Michael Bliss festschrift

Massey College last night held a launch for a volume of essays in honour of Michael Bliss. Handsome volume, edited by Elspeth Heaman, Alison Li, and Shelley McKellar, is called Essays in Honour of Michael Bliss: Figuring the Social. The subtitle sounds not at all like something Bliss would say or write, but the book is substantial.

Along with scholarly essays by his students, there's an amused preface by his friends John Fraser and Elizabeth McCallum, a bit of memoir by Bliss himself, consideration of Bliss as scholar by Heaman and as teacher by Richard White, and a essay that starts "Michael Bliss sells newspapers" by Jonathan Turley-Ewart, a former student now at the National Post, reflecting on Bliss's role as public intellectual and why so few academic historians succeed in that role.

I'll be profiling Bliss in my Beaver column later this year.

Reading Alberta Oil History

My note the other day on Aubrey Kerr put me in touch with David Finch, Calgary historian and stalwart of the Petroleum History Society. I'd connected to Kerr some years ago while searching for histories of Alberta oil. In that line, looks like the place to start might be Finch's recent book Pumped: Everyone's Guide to the Oil Patch (details here include the preface by Andrew Nikoforuk and a link to Finch's oil-history blog).

Money and Defence Scholarship

Amir Attaran poked a hornet's nest the other day with a comment in the Globe & Mail about the extent to which the Canadian military subsidizes academic research that, in Attaran's view, supports military policy rather than scrutinizing it. The opinion is here and there have been several follow ups (to track em all, search Attaran while you are on the Globe site), notably one by Jack Granatstein and a way too personal response by Attaran.

Attaran certainly taps into a view I've heard. Simple version might be: war studies get funded, peace studies don't. The more subtle version is a concern about the closeness and sympathy that grows between the funders and the funded. Granatstein says scholars are way too independent to be swayed. He's right that $5000 ain't ever going to buy Granatstein's opinion, but the problem is real. Granatstein himself has often written about the herd-mentality in academe.

Bet historians doing Security Studies, Defence Studies, Peace Studies around the country are talking about this one.

Winners and Nominees

Good history-book representation on the shortlist for the Writers' Trust non-fiction prize. Full lists are here. Doug Hunter for God's Mercies, noted on our Notable Books list for 2007. Barry Gough for Fortune's a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America and Tim Bowling for Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture -- both books quite unknown to ill-informed me until today, I confess. Plus Anna Porter for Kasztner's Train and Katherine Aschenburg for The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History.

Jury was Greg Gatenby, John Metcalf, and Aritha van Hirk. Three writers with sound judgment, I say, but two out of three are really novelists. Non-fiction writers hardly ever get a jury of their peers.

Nice to see Lawrence Hill's historical novel The Book of Negroes on the fiction list too.

And a winner: Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang's Unexpected War, about the making of Canada's Afghanistan policy, won the Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing at the Trust's Politics and the Pen event in Ottawa the other night. Politics and the Pen is a great event (I say on the basis on having attended just one), but the Cohen award judges do seem to struggle with what qualifies as a political book. Everything is political, I guess.

Aubrey Kerr 1915-2008

Over the years you talk to a lot of people about Canadian history. Beaver columns, commissioned projects, documentaries, book ideas, even this web thingee. Lots of those conversations never come to anything that is published, and the memory just fades.

I cannot remember why I was once talking on the phone with Aubrey Kerr, except I must have been looking for some info on Alberta's oil industry history, and the path led to him. I remember it was easy to tell he was no bookish scholar. He'd clearly come to the history of Alberta oil straight from the rigs and the test holes.

He'd written, he told me, a series of books on the big Alberta discoveries post-1947. Those books are unknown to Chapters and Amazon today, and library catalogues suggest they (Leduc, Redwater, etc.) were mostly self-published efforts. I can see him being too independent to worry about publishing. ("Hell, why worry with all those desk-jockey literary types? I can run a printing press myself.")

