canadian history on the subject of Black peoples and communities in Canada with Professors Michele Johnson (York University) and Funké Aladejebi (University of Toronto), co-editors of Unsettling the Great White North: Black Canadian History (University of Toronto Press). Johnson and Aladejebi answer questions on the evolution of Canadian history when it com...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Mark Celinscak, the author of Kingdom of Night: Witnesses to the Holocaust published by the University of Toronto Press in 2022. Although liberated by British troops, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was observed by a large number of Canadians who left a sizeable written and photographic record. In addition, war artists such Alex Colville who wou...

Patrice Dutil meets Alastair Sweeny to talk about the remarkable career of Thomas McKay, a Scottish immigrant to Canada in the 1820s who went on to build a remarkable business career in the Ottawa area. McKay was a mason, and a very good one at that. Using his skills to build projects in Quebec and then the locks on the Rideau Canal in Bytown, he emerged as a virtual “laird” in the area, founding...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews, the author of Corporate Cataclysm: Abitibi Power & Paper and the Collapse of the Newsprint Industry, 1912- 19 46 . Published by the University of Toronto Press in 2020, this book documents the rise, decline and bankruptcy of one of the largest manufacturing firms in Canada before the Second World War. A detailed review of the business and po...

Patrice Dutil discute des usages de la Loi sur les mesures de guerre au XXe siècle au Canada avec Xavier Gélinas, conservateur de l'histoire politique au Musée canadien de l'histoire à Gatineau et coauteur de Libertés sacrifiées. La loi des mesures de guerre, publié par le Musée canadien de l'Histoire. La discussion examine les origines de cette législation et son application pendant la Première G...

Patrice Dutil discusses the uses of the War Measures Act in twentieth century Canada with Xavier Gelinas, the curator of political history at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau and the co-author of Lost Liberties: The War Measures Act, published by the Canadian Museum of History. The discussion examines the origins of this legislation and its application during the First World War, the Sec...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Erika Dyck on the book she co-authored with Jesse Donaldson on an unusual chapter in Canada’s medical history. Entitled The Acid Room: The Psychedelic Trials and Tribulations of Hollywood Hospital, this book was published by Vancouver’s Anvil Press in 2021. This is a history of a private hospital in greater Vancouver which specialized in treatmen...

Patrice Dutil and Neville Thompson examine a critical moment in Canadian diplomatic history when Prime Minister Mackenzie King worked closely with Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Second World War. Thompson, professor emeritus at Western University, is the author of The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King and the Untold Friendships that Won WWII (Sutherland Ho...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Benjamin Hoy, the author of A Line of Blood and Dirt: Creating the Canada-United States Border across Indigenous Lands. Published by Oxford University Press in 2021, Hoy’s book is a history of the infrastructure, policies, and personnel that were put in place over the past three centuries to create a boundary between the United States and British...

Patrice Dutil discusses the history and symbolism of Massey Hall in Toronto with David McPherson, the author of Massey Hall (Dundurn Press). Together they examine the origins of the building as a gift to the city from Hart Massey and its evolution as an iconic building with a unique significance in the entertainment and social history of Toronto. Many key events are reviewed as well as its archite...

Greg Marchildon interviews Peter Neary, the co-author (with Melvin Baker) of Joseph Roberts Smallwood: Masthead Newfoundlander, 1900-1949, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY . Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience C...

Patrice Dutil discusses the nature and impact of the federal election which took place on 6 December 1921 with Raymond Blake of the University of Regina. The 1921 election was a turning point in the history of Canadian politics for many reasons. It was the first election when all women in the country were entitled to vote. It was the first of many contests between a young Mackenzie King as Liberal...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Daniel Meister, the author of The Racial Mosaic: A Pre-History of Canadian Multiculturalism published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021. This book recounts the history of the concept of multiculturalism in the decades before the establishment of multiculturalism as an official policy of the Government of Canada in 1971. Meister examines...

Patrice Dutil talks with David A. Borys about how the Canadian Army looked after the civilian population it encountered in the wake of its pursuit of the Nazi army in 1944-45. Borys is the author of is Civilians at the Sharp End: First Canadian Army Civil Affairs in Northwest Europe published by McGill-Queens University Press. The origins of the Civilian Affairs branch are explored as are the reli...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Barry Ferguson on his new book, co-authored with fellow historian Robert Wardhaugh. The Rowell-Sirois Commission and the Remaking of Canadian Federalism was published by the University of British Columbia Press in 2021. This interview examines the origins of this significant Royal Commission, the way in which it was run by its staff, its tenuous...

Patrice Dutil discussed the evolution of affordable housing in Toronto with Don Loucks and Leslie Valpy, the authors of Modest Hopes: Homes and Stories of Toronto’s Workers from the 1820s to the 1920s (Dundurn Press). Among the topics covered are the origins of the architectures for these homes, their affordability, and the need for public policies today to protect the built heritage in light of t...

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Jim Farney, an Associal Professor of Political Science and the University of Regina Director of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. A careful observer of Conservative politics in Canada, he previously published Social Conservatism and Party Politics in Canada and the United States. With co-editor Julie Simmons, he has recently c...

Patrice Dutil discusses the life and military career of James Wolfe, the commander of British troops that conquered Quebec in 1759, with Larry Ostola. Ostola is the editor of the 2021 Volume of the Champlain Society entitled “Your Most Obedient and Affectionate Son”: James Wolfe’s Letters to His Parents, 1740-1759. Dutil and Ostola explore the quality and content of Wolfe’s...