Historian and author David Yates on prohibition in Huron County

In the sixth episode of Postcards from Huron County, podcast host Mandy Sinclair chats with local historian and author David Yates. David writes a column for Huron County newspapers spotlighting local history and is the author of Out of the Woods, Out of the Blue and That Freedom Might Survive, to name a few. 

He also taught many students history at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton. 

David shares stories from prohibition days including tales of temperance acts and the reason why prohibition came into effect. He tells tales of bootleggers and beer busts. We wrap up by chatting about when Huron County voted to abolish prohibition, one of the last counties in Ontario to do so.

Favourite quote of the episode: “The other thing that happens in the Victorian age is the rise of women's movements and the women's movements actually picked up on prohibitions. That was their cause. And that was probably, in Canada, women's first adventure onto the political stage and it actually allowed them later on during the war to get the right to vote."

This episode was recorded in 2021, so the article referenced as written “this year” was actually 2021. To read the article: https://www.clintonnewsrecord.com/opinion/columnists/bottle-clubs-of-huron-were-almost-legal-but-not-quite

David is the author of the following books: 

Out of the Woods

Out of the Blue 

That Freedom Might Survive

The Time of Our Lives

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Thanks to our sponsor Royal Lepage Heartland Realty https://rlpheartland.ca. 

Royal LePage Heartland Realty is Huron County’s largest real estate brokerage, with agents specializing in all aspects of real estate spanning the County of Huron and beyond.

Postcards from Huron County is made possible with funding from the Huron Heritage Fund and Community Futures Huron Community Projects Initiative the support of Clint Mackie, Andrew Bouck, Nick Vinnicombe, and Mark Hussey at Faux Pop Media.

More about Mandy Sinclair: https://mandyinmorocco.com and tastinghuroncounty.ca.