History Matters by Canadian Institute for Historical Education

In this episode, posted on the April 9th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917, Allan talks with military historian Dr. Eric McGeer about the battle and its place in Canadian memory.
The conversation covers the battle itself and its significance in the Arras Offensive and in the course of the First World War, the men who led the planning and preparations in the months leading up to April 9th primarily Sir Julian Byng and Arthur Currie, under Sir Douglas Haig, the Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, how Vimy came to be the focus of
Canada’s memorialisation of the Great War, and how the meaning of Vimy has shifted over time. In the process Eric and Allan discuss books about Vimy by Pierre Berton, Ted Barris,
Jonathan Vance and Tim Cook.
https://cihe.ca/
Pictures from the podcast: https://cihe.ca/2026/04/09/episode-21-eric-mcgeer-on-vimy-ridge-the-battle-and-the-memory/

In this episode, Allan talks with journalist Jerry Amernic about his book Sleepwoking, published in November 2025.
The conversation opens with an anecdote about the founding of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in 1939, ostensibly because the first ever baseball game had been played there in 1839, an origin story subsequently debunked by the Hall of Fame itself. Sleepwoking, in a similar vein, considers the accusations that Sir John A. Macdonald “starved the Indigenous Peoples,” Egerton Ryerson was the “architect” of residential schools, Henry Dundas “delayed” the abolition of the slave trade, Edward Cornwallis put a bounty on the scalps of Mi’kmaq “men, women and children,” and Matthew Begbie sentenced six innocent “Chilcotin Chiefs” to death by hanging. “None of this is true,” says Amernic. It is history shaped by ideology rather than evidence. But the vilification of these six follows a common pattern: an initial charge amplified by activists, then quoted by deferential media and politicians until it becomes orthodoxy. Historians who present evidence to the contrary do so at the risk of their careers. All of this is possible, says Amernic, because “people do not know the history of their country.
https://www.jerryamernic.com/sleep-wokinghttps://

cihe.ca/

In this episode, Allan talks with writer and media executive Richard Stursberg to explore the rise and decline of Canadian book publishing. The conversation breaks down how Canada once built a thriving literary culture, why English-Canadian publishing has lost ground, and what that means for national identity, history, and cultural sovereignty today, along with what can be done to rebuild it. Stursberg examines the dramatic decline of English Canadian publishing, tracing the rise of a vibrant national literary culture in the 1960s through the 1990s and the policy failures that allowed foreign multinationals to dominate the market. The discussion considers the relationship between publishing, national identity, cultural sovereignty, and historical literacy in Canada. Richard Stursberg’s leadership roles have included CBC English, language services, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund, and PEN Canada.
Richard Stursberg

In this episode of History Matters, Allan speaks with veteran journalist Christina Blizzard about her fifty plus years in journalism, a career that began at the old Toronto Telegram in an era of linotype and “hot lead” printing, included being a “Day One” employee at the Toronto Sun in 1971, and continued into today’s era of social media, digital printing and the AI-driven newsroom. Blizzard discusses her years covering Ontario politics at Queen’s Park, including such key moments as Mike Harris’ “Common Sense Revolution” in 1995, offering insight into how political reporting has changed as the press gallery has shrunk and the pace of news has accelerated dramatically. The challenge journalists face when reporting on unfolding events that later take on new meaning with the benefit of hindsight, including the Walkerton water tragedy. Blizzard shares stories from covering royal events, including the funeral of the Queen Mother, and reflects on the enduring importance of historical literacy, museums, and public access to history, and how journalism both records and shapes the historical record.

In this episode of History Matters, journalist and author Madelaine Drohan joins the program to explore a question that feels contemporary, but is anything but new: how long have American Leaders imagined Canada as part of the United States? The conversation begins with today’s “51st state” rhetoric and Prime Minister Carney’s Davos warning that Canada is facing a rupture, not a transition. From there, it steps back to 1775–1776, when the Continental Army invaded Canada and Benjamin Franklin, already seventy years of age, traveled through the wilderness to Montréal for an attempt to persuade French Canadians to join the American Revolution. Drawing from her 2025 book He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada, Drohan explains why the invasion unraveled, why Franklin later downplayed the episode, and what this largely forgotten story reveals about how nations construct and revise their founding myths.
The episode concludes with a thoughtful discussion about whether Canada needs a more cohesive national story, and what it might be built around.
https://madelainedrohan.org/