Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

Greg Marchildon speaks with Stephen Azzi and Patrice Dutil about their book, Statecraft: Canadian Prime Ministers and Their Cabinets. This collection of essays explores the politics of cabinet government in Canada through the lens of statecraft, examining how prime ministers have exercised leadership since 1867. Through twenty critical essays, leading scholars analyse the challenges faced by individual leaders from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau. They address questions such as: What influenced cabinet appointments? Why were ministers shuffled or dismissed? How did the drive for re-election shape leadership styles? At its core, the book defines statecraft as the art of decisive leadership amid shifting social, economic, and cultural realities. It is a balancing act—maintaining cabinet cohesion, prioritizing urgent issues, and navigating the pursuit of political survival. Even the most seasoned leaders may master it one day and falter the next. Drawing on extensive research, Statecraft bridges history and political science, offering fresh insights into the strategies, decisions, and leadership techniques that have defined Canada’s prime ministers. Stephen Azzi is a professor of political management, history, and political science at Carleton University. Patrice Dutil is a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. Image Credit: UTP If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Nicole O'Byrne speaks with Alan MacEachern about his book Becoming Green Gables: The Diary of Myrtle Webb and Her Famous Farmhouse. In 1909 Myrtle and Ernest Webb took possession of a Cavendish, Prince Edward Island farm—ordinary except that it was already known as the inspiration for Anne of Green Gables, written by Myrtle’s cousin, L. M. Montgomery. The Webbs welcomed visitors to “Green Gables” and took in summer boarders, making their home central to PEI’s growing tourist trade. In the 1930s the farm became the centerpiece of a new national park, though the family remained its caretakers for another decade. During these years Myrtle kept a diary. When she began in 1924, she was a forty-year-old homemaker managing a household of eight; by 1954, she was a seventy-year-old widow, no longer resident in what had become the most famous house in Canada. In Becoming Green Gables, Alan MacEachern reproduces a selection of her diary entries, using them to explore topics from modern conveniences to wartime hosting and visits from “Aunt Maud” herself. Alan MacEachern is professor of history at the University of Western Ontario and has written widely on Canadian environmental history. Image Credit: MQUP If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Michael A. McDonnell about his book, Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America. Masters of Empire by Michael A. McDonnell reveals the vital role played by the native peoples of the Great Lakes in the history of North America. Though less well known than the Iroquois or Sioux, the Anishinaabeg, who lived across Lakes Michigan and Huron, were equally influential. Masters of Empire charts the story of one group, the Odawa, who settled at the straits between those two lakes, a hub for trade and diplomacy throughout the vast country west of Montreal known as the pays d’en haut. Through vivid depictions--all from a native perspective--of early skirmishes, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution, Masters of Empire overturns our assumptions about colonial America. Michael A. McDonnell is an associate professor of history at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia, winner of the 2008 New South Wales Premier's History Prize, and coeditor of Remembering the Revolution: Memory, History, and Nation-Making from Independence to the Civil War. His work was included in the Best American History Essays 2008 and he won the Lester Cappon Prize for the best article published in the William and Mary Quarterly in 2006. He has received numerous research scholarships and grants in the United States and Australia and has served as a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Image Credit: Hill and Wang If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

In 1973, three young lawyers founded Heenan Blaikie in Montreal, which grew to be a prominent Canadian law firm with notable members, including former political leaders. Despite its close-knit atmosphere, the firm faced significant internal issues, leading to its collapse in 2014. Adam Dodek, an impartial observer, examines the firm’s rise and fall, highlighting its unique culture alongside underlying problems like workplace bullying, challenges for women and minorities, and sexual harassment. The narrative is contextualized within broader societal changes, including economic shifts and crises. Dodek's thorough investigation serves as an essential read for legal professionals and those interested in the dynamics of corporate failure. Adam Dodek is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa. Among his numerous publications are In Search of the Ethical Lawyer; The Canadian Constitution, Third Edition, named by the Hill Times as one of the top 100 books on Canadian public policy; and Solicitor-Client Privilege, which won the Walter Owen Book Prize. He is a recipient of the Canadian Association of Law Teachers Prize for Academic Excellence, the Mundell Medal for excellence in legal writing, and the Law Society of Ontario’s Law Society Medal. He is also a director of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics and the Canadian Legal Information Institute, and a past governor of the Law Commission of Ontario. Image Credit: UBC Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