But I got the strong impression he had done the work. He spoke of a mass of oral history interviews with the principals, and it certainly seemed he knew things.

Noticed his obit the other day -- he was 92, and damn right, he was there at the blow-in.

"Little for Arts and Culture in Budget" (This is news?)

I bet the headline writers had that one set up and ready to go long before they saw the text.

Actually there is some funding for the big national museums in Ottawa....

Late Update: But the B.C. provincial budget has $150 million for a new cultural fund, and $105 million for various other arts and culture projects.

Today in Parliament

In January 1848, the general election for the legislature of the United Canadas concluded with a solid (56 of 84) majority for the reform coalition led by Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine.

The new legislature met on February 25 -- 160 years ago today. The old conservative ministry had decided to remain in office, face the legislature, present a throne speech, and see if the reformers could somehow be split apart. But the opposition reply constituted non-confidence in the ministry. Given the unity of the reform coalition, it looked certain to pass.

Question was: how would the Governor, Lord Elgin, respond if reform unity and the reformers non-confidence motion prevailed? Could a governor take independent measures? Could he choose advisors the people's elected representatives did not support? Governors often had before. Was a governor bound to defer to the will of the legislature, as Baldwin and LaFontaine had been insisting for years?

Watch this space. It will all work out by March 11.

You're nobody til somebody wikis you

Alasdair Sweeny, indefatigable historical impresario in Ottawa announces the John A. Macdonald Portal, a collaborative assembly of info about that guy..

Writing that history: PD for writers

How to publish that history you have been working on? The Writers' Union of Canada is running professional development workshops for established and aspiring writers. First one in Halifax next Monday and unfolding across the country over the next couple of weeks. Details here.

This they can settle in three days?

Michael Behiels and some other concerned scholars of politics at the University of Ottawa are organizing a conference next October "The State in Transition: Challenges for Canadian Federalism." Here's the raison d'etre:

"Canadian federalism -- as a mode of political governance for a complex society facing multiple cleavages, economic, political, geographic, cultural, and national -- is facing enormous challenges. The pressures of globalization, the increasing economic and political integration between Canada and the United States, the impact of neo-liberalism on the Canadian state, the unequal distribution of resources and revenues, the ongoing demands of the Aboriginal Peoples and the Québec People, the growing demands for the democratization of our political institutions, are modifying the ways in which Canadians perceive federalism, the Canadian federation, and the complex process of intergovernmental relations.

"Participants are invited to [consider] if Canadian federalism has entered a transition phase...."

Conference runs October 23-25, 2008. I don't think they will exhaust that agenda in 3 days!

If you are interested, info from the organizing committee: ccf_cfc@uottawa.ca

Johnston's Siege of Louisbourg

I started my historical career doing historic-site research at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia -- and my writing career with a book about the place, Louisbourg Portraits. Never had anyone fail to enjoy either the historic site or the book.

So it's a nostalgic pleasure and a boon to Canadian history to see my old colleague John (aka "A.J.B") Johnston has a new book, Endgame 1758, about Louisbourg's last days and the siege that ended its days 250 years ago. Details here.

Change at the Dominion Institute

Rudyard Griffiths's op-ed in the Globe & Mail today is behind the paywall. But the important line is the bio: "Rudyard Griffiths resigns today as executive director of the Dominion Institute."

I guess the DI is solid enough to continue (go, Alison), but it will not be quite the same. Rudyard wasn't just the master impresario of CanHist, he was the only one. The role only seemed to exist when he did it.

I'll miss him at the DI, but then I doubt he's going to vanish. Lots of people say his next big job will be as prime minister....

Update: I now see Sarah Hampson has a profile of RG in the same issue of the paper, also paywalled.

History of Country Folky Bluesy Outlaw Whatever: Willie P Bennett 1951-2008

Lot of good music came out of that Ottawa-eastern Ontario folky bluesy bar band music scene. Go listen to some Blackie and the Rodeo Kings today. There's no one like you after all, Willie P.

