Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
The Man-of-Steel comic book hero ‘Superman’ soared but Shuster and co-creator Jerry Siegel were left behind. Shuster struggled to make a living with vision disabilities. Pencil in hand, Joe Shuster enjoyed drawing and sketching as a young boy. Born in Toronto, Ontario on July 10, 1914, Joseph Shuster’s parents Julius and Ida Shuster, were […]
The finest, the tallest, the utterly lavish. Only magnificence would fit the strategic plans of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Building a series of hotels across the country, the company planned a hotel for Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Launching construction in 1927, the doors of the Royal York Hotel opened two years later to welcome weary, […]
The Canadian economy was flourishing two years before the Great Depression; the Eaton’s Catalogue had almost everything at prices that seem remarkable now. In the late 1920s, Canada’s economy was prospering. WWI was over and the soldiers were happy to be home. The markets and industries were expanding products and developments, with new fashion styles, […]
Improving on methods used by native Canadians, Hiram A. Lawrence received a patent for his Sap Spout, preventing loss of the precious sweet sap. Long before Europeans landed on the wilderness shores of eastern Canada, North American natives made use of the hardwood maple forests to provide sweet treats and sugary sustenance. With a rough […]
Creating watercolour paintings to record the countryside for the British army, Thomas Davies developed a talent that made him one of Canada’s best artists. Paints and brushes, inks and pens, topographical map-making in the 18th century was a hands-on activity. Using the drawings for military strategies, accurate details were essential, the placement of trees, landmarks […]
An international favourite, Red Rose Tea was blended and sold first in New Brunswick. Estabrooks was one of the first to introduce the simplicity of tea in bags in 1929. On a cold December 24, 1861, Theodore Harding Rand Estabrooks was born to Stephen and Judith Estabrooks in Wicklow, Carleton County, New Brunswick. One of […]
Living in Amsterdam with her Dutch husband, Mona Parsons helped rescue downed Allied troops during WWII. But then the Nazis found the safe haven. Sentenced to death for treason, Mona escaped during a bomb raid. “Meine Herren. Guten Morgen.” The calm, steady voice took the German judge and the Nazi court by surprise. A woman […]
Activism and turmoil churned in the streets of Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1840s, struggling toward the political system of responsible government. If activists stopped to inhale, they would have noticed an appealing aroma coming from the local bakery. Bread! By the 1870s the scrumptious scent of Moir and Son chocolate was in the air. […]
FA Bean established the Robin Hood Flour Company in 1910. Over the century, the milling factory has become a recognized brand in Canadian kitchens. The enormous stone grinding wheels turned with a grand noise. Pulverizing the wheat harvested from the farm fields, the substance was transformed from grain into flour. Texture of finest quality made […]
In 1842, the Province of Canada named geologist William Logan the founding director of the GSC, to map minerals and resources. It was to be a short-term task. Few maps and surveys were available in 1841’s Province of Canada. The areas of Ontario and Quebec were thought to be rich in minerals and coal, but […]
A passenger on the Three Sisters ship, Edward Jordan took control of the schooner, viciously murdering several men. He was hanged and left on the gibbet as warning. A gun blast was aimed directly at Captain Stairs, commander of the Three Sisters schooner. The ball fired “grazed his face and nose,” said Cindy Vallar in […]
The dust, the construction workers, the blasting-rumbling-crashing noise; it would all be worth the frustration in the early 1950s. Transportation in Toronto changed with the opening of the Toronto Subway System on March 30, 1954. As Canada’s first subway, it was a transit triumph. As Toronto grew and sprawled, streetcar systems struggled to keep up […]