A twenty-two-year-old cancer survivor and amputee, Terry set out from St. John’s Newfoundland in April 1980, aiming to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. His first months on the road in Atlantic Canada and Quebec were not only physically taxing—he ran the equivalent of a marathon a day—but frustrating as Canadians were slow to recognize and support his endeavor. That all changed when he met a young man named Bill Vigars, who on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society led a campaign to ensure that every person in Canada knew the story of this outstanding young man. Vigars was by Fox’s side through all the highs and lows until the tragic end of his journey in Thunder Bay. A recurrence of his cancer cut short Terry’s dream and, soon, his life. Now, for the first time, Vigars tells the inside story of the Marathon of Hope—the logistical nightmares, boardroom battles, and moments of pure magic—while giving us a fresh, insightful portrait of one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived. Bill Vigars was the Director of Public Relations and Fundraising for the Canadian Cancer Society’s Ontario Division, and acted as Terry Fox’s public relations organizer, his close friend and confidante. He set up several key events as the Run entered Toronto. Image Credit: Sutherland House If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

We Shall Persist captures both the long campaign and the years of disappointment. Suffrage victories across Atlantic Canada were steps in an unfinished and contentious march toward gender, race, and class equality. This insightful book will appeal to readers with an interest in women’s history, as well as to historians, political scientists, and women’s studies scholars and students. Heidi MacDonald is the author of numerous articles on women’s and gender history in Atlantic Canada. She is co-author, with Rosa Bruno-Jofré and Elizabeth Smyth, of Vatican II and Beyond: The Changing Mission and Identity of Canadian Women Religious. From 1999 to 2018, she taught at the University of Lethbridge and served as the founding director of the Centre of Oral History and Tradition from 2013 to 2017. In 2019, she became dean of arts and professor of history and politics at the University of New Brunswick Saint John. Image Credit: UBC Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

In Ice War Diplomat, Canadian diplomat Gary J. Smith gives his behind-the-scenes insight into the 1972 Summit Series at the height of tension during the Cold War. Caught between capitalism and communism, Canada and the Soviet Union, Smith shares stories from his first overseas assignment in Moscow where he opts for sports diplomacy, throwing off his embassy black tie and donning the blue-and-white sweater of the Moscow Maple Leafs. With unparalleled access to officials, coaches and players on both teams, Smith witnesses this unique and epic hockey series that has come to transcend time, becoming a symbol of the unity and clarity that sports can offer. Fifty years on, the 1972 Canadian-Soviet Hockey Series has gone down in history as a pivotal political event, changing the course of two nations and the world of hockey—the fascinating story in these pages will appeal to history and sports fans alike. As a young Canadian diplomat to the Soviet Union, and a life-long hockey enthusiast, Gary J. Smith played an integral role in organizing (and sometimes rescuing) the historical 1972 Summit Series. Following this career highlight, Smith’s career spanned 30 years, taking from Israel to Lebanon, West Germany, Indonesia, and beyond. Now retired, Smith continues to consult and feature on documentaries, films and books about this iconic moment in global sports history. Image Credit: Canada. Department of Manpower and Immigration. Library and Archives Canada, e010996348 / If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Peter Neary. He is the co-author, with Melvin Baker, of Joseph Roberts Smallwood: Masthead Newfoundlander, 1900-1949, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2021. This meticulously researched biography covers Joey Smallwood’s life from birth to being elected Premier of Newfoundland in 1949. Professor Neary has written numerous books and articles on various aspects of the history of Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the history of Canadian veterans. He has been a professor in the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario since 1965 and is now Professor Emeritus. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past

