About

A Canadian History Blog

TCE Blog is a blog by The Canadian Encyclopedia. Updated several times a week, it seeks to promote the history, culture, and traditions of Canada and its people, both past and present. Drawing from a unique pool of contributors, including academics, writers, educators, students and travellers from across the country, TCE Blog is a healthy dose of Canada for the inquiring mind.

Thomas Axworthy

Thomas Axworthy was the Executive Director of the Historica Foundation from 1999 to 2005. View All Posts.

John Beckwith

John Beckwith is a Canadian compositor, pianist, writer, and teacher. He studied piano with Alberto Guerrero at the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1945 and received a Bachelors in Music and a Masters in Music from the University of Toronto. From 1970 to 1977, he was the dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. He was the founding director of the Institute for Canadian Music at the University of Toronto. He has written more than 130 compositions, and for his enormous contributions to Canadian music, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada. He holds honorary doctorates from Mount Allison University, McGill University, the University of Guelph, Queen's University and the University of Victoria. Learn more about John Beckwith at The Canadian Encyclopedia. View All Posts.

Matthew Biehl

Matthew Biehl is a graduate of Queen’s University. Currently living and working in Toronto, he is an avid reader and runner, with interests in fashion, environmental sustainability, and where the two intersect. View All Posts.

Russell Bingham

Russell Bingham is a Subject Editor at The Canadian Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. A former curator at the Edmonton Art Gallery, he continues to write on art and organize exhibitions as well as create and exhibit his own photographs. View All Posts.

Black History Canada

Black History Canada is a free, bilingual online resource on the history of Canada's Black community. Visit Black History Canada. View All Posts.

Laura Bonikowsky

Laura Neilson Bonikowsky has lived in and travelled across Canada, the United States and Europe. Her work for the Historica-Dominion Institute as the Associate Editor of The Canadian Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada has allowed her to combine her passion for communication with her interest in a variety of topics, including history, science, technology and medicine. Laura is a contributor on behalf of Historica to Diplomat Magazine. View All Posts.

Maria Calderisi

Maria Calderisi is a music librarian. In 1973 she joined the Music Division of the National Library of Canada and became the head of its printed collection in 1976. Her McGill thesis, on the beginnings of music printing and publishing in Ontario and Quebec, was revised and published as Music Publishing in the Canadas 1800-1867/L'Édition musicale au Canada 1800-1867 (Ottawa 1981). She was responsible for the NL of C exhibition 'Percy A. Scholes 1877-1958' in 1977. Calderisi has been president 1976-8 of CAML and 1986-9 of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres. She has been a delegate to or committee member of library organizations such as the Music Library Association, the International Federation of Library Associations and the Canadian Music Centre. She has contributed articles to musical and bibliographical journals and to the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Her husband, Nikolas Bryce, is librarian of the NACO. View All Posts.

Davina Choy

Davina Choy is the Community and Digital Media Coordinator at The Canadian Encyclopedia. Her interests include arts, culture, and the ever-changing digital landscape. View All Posts.

William Christian

William Christian formerly taught political science at Mount Allison University and the University of Guelph. He has contributed regularly to newspapers for over thirty years. His biography of Canadian philosopher George Grant was a national best-seller. He recently published Parkin: Canada's Most Famous Forgotten Man (Blue Butterfly Books), a biography of Grant's maternal grandfather (and Michael Ignatieff's great-grandfather). He lives in Guelph, Ontario. He tweets at @WEChristian. View All Posts.

Ed Conroy

Ed Conroy is a Scarborough native who often finds himself knee deep in 16mm, U-matic, 2 inch, Betamax and VHS tapes searching for lost and treasured memories of vintage Canadiana visual ephemera from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Plumbing the seedy depths of Toronto flea markets, flooded basements, thrift shops and garage sales, he avenges the forgotten and unsung heroes of Canadian culture while embracing the ease with which modern technology can re-circulate ghosts of the past. View All Posts.

Gary Cristall

Gary Cristall was the co-founder of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in 1978; from 1994 he spent six years at Canada Council. Since 2000 he has worked as an artist's manager and consultant and teacher of arts administration at Capilano University. He is researching and writing a history of folk music in English Canada. Visit Gary at his website and learn more about his book on the history of folk music in Canada. Photo credit: Brian Nation View All Posts.

