Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

The Champlain Society
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Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its relevance to today. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. To learn more about the Society and Canada’s history, subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/news_WTY.

  1. Run Like A Girl: A Memoir of Ambition, Resilience, and Fighting for Change

    1D AGO

    Run Like A Girl: A Memoir of Ambition, Resilience, and Fighting for Change

    James Stewart (J.D.M.) speaks with Catherine McKenna about her book, Run Like A Girl. From Olympic dreams to the frontlines of politics and climate action, Run Like A Girl charts McKenna’s personal and political journey – from leading Canada’s climate plan to withstanding sexist attacks as “Climate Barbie.” Through a unique scrapbook-style format, McKenna blends candid personal stories, political insights, and reflections on motherhood, ambition, and activism. McKenna recounts her fight for climate policy, the ups and downs of public service, the tough decision to leave politics, and her mission to empower women in leadership. For readers of Becoming by Michelle Obama and No Logo by Naomi Klein, Run Like A Girl is a timely and deeply personal call to action – about finding your own path, breaking the rules, fighting for the future – on your own terms. Catherine McKenna is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Climate and Nature Solutions. She is Canada's former minister of environment and climate change (2015-19) as well as minister of infrastructure (2019-21). The chair of the UN Secretary General’s Expert Group Net Zero, she is a frequent speaker on climate action and women empowerment. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past. Image Credit: Sutherland House

    35 min
  2. The Higgs Years

    JAN 30

    The Higgs Years

    Nicole O’Byrne speaks with Gabriel Arsenault about his book The Higgs Years. Blaine Higgs was the premier of New Brunswick from 2018 to 2024. Leading his Progressive Conservative Party through six years of headline-making policy, in September 2024 he called an election, trying and failing to become the first premier since Liberal leader Frank McKenna to win three consecutive terms in that province. The Higgs Years analyzes Higgs's premiership, particularly in terms of his party's electoral pledge fulfillment record. Contributors portray Higgs as both a unifier and a divider: he successfully reduced New Brunswick's public debt, implemented ambitious governance reforms, and managed the province's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a bipartisan manner. Yet he also intensified ethnic and linguistic divisions, embraced an executive style of governance, and emphasized wedge issues, such as abortion restrictions and gender identity in schools. While Higgs largely avoided divisiveness in critical areas such as housing, health care, and the environment, he was nonetheless known to alternate between being a unifying and a polarizing leader. Drawing on original data from the Polimeter, a nonpartisan tool that measures whether politicians keep the promises they make, The Higgs Years raises vital questions about the integrity of the relationship between voters and their government in New Brunswick. Gabriel Arsenault is associate professor of political science at the Université de Moncton and associate researcher at the Donald J. Savoie Institute. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    23 min
  3. He Did Not Conquer

    JAN 23

    He Did Not Conquer

    Larry Ostola speaks with Madelaine Drohan about her book He Did Not Conquer. Throughout his long and illustrious career, Benjamin Franklin nursed a not-so-secret desire to annex Canada and make it American. When he was not busy conducting scientific experiments or representing American interests at home and abroad, Benjamin Franklin hatched one plan after another to join Canada to the American colonies and then later to the United States. These were not solely intellectual efforts. He went to Montreal in 1776 to try to turn around the faltering occupation by American forces. As lead American negotiator at the 1782 peace negotiations with Britain in Paris, he held the fate of Canada in his hands. Ill health and other American priorities then forced him to abandon his decades-long campaign to possess Canada. Franklin’s elevation to the status of an American icon has pushed this signal failure into the far reaches of collective memory in both Canada and the United States. Yet it shaped the future of North America and relations between the two neighbours over the next two and a half centuries. Madelaine Drohan spent most of her journalistic career as a foreign correspondent, reporting on Europe for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail and then on Canada for the London-based Economist. She is a senior fellow at the Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. She lives in Ottawa. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    33 min
  4. Chrétien and the World

    JAN 16

    Chrétien and the World

    Donald Wright speaks with Jack Cunningham about his book Chrétien and the World. Conventional wisdom holds that foreign policy was not a priority for Jean Chrétien over his ten years as Canadian prime minister. In reality, he and his government pursued an often ambitious, activist policy to forward not only national interests but liberal ideals on the world stage. Chrétien and the World combines the perspectives of key players of the time with analyses by leading scholars. They draw on personal recollections, interviews, and research to portray a foreign policy that was more coherent and engaged than previously believed. As arguably Canada’s first post–Cold War prime minister, Chrétien responded to events that reshaped the international landscape, notably the 9/11 attacks on the United States, the subsequent war on terror, the US-led invasion of Iraq, and Canadian involvement in Afghanistan. Working with trusted ministers, he emphasized trade liberalization, strong bilateral and multilateral relations, human security, and humanitarian intervention. Often characterized as purely pragmatic, Chrétien’s tenure in fact marked a high point of liberal internationalism through an agenda that emphasized Canadian values and leadership in global affairs. Jack Cunningham is the program coordinator at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto, where he is also a fellow and assistant professor at Trinity College. He is a former editor of International Journal and co-editor of Australia and Canada in Afghanistan: Perspectives on a Mission (with William Maley) and Australia, Canada, and Iraq: Perspectives on an Invasion (with Ramesh Thakur). If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past. Image Credit: UBC Press