In her book The Art of Sharing: The Richer versus the Poorer Provinces since Confederation, Mary Janigan explores the history of equalization – one of Canada’s most important yet least understood social programs. Based on a simple idea of the federal government redistributing a portion of the tax revenues it receives to lower-income provinces so that they can provide roughly comparable public services at roughly comparable provincial rates of taxation to other provinces, this program has been criticized by wealthier provinces from the beginning. In her interview with Greg Marchildon, Dr. Janigan describes the origins of the idea in the Commonwealth Grants Commission in Australia and how Prime Minister Louis St-Laurent’s government set up the first formal program and how this program has been refined since. Dr. Janigan describes the importance of equalization in keeping Canada more unified over time. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Dr Esyllt W. Jones about her Book Radical Medicine (ARP Books). Jones is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba. This recording was produced by Michael Smith at Ryerson University. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Patrice Dutil speaks with Christopher Moore about the infamous massacre that took place in May 1754 that sparked the Seven-Year War. Christopher Moore writes “History News”, a very popular blog on Canadian History (christophermoorehistory.blogspot.com) and is the author of a dozen books including Three Weeks in Quebec City: The Meeting that Made Canada (Allen Lane). This podcast was produced by Hugh Bakhurst in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University. See this “Finding” on the same topic: George Washington’s French Canadian Victims, 1754 If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Patrice Dutil discusses the significance of the founding of the Parti québécois by René Lévesque on 11 October 1968 with Xavier Gélinas, a specialist on the Québec "Quiet Revolution" and curator of Politics at the Canadian Museum of History. This podcast is available in French on Témoins d'hier. This podcast was produced by Naomi Katz and Richard Anstey in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon discusses the significance of this event of a hundred years ago with Patrice Dutil and David MacKenzie, authors of "Embattled Nation: Canada's Wartime Election of 1917" (Dundurn Press). This podcast was produced by Sumeet Dhami and Pernia Jamshed in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute at Ryerson University. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Kevin Nikkel about his book, Founding Folks: An Oral History of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Founding Folks tells the story of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, which began in 1974 at Birds Hill Provincial Park in Manitoba. The book explores how founder Mitch Podolak’s vision grew into one of North America’s leading folk festivals. Through interviews with musicians, staff, and volunteers—including Bruce Cockburn and Tom Jackson—filmmaker Kevin Nikkel highlights the festival's role in community building, politics, and cultural expression. Featuring over 90 photographs, the book celebrates the festival’s legacy and its impact on prairie arts, culture, and folk music lovers. Kevin Nikkel is an independent filmmaker and educator based in Winnipeg. He is a long-time member of the Winnipeg Film Group. He co-directed the documentary Tales from the Winnipeg Film Group with Dave Barber in 2007. Image Credit: University of Manitoba Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Larry Ostola speaks with Patrice Dutil about his book, Ballots and Brawls: The 1867 Canadian General Election. Ballots and Brawls by Patrice Dutil explores Canada's first federal election in 1867, shortly after Confederation. The book vividly recounts the idealistic foundations laid in the 1864 Charlottetown and Quebec City conferences and delves into the chaotic and often violent summer election across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec. Dutil highlights the key political and social tensions of the time—economic issues, taxation, defence, and cultural divides—while profiling major figures like John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier. Drawing on archival sources and poll data, the book provides a compelling, detailed look at the birth of Canadian democracy. Patrice Dutil is a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University and a senior fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. He is the founder of the Literary Review of Canada and was president of the Champlain Society from 2011 to 2017. He is the author and editor of several books on Canadian politics and governance, including Statesmen, Strategists and Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy and The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent: Politics and Policies for a Modern Canada. Image Credit: UBC Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Micah True about his book, The Jesuit Relations. The Jesuit Relations were annual reports written between 1632 and 1673 by Jesuit missionaries in what is now Eastern Canada. Traditionally viewed as firsthand missionary narratives, Micah True’s work challenges this notion by revealing that the texts were shaped by many contributors—including Indigenous people, settlers, nuns, and editors in France. He explores the influence of historical context, such as Jesuit writing traditions and the Paris book trade, on their creation. True also examines how different editions since the 19th century have altered the interpretation of these texts. His analysis offers a more nuanced understanding of the Jesuit Relations and their role in shaping the history of New France and Indigenous-European encounters. Micah True is professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta. Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Daniel Macfarlane about his book, The Lives of Lake Ontario: An Environmental History. The Lives of Lake Ontario by Daniel Macfarlane explores the deep and complex relationship between Lake Ontario and the peoples and nations along its shores. For centuries, the lake has shaped the development of surrounding societies, supporting agriculture, energy production, and urban growth. Macfarlane traces how Indigenous nations, settlers, and modern Canadian and American societies have interacted with the lake, often exploiting it through dams, canals, industrial activity, pollution, and overuse of resources. This transboundary water body has acted as both a connector and divider between Canada and the United States, ultimately becoming home to Canada’s largest urban area. However, intensive human activity led to serious ecological damage, pushing communities to turn away from the lake. In response, binational efforts like the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements emerged in the late 20th century, resulting in some environmental improvements. Despite these efforts, Lake Ontario remains the most degraded of the Great Lakes. The impacts of urbanization, invasive species, and climate change continue to challenge its recovery. Macfarlane’s account highlights both the lake’s resilience and its vulnerability, urging renewed attention to its environmental health. The book serves as a compelling case study of human-nature interactions and the ongoing struggle to balance development with ecological preservation. Daniel Macfarlane is associate professor in the School of Environment, Geography, and Sustainability at Western Michigan University and the author of Natural Allies: Environment, Energy, and the History of US-Canada Relations. Image Credit: McGill-Queen’s University Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Greg Marchildon speaks with Shannon Stunden Bower about her book, Transforming the Prairies: Agricultural Rehabilitation and Modern Canada. Created in 1935, the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a Canadian federal agency active for over 70 years, often praised as a model of effective environmental management. Transforming the Prairies challenges this view, highlighting the mixed results of its agricultural rehabilitation efforts in Canada and abroad. Historian Shannon Stunden Bower critiques the PFRA’s initiatives, revealing their unintended ecological and social consequences. For instance, while promoting strip farming for soil conservation, the agency inadvertently increased crop vulnerability to pests like the sawfly. In Ghana, PFRA-led irrigation projects heightened the risk of illness among locals. In Canada, infrastructure development ignored the rights and interests of Indigenous peoples. Stunden Bower argues that the PFRA, as a high modernist agency, often reinforced colonial and racist systems while producing uneven environmental outcomes. This book urges a rethinking of the PFRA’s legacy, both to deepen our understanding of Canadian and environmental history and to inform more just and sustainable environmental policies today. It is especially relevant to scholars and students of Canadian, environmental, and agricultural history, as well as those interested in the modern state and the Prairie West. Policymakers and Prairie residents familiar with the PFRA will also find it insightful. Shannon Stunden Bower is an associate professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Alberta. She is the author of Wet Prairie: People, Land, and Water in Agricultural Manitoba, which won the Canadian Historical Association Clio Prize for the Prairies and the Manitoba Day Award from the Association for Manitoba Archives. She has also published articles in journals such as Environmental History and Agricultural History. Image Credit: UBC Press If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Nicole O’Byrne speaks with Eric Andrew-Gee about his book, The Mind Mappers. This powerful dual biography tells the true story of two neurosurgeons—Wilder Penfield and the lesser-known William Cone—whose partnership revolutionized brain science in the early 20th century. In the 1920s, when brain surgery was still highly risky, the two men joined forces, united by a fascination with the mind’s inner workings. Together, they founded the Montreal Neurological Institute, which quickly became a world-renowned center for neurological research. Penfield gained fame for developing the Montreal procedure to treat epilepsy, a breakthrough that revealed key brain functions related to speech, memory, and consciousness. Cone, meanwhile, worked tirelessly in the operating room and at patients’ bedsides, quietly enabling Penfield’s success. Though their achievements were shared, Cone’s contributions went largely unrecognized. Over time, the strain between them grew. Penfield pursued scientific glory, while Cone remained grounded in patient care. Their friendship deteriorated, ending abruptly with Cone’s sudden death at age sixty-two. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the founding of The Neuro and the complex bond between two men at the heart of modern neuroscience. The book restores Cone to his rightful place in history, illuminating the human cost of scientific progress. Eric Andrew-Gee is the Quebec correspondent for The Globe and Mail, based in Montreal, and a former staff reporter for the Toronto Star. He is the winner of two National Newspaper Awards. His work has appeared in magazines including The Walrus, Toronto Life and The New Republic. This is his first book. Image Credit: Penguin Random House If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

Larry Ostola speaks with William E. Moreau about his book, The Writings of David Thompson, Volume 1. Between 1784 and 1812, David Thompson explored and traded across much of western North America, from Athabasca to the Missouri and from Lake Superior to the Columbia River's mouth. In his later years, he recounted these experiences in his autobiographical work Travels. More than just a personal narrative, Travels blends geographic exploration with intellectual reflection, offering insights into the land and Indigenous peoples he encountered. This distinguished work combines scientific observation with vivid storytelling, capturing Thompson’s curiosity and deep sense of wonder. It stands as a foundational text in Canadian literature and history. The boxed set referenced includes the two companion volumes of Travels published in 2009 and 2015. It features a new transcription of Thompson’s complete manuscript, critical annotations, historical and textual introductions, biographical appendices, and maps—both historical and modern. With an updated edition and a new preface by geographer John Warkentin, it remains the definitive scholarly reference for Thompson’s legacy and continues to introduce his work to new generations. William E. Moreau is a teacher with the Toronto District School Board and a sessional lecturer with the University of Toronto at Scarborough. Image Credit: The Champlain Society If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.