Journey through the engineering marvels, stations, and heritage sites of Canada’s western mountains.

Ride the rails through Canada’s western mountains to explore the many vestiges of the region’s spectacular and surprising railway heritage. Here is where grand railway hotels were built to attract tourists to the West’s beautiful scenery and …

The untold history of the maritime branches of two giants of early-twentieth-century Canadian railroads.

The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the Canadian Northern Railway, two giants of Canadian rail transportation, each operated maritime shipping ventures during the early twentieth century.

Numerous vessels, including sidewheel, paddlewheel, and pro …

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2016

Written by the foremost authorities, The Canadian Federal Election of 2015 provides a complete investigation of the election.

A comprehensive analysis of the campaigns and the election outcome, this collection of essays examines the strategies, successes, and failures of the major political parties: the Conservative …

2017 Theatre Library Association Book Awards — Nominated, Richard Wall Memorial Award
2017 Heritage Toronto Book Award — Nominated

Slip once more into the back rows of the favourite movie theatres of your youth.

“Brought Back to Thrill You Again” was an advertisement employed by theatres to disguise that they were offering older films that we …

A National Post Bestseller!
How did Tom Thomson die in the summer of 1917?

Was landscape painter Tom Thomson shot by poachers, or by a German-American draft dodger? Did a blow from a canoe paddle knock him unconscious and into the water? Was he fatally injured in a drunken fight? Did he end his life out of fear of being forced to marry his pregnant …

Stories of the evolution of Willowdale from its earliest acquisition of land to today’s urban environment.

In 1855, Willowdale’s post office opened in Jacob Cummer’s store on Yonge Street. Today, streets in Toronto’s community of Willowdale are peppered with the names of the early farm families of North York, such as the Shepards, Finches, …

A harrowing tale of human intelligence pitted against the forces of nature.

With prospectors, trappers, and whalers pouring into northwestern Canada, the North West Mounted Police were dispatched to the newest frontier to maintain patrols, protect indigenous peoples, and enforce laws in the North. In carrying out their duties, these intrepid men en …

Why was Canada not preparing for the Second World War when the rest of the world was ready to meet Hitler’s threats?
Despite Canada’s active participation in the First World War, which many claimed made Canada a nation, the country was almost defenceless in September 1939 when war was declared again.
Larry D. Rose, a long-time journalist and a …

The story of Canada’s other game from its invention by a Canadian to its current struggle for popularity.

Basketball, the only major world sport undeniably invented by a Canadian, has ironically failed to win Canadians’ hearts more than a century after its creation. James Naismith’s brainchild is a popular recreational pastime in his homeland …

A musical genre as tough and hard as the Canadian Shield.

Canada has produced many successful proponents of the genre known as heavy metal, which grew out of the hard rock of the 1970s, exploded commercially in the 1980s, and then petered out in the 1990s as grunge took over, only to rise to prominence once again in the new millennium.

The road to …