    39 min
  5. On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF during the Early Cold War

    JAN 9

    On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF during the Early Cold War

    Larry Ostola speaks with Randall Wakelam and William March about their book On the Wings of War and Peace: The RCAF during the Early Cold War. Bringing together leading researchers on Canadian air power, On the Wings of War and Peace captures the history of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the first decades of the Cold War – a period which marked the zenith of air force accomplishments in peacetime Canada. The volume covers topics that go beyond straightforward flying operations, examining policies that drove operational needs and capabilities and the personnel, technical, and logistical functions that made those operations possible. With contributions written by former RCAF members who have both expert and personal knowledge of their topics, On the Wings of War and Peace brings new perspectives to the RCAF’s role in shaping the modern Canadian nation. Randall Wakelam served in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) as a tactical helicopter pilot and educator for more than four decades; he has taught and written about air power and leadership for the past twenty-five years and is now an associate professor emeritus of the Department of History at Royal Military College. William March is a freelance historian and writer focused on aerospace power history, Canadian military history, and leadership. He previously served as a maritime air navigator in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) for over forty years. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    32 min
  6. Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution

    12/12/2025

    Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution

    Donald Wright speaks with Eric Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross about their book, Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution. How did Japanese Canadians navigate the challenges arrayed against them? Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross detail the circumstances and personalities behind the proposed exile. They follow the lives of families facing government orders that forced them from their homes, stripped their livelihoods and possessions, and deprived them of fundamental rights. And they analyze the constitutional framework of the court case in which lawyers and judges grappled with the meaning of citizenship, race, and rights at a time of change in Canadian law and politics. Unfolding in a context of global conflict, sharpened borders, and racist suspicion, the story told in Challenging Exile has enduring relevance for our own troubled times. Eric M. Adams is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta and has written widely on constitutional law, legal history, employment law, human rights, and legal education. He lives in Edmonton. Jordan Stanger-Ross is a professor of history at the University of Victoria and is the author of numerous works on the history of migration and race in North America. He lives in Victoria. Together, they were awarded the John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History for their joint scholarship with the Landscapes of Injustice partnership, examining the uprooting and dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    47 min
  7. Ancillary Police Powers in Canada: A Critical Reassessment

    12/05/2025

    Ancillary Police Powers in Canada: A Critical Reassessment

    Nicole O’Byrne speaks with John W. Burchill and Richard Jochelson about their book Ancillary Police Powers in Canada: A Critical Reassessment. Police enforce the law, but they must also obey it. Statutes circumscribe how law enforcement officers conduct their work. Controls on police power are also embedded in the decisions written by judges, spawning a controversial area of legal debate — and of policing itself. The courts have handed police many powers to stop, search, and otherwise investigate people in the pursuit of public safety and crime prevention. Ancillary Police Powers in Canada explains what these common-law police powers are; how they came to be; and, crucially, what the potential dangers are in their expanding scope. What is the difference between police duty and lawful authority? Should the Supreme Court revisit and possibly rescind powers when the police tactics they enable become controversial? This nuanced book surveys the evolution, application, and future development of judge-made police powers in Canada from various points of view. The authors, with backgrounds in law, policing, and criminal justice, bring historical perspective, critical legal theory, and empirical analysis to bear on an issue that is fundamental to constitutional protection from state interference with individual liberty. The result is a unique and thought-provoking journey into the changing practice of Canadian policing. John W. Burchill is an instructor at the University of Manitoba, chief of staff with the Winnipeg Police Service, and president of the Winnipeg Police Museum and Historical Society. Richard Jochelson is the Dean of Law at the University of Manitoba. A widely published scholar, he also spearheaded Robsoncrim.com, a leading research blog that undergirds the Criminal Law Edition of the Manitoba Law Journal. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    44 min
  8. Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign

    11/28/2025

    Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign

    Larry Ostola speaks with Marc Milner about his book Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign. In June 1944, an Allied army of British, American, and Canadian troops sought to open up a Second Front in Normandy. But they were not only fighting to bring the Second World War to an end. After decades of Anglo-American struggle for dominance, they were also contending with one another—to determine who would ascend to global hegemony once Hitler’s armies fell. Marc Milner traces this bitter rivalry as it emerged after the First World War and evolved during the fragile peace which led to the Second. American media and domestic politics dominated the Allied powers’ military strategy, overshadowing the contributions of Britain and the remarkably critical role played by Canada in establishing this Second Front. Culminating in the decisive Normandy campaign, Milner shows how the struggle for supremacy between Churchill and Roosevelt changed the course of the Second World War—and how their rivalry shaped our understanding of the Normandy campaign, and the war itself. Marc Milner is emeritus professor of history at the University of New Brunswick and former director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society. He is the author of ten acclaimed books, including Stopping the Panzers and Battle of the Atlantic. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.

    41 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Immerse yourself in Canada’s history! Witness to Yesterday episodes take listeners on a journey to document a time in Canada’s past and explore the people behind it, its significance, and its relevance to today. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: https://bit.ly/support_WTY. To learn more about the Society and Canada’s history, subscribe to our newsletter at https://bit.ly/news_WTY.

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