Shows / Curious Canadian History
Curious Canadian History
Historian David Borys dives deep into the fascinating world of Canadian history in this bi-weekly podcast exploring everything from the wonderful to the weird to the downright dark. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E20 - Boosters and Barkers: Financing the First World War
When the British government declared war on Germany in August of 1914, no one in Canada (who was automatically thrust into the conflict by Britain’s…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E19 - Rum, Debt and Fur
Several episodes back, season 9 episode 15, we had on as a guest Alan Greer to talk about alcohol and its role in early colonial North America. One of the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E18 - Race and Racing: The Jerome Family
If you happened to grow up in North Vancouver, British Columbia (like I did) the name Harry Jerome was one seen everywhere. Harry Jerome was not just an…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E17 - Lost in the Crowd: Acadians and the First World War
The First World War occupies a complicated space in our public memory. For many Canadians, places like Vimy Ridge or Passchendaele are certainly familiar…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E16 - Sex in Canada: Getting Down in the Great White North
I’m sure all our listeners at some point in their lives have encountered an uncomfortable moment when discussing sex and sexuality, and in many places and…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E15 - Alcohol in early North America
When one thinks of the pre-confederation development of North America one might think of war and empires, competing nations, economic trade, fur, colonization…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E14 Hockey: The Game as We Know it Today
Hockey has had both an enduring but also a complicated relationship with ideas about what it means to be ‘Canadian’. While not every Canadian skates, or plays…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E13 - Of Fugitives and Orators: The Characters Behind the RCMP’s Complicated History - a special Canadian Time Machine episode
In May 2023, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) commemorated its 150th anniversary. The federal police force – which originally started out as the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E12 - The Canadian Masters of the Air
One of the most talked about shows currently available is Masters of the Air. A program detailing the lives of American bomber crews serving in the US Army Air…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E11 - Canada, Maritime Power, and Africa
The Houthis are a non-state Shia Islamist politically and military movement, and they have controlled key parts of western Yemen since the Yemenis Civil War…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E10 The Beginning of the End: The 1758 Siege of Louisbourg
The fortress of Louisbourg was once thought to be one of the finest fortresses of its day. It was considered a marvel of engineering, a dominating position…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E9 - A Ballistic Decision: Canadian Intelligence Services and the Cancellation of the Avro Arrow
The Avro Arrow is a topic that has fascinated Canadians since its controversial cancellation in 1959. However, in the last ten years the narrative has changed…
Curious Canadian HistoryHoliday Reboot - The Upper Canadian Militia during the War of 1812
For this 2023 Holiday Reboot episode we go back to Season 2 Episode Six for a look at the militia of Upper Canada during the early days of the War of 1812. On…
Curious Canadian HistoryHoliday Reboot - S2E1 The Strangest Tale of WW2: The Battle for Castle Itter
For this 2023 Holiday Reboot episode we go way back to Season 2 Episode 1 for one of the strangest tales of the Second World War. In the closing days of the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E8 Confederates in Canada and the Canadian Connection to Lincoln's Assassination
On the 30th of May 1867 Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederate States of America, arrived in Toronto following his imprisonment after the Civil…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E7 Big Men Fear Me - The Life and Times of George McCullagh
The Globe and Mail is an absolute fixture of the Canadian media landscape. One would be hard pressed to find a single Canadian who would not know what the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E6 The SS in Canada Part Two
Back in episode 4 myself and historian Per Anders Rudling spoke in length about the history behind Ukrainian Waffen SS veterans settling in Canada in the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E5 - The Partition of Palestine
The relationship between Israel and Palestine is a complex and chaotic situation which is not only fraught with acrimonious debate but continual violence. When…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E4 The SS in Canada Part One
In September 2023 the Canadian parliament gave a standing ovation to 98 year old Yaroslav Hunka, who at the time was being applauded for his role in fighting…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E3 The Bombing of Air India Flight 182
In recent weeks a diplomatic row between Canada and India erupted as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of being behind the assassination of…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E2 United the Salish! The Battle of Maple Bay
Sometime in the early to mid-19th century, thousands of Coast Salish warriors, from dozens of tribes, united in an incredible moment of Salish solidarity. They…
Curious Canadian HistoryS9E1 Henri Le Caron - The Victorian Super Spy
Welcome everyone to the first episode of Season 9! In the late 1860s a man named Henri Le Caron was rising within the innermost circles of the Fenian…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E21 A Global Collision - The North Pacific Fur Trade
In the 1770s the realization that sea otter pelts from the pacific northwest were fetching high prices in China led to an absolute bonanza of trading…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E20 Thayendenagay aka Joseph Brant – the warrior-diplomat
Thayendenagay was a Mohawk war chief, British soldier, tireless advocate and an accomplished diplomat who straddled two very different worlds that were…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E19 - D-Day, 6 June, 1944
Many Canadians know of the incredible bravery and courage that Canadian soldiers showed on 6 June 1944 when the men of 3rd Canadian Infantry Division seized…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E18 - Gordon Lightfoot - A National Treasure
The recent passing of Gordon Lightfoot is the loss of one of the most important Canadian singer-songwriters in the history of North American popular music. Not…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E17 HMCS Uganda - The Ship that Voted to Leave the War
The words mutiny and cowardice are some of the most vile recriminations one could make against a ship and its crew. For years, these words were veiled behind…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E16 Seize Wismar, Stop the Soviets!