Ann Diamond

Ann Diamond's story collection Evil Eye won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for fiction in 1994. A book of poetry, A Nun's Diary, was adapted for theatre by director Robert Lepage. Mona's Dance (a novel) chronicles the adventures of a nightclub dancer, and was featured on CBC's The Arts Tonight as the best small press book of 1988. Her work has been published in Best Canadian Stories (1991) and The Thinking Heart: Best Canadian Essays (1992), as well as numerous periodicals and anthologies. A radio play, "Solo Death Waves" (1993) was broadcast on CBC Stereodrama. A memoir, "Roads to Freedom" won the 1991 Event Magazine Creative Non-Fiction Prize. Ann has appeared on local and national media including Morningside, Home Run, Newswatch, etc. She was one of four Montreal personalities featured in Georges Dufaux' documentary film, "Rue Ste-Catherine Est/West" (1992). She has taught Creative Writing at Concordia University, St. Laurence College (Kingston) and University College of the Cariboo (Kamloops). In 1993, she was weekly Books columnist for the Montreal Gazette. Since 2003, she has divided her time between Greece and Canada. Visit her at here. View All Posts.

Desmond Maley

Desmond Maley is an Associate Librarian at the Laurentian University Library. View All Posts.

The Editors

The editors of the Canadian Encyclopedia are a learned and eccentric bunch. Occasionally, they get together to collaborate on blog posts, which is always a good time. View All Posts.

Andrea Ellis

Andrea Ellis is a young arts administrator based out of Charlottetown, PEI. She currently works for the Atlantic Presenters Association and is event coordinator for Contact East. As a graduate from the University of Prince Edward Island's Music Department, Andrea remains active in the local music community as a pianist, singer and choral musician. She represented PEI in the National Youth Choir of Canada in 2010 and will represent the province again in 2012. She currently sits on the Association of Canadian Choral Communities' Student Chapter as Arts Administration Representative. View All Posts.

John English

John English is a professor of history at the University of Waterloo, a former MP, and the author of the acclaimed two-volume biography of Lester Pearson, The Worldly Years: The Life of Lester Pearson, Vol. 1:1949—1972, and Shadow of Heaven: The Life of Lester B. Pearson Vol. 2, along with several other books on Canadian politics. View All Posts.

Mélanie Fafard

Mélanie Fafard is a Québécoise with an MA in archaeology and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Throughout her fieldwork, she worked with the Gwich’in of the Yukon and NWT to document their perspective on heritage and heritage places and submit some places for provincial and national historic designation. For the past six years, Mélanie has been a subject editor for The Canadian Encyclopedia, responsible for the archaeology, anthropology, agriculture and forestry subject areas. A passionate of travel, languages and cultures, over these years she also visited several countries, including Egypt, Cameroon, Congo, Australia, Spain, Cambodia, Lao and Thailand. Mélanie Fafard est une québécoise ayant obtenu une maîtrise en archéologie et un doctorat en anthropologie à l’Université de l’Alberta, Edmonton. Son travail de terrain l’a amenée à travailler avec les Gwich’in du Yukon et des Territoires du Nord-Ouest afin de documenter leur perspective sur le patrimoine et les lieux culturels et de nominer certains endroits pour désignation en tant que lieux historiques provinciaux et nationaux. Depuis six ans, Mélanie travaille comme éditrice spécialisée pour l’Encyclopédie canadienne; elle est responsable des articles reliés à l’archéologie, l’anthropologie, l’agriculture et la foresterie. Une passionnée des voyages, des langues et des cultures, à travers ces années elle a aussi visité différents pays, dont l’Égypte, le Cameroun, le Congo, l’Australie, l’Espagne, le Cambodge, le Laos et la Thaïlande. View All Posts.

