History

In 1895 Scottish entrepreneur, engineer, and outdoor adventurer Henry Ogle Bell-Irving built the Good Hope Cannery in Rivers Inlet, BC. There was a fortune to be made and Bell-Irving was determined to make one, both for the shareholders of the Anglo-British Columbia Packing Company, and for himself. As sole agent for ABC, he effectively controlled …

In 1665 the Carignan-Salières Regiment was sent to Canada by King Louis XIV to quell the Iroquois, whose attacks were strangling the colony's fur-based economy and threatening to destroy its tiny settlements. In the course of its three-year stay in Canada, the regiment established a period of relative peace that allowed the French to consolidate t …

Dissatisfied with the state of in public education, a small group of Halifax parents and university professors banded together in September 1958 to found a school of their own. Paul Bennett tells the story of the Halifax Grammar School in this illustrated history. Bennett describes the many larger-than-life personalities and the ebbs and flows of t …

“It was the wild west, as all fished in a totally unregulated way in a free-for-all.”
For centuries, fishermen the world over have been prosecuting the waters teeming with cod from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Labrador. The growing demand for fish in world markets, the inexorable march of technology, and the failure of international gov …

Schools of education with utilitarian goals and strict standardization - often called "Normal Schools" - have been widely criticized by both the academy and the general public. In a story that resonates across Canada, The Grand Regulator examines an educational system that failed to inspire great teachers and produce imaginative, thinking citizens. …

On January 22, 1906, the passenger ship Valencia lost her way in heavy fog and rain and rammed into the deadly rocks at Pachena Point on the west coast of Vancouver Island. As the wreck was shattered by the pounding waves, the survivors clung desperately to the rigging. Few made it the short distance to shore through the frigid and turbulent waves— …