History of obscure Senate rules

Apart from the money and the general ick factor, Senator Mike Duffy has the big problem that if he doesn't live in Prince Edward Island, he is not eligible to be one of its senators. And the audit has established he doesn't live in Prince Edward Island.

But what's with that odd rule? It's right in the constitution (the 1867 one and all its updates): a senator must be “resident in the province for which he is appointed.” 

There's nothing like that for members of the House of Commons. William Lyon Mackenzie King was actually the MP for the Prince constituency in Prince Edward Island at one time, and no one claimed he lived there.  Mr. Harper doesn't spend many days in Calgary Southwest, and he's breaking no rules by that. The constituents doubtless want him to be in Ottawa, you know, doing stuff for them.

So why make senators sit at home?

Caron resignation at the LAC

Library and Archives Canada head Daniel Caron recently declared himself the best friend of archives professionals and users.  Does it feel like losing a best friend?  Caron has resigned.

Problems at the LAC go way deeper than Daniel Caron. But this seems like the right thing, and not because of the Spanish lessons.

Normal parliamentary procedure

David Cameron has managed to siphon off only a small number of his Tory Eurosceptic rebels by promising to publish a Conservative draft bill on an in/out referendum, but the vote on Wednesday regretting the absence of a bill in the Queen's speech will go ahead.   .... [T]he leader of the revolt, John Baron, said he was not going to withdraw his planned amendment regretting the contents of the Queen's speech.

Okay, the details here are sorta byzantine. Cameron, who mostly wants Britain to stay in the European Union, is proposing a referendum on leaving the EU. His Liberal-Democratic coalition partners oppose leaving the EU and oppose having the referendum. Some of the Labor opposition might actually support both. At least 80 of Cameron's own backbenchers, who do want the referendum and do want out of the EU, have tabled a motion regretting Cameron's failure to put the referendum project in the Throne Speech.

In Canada Conservative government bobbleheads backbenchers are honoured as rebels for being mildly upset about not having permission to occasionally make a statement on some minor matter without asking the PM's staff to script it for them.  In the UK Conservative government backbenchers, when they dislike a fundamental foreign policy project of their own leadership, organize in blocs of 80 or more to put a motion before the House saying so. Can we see the difference here?

What's important is that this is normal politics for any functioning parliamentary democracy. If members of parliament do not hold their leaders to account from time to time, they have no reason to be there.

The Brits will work out this parliamentary difference.  The point is that there are differences: every party is a coalition of interests on this and other questions.  When parliaments work, those differences are aired and resolved within the framework of representative democracy. Differences within our Canadian parties are just as significant as those in other parliamentary countries. It's just that we have convinced the caucuses of all our parties that they are not supposed to air them.

The madness for King Charles

The king and his mom

"The Canadian head of state is a matter of Canadian constitutionalism, not a matter of dictation from another nation."

says Saskatchewan constitutionalist John Whyte. And it is. Canada clearly has the constitutional power to act. But to control its own affairs, Canada will have to chose to act as a state with constitutional powers and responsibilities.

Randy Boswell (a perfect name for someone writing gossip/politics about the Windsor family!) considers the Canadian implications of a British furore over young Charles gradually supplanting his mom.  Several Canadian politico-legal scholars chew over the constitutional choices and problems that could arise.

Surely the way to sort out these choices is to make some. The constitution establishes that decisions about the head of state require agreement between Parliament and all the provincial legislatures.  So why not start trying to draft something and see how many legislatures might be inclined to sign on?  Sure, it's a high threshold -- all the more reason to start exploring where some consensus might lie.

Photo from National Post.

Champlain Society

The Champlain Society is looking for a General Editor

Applicants should be experienced members of the scholarly community, deeply
knowledgeable about Canadian history, independent-minded and judicious. The
General Editor is responsible for acquisitions as well as insuring that the
books produced by the Champlain Society are of the highest scholarly quality.
The Champlain Society Council is therefore seeking an individual who has proven
to be strategic, and able to make sometimes difficult decisions in a timely
manner.... An honorarium of $1,000 per year is offered.

More about the Champlain Society from its website here.  And here's where you join.

Battle of Batoche May 9 - 12, 1885

The Battle of Batoche ended the North-West Resistance – one consequence being Louis Riel’s surrender to General Middleton. Any summary has its limitations but in order to give a fuller picture than the one everyone might more likely see on the Canadian Encyclopedia website, I suggest having a look at Our Legacy

Kurt Boyer writes:

Conclusion

Impacts from the North-West Resistance were felt throughout Canada and linger on to this day. The influences from the Resistance were multifaceted and served to progress and repress multiple interests. It provided a rational to finish the railway, served as a political tool in Quebec, and materialised as a “common enemy” to placate settler dissent in Manitoba. The most severe and long lasting effects were felt by the generations of Métis and First Nations in Saskatchewan, who following the Resistance were subject to increased marginalisation which today still permeates in Saskatchewan.

