C.D. Gallant King's Blog, page 23

O - The October Crisis

Okay, I find this particular story unusual because despite it being a huge deal for our country and the fact that it took place only a few years before I was born, I knew next to nothing about the Quebec October Crisis until I started doing research for this post. Maybe it's just because Newfoundlanders didn't care about it (we have our own separatist feelings sometimes) but I really feel like

N - Canada is a Haven for Nazis

Okay, file this one under "shameful, not funny" stories. Canada has a Nazi problem. And no, I don't mean those modern Nazis who some media outlets insist on irresponsibly calling the "alt-right" (though we have plenty of those, too). I mean, honest-to-god, World War II era German members of the Nazi party. After the War, it is estimated that somewhere between 2000 and 5000 Nazis fled to

M - You Can't Shoot Mowglis in British Columbia

Before the terms "abominable snowman," "Sasquatch" and "Bigfoot" were popularized, British Columbia had a Mowglis problem. A mowgli is an earlier term used to describe our elusive, forest-dwelling ape-like cousins, and obviously comes from Kipling's The Jungle Book. It's actually a handy word to describe the feral wildmen who were apparently clamouring around the deepest forests of B.C.

L - The Deadly Lacrosse Game at Fort Michilimackinac

Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French fort and trading post on the northern tip of the lower peninsula of what is today the state of Michigan. It still exists as a popular tourist attraction . I'm including this in Canadian history because prior to the US war of Independence, Michilimackinac was actually located in what was called by the British "Upper Canada." Also, because Lacrosse

K - Canada comes from the Iroquois word "Kanata" (probably)

I'll let Canada Heritage Minutes field this one: The commonly-held belief behind the name of Canada is that early French explorers (probably Jacques Cartier) mistook the local Iroquois' description of their village - kanata - to mean the whole land. While the name Canada probably did come from kanata, it wasn't, sadly, Cartier's mistake (as hilarious as that story is). Cartier himself wrote

J - James Naismith, Father of B-Ball

This story is fairly well-known in Canada, but for the benefit of my American and European readers, I'll quickly throw this one out there. (That's a sports reference) Basketball, the most American of sports (after what you call "football" and baseball), was actually invented by a Canadian. Quick, how many Canadian players can you name in the NBA today? James Naismith was born in small-town

I - The Independent Republic of Manitoba(h)

In keeping with our history of the Western Canadian provinces, let's move on to the Prairies' red-headed stepchild, Manitoba. Remember this sad little square province from yesterday's post? Manitoba officially became a province in 1870, although little is rarely mentioned of its hilariously-failed attempt at declaring itself an independent nation a few years earlier in 1867, the same

H - Sir Frederick Haultain and the Province of Buffalo

Today's post may not be as exciting as some of my previous this month, or even that interesting for those not super-into Canadian history, but I'm just weirded out by the fact that we nearly had a province named "Buffalo." It just sounds odd. So, back at the turn of the 20th century, Canada was very much still taking shape, and most of it was still just called "the North West Territories."

G - Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, Mother of the first European born in North America

For hundreds of years, it was generally accepted that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas. This is of course blatantly false, since there were MILLIONS of people here before Columbus stumbled along and set into motion what was to become the near-genocide of an entire race of humans. Can we even claim that Columbus was the first EUROPEAN to arrive in America? Nope. Not by a long shot

F - May Agnes Fleming

May Agnes Fleming, born May Agnes Early in 1840, is remembered as "one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction." Later this month I'll talk about another writer who may have made a bigger, short-term impact (think EL James' Fifty Shades level of hype), but no one could touch Fleming in consistency. For over twenty years, beginning with her