History of Cultural Journalism: Val Ross 1950-2008

I've linked several times to excellent news pieces in the Globe & Mail about Canadian museums (and other cultural institutions), and all of them were written by Val Ross. She also wrote some good books, and she was a friend to many in the Canadian cultural/media scene. Val Ross died the other day, age 57. There's an obit in the Globe today. I did not know her beyond giving a couple of interview quotes over the phone, but I miss her coverage already.

Maple Leaf rag

Thanks to www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com, I'm reminded February 15 is the anniversary of the first flying of the Maple Leaf Flag, a cold and snowy day in Ottawa in 1965.

Book Notes: Sisters in Two Worlds

I once heard Dennis Duffy say he thought Susannah Moodie might be a little intimidating, but he could roll along quite nicely with Catherine Parr Traill. But it seems lots of people continue to be intrigued with both of them.

I noticed this latest recently: Sisters in Two Worlds, a lavishly illustrated book about the pioneering sister writers of 19th century Otonabee. It was published by Doubleday last fall (details here). It's by Michael Peterman, an English prof. The packaging, lots of colour, lots of photos, lots of artifacts, shows the style of Hugh Brewster, ex-maestro of Madison Press, who is assisted on this one by photographer Ian Brewster.

Robert Fulford on Robert Stacey

Saturday's memorial service for Robert Stacey at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto was fun and moving and sad. Robert Fulford gets it right in his National Post column, about all Bob did and might have done.

If you passed a fixed-date election law, can you have an election whenever you want?

The Harper government, which introduced the fixed-date election legislation, says it will ask the governor general to dissolve the House, if things are not to its liking on March 1.

This fixed-date election idea betrayed a profound lack of understanding of how parliaments should operate. I'm glad to see it undermined. But you would think the people who said it was a great democratic advance, a no-brainer and all, might try to live by it.

Erna Paris on justice and power

Down to Ben McNally Books for the launch of Erna Paris's new book, The Sun Climbs Slow.

Erna Paris somehow writes books that are profoundly serious and damned readable at the same time. This one is about the shaping of the International Criminal Court, the latest confrontation in the ancient struggle between might and right, the rule of law versus the rule of force. More pointedly, she writes, it's "the harrowing struggle of President George W. Bush against the International Criminal Court."

"Gee," I said, "is Erna going to have trouble getting into the States when this comes out?"

"Hell," said my drinking companion, "we all have trouble getting into the States."

More about The Sun Climbs Slow here. I thought the title might be from Martin Luther King or some old spiritual. It's from a sturdily Victorian English poem by Arthur Clough, the same one from which Churchill took "westward look, the land is bright."

Great bookstore, McNally's. Even in a city Toronto's size, we have to be grateful when we find one like it.

Shribman on Primaries

After months of reading Canadian journalists going gaga over the American primary system, what a relief to read American journalist David Shribman unload on what a trainwreck it really is.

Does Wayne Gretzky have this award? Someone in Brantford does.

Marsha Skrypuch is a Brantford writer who mostly writes historical novels for young readers. Her books include Enough, a kids' book about the Holodomor, the great Ukrainian famine of 1932-33, and the anthology of Ukrainian-Canadian writing, Kobzar's Children.

Well, Martha Skrypuch has just been named to the Order of Princess Olha, Third Class. It's the highest form of honour Ukraine bestows on foreign citizens, and she will be invested by President Yushchenko.

Goodison wins BC Book Prize

Lorna Goodison, the writer and poet who moves between Jamaica, Toronto, and the US, wins the British Columbia Book Prize for her memoir From Harvey River. Congratulations. Not so much a history title, but she wins over two rather more historical works, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, by Jacques Poitras, and Some Family, Don Akenson's quirky study of genealogy, Some Family.

We read that the prize, funded by the government of B.C. (and for non-fiction published in Canada, not for specifically BC books, obviously) is run by an arm's length foundation. But when the premier shows up to present the award every year, there's a problem of optics, I'd say.