Paul Foisy

For the last 15 years, Paul Foisy has had a passion for the history of sports. He was responsible for the website of the Panthéon des sports du Québec and is currently editor in chief and writer for the Sports et Société, a site dedicated to the history of sports in Québec. Paul Foisy s’intéresse à l’histoire du sport depuis une quinzaine d’années. Il a été chargé de projets web pour le Panthéon des sports du Québec et est aujourd’hui éditeur et rédacteur en chef de Sport et Société, un site dédié à l'histoire du sport au Québec. View All Posts.

Myriam Fontaine

Myriam Fontaine has studied literature and history at the University of Montreal and McGill University. She likes the challenge and satisfaction of making the French language enjoyable. Myriam is an experienced French teacher to both Anglophones and Francophones and is proficient at translating and editing texts and publications. She is also an author of children's stories. Myriam Fontaine a poursuivi des études universitaires (Université de Montréal et Université McGill) en littérature et en histoire. Sa mission a toujours été de minimiser les difficultés de la langue française, et surtout de la faire aimer. Elle traîne dans ses bagages une solide expérience, de l'enseignement du français, langue première et langue seconde, de la traduction à la révision et à l'édition. Elle est aussi auteure, entre autres, de livres pour enfants. View All Posts.

Daniel Francis

Daniel Francis, a North Vancouver-based writer, is the editor of the print and online editions of the Encyclopedia of British Columbia. He has written more than twenty books of history, including The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture, and National Dreams: Myth, Memory and Canadian History. His biography of Vancouver mayor Louis D. Taylor won the 2004 City of Vancouver Book Award and in 2008, Operation Orca, a book about killer whales on the West Coast which he co-authored with biologist Gil Hewlett, was named Foreword Magazine's Nature Book of the Year. He is a regular columnist with Geist magazine and blogs regularly on all things British Columbian at KnowBC. His latest book is Seeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-19, Canada's First War on Terror (Arsenal Pulp Press). View All Posts.

Laura Fraser

Laura Fraser is a 20-something educator and public historian based in Toronto, Canada. A graduate of Queen’s University (History) and the University of Ottawa (Education), and an accredited educator with the Ontario College of Teachers, Laura has worked in classrooms and with historical organizations like The Historica-Dominion Institute and Heritage Toronto. Her field of interest is Canadian history, particularly Canadian military history, memory and commemoration. She is co-author of The 175 Best Camp Games: A Handbook for Leaders (Boston Mills Press, 2009) and contributor with THEN/HiER’s Teaching the Past: A Blog About Teaching History in Canada. View All Posts.

Chantal Gagnon

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John Geddes

John Geddes is Maclean’s magazine’s Ottawa bureau chief. He grew up in Cochenour, Ontario, a northern mining town, and has degrees from the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. A Parliament Hill journalist since 1989, he took a break in 2002-03 to be a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. His first novel, The Sundog Season, won the 2006 Ottawa Book Award. View All Posts.

Douglas Gibson

Douglas Gibson has been described by the Globe and Mail as a “publishing icon” and by Quill and Quire as a “living legend.” For over forty years, from 1968 to 2008, Douglas Gibson edited hundreds, and published thousands, of Canada’s best books, latterly as the Publisher at McClelland & Stewart (M&S). His Douglas Gibson Books editorial imprint was Canada’s first, and he is the first publisher to become an Honorary Member of the Writers’ Union of Canada. His most recent book is Stories About Storytellers: Publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, and Others (ECW Press, 2011). View All Posts.

Cody Alan Gregory

Cody Alan Gregory is a writer, musician and zine publisher living in Vancouver, BC. He hosted an all-Canadian independent radio program for 3 years on CFUV 101.9FM, UVIC's campus radio. He has interviewed and written about many homegrown artists. He currently runs Red, White and You, a music blog dedicated to the discovery of Canadian musicians, old and new. View All Posts.

John R. Grodzinski

Major John R. Grodzinski is a military historian and assistant professor at Royal Military College in Kingston. Prior to teaching at the college, he served with Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) and held several staff positions. He regularly conducts battlefield tours for RMC, field force units, the Canadian Forces College and other CF units, with primary focus on the War of 1812. View All Posts.

Florence Hayes

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Norman Hillmer

Norman Hillmer is Professor of History and International Affairs at Carleton University. View All Posts.

