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

By The Champlain SocietyHistory

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

October 29, 2021 Good Homes for Toronto Workers
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 the stratospheric rise of land values in big cities. The focus of this podcasts is the stories that hid behind the front doors of these cottages, the family and social values they hold, and the effort to preserve them. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.
32 min
October 22, 2021 Open Federalism in the Harper Era and its Historical Legacy?
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 completed a book entitled Open Federalism Revisited: Regional and Federal Dynamics in the Harper Era published by the University of Toronto Press in 2021. In our interview, we examine the impact and legacy of Prime Minister Harper’s shift from collaborative federalism to what he called “open federalism”, a term used to describe an older “watertight” compartment of view of federalism in which the two orders of government operate separately in their areas of jurisdiction.
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 Canada’s past.
37 min
October 14, 2021 The Intrepid James Wolfe
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 letters to his parents as he details his rapid climb in the military, the people he meets and the places he visits. Ostola also offers a perspective on the development of Wolfe’s personality and on the task of editing these letters. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
46 min
October 07, 2021 Canadians as a Cigarette Nation, 1930 to 1975
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Daniel J. Robinson,. He is the author of Cigarette Natio: Business, Health, and Canadian Smokers, 1930–1975 published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021. Robinson’s account illustrates how smoking became a habit for over half of Canadians, both men and women, by the early postwar period. This book is part of a new McGill-Queen’s “Intoxicating Histories” series edited by medical historians Virginia Berridge, Erika Dyck and Noelle Plack. An associate professor in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario Professor Robinson has previously written books on the history of communications and polling in Canada as well as on the history of the print and broadcast media.
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 Canada’s past.
33 min
September 30, 2021 What a Toronto Election in 2014 Reveals About Democracy in Canada
Patrice Dutil talks with Michael McGregor about the controversial electoral campaign that took place in Toronto in 2014 when the Mayor, Rob Ford, suddenly resigned. The battle between Olivia Chow, Doug Ford and John Tory attracted unprecedented levels of attention and interest. The particularities of that race, as well as the condition of democracy at the municipal level across Canada is discussed. Among the topics are voter knowledge, the power of incumbency, issue ownership and “correct voting.” Voter behavior at the municipal level is also compared with voting in provincial and federal contests. The book Electing a Megamayor: Toronto 2014 is by Michael McGregor, Aaron Moore and Laura Stephenson. It is published by the University of Toronto Press. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
45 min
September 23, 2021 The Women who Transformed the National Gallery of Canada
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Diana Nemiroff. A former curator of contemporary and modern art at the National Gallery of Art and former director of the Carleton University Art Gallery and an adjunct professor of art history at both Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, she is well placed to write this definitive history of the transformation of the National Gallery of Art from the 1960s to the 1990s. As result of the leadership of three remarkable women directors, the National Gallery of Art has become one of the great art galleries in the world housed in a striking building that has become a landmark in the National Capital Region. The end result is a remarkable cultural history of the visual arts through the lens of the most important art gallery in the country.
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 Canada’s past.
39 min
September 17, 2021 The Many Lives of Frank Prewett
Patrice Dutil talks with Joy Porter of the University of Hull (UK) about her latest book, an exploration of the poet Frank Prewett, Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett. It is published by Bloomsbury Press. Prewett, a product of rural Ontario and the University of Toronto, suffers terrible shell shock in April 1917. From that point, he will experience many different lives as a member of Siegfried Sassoon’s circle, pronounces himself an indigenous man, associates and loves Ottoline Morrell, publishes poetry and gets involved in journalism. He died in Scotland in 1962. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
35 min
September 09, 2021 The Military on the University of Toronto Campus
Patrice Dutil talks discusses the experience of military officer training on campus during the twentieth century with Eric McGeer. McGeer’s book is Varsity’s Soldiers: The University of Toronto Contingent of the Canadian Officers’ Training Corps, published by the University of Toronto Press. Among the topics discussed are the experience during the Fenian raids in 1866, the expedition to the North-West in 1885 and the formalization of training during the First World War. The impact of the military on campus is explored, as well as relations with the military establishment in Ottawa. McGeer discusses the downfall of the COTC during the 1960s. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
36 min
August 31, 2021 The Winners of the Governor General’s Literary Awards
Patrice Dutil considers the evolution of the Governor General’s literary awards with Andrew David Irvine the author of Canada’s Storytellers: The GG Literary Award Laureates (University of Ottawa Press). The origins of the award in the 1930s under the auspices of John Buchan (Lord Tweedsmuir) are discussed as are the many winners over the past eighty years. Andrew David Irvine talks about the various categories and how they were changed over time and relates how the Governor General’s awards must be seen as a mirror of the distinct evolution of Canada. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
28 min
August 27, 2021 Ida Martin and Saint John’s Working Class
Patrice Dutil talks with Michael Boudreau and Bonnie Huskins about what they discovered about working class culture in Saint John, New Brunswick in the post 1945 era. They discuss Ida Martin’s 50-year diary and what it reveals about her society. Ida Martin ideas about family, work, marriage, social solidarity, and politics are explored. Her diary demonstrates an active mind concerned with daily worries and small triumphs—the pleasures and pains of the life ordinary. Boudreau and Huskins both teach at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick and their book is entitled Their book is entitled Just the Usual Work: The Social Worlds of Ida Martin, Working Class Diarist (McGill-Queens University Press).
This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt.
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 Canada’s past.
39 min

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

From the publisher's feed

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its…