Chris Pearce's Blog, page 29

Alzheimer’s disease – risk factors

We don’t know what actually causes Alzheimer’s, but there are many factors that result in a person having a greater or lesser risk of developing the disease. Risk factors for Alzheimer’s include age, family history, genetics, gender, general health and various lifestyle factors.

Age is the most important risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Older people are far more likely to develop the disease than young people. One in 100 people aged 60-64 years who don’t have a close family relative with Alzheimer’s can expect to develop the disease. This increases to a 1 in 25 chance for people aged 70-74 years, 1 in 5 for those aged 80-84 years, and 1 in 2 or 3 for people aged 90-94 years. It is estimated that a quarter of people over 85 years of age have Alzheimer’s.

Family history is the second main risk factor in developing Alzheimer’s. If a person has a parent or sibling with Alzheimer’s, the risk is 2-3 times higher. A third of those with Alzheimer’s have a parent, brother or sister with the disease. The risk increases if two generations have Alzheimer’s, such as a parent and sibling, or parent and grandparent on the same side of the family, and if they both had Alzheimer’s before the age of 65 years.

Genetics are another factor. Two genes connected with familial Alzheimer’s have been identified so far: a “risk gene” called Apolipoprotein E and a “deterministic gene”. There may be up to a dozen more risk genes associated with the disease. Everyone has two Apolipoprotein E genes. There are three types of these genes, known as types 2, 3 and 4. A person can have two of the same type, for example, 3, 3, or two different types, for example, 2, 4. Those with a type 4 are at greater risk of Alzheimer’s at a younger age, especially people with two type 4s. Type 2 carries the least risk. Researchers are trying to work out why all this is the case.

The deterministic gene is associated with early onset Alzheimer’s, a much rarer form of the disease. A person has a 1 in 2 chance of getting this from age 30-60 years if a parent has it. Early onset is entirely familial, unlike the more common late onset Alzheimer’s, which can be familial or non-familial.

People with Down syndrome are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s. This can occur from around the age of 40 years. Most of them will eventually develop the disease if they live long enough. These people are at greater risk due to their additional chromosome. This gives them an extra copy of the gene for the protein that causes amyloid build-up, a feature of Alzheimer’s.

Gender is a risk factor in developing Alzheimer’s. Women have a slightly higher risk, even allowing for the greater proportion of women among the older population. Women taking hormone replacement therapy are less likely to get Alzheimer’s, according to some studies, although one study found an increased risk in women with low oestrogen levels.

Severe head injuries are thought to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s in later life. A study found that people who are unconscious for fifteen or more minutes from a head injury are more prone to develop the disease than those with no head injury. Other studies have been inconclusive. Curiously, head size can make a difference to whether a person might get the disease. People with small heads are at more risk.

Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol may increase the likelihood of getting Alzheimer’s. The connection between brain and heart is an important one. With every heart beat, nearly a quarter of the blood pumped from the heart goes to the head. Thus people with a poor vascular, or blood vessel, system are at greater risk of developing the disease. This can come about through smoking, diabetes, hypertension or diet.

Diabetes may be linked directly to Alzheimer’s. A symptom of both is amyloid deposits appearing in the pancreas and the brain respectively. Research into a possible relationship is ongoing.

High blood pressure is often associated with Alzheimer’s, as it can damage the brain’s blood vessels and reduce oxygen. This could upset nerve cell circuits, which may be important to cognitive skills.

Research suggests high cholesterol levels mean a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. Logically, this means that people who take cholesterol reducing drugs will be less likely to get the disease. Some studies into the use of statins, the most common drug taken to lower cholesterol, have found a reduced risk while others have been inconclusive. Other research has shown that the animo acid homocysteine may increase the risk of the disease.

Food high in trans and saturated fats raises the chances of Alzheimer’s. High fat consumption can increase the risk of diabetes and hypertension, which in turn may increase the risk of developing the disease. A study of about 3,700 older people in Chicago found that those who ate a high fat diet were more likely to suffer cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s. Good nutrition, on the other hand, is thought to reduce the likelihood of the disease.

