Making history at the Champlain Society

Went out to the Champlain Society AGM on the weekend, where James Gibson's publication of the annual volume was launched and Jonathan Vance was honoured for A Township at War, Chalmers Award Winner for best work in Ontario history 2019.

The AGM was told the society has nicely avoided the collapse and bankruptcy it was spiralling toward a few years ago, having restored stable membership, secured new revenues, and above all found relevant new services to provide to Canadian history, from its immense digital archive based on 120 years of publication, its various outreach projects to libraries and groups, its lively website, and its remarkable podcast "Witness to Yesterday," which not only produces an unmatched amount of original high-quality content but continues to grow its audience multiple times over ever year.

And to that end, it was gratifying to hear Patrice Dutil, co-impresario of the podcast with Greg Marchildon, announce that the all-time most-downloaded of their podcasts is... the one he and I recorded last spring.