Art in Toronto

Henry Bowyer Lane, The Grange, c1840 AGO Collection

It is the nucleus of an art museum which will doubtless grow, as time passes, to be a national treasure house.

A nice blog piece from the Art Gallery of Ontario notes that the gallery's location in Toronto has been a place for viewing art for just exactly a century. The first art exhibition there was held in the original building on the site in June 1913. The Grange is still there but, as gallery space, now secondary to the much larger building that surrounds it.  Just as they planned, it turns out:

The Grange is not intended to be an art gallery, but rather the germ from which such a gallery will be evolved. The trustees propose soon to make a campaign for funds with which to commence building operations. 

Something to see at the Museum of Civilization

I am going to be in Ottawa at the end of May, and I'm tempted to make a trip over to the Museum of Civilization just to see this:  Samuel de Champlain's baptismal registry. It's a caution against historical speculation, you might say.

The historical tradition was that Champlain was born in 1567 and already about 41 when Quebec was founded in 1608. But a scholar named Jean Loisel (otherwise unknown to me, and I don't have the citation to hand) made a powerful case years ago that there was no persuasive foundation for the 1567 birthdate. Loisel cited a lot of reasons to posit a birthdate of about 1580, making him a relatively youthful 28 in 1608 and still just 55, not 68, at his death in 1635.

I was persuaded enough by this that I did my best in my essay on New France in The Illustrated History of Canada to make 1580 the standard (if approximate) birthdate. I would not say it entirely caught on. David Hackett Fischer, in his well researched Champlain's Dream a few years ago, was willing to go as late as 1570, but preferred to stick with the older Champlain of tradition. And Marcel Trudel remained unconvinced.

Well, now there is a baptismal certificate, and it looks to be the real thing -- even though the name on it is Chapeleau and not Champlain. This seems to have settled the birthdate question.The date in the register is August 13, 1574. Seven years younger than the traditional date, six years older than Jean Loisel's estimate. Oh, and he was baptised Protestant too, another frequent subject of speculation never previously confirmed.

And it goes on display at the Museum of Civilization on May 29, on loan from the French repository and in connection with the 400th anniversary of Champlain's voyage up the Ottawa River.

Technology note:  after all these years of research, the entry was turned up by a machine search after the records in question were digitized.

Methodological note: you have to speculate sometime, and when you do you go with the best evidence available. But the cunning of history prevails. Mostly when you speculate about history, you are wrong.

Decoration Day at Ridgeway, June 2

Peter Vronsky reminds us the original day for remembering Canadian veterans and casualties of war was June 2, not November 11.  This year Decoration Day will be marked at the site of the Battle of Ridgeway, 1866, near Niagara.

A Decoration Day ceremony on the historic battlefield will commemorate the “Ridgeway Nine” - the first nine of over 115,000 Canadian soldiers killed in combat starting from the 1866-1870 Fenian Raids in Canada through to the North West Rebellion, the South African War (Boer War), the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and the recent deployments in Afghanistan.

Cool history watch

I'm mostly not keen on 1421, Gavin Menzies, pre-Columbian secret voyages, and all those speculations that someone always secretly sailed everywhere before everybody else.

But this story of thousand-year old African coins found on a North Australian beach -- then lost again, and now being seriously investigated -- is kinda nifty in that line of things.

Where Queen Victoria spends Victoria Day in Toronto.

Historicist, the history column (currently up for a National Magazine Award) at the Torontoist blog, salutes the May long weekend with an essay on why Queen Victoria somehow failed to get her statue reigning over all the principal places around Toronto, including her own Queen's Park.

No sooner had the statue for Queen’s Park been selected, than controversy arose over the placement of the statue. In the absence of a Queen Victoria monument, the prime place of prominence at the head of University Avenue had been occupied since 1894 by Hamilton MacCarthy’s statue of Sir John A. Macdonald. The premier recommended relocating the former prime minister in deference to the crown, while opponents of this idea were adamant that Macdonald should remain right where he stood. 

John A. won that one.  Her Majesty now graces one of the side door entrances to the Ontario legislature.

And Al Purdy's is the best statue in the park behind. Well, the equestrian one of someone called Edward VII is pretty handsome too.

(Photos t:  QV from Historicist, which credits City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1568, Item 203.  KE from Wikipedia)

Neil Reynolds 1940-2013 RIP

The obituaries for Neil Reynolds show him to be one of the best Canadian newspaper editors of his generation, and I know journalists who had a lot of time for him as colleague and editor. But at this blog it was his penchant for writing about history in the Report of Business that always caught my eye.

Reynolds seemed to come up with the loopiest interpretations of Canadian history again and again, but it was clear he cared about history and believed that the history of things actually mattered -- not an opinion always shared in newsrooms.

To see some of my responses to his historical effusions, put "Neil Reynolds" in the search box at top left and read what comes up.

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?"