Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
Working 11 to 12 hours a day, six days a week, the Toronto Typographical Society went on strike. The reactions and outcomes changed Canadian labour law. The significance of unionization is gaining recognition again in 2022. The workforce in the Industrial Age put in long, exhaustive hours, six days a week to earn even the […]
A sharp eye for artistic style and an aptitude for science are essential for many categories of construction. Add bio-science skills—botany, ecology, plus environmentalism and psychology—and you might have an aptitude for landscape design. Lorrie Dunington and her husband Howard Grubb did. They left their mark throughout southern Ontario as Dunington-Grubb landscape architects. Howard Grubb […]
Thomas F. Ryan (1872-1961) changed the bowling world. Shrinking the tenpin ball and pins, Ryan invented rules for 5-Pin Bowling. A favourite, it’s only in Canada, eh! “These are just too heavy,” customers grumbled to bowling club owner Thomas F. Ryan, no doubt hefting the weighty game spheres in their hands as they spoke. “The […]
Dubbed Victory Loans, War Bond campaigns raised billions of dollars to support Canadian soldiers and the war effort during WWI and WWII. As soldiers fought the enemy in grim battles overseas in World War One, the Government of Canada fought another battle. The costs of war were extensive and money was urgently required. A plan […]
Established in 1867, the G. S. Dunn Mill produces mustard flour that is sold across the globe. Prairie farmers grow nearly 85% of the world’s demand for mustard. What item is made from small and roundish seeds and is grown in Canada’s Prairie fields? This mystery thing has a vast range of applications from […]
Childhood malnutrition was a troubling issue for parents and doctors in the early 1900s. Toronto doctors set to work, developing infant food with essential ingredients. What food contained the magic blend of five vitamins, wheat and wheat germ, oats, alfalfa, corn meal, bone meal, and brewer’s yeast? And when mixed with milk, formed the […]
Crystal clear, smooth, and with strength and energy efficiency built in, modern architectural glass is the eye-catching gem in the contractor’s toolbox. Excellent quality is standard, but in early Ontario, flawless glassmaking was only a dream. Builders were lucky if the window glass was smooth, let alone clear. John Herring’s Napanee Glass Works Nearly all […]
Elizabeth Smellie rose from hospital night supervisor to high-ranking military officer. Inspiring the members of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC), she then rose to Chief Superintendent of the Victorian Order of Nurses. Elizabeth Lawrie Smellie, “Beth”, was born on March 22, 1884 in Port Arthur, near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. A member of a […]
Dedicated to medicine, Dr. Bethune devised new instruments and treatment, instituted battlefield care with transfusions and surgery and earned a place in China’s history. When war is called, people from across the globe feel the need to take action, to provide their help to one side or the other. They want to make a […]
Dawson triumphed over childhood illness, becoming a devoted scientist, giving his heart to geology, palaeontology, anthropology and contributing to records of the sciences. He was a true Canadian rock star. The earth sciences always captured the interest of George Mercer Dawson. As a wee child, he wandered the expansive grounds of McGill College in Montreal, […]
Baking delicious goodies in his Berlin, Ontario grocery store, the baker opened C.H. Doerr Co. The name changed to the easier-to-pronounce Dare in 1945 Southwestern Ontario was the birthplace of Charles H. Doerr. Born on October 31, 1868, Doerr was the son of Carl Adam Morris Doerr and Anna Eve Schwaertzel. Both parents were German […]
Constructing homes with hand tools powered only by human muscle was a challenge at the best of times, and a painful, slow, and costly disappointment in the worst. In the early 20th century, the Sovereign brothers devised a system to make home building accurate and by-the-numbers simple. As if the genie in the bottle granted […]