The Historica-Dominion Institute

The Historica-Dominion Institute is a national charitable organization that was launched in September 2009 through the amalgamation of two existing organizations: The Historica Foundation of Canada and The Dominion Institute. Its mandate is to build active and informed citizens through a greater knowledge and appreciation of the history, heritage and stories of Canada. View All Posts.

Heritage Minutes

The acclaimed Heritage Minutes are one-minute movies that portray exciting and important stories from Canada's past. The Minutes have been a familiar part of Canada's cultural landscape for more than ten years. So familiar, in fact, they have been imitated and parodied by comedians. Whether the Heritage Minutes make you laugh or cry, one thing is certain — Canadian history is more interesting by the minute. View All Posts.

Jennifer Higgs

Jennifer Higgs is a subject editor for the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Based in Charlottetown, PEI, Jennifer specializes in the area of choral music. She has also written about some of Canada’s leading musicians, including Sam Roberts, Karina Gauvin and Sarah Harmer. In addition to writing, Jennifer is a project coordinator for the Atlantic Presenters Association, a service organization for arts presenters. She is currently managing a dance project, Atlantic Moves, which aims to increase the number of contemporary dance performances in Atlantic Canada. Jennifer is an avid choral singer in the Charlottetown area, devoting much of her time to performing with the self-directed vocal octet, Cantorica. View All Posts.

Jeanie Jones

Jeanie Jones has lived between Saskatchewan and Alberta for the past 17 years. She was brought up in New Westminster, B.C. and spent the 90s living in Vancouver and Burnaby. She is a single working mom of two, grandmother to three, and she can just about see retirement. She can't wait! View All Posts.

Gerard Kenney

Gerard Kenney writes about the north. He is the author of Ships of Wood and Men of Iron and Dangerous Passage. View his books at Dundurn Publishing. View All Posts.

Christina Lanteigne

Christina Lanteigne is a marketing and communications professional. In her spare time, she enjoys photography, reading, dance, music, and film. View All Posts.

Marshall Letcher

Marshall Letcher is a retired educator, founding member of Vancouver’s Science World, textbook writer, and editor. Born in B.C. and raised in Vancouver, he earned a B.Sc. and M.A. in Science Education from UBC. Marshall currently toils as a website editor for TCE, rummaging through the Internet to locate interesting and predominantly Canadian websites that complement current articles in the The Canadian Encyclopedia. View All Posts.

Kate Makarow

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Susanne Marshall

Susanne Marshall lives in Halifax, NS, where she teaches writing and Canadian Literature. She was educated at Mount Allison University, the University of Toronto, and Dalhousie University, where she completed a PhD in contemporary Canadian literature. Her research interests include redefinitions of regionalism, Atlantic Canadian writing, ecocritical writing and urban writing. Susanne has also worked in the educational publishing industry as a developmental editor, and as a freelance editor. She reads and writes all day, for her profession, for interest, and for the love of it. View All Posts.

James Marsh

James Marsh was born in Toronto and has spent most of his working life in publishing as an editor and writer. He has edited over 200 books in Canadian history and social science and is the author of several books and over 100 articles on Canadian history. James was editor in chief of all three print editions of The Canadian Encyclopedia (1985, 1988 and 1999) and of The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada and has continued to guide the encyclopedias into the digital world with numerous editions on CD-ROM and most recently the Online version. He is also the Director of Content Development of Historica Foundation and creator of the HistoryWire. James is a member of the Order of Canada and recipient of the Centenary Lorne Dawson Chauveau Medal of the Royal Society of Canada in recognition of his achievement of producing The Canadian Encyclopedia. James's interests beyond the encyclopedia range from biography, poetry and classical music to tennis (he owns several doubles and one singles title) and his puli, Sandor. For more information on James see his personal website. View All Posts.

Martin K. McNicholl

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Nova Scotia Archives

The Nova Scotia Archives is a division of the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage. As the documentary heritage institution for the province, the Nova Scotia Archives: * serves as the permanent repository for the archival records of the government of Nova Scotia * acquires and preserves provincially-significant archival records from the private sector * delivers a range of professional, client-centred reference services * develops and maintains two Internet web sites (NS Archives and Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics) * provides strategic support and financial assistance to strengthen the provincial archival community View All Posts.

