Amazing people, events and places which infuse the country with life
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 […]
Professor Burton and grad students Hillier and Prebus developed the first practical electron microscope that focused a beam of electrons for illumination As with most inventions in the world, advanced ideas build on the information of other bright ideas, and innovation climbs up to stand on the shoulders of previous innovation. Such was the case […]
Enthusiastic in his second career, John Macoun’s extensive study of plant and animal life became the basis for today’s Canadian Museum of Nature. An immigrant from Northern Ireland at age 19, John Macoun came to Seymour Township, Upper Canada (now Eastern Ontario) in 1850 with his parents. He was born at Maralin, Ireland on April […]
The Winton Phaeton was a ‘horseless carriage’, the first automobile fuelled by gas in Canada. Colonel Moodie brought the car home to Hamilton, Ontario. With the black bonnet up, perhaps the Winton looked all the part of a classic carriage for two as it drove along the streets of Hamilton, Ontario. But something was missing… […]
Interested in fossils and dinosaurs, teenager Wendy Sloboda made a significant discovery in southern Alberta: fossilized eggshells. Eyes scanning the terrain, carefully scraping and digging, 19-year-9ld made an amazing discovery at Milk River Ridge in 1987. Fossil hunting at Devil’s Coolee near Warner, Alberta, the young scientist uncovered a large round shape. Wendy Sloboda was […]
Three post offices were opened in Canada by Ben Franklin – Montreal, Trois Rivieres and Quebec City. He also established a courier service between cities. Long before Confederation, before the War of 1812, and even before the American Revolution, settled regions of Canada and the United States were known as British North America. Amenities and […]