By the Canada History Society The Eleventh Hour: The Silence That Defines a Nation Each November, as autumn draws towards winter and the last leaves fall from the trees, Canadians gather before monuments of stone and bronze. From the great National War Memorial in Ottawa to the smallest cenotaph in a rural community, they come…

By the Canada History Society The Battle of Vimy Ridge, 9–12 April 1917 The Ridge That Became a Nation’s Memorial There are places where history seems reluctant to surrender its dead. The fields around Vimy Ridge in northern France are among them. Today, the countryside is peaceful. The fertile plains of Artois stretch towards the…

Henry Dundas: The Forgotten Argument for Abolition A Historical Examination of Henry Dundas, William Wilberforce, and the British Campaign Against Slavery History has a curious habit of reducing great controversies to small things. A phrase, a parliamentary division, a single word spoken across the floor of the House of Commons may survive long after the…

Dominion: The Railway That Built a Nation — and the Price of a Canadian Dream A Review of Stephen R. Bown’s Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada A Review of Stephen R. Bown’s Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada There are moments in the history of nations when ambition exceeds reason,…

The extraordinary story of the Norse explorers who crossed the North Atlantic five centuries before Columbus, established a settlement in Newfoundland and left behind one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries in Canadian history. The Strangers from Across the Sea Around a thousand years ago, a wooden vessel approached the northern coast of Newfoundland, its…

The North-West Mounted Police- 1869–1875 The origins of the Mounted Police, the ambitions of Sir John A. Macdonald, and the struggle to establish Canadian government across the western Plains. A Dominion on Paper On the morning of 8 July 1874, a remarkable procession began moving westward from Fort Dufferin, Manitoba. There were mounted policemen in…

Captain James Cook: The Explorer Who Brought Britain’s Pacific Ambitions to the Shores of Canada The remarkable voyages of Captain James Cook, his encounters with the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, and his lasting influence on the history of British Columbia. Canada History Society | Historical Feature On 29 March 1778, two British Royal…

13 October 1812 Before daylight on 13 October 1812, boats began pushing away from the American shore of the Niagara River. They carried soldiers from an army that had come to accomplish what another American force had failed to do at Detroit only two months earlier: invade Upper Canada, establish a secure foothold, and demonstrate…

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, fought outside Quebec on September 13, 1759, was one of the most consequential military encounters in Canadian history. The fighting was brief, but its effects extended far beyond the battlefield. It helped bring about the British conquest of New France, altered the balance of power in North America…

The Charlottetown Conference: The Meeting That Helped Create Canada In September 1864, delegates from the Province of Canada arrived in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where representatives of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were discussing a possible Maritime union. The Canadian delegation, led by John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier and George Brown, presented…