Studies suggest anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, indomethacin and naproxen may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s, although clinical tests have not shown a link so far. Any reduced risk may be offset by side effects including stomach irritation and gastrointestinal bleeding.

A link between aluminum accumulations in the brain and Alzheimer’s was first reported in 1965. Studies have found that people exposed to aluminum in antiperspirants, antacids and drinking water have a greater risk of developing the disease.

A postmortem study in New York found that depression is a risk factor in Alzheimer’s. The study compared the brains of people who had Alzheimer’s and a known history of depression with those who weren’t diagnosed with depression. People with depression had more brain plaques and tangles, which are associated with Alzheimer’s.

Education level is sometimes considered a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Studies have found that people with a higher level of education are less likely to get the disease. This may be due to the fact that more education means greater use of the brain, and those who have undertaken more courses of study are more likely to use their brain in other areas of their lives, including as they get older. Research has shown that a person with an active brain is less at risk of Alzheimer’s.

Scientists believe that a combination of risk factors rather than any single factor is what may ultimately increase or decrease a person’s likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s. Thus if a person is high on the risk scale for a number of factors, such as family history, heart disease and high fat diet, then all of these factors rather than just one of them may contribute to the person eventually having Alzheimer’s.

Alzheimer’s disease – warning signs

Alzheimer’s is a progressive brain disease where a person suffers various memory, learning, communication and thinking problems. Visible symptoms or early warning signs can be subtle and vague, and can be hard to differentiate from what might be construed as normal. Symptoms may come on gradually and be unnoticed for a long time. Family and friends may mistake warning signs for part of the normal aging process and vice versa.

The first warning sign that someone might have undiagnosed Alzheimer’s is usually memory problems, especially remembering things that have happened recently. A person in the pre-diagnosis stage might ask the same question a number of times over a relatively short period or they might tell the same story several times. They may forget familiar words, and might make up words in their place, for example, a pencil might be called a stick or a thing. Names of people they know may be increasingly forgotten. They might not know where they’ve put their glasses or keys. Other memory warning signs include reduced concentration and comprehension, forgetting to keep several appointments, and forgetting things that were recently learned.

Poor memory, especially short-term memory, is common in many people. If someone occasionally forgets a name or an appointment or phone number and then recalls these things later, this is normal behavior and not a sign of Alzheimer’s. A test of whether a person might have the disease is where they forget something and they don’t later remember they’ve forgotten.

Another common warning sign is difficulty performing tasks. A person with undiagnosed Alzheimer’s might start forgetting how to do all the steps involved in cooking a meal, repairing something, paying bills, doing their banking, shopping, or phoning someone. They might have difficulty with day to day activities such as dressing, washing, and eating, for example, they may forget to eat or eat too much or eat a whole meal of the one food. Decisions can become difficult to make, including simple things such as what to have for tea or what to wear. They are less organized, and work colleagues might see a decline in work performance. Warning signs don’t include occasionally forgetting why you’ve gone into a room or putting two spoons of sugar in your coffee and you usually have one.

Poor judgment is another common warning sign. A person might forget to bathe, saying they have bathed already. They may wear the same clothes for several days, saying they’re clean. Sometimes a person may dress in clothes inappropriate to the season or they might put their night clothes on over the top of their day clothes. Erratic driving might become a problem. They might hoards things, or take or steal things owned by others. Giving away a lot of money or spending it inappropriately may occur. Making the odd poor decision or forgetting the umbrella on a rainy day doesn’t mean a person may have Alzheimer’s.

Family members may see mood and behavioral changes in the person they think might have Alzheimer’s. There can be sharp mood swings and the person can be unpleasant for no reason. They may laugh at something not particularly funny, and then cry at something not especially sad or worrying. An occasional bad mood due to some occurrence at work or home doesn’t count. Changes in personality can occur. A person might become suspicion, develop fears, and show confusion. They might think their spouse is having an affair, or a family member has stolen something. They increasingly prefer to rely on their spouse to do tasks previously done by themselves. Strangely, a person in the early stages of Alzheimer’s gets fewer colds.

A person with undiagnosed Alzheimer’s might develop problems with communication and language. They may communicate less with family, friends, and work colleagues. They might have more limited vocabulary, shorter sentences, and stop in the middle of a sentence more often. Speech may be less fluent. They may not be able to find someone listed in a phone book. They may also revert to a first language more often.

