History Matters by Canadian Institute for Historical Education

• Nigel Biggar and Margaret MacMillan in Conversation on Colonialism

  This episode is the second of two taken from a CIHE event held in March 2025 with Oxford Professor Nigel Biggar, recently appointed to the UK House of Lords, and Margaret MacMillan, Companion of the Order of Canada.This second part features the conversation between Lord Biggar and Professor MacMillan that followed his opening statement. They examined the moral complexity of empires, especially the British Empire, and the modern push to revise or erase elements of Canadian history. Margaret MacMillan calls for rigorous historical thinking, warning against using history as a political weapon or reducing it to moral judgment.https://cihe.ca/

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• Nigel Biggar on Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning

  This episode is the first of two taken from a CIHE event held in March 2025 with renowned historians Professor Nigel Biggar, recently appointed to the British House of Lords and author of the 2023 book, Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, and Professor Margaret MacMillan, Companion of the Order of Canada, and author of The Uses and Abuses of History, among many other books.In the first of two parts, Lord Biggar presents key arguments from his book Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning, challenging one-sided narratives that portray the British Empire as purely destructive. He outlines both the harms and the contributions of empires — including the abolition of slavery, legal institutions, and protection for minority groups — and urges a more balanced, evidence-based view of history.https://cihe.ca/

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• Allan Levine on Canada’s ‘Dollar a Year Men’ in World War Two

  Did you know that in World War II, Canada’s “best business brains” traded Bay Street boardrooms in support of the country's war effort?In this episode of History Matters, I sit down with Winnipeg-based historian and author Allan Levine to talk about his new book, The Dollar a Year Men: How the Best Business Brains in Canada Helped to Win the Second World War (Barlow Books, 2025). We open with a gripping story from December 1940: C.D. Howe, E.P. Taylor, and other Canadian industrialists crossing a U-boat–infested Atlantic, only to see their ship torpedoed and still pressing on to London to negotiate urgently needed munitions for Britain.From there, Allan and I trace how a small, mostly agrarian country of just over 11 million people became the fourth-largest industrial power in the Allied war effort. We explore the rise of C.D. Howe as Minister of Munitions and Supply, the “dollar-a-year men” who left lucrative private-sector careers to serve, the creation of Crown corporations, and the “bits and pieces” subcontracting system that turned refrigerator and bicycle factories into producers of tanks, guns, and Lancaster bombers. Along the way, we talk about labour tensions, accusations of war profiteering, and how Mackenzie King’s cautious political genius coexisted with Howe’s bulldozing efficiency.We also zoom out to ask bigger questions: What does this wartime experiment in state–business partnership tell us about Canadian political culture, emergency powers, and the limits of parliamentary accountability? Why has this story been so neglected in mainstream Second World War histories? And what lessons—good and bad—might it hold for governments facing crises today?If you enjoy historically grounded conversations about Canadian politics, World War II, economic history, and the people behind the policy, this episode is for you.Allan Levinehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/allan-levine-90284869/?originalSubdomain=ca

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• Sean Conway on Separate School Education in Ontario

  In this episode, host Allan Williams welcomes historian and former Ontario cabinet minister Sean Conway for a wide-ranging discussion that connects contemporary political decisions to their deeper historical roots.Conway reflects on the Ontario provincial election of 1985, which brought an end to the 42 year PC dynasty, and the unusual circumstances that led to his receiving official briefings on the “Separate School Funding” issue as much as six weeks before the Frank Miller government fell and Conway was sworn in as Minister of Education in the David Peterson government. The conversation also explores the longer constitutional backdrop, from the Union period in the 1840s to Confederation, and how denominational school rights shaped provincial and national politics well into the twentieth Century.Conway closes by sharing the family influences that led to his interest in Canadian history and recommending two books by Christopher Moore for listeners eager to learn more about Canada’s founding moment.Sean Conway is part of our Advisory Council.https://share.google/G9az9o9u3gliqKmoChttps://cihe.ca/

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• David Wilson on The Dictionary of Canadian Biography

  What happens when a national biography doesn’t just celebrate—or condemn, but strives to understand? In this episode, I sit down with historian David A. Wilson to explore how the DCB is rethinking who gets included, how language is updated without “rewriting” the past, and why a birdseed magnate—James Nicholson—helped launch Canada’s most important biographical project. In this episode, I sit down with historian David Wilson, General Editor of the Dictionary of CanadianBiography, to discuss the origins and history of this great institution that has been ongoing now for morethan seventy years. We cover how the DCB decides who gets included, how the language of olderbiographies can be updated without “rewriting” the past, and why a birdseed magnate—JamesNicholson—helped launch Canada’s most important biographical project. I was particularly struck byDavid’s line: “the goal of the dictionary is not to celebrate Canadian history, but nor is it to join thebandwagon of those who condemn Canadian history; the goal of the dictionary is to understandCanadian history in all its complexity.” We also touch on David’s award-winning two-volume biographyof Thomas D’Arcy McGee and his most recent book, Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and theSecret Police, (McGill-Queen’s, 2022)—including the 3,000 letters in Macdonald’s papers that reveal areal Fenian underground in Canada and why Macdonald downplayed the threat publicly while, incontrast, he later amplied the threat from the Plains Cree in 1885. Along the way, David shares how heaccidentally became a Canadian historian, the DCB’s precarious funding reality, and three must-readbooks for anyone who loves Canadian history.If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe and share. Find History Matters on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Write to us at [email protected] and learn more about the Canadian Institute for Historical Education.If you enjoyed this conversation, please subscribe and share. Find History Matters on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Write to us at [email protected] and learn more about the Canadian Institute for Historical Education.

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