While the official start of the Cold War is still debated by historians, many agree that it began at some point in the late 1940s. Yet, it was clear by 1945…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E15 Columbus Who? The Norse in Newfoundland
The legendary sagas of the Vikings have always spoken of perilous, seaborne adventures to lands so far to the west as to literally drop off the edge of the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E14 Strange Tales from Toronto
Every city, town and village in this country has its own unique history. For this episode, CCH takes a deep dive into some strange tales from the great city of…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E13 The Little Island That Could: PEI and Confederation
Prince Edward Island is one of the most beautiful provinces in Canada. It’s wind-swept beaches are stunning, it’s people are some of the friendliest in the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E12 Montreal's Black Renaissance
The history of Montreal’s Black community goes as far back as the very first French explorers to settle along the St. Larry River valley. The community has…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E11 Clara Ford and the Parkdale Murder that Excited a Nation
In the autumnal darkness of October 6, 1894, an unseen figure slipped through the streets of Parkdale, rang the doorbell at the home of a well-to-do Toronto…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E10 - Our Man in Toronto: Sam Carr and a Soviet Spy Ring in Canada
In the Autumn of 1945 a Soviet cipher clerk defected to Canada instead of returning home to the Soviet Union. The information he brought with him shocked…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E9 The Trent Affair and the Defence of British North America
At midday on November 8th 1861 the USS San Jacinto stopped and boarded the British mail steamer, RMS Trent. A party of American marines then boarded the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E8 I've Seen it, I've Done It - the Life of Paul Anka
Before there was Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, New Kids on the Block, or the Osmonds, there was Paul Anka. One of Canada’s most important contributors to the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E7 The Last Duel....in Canada
If you took a stroll along the banks of Tay River, in Perth Ontario, just on the northeast edge of the town, you would come upon on a strangely named location…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E6 Henri Bourassa and the Conscription Crisis
Henri Bourassa is one of the most famous Quebec journalists in the history of Canada. His writing at Le Devoir, the paper he founded, was embraced by many as…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E5 Stanley Thompson and Golf in Canada
There are many ways in which Canadians express their national identity. Through song, poetry, tattoos, pride over historic and international achievements, the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E4 A 17th Century River of Change - The Innu and the Algonquin along the St. Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River is one of the most important waterways in the western hemisphere. It has been home to a multitude of peoples and has provided both food…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E3 The Honan Mission – First Generation Canadian Missionaries in China
In the late 19th century a number of Canadian missionaries travelled to China ultimately arriving in the province of Honan, north of the Yellow River. These…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E2 The Frontier Constabulary - Canada’s First Secret Police
From 1864 until 1871 a relatively secret organisation of Canadian police patrolled Canada’s border with the United States. What began as a mission to prevent…
Curious Canadian HistoryS8E1 Kurt Meyer - A War Criminal in Canada
Perhaps no single person in the aftermath of the Second World War aroused so much widespread and continued interest in Canada than that of Nazi officer and war…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E21 - The Dakota War and British North America
For our last episode of Season 7 we look at how war in the US showed a deep connection between peoples on both sides of the US-Canada border. While the border…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E20 The Avro Arrow Part 2
In Part 2 of our two-part series we explore the aftermath of the Avro Arrow’s cancellation. While the cancellation sent short-term shockwaves through Ontario…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E19 The Avro Arrow Part 1
There are a very few topics in Canadian history that have generated more acrimonious debate than that of the Avro Arrow. Some have called its cancellation a…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E18 To Pass or Not to Pass - The Emergence (and Divergence) of North American Football
While both the modern American and Canadian game of football emerged from similar roots, they took very different paths to arrive at the game we recognize…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E17 A Thankless Task - Policing in New France
Because New France was a colony almost perpetually at war the enforcement of law and order in the 17th and 18th centuries was considered vital to the very…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E16 The 1979 Binational Lesbian Conference
In 1979 a conference was held in Toronto which became a pivotal event for both Toronto and Canada’s lesbian community. While so much attention at the time was…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E15 Rise Republic Rise: The United Irish Uprising in Newfoundland
In the late 18th century tension in Ireland boiled over into a full scale uprising. This uprising was put down yet some Irish republicans fled to Newfoundland…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E14 The Guess Who
A deep dive into the iconic Canadian rock band The Guess Who Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Curious Canadian HistoryAnnouncement - Name Change!
A big name change is coming! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E13 Gravenhurst: The Gateway City
The historic and dynamic city of Gravenhurst is explored in this episode written by fellow podcaster Craig Baird from "Canadian History Ehx" Hosted on Acast…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E12 Nic Power - The Bad Detective
The headlines screamed "Canadian detective foils Fenian bomb plot against the Prince!" When the third in line for the British throne arrived in Halifax in 1883…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E11 To the Winner Goes the Spoils: The Origins of Lord Stanley's Cup
Lord Stanley's cup, aka "The Holy Grail," is one of the most sought after trophies in professional sports and arguably the hardest one to win. But the trophy…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E10 More than Just Beads and Bannock: First Nations Women and the Fur Trade
It was in search of furs, and the riches from the fur trade, which drove so many Europeans deeper and deeper into the North American continent. Much of the…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E9 Viola Desmond: The Woman on the 10 Dollar Bill
Nine years before Rosa Parks galvanised the American civil rights movement by refusing to sit at the back of a bus, Viola Desmond sparked the mobilisation of a…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E8 Ring the Alarm – The Japanese Attack on Canada’s West Coast
In June 1942 the Japanese submarine I 26 attacked a rather unusual target on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Not since the last Fenian Raid in 1871 had…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E7 – Gahoendoe and the loss of Wendake
In 1649, ravaged by war, the Wendat made the bold decision to move thousands of people to the island of Gahoendoe. This massive migration of the majority of…
Curious Canadian HistoryS7E6 – Forgotten Battle: The Battle for the Scheldt – a conversation with Mark Zuehlke
Recently Netflix released a film called “Forgotten Battle,” one of the most expensive Dutch films ever made. The film explores the lives of several characters…