Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
It was a treasured moment for the family. Hugh John Macdonald strode down Parliament’s aisle with his father, Sir John A. Macdonald, the younger Macdonald freshly-elected politician, too. Later, Hugh John tackled provincial politics. Walking in the footsteps of a recognized parent can be a challenge; walking in the footsteps of Canada’s first Prime Minister […]
Guarding Convoy QS-33 in the St. Lawrence River, escort vessell HMCS Raccoon was attacked and sunk by a lurking U-boat. Four merchant ships were also capsized. Aboard the HMCS Raccoon, Royal Canadian Navy Reserve sailors’ eyes scanned the surface waves for enemy vessels. The ASDIC provided underwater acoustics, pinging and listening for echoes of lurking […]
An inventor of photographic and telegraphy enhancements, William Augustus Leggo was a immensely skilled engraver and publisher from Quebec. The new and wonderful world of photography was in its infancy in the mid-1800s, the power of pictures capturing the attention of viewers across the world. But there were problems with the new technology. The quality […]
Walking a slim societal tightrope between suitable behaviour and her interests as a journalist, Kit Coleman stepped carefully but confidently into a ground-breaking career as a female writer. The first to lead her own section in a Canadian newspaper, Coleman was also the first accredited female war correspondent in the world. The journalism pioneer as […]
The numbers killed were unclear, but the consequences of smallpox were heart-breaking for the natives in the Hudson’s Bay region of Canada. “Small pox is rageing [sic] all round us with great violence, sparing very few that take it,” wrote Hudson House Clerk William Walker on December 4, 1780. “We have received the News of […]
The courageous, outspoken Samuel Benfield Steele was a Canadian hero, keeping order in the Klondike Gold Rush and leading soldiers during wartimes. He received knighthood in 1918. The direct, serious eyes of Sam Steele were a sign of the strength and leadership to come. Born at Purbrooke, Medonte Township near Orillia, Upper Canada (Ontario) on […]
An Order of Canada recipient, Jane Jacobs was a writer and social activist promoting green spaces, short commutes, and cities that can be “lived in.” “Cities have the capability,” Jane Jacobs said, “of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” Jane Jacobs believed in cities, big beautiful cities […]
Adept at engineering and inventing from a young age, Canadian John Garand produced the M1 Rifle, a semi-automatic rifle used by the United States Military 1937-1957. One of eleven children born to Jean Baptiste Garand and his wife, Elizabeth Edwidge Oligny, John Cantius Garand was a “middle child”, born on January 1, 1888. The family […]
Under Conductor Ethel Stark, the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra was the first all-women orchestra in Canada. They reached the pinnacle of music performance in 1947. Eighty women gathered in Plateau Hall Auditorium in the City of Montreal, creating the wonderful strains of music that only a full range of symphony instruments in the hands of […]
Imagine Nova Scotia as a tropical land, lush with greenery, animals and bug life. Hundreds of millions of years later, fossils tell the captivating story. Lush green ferns rustled as 6-foot-long centipedes scuttled across soft peat and leaves for cover. The cool rain fell, but it provided only a temporary respite from the steamy year-round […]
As fire flared and smoke billowed close by, Addie McCormick stayed at her switchboard to warn guests and fellow workers to flee. Addie’s bravery cost her her life. Heroes come in all forms. They are not all caped crusaders, ready to take masked flight to save the day. The average person can have as much […]