History of Winter: The View out your Window

I can never remember those weather history statistics. Did it snow six feet when I was seven or seven feet when I was six, as Dylan Thomas put it. So I'm not sure if this is the fifth snowiest winter in Toronto in the past three decades, or the third snowiest in the past five.

But we have snow.

I hear this is causing concern in some circles here in town. What will we do if it gets really deep? I mean, this year the army is in Afghanistan.

Never mind. It is beautiful. I hear there's more to come.

History of Freckles

Anne of Green Gables, published one hundred years ago tomorrow.

Has the Dominion Institute opened a British office?

Someone has taken a poll in Britain that reveals 23 per cent of Britons think Winston Churchill is a fictional character. 77% never read any history. 58% think Sherlock Holmes is a historical figure.

Fifteen percent say they rely on the history they read in school. Which makes you wonder what the other 85% rely on.

But I rather like the concept of Churchill as a character in a novel. He is, in fact: he's the hero of that great saga of gallant little Britain -- who wrote that, anyway? He's the guy in all those WW2 novels and movies. He does have that kind of fictional reality that merely real people don't often attain.

What Canadian historical figures achieve that kind of fictional glow, so we perceive them as characters in a historical story? Sigh...

Okay, I write for this magazine. And I have a column in this particular issue.

But I have to say. This particular issue is a pretty terrific issue. The Beaver staff and their guest co-editor, Jacques Lacoursière of Quebec, have pulled together a very strong set of contributors. And the visual material is terrific.

This issue, first time ever, is also being published in French: Le Beaver. www.TheBeaver.ca

Ignore SuperTuesday

I accept that the outcome of all these American primaries will be important. We will all have to live with the president they eventually produce. But I'm trying to ignore all the vast wash of coverage of the primary process. For most of us, it's best not to know, I'd say.

Primaries are image competitions, not politics. It shouldn't need to be said, but the Republicans are all Republican, the Democrats all Democratic. There just are not the substantial differences among the Republicans or among the Democrats to fuel a substantive debate. The only question in each race are: Who looks like a winner? Who looks like my kind of person? Who do I feel good about as my president? The whole process is about constructing and marketing a personal image, and so the whole contest is delivered into the hands of the image makers.

After months of this image battle, do we think we know McCain or Obama or Edwards, or whoever? We know diddley. We know the image their teams are delivering. It's a brand management competition, not politics.

The length and expense of this endless image war delivers politics into the hands of the money raisers and the money spenders. The greatest promoters of the primary are the media, who benefit massively from the constant flood of marketing dollars being spent on the candidates' media campaign. The message of the primary system is not about policy, or expertise, or ideology, or any other worthwhile political virtue. It's about which campaigns can raise the most money and spend it most effectively.

I can accept there is a certain frisson in horserace journalism, in an election where the only question is, who's leading? (for months, for years) And when the only story is the horserace, everyone has an interest in making it close, in producing a dramatic contest and a photofinish. (Hey, surprise, it seems they now have a dramatic contest and a photo finish.)

What is missing in all this is the touchstone of democracy, accountability. Amid all the myriad special rules and conditions about who can vote where and how and on what terms (and that's democratic how?), an American may be able to cast a primary vote (or more than one). But he or she will never be able to say to a candidate: I voted for you, you are accountable to me, deliver. A local representative, by contrast, has an office, has an address, has a place in the community. As long as they are in public office, you can pursue them if you need to.

Primaries are designed to eliminate all that. In the primary process, constituencies are too vast, connections too transitory, the process so mediated by other forces, that candidates are almost entirely freed of accountability to anyone but their funders and their brand managers. This is not good for politics.

Finally, we Canadians could try to ignore all this as foreign politics (sure, we could). But it comes home. All the failings of the American primary process are repeated in our Canadian leadership contests. What are the hallmarks of those squalid battles: endless length, enormous cost, lack of accountability, lack of issues, horserace coverage.....