Being unable to think of the right word in conversation or writing wouldn’t be a sign. Abstract thinking and complex mental reasoning are sometimes a problem for people who may have Alzheimer’s. For example, a person usually good with numbers might be slower at mental arithmetic or have difficulty counting backwards in threes. But if a person is naturally not numbers oriented and they have difficulty reconciling their bank account balance, this could be quite normal.

Being disoriented with place and time and losing things are further warning signs. People might forget familiar surroundings, becoming lost in places they normally know. They might forget how to get home or the route to a place they frequently visit. They may also have a tendency to wander and get lost. Misplacing things more frequently or putting them in strange places could point to Alzheimer’s, for example, putting the wallet in the fridge or keys in the washing machine. However, simply forgetting where you’ve put your keys and later finding them still in the car or in your bag instead of in the drawer, or temporarily forgetting the day of the week, isn’t a sign of Alzheimer’s.

Signs of a loss of initiative or apathy could occur in a person who may have Alzheimer’s. They may become indifferent about various aspects of life, become more passive, and want to go out less. Instead, they may watch more television or sleep more. They might need reminding to do things and have less enthusiasm for activities they have always enjoyed. But this warning sign needs to be treated with caution just as all the others do. Apathy can relate to other conditions, such as stress or depression. Also, everyone can feel lazy sometimes, and might be tired because of a busy schedule and skip an activity now and then.

Researchers in Sweden examined 47 studies that included investigation into the warning signs of Alzheimer’s between 1985 and 2003, finding that people later diagnosed with the disease had deficiencies in their thinking processes and their short-term memory. The researchers found smaller deficiencies in communication ability, spatial skills, and attentiveness among people in the pre-diagnosed stage of Alzheimer’s. The findings were consistent across the studies and showed that the warning signs could be many and complex.

However, they found that the major deficiencies were similar to the normal aging process and that there was no clear difference between a normal 75-year-old and someone before being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Early diagnosis can be difficult for this reason. They also found that early onset was followed by a period of relative stability, and then decline, before diagnosis. Another interesting finding was that the warning signs are more visible in younger people, as they tend to have a greater build-up of brain plaques.

There are many warning signs that a person may have Alzheimer’s, although the presence of symptoms doesn’t necessarily mean a person has the disease. Signs can be visible years before the disease is diagnosed. A difficulty is that a person often doesn’t realize they might have a problem or might be reluctant to accept that warning signs are there. If you know someone you think might be displaying the signs of Alzheimer’s, encourage them to see a doctor.

A Weaver’s Web – novel excerpt: An unwelcome visitor

Here’s the first couple of pages of my historical novel, A Weaver’s Web. It’s available at Amazon and elsewhere …

Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H52SEEK

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00H52SEEK

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00H52SEEK

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Chris_Pearce_A_Weaver_s_Web?id=-hlJAgAAQBAJ

Kobo Books: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ww/books/A-Weavers-Web/jHgKZNwqjkybm8qWDO3mcw?MixID=jHgKZNwqjkybm8qWDO3mcw&PageNumber=1

Apple iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/a-weavers-web/id775610928?mt=11

A  weaver sat in his workshop weaving yarn into cloth on a handloom when he heard hoofs clip-clopping in the distance. He looked up and saw a buggy approaching from Manchester way. At first he took little notice, hunching his shoulders against the cold and moving his fingers back and forth hurriedly across the loom to stop them going numb. Attached to the breast beam was a book he struggled to read in the poor light, the window behind him being small and dirty and facing north. Sometimes he had a candle to work by, but this week he couldn’t afford one.

Every so often he rested his eyes and refocused them by looking out the doorway. He watched the autumn leaves fall on the lush green grass, still wet from dew and now shimmering under a weak sun. Through mist and between low trees and bushes across the laneway, he could see the dim outlines of scores of drab cottages dotted over the valley, most of them home to other weavers and their families. Smoke poured from chimneys and hung in the air, above the mist. He listened to the birds and the cows and pigs. And he heard the faint clanking of metal from workshops in nearby Middleton.