Lauren Oostveen

Lauren Oostveen graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University with a degree in public relations. She works for the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management in Halifax where she puts old stuff on the internet and helps people connect with the province’s past. Lauren writes a movie column for the Chronicle Herald called SMASH CUT where she celebrates all things horror. Lauren also blogs for Spacing Atlantic and NovaScotia.com. She lives in Halifax with her cat Mia and may or may not have a Netflix addiction. Follow Lauren on Twitter at @laurenoostveen. View All Posts.

Brian Peckford

Alfred Brian Peckford served as the third Premier of Newfoundland. He served as leader of the Progressive Conservatives from 1979 until his retirement in 1989. View All Posts.

Pete Neilson

Pete Neilson grew up in Southern Ontario and moved north in 1987. He guided wilderness canoe trips for 15 years and now drives a tour bus in the summer. He lives one hour north of Whitehorse, off the grid with 21 sled dogs. View All Posts.

James Roxby Stewart

James Roxby is a freelance writer based in Vancouver, B.C. A Writing grad from the University of Victoria, James is currently an editorial intern at CONDO and Western Living magazine, and writes for his blog, Rock the Seesaw, when possible. James is a mental health advocate and champion for the 'rejeuvenile' lifestyle, injecting adult life with a healthy dose of the inner child. Among the many forms of media he dabbles in, James has written for the Times Colonist, story-edited for the Leo award winning webseries Freshman's Wharf, was editor-in-chief of UVic' s literary journal, This Side of West, shot hip hop music videos and pursues ghosts with Ghoul Inc. Contact him at jamesroxby.ca and find him on Twitter @JamesRoxby. View All Posts.

Stephen Azzi

Stephen Azzi is associate professor in the Clayton H. Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management and the Department of History, Carleton University. He recently revised The Canadian Encyclopedia entry on “Patriation of the Constitution." View All Posts.

Dennis Smith

Dennis Smith is the Creative Director at 7th Floor Media, a new media organization at Simon Fraser University. View All Posts.

Susan Spier

Born and raised in Quebec, Susan was a violinist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, worked in Ottawa on EMC (1992) at the National Library, and currently lives in Toronto. She has taught adult ed music courses (McGill and Ryerson), and for the past 10 years has run Creative Strings, her private studio teaching violin. She holds undergrad degrees in performance and general music, an MA in musicology (U de M), an Hons BA in translation (York U), and is also a certified translator. As a music subject editor, she hammers away at writing and researching articles and nagging authors. She enjoys working with the EMC/TCE team across Canada and likes the outdoors as an antidote to being chained to her computer. View All Posts.

Kaitlin Wainwright

Kaitlin Wainwright lives in Toronto, where her work as the Plaques Program Coordinator for Heritage Toronto engages her with the city's past, its places and its people on a daily basis. Fascinated by the politics of historical representation, she is also a contributor to Active History and keeps a blog. View All Posts.

David Wencer

David Wencer is a Toronto-based researcher, historian, and archivist. His areas of interest include popular culture, science and health history, and stories relating to the west end of Toronto, in particular the “Junction” neighbourhood where he grew up and continues to live. He has written for a number of groups and outlets including the West Toronto Junction Historical Society, Heritage Toronto, Torontoist, and the Canadian Encyclopedia’s “Toronto in Time” mobile app. View All Posts.

Paul Williams

Paul Williams was born and film schooled in Edmonton, Alberta, and has lived intermittently in Vancouver, London England and Glasgow. A freelance writer, he has also worked for the Edmonton and Vancouver International Film Festivals and still volunteers his time as an unproduced screenwriter. View All Posts.

David A. Wilson

David A. Wilson is coordinator of the Celtic Studies Program and a professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Ireland, a Bicycle and a Tin Whistle, United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic, and most recently, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Volume 2: The Extreme Moderate. View All Posts.

Wyndham Wise

Wyndham Wise is the former publisher and editor-in-chief of Take One: Film in Canada. Currently, he is a contributing editor with Northernstars.ca and consultant with The Canadian Encyclopedia. Visit him at wyndhamsfilmguide.ca. View All Posts.