Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
During WW2, women were encouraged to volunteer for the armed forces, first as an auxiliary service, then transferred as an integral, essential part of the Canadian Army. It was time. The bloody grind of World War Two was underway and more manpower was needed. Canadian women wanted to participate, serve the country and make a […]
On his second trip to the New World, explorer Jacques Cartier and his men spent the winter near Stadacona and celebrated Canada’s first recorded Christmas. The first recorded Christmas celebration in Canada, said CBC.ca, was held by French explorer Jacques Cartier in the year 1535. The 44-year-old experienced explorer was on his second trip to […]
The Alaska Highway was built by the US Army across Canada’s north to Alaska, a road across mountains, permafrost and rivers, as a military supply route The Japanese were making Canada and the United States nervous in WWII. The enemy was getting too close, bombing Pearl Harbour in 1941, threatening the west coast and the […]
Dr. Frederick Banting earned Nobel Prize in 1923 and was knighted in 1934 for Insulin discovery. Sir Banting was also an artist, painting with members of Group of Seven Frederick Grant Banting was born in the small rural town of Alliston, Ontario on November 14, 1891, the youngest of six children. Graduating from the local […]
Robert Service earned international fame with his book “Songs of a Sourdough” and two lively ballads, “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. Robert William Service was not born Canadian, but became known as one of Canada’s best poets. Born in Lancashire, England on January 16, 1874, Service spent his young […]
Dr. Gerald Bull spent his life researching, reinventing and creating new methods of missile launching. His munitions science eventually lead to his murder. Gerald Vincent Bull was born in the small town of North Bay, Ontario on March 8, 1928. He was raised by an aunt when his mother died and his father abandoned the […]
Haligonians watched with curiosity as Mont Blanc drifted to Halifax, the ship ablaze from an accident. Minutes later, the ship exploded, with many injured and killed Dateline: December 6, 1917 Halifax, Nova Scotia World War One Cast: The French ship Mont Blanc Fully laden with explosives, the Mont Blanc was slowly sailing toward the crowded […]
Never before and not yet again has such a storm battered southern Ontario. Dozens of people were killed, many more left homeless from Hurricane Hazel’s gales and floods “Water coursed through creeks where they had never before existed,” said Environment Canada’s website, “derailed trains and washed out roads. Rampaging rivers tore houses from their foundations, […]
Bloody battle was devastating for Canadian soldiers mired in deep mud, but recapturing Passchendaele Ridge was crucial. There were 15,000 Canadian casualties. An older city in Belgium, Ypres was not yet captured by Germans. Held by the British, it was a rounded bulge of land in Flanders Plain. A treacherous place for Allied soldiers, it […]
The medical establishment wasn’t ready for women, so Dr. Trout finished her training in the USA. She opened the Kingston Women’s School of Medicine on October 2, 1883 A career in medicine is something young women may choose easily today. They train at universities and medical colleges without a second thought. But in Jennie Trout’s […]
Arriving in the 1870s, the religious group immigrated to Manitoba to practice their pacifist faith in peace. But by not joining the WWI effort, they also lost the vote Living according to their spiritual beliefs was essential for the Mennonites. Unhappy and under duress in their European and Russian homelands, they searched for a place […]
The Battle of Britain was waged from July 10 – October 31, 1940. The German Luftwaffe attacked but, with the help of the RCAF and Canada, Britain was saved from capture. “For the first time in modern history the people of England are now to feel the full and direct impact of war on their […]