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

In her book The Art of Sharing: The Richer versus the Poorer Provinces since Confederation, Mary Janigan explores the history of equalization – one of Canada’s most important yet least understood social programs. Based on a simple idea of the federal government redistributing a portion of the tax revenues it receives to lower-income provinces so that they can provide roughly comparable public services at roughly comparable provincial rates of taxation to other provinces, this program has been criticized by wealthier provinces from the beginning. In her interview with Greg Marchildon, Dr. Janigan describes the origins of the idea in the Commonwealth Grants Commission in Australia and how Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent’s government set up the first formal program and how this program has been refined since. Dr. Janigan describes the importance of equalization in keeping Canada more unified over time.

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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Dr Esyllt W. Jones about her Book Radical Medicine (ARP Books). Jones is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba. This recording was produced by Michael Smith at Ryerson University.

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.

Patrice Dutil speaks with Christopher Moore about the infamous massacre that took place in May 1754 that sparked the Seven-Year War. Christopher Moore writes “History News”, a very popular blog on Canadian History (christophermoorehistory.blogspot.com) and is the author of a dozen books including Three Weeks in Quebec City: The Meeting that Made Canada (Allen Lane).

This podcast was produced by Hugh Bakhurst in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University.

See this “Finding” on the same topic: George Washington’s French Canadian Victims, 1754

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.

Patrice Dutil discusses the significance of the founding of the Parti québécois by René Lévesque on 11 October 1968 with Xavier Gélinas, a specialist on the Québec "Quiet Revolution" and curator of Politics at the Canadian Museum of History. This podcast is available in French on Témoins d'hier. This podcast was produced by Naomi Katz and Richard Anstey in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University.

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.

Greg Marchildon discusses the significance of this event of a hundred years ago with Patrice Dutil and David MacKenzie, authors of "Embattled Nation: Canada's Wartime Election of 1917" (Dundurn Press). This podcast was produced by Sumeet Dhami and Pernia Jamshed in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University.

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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Kevin Nikkel about his book, Founding Folks: An Oral History of the Winnipeg Folk Festival.

Founding Folks tells the story of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which began in 1974 at Birds Hill Provincial Park in Manitoba. The book explores how founder Mitch Podolak’s vision grew into one of North America’s leading folk festivals. Through interviews with musicians, staff, and volunteers—including Bruce Cockburn and Tom Jackson—filmmaker Kevin Nikkel highlights the festival's role in community building, politics, and cultural expression. Featuring over 90 photographs, the book celebrates the festival’s legacy and its impact on prairie arts, culture, and folk music lovers.

Kevin Nikkel is an independent filmmaker and educator based in Winnipeg. He is a long-time member of the Winnipeg Film Group. He co-directed the documentary Tales from the Winnipeg Film Group with Dave Barber in 2007.

Image Credit: University of Manitoba Press

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.

Larry Ostola speaks with Patrice Dutil about his book, Ballots and Brawls: The 1867 Canadian General Election.

Ballots and Brawls by Patrice Dutil explores Canada's first federal election in 1867, shortly after Confederation. The book vividly recounts the idealistic foundations laid in the 1864 Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences and delves into the chaotic and often violent summer election across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Dutil highlights the key political and social tensions of the time—economic issues, taxation, defence, and cultural divides—while profiling major figures like John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. Drawing on archival sources and poll data, the book provides a compelling, detailed look at the birth of Canadian democracy.

Patrice Dutil is a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University and a senior fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. He is the founder of the Literary Review of Canada and was president of the Champlain Society from 2011 to 2017. He is the author and editor of several books on Canadian politics and governance, including Statesmen, Strategists and Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy and The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent: Politics and Policies for a Modern Canada.

Image Credit: UBC Press

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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Micah True about his book, The Jesuit Relations.

The Jesuit Relations were annual reports written between 1632 and 1673 by Jesuit missionaries in what is now Eastern Canada. Traditionally viewed as firsthand missionary narratives, Micah True’s work challenges this notion by revealing that the texts were shaped by many contributors—including Indigenous people, settlers, nuns, and editors in France. He explores the influence of historical context, such as Jesuit writing traditions and the Paris book trade, on their creation. True also examines how different editions since the 19th century have altered the interpretation of these texts. His analysis offers a more nuanced understanding of the Jesuit Relations and their role in shaping the history of New France and Indigenous-European encounters.

Micah True is professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta.

Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press

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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Daniel Macfarlane about his book, The Lives of Lake Ontario: An Environmental History.

The Lives of Lake Ontario by Daniel Macfarlane explores the deep and complex relationship between Lake Ontario and the peoples and nations along its shores. For centuries, the lake has shaped the development of surrounding societies, supporting agriculture, energy production, and urban growth. Macfarlane traces how Indigenous nations, settlers, and modern Canadian and American societies have interacted with the lake, often exploiting it through dams, canals, industrial activity, pollution, and overuse of resources. This transboundary water body has acted as both a connector and divider between Canada and the United States, ultimately becoming home to Canada’s largest urban area.

However, intensive human activity led to serious ecological damage, pushing communities to turn away from the lake. In response, binational efforts like the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements emerged in the late 20th century, resulting in some environmental improvements. Despite these efforts, Lake Ontario remains the most degraded of the Great Lakes. The impacts of urbanization, invasive species, and climate change continue to challenge its recovery.

Macfarlane’s account highlights both the lake’s resilience and its vulnerability, urging renewed attention to its environmental health. The book serves as a compelling case study of human-nature interactions and the ongoing struggle to balance development with ecological preservation.

Daniel Macfarlane is associate professor in the School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability at Western Michigan University and the author of Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations.

Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press

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.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Shannon Stunden Bower about her book, Transforming the Prairies: Agricultural Rehabilitation and Modern Canada.

Created in 1935, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a Canadian federal agency active for over 70 years, often praised as a model of effective environmental management. Transforming the Prairies challenges this view, highlighting the mixed results of its agricultural rehabilitation efforts in Canada and abroad.

Historian Shannon Stunden Bower critiques the PFRA’s initiatives, revealing their unintended ecological and social consequences. For instance, while promoting strip farming for soil conservation, the agency inadvertently increased crop vulnerability to pests like the sawfly. In Ghana, PFRA-led irrigation projects heightened the risk of illness among locals. In Canada, infrastructure development ignored the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples. Stunden Bower argues that the PFRA, as a high modernist agency, often reinforced colonial and racist systems while producing uneven environmental outcomes.

This book urges a rethinking of the PFRA’s legacy, both to deepen our understanding of Canadian and environmental history and to inform more just and sustainable environmental policies today. It is especially relevant to scholars and students of Canadian, environmental, and agricultural history, as well as those interested in the modern state and the Prairie West. Policymakers and Prairie residents familiar with the PFRA will also find it insightful.

Shannon Stunden Bower is an associate professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Alberta. She is the author of Wet Prairie: People, Land, and Water in Agricultural Manitoba, which won the Canadian Historical Association Clio Prize for the Prairies and the Manitoba Day Award from the Association for Manitoba Archives. She has also published articles in journals such as Environmental History and Agricultural History.

Image Credit: UBC Press

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.