And reading about a military event in someone’s own words is even better. The great scholar of western Canada, George Stanley, annotates a rare transcription of Gabriel Dumont’s own account of the Battle of Batoche as well as the earlier Duck Lake and Fish Creek battles in Canadian Historical Review 30 (1949), "Gabriel Dumont's Account of the North-West Rebellion 1885." Canadian Historical Review   

Another account from the Back to Batoche Virtual Museum of Canada is at is at here.

And then there is art, which can capture the truth and reality in other ways altogether. Here is the Regina poet Bruce Rice reading at “Regina City Council (Saskatchewan Canada) for National Poetry Month. This is part of a Mayor to Mayor challenge to have a poet read at the start of the local council meeting; 33 cities across Canada took part. The poem was written for the national retrospective of Regina artist and scupltor, Joe Fafard. It's in my [Bruce Rice’s] book, Life in the Canopy (Hagios Press 2009). The sculpture is from one of the Metis killed at the Battle of Batoche in 1885, which ended the Riel Rebellion.”  See the video and Joe Fafard's sculpture here 

Genealogy Tech

Realistically, the pursuit of family history as it exists now probably won’t be around in 20 years: most of the mysteries are disappearing, and fast.

At The Verge, Laura June looks at how the Mormons, the internet, cheap DNA testing, and a lot of capital investment are reinventing the family tree.

A short history of the United States: "Canadians, Mexicans, and fish"

Having those for neighbours is the basis of the United States' rise to world power, sez Aaron David Miller in Foreign Policy's "How Geography Explains the United States"

After that promising start -- and Miller credits historian Thomas Bailey for it -- the rest of the article is a letdown. Possibly the foreign policy elite of the US can take seriously statements like  "Americans seem to believe that because rational dialogue, debate, and compromise have served the United States well, the rest of the world should follow in their footsteps." The rest of the world is likely to be saying: "Health care? Gun control? Religion? The filibuster? Torture? George Bush?  George Bush?  GEORGE BUSH?" 

Our boy in the big leagues (just to remind you the Tour looms)

Our boy and last year's Giro d'Italia champion Ryder Hesjedal leading the pack in stage 3 of this year's race.  Finished third actually, and sits nicely in the top ten after stage 4 today.   Race continues to May 26,

Photo from steephill.tv, which is about the only place Canadians will see much film of the Giro.  Yeah, I know, there's this other sports championship underway.

Update, May 17:  Well, that was disappointing.  Hesjedal has withdrawn from the Giro after several days of really terrible results, apologizing for being unable to live up to the #1 he wears as last year's champion.  As usual Victoria Times-Colonist has the best Canadian coverage. Tour champion Bradley Wiggins also withdrew, citing illness.  On the other hand, Vincenzo Nibali, the homecountry hero, is going gangbustas.  

With friends like these

Last week Chris Cobb of the Ottawa Citizen reported a long piece on Library and Archives Canada and interviewed many of its critics and LAC director Daniel Caron too:

Of the professionals who criticize him Caron says: “I am probably their best friend but they will discover that later.”

Cobb quotes Myron Groover, archivist at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, on LAC's emphasis on digitization as the LAC's future:  

“Caron has carefully constructed a body of people he takes advice from who don’t know how archives or technology works,” says Groover. “They use the ‘D’ word as a magic rhetorical bullet because it’s an easier sell to the public and only nerds like me know that the reality is a lot more complex, expensive and labour intensive.”

Is this the dummest idea in history?

The headline says "Stephen Harper's Conservatives to lead review of Canadian history." I'm not very motivated to read further.

They may not have started the review yet, but somehow you know the press release for its findings is already in draft.

Returning the Voices -- a Kouchibouguac blog

Historian Ronald Rudin of Concordia and others have launched Restoring Returning the Voices, a video-audio website and archives of memories of the creation of Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick and particularly the evictions of residents that went hand-in-hand with park creation.

Rudin also has a book forthcoming on the subject: Kouchibouguac: Removal, Resistance, and Remembrance at a Canadian National Park.  

American Heritage magazine folds again

History News Network reports on the suspension of publication of American Heritage magazine, the old and once rather prestigious popular history magazine.  It folded a few years ago and was revived by Edwin Grosvenor of the National Geographic family, but has now entered another suspension.  The magazine website is still up, but does not look to have been updated for a while.

Maybe not coincidentally, they have a simultaneous non-profit, grant-supported project to make the whole contents of the magazine available "for education," apparently free. Strategizing for magazines is a tough business these days, I know, but if they price their accumulated inventory at zero, will subscribers feel differently?  The benevolent aims of would-be educators and the "how do we get 'em paying?" mindset of magazine people often mix oddly at historical magazines.

In other news, Canada's History just picked up a nom at the National Magazine Awards and a slew of them at the Western Magazine Awards.

Patriation story update/correction

The post on the recent exchange in the press about the patriation round and Chief Justice Bora Laskin's role in it, is now corrected and updated.

Hot topics from the seventeenth century

On this day in 1670, Charles II chartered the Hudson's Bay Company.

And in 1609-10, it is now confirmed, the colonial settlers of Jamestown in Virginia took to eating each other to survive. Only about 60 of 300 among them survived.

The previous winter, 1608-09, only 8 of Champlain's 28 winterers at Quebec had survived.