As the buggy got closer, the sound of the hoofs overpowered other noises. The weaver strained his eyes but didn’t recognise the driver, a large man in a top hat, or the passenger, a young boy.

They pulled up right outside his cottage. He stopped weaving and watched, wondering who they were and what they wanted. He had paid his taxes and was almost up to date with his rent. If it was one of those vendors of newfangled medicines, he had no money anyway. Was it a merchant, wanting to sell him yarn or buy his cloth? Or perhaps they were travellers in need of directions. Whoever they were, they were strangers, not to be trusted. He knew that much.

He got off his stool, stretched his limbs after hours of sitting and went to the doorway for a better look. The weaver stared at the man, in a smart suit, as he rummaged through a bag and took out some papers and perused them before putting them back. He nodded to his offsider, a slip of a lad, who leapt from the buggy and tied the horse to a tree. The man got out and straightened his clothing and brushed himself down as if preparing for an important appointment. Leaving the boy to tend the horse, he took his bag and headed towards the weaver’s cottage and workshop, picking his way along a rough path through the grass. Children playing on the banks of a nearby stream stopped and gazed at him.

The weaver emerged from his workshop and stood in front of it. Thin and of average height, he held his mouth firm. His hazel eyes darkened. A deep furrow extending from the top of his nose to midway up his forehead belied his thirty-seven years. His thick crop of brown wavy hair stuck out at the sides, and fell down over the back of the upturned collar of his jacket. He hitched up his threadbare trousers to reveal well-worn boots. He dug his heels into the ground and put hands on hips, not taking his eyes off the man for a moment. As a child, he would go a week or more without seeing anyone he didn’t know. Lately though, many strangers were infiltrating the area. He didn’t think much of the new arrivals with their funny accents who came from all over the country, and from Ireland, seeking work in the cotton factories.

“Hey, just a minute,” the weaver called out when the man was some twenty paces away. “Who are you? What do you want?” Each word rode on a cloud of carbon dioxide.

“Hello, my good man. No need to be afraid,” the stranger said, puffing from his walk up the hill. “The name’s Crowther, Daniel Crowther.”

“Never heard of you. What’s in your bag? Pills and powders?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Are you a merchant? Have you got work for me?”

“I have, in a sense. But no, I’m not a merchant.”

“Then why are you here?”

“To make you an offer,” the man said with a sly smile. He edged closer.

History of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is the federal and paramilitary police force in Canada. It is a large organization, with more than 19,000 sworn members and about 10,000 unsworn in 2013. Unlike most national police forces, the RCMP has front-line policing responsibilities at the provincial and local level.

Its history goes back to 1873 when the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) were formed in Canada’s Northwest Territories as prime minister John A. Macdonald was keen to bring law and order to the area. The catalyst was a drunken skirmish in Saskatchewan between wolf hunters, whiskey traders, and cargo haulers that became known as the Cypress Hills massacre.

The NWMP was based on the Royal Irish Constabulary, and the first commissioner, George Arthur French, went to Ireland to learn its practices. The new force of 22 officers and 287 men marched west from Manitoba to Alberta with their equipment and animals in July 1874. They were able to contain the whiskey trade when a group led by Superintendent James Morrow Walsh set up a post at Cypress Hills. The force’s headquarters were in this area from 1878 to 1883. The RCMP also built good relations with the First Nations’ peoples, Walsh and Sitting Bull becoming firm friends. The force helped end the North-West Rebellion in 1885 but not without heavy losses.

In the late 1890s, the NWMP kept the peace at the Klondike Gold Rush. It established various rules, enforced the law, collected customs duties, inspected boats, and generally maintained order, although gambling and prostitution were rife. The force’s success at Klondike ensured its continued existence, despite House of Commons discussions to dissolve it.

Its jurisdiction extended steadily, to the Yukon Territory in 1895, Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces in 1905 and Manitoba in 1912. King Edward VII named it the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) in 1904. During World War I, it conducted border patrols and enemy surveillance and enforced national security regulations. In 1918, some of its members were part of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force in Vladivostok, during the Russian Revolution.

The organization was used to quell strike action in Winnipeg in 1919 and at other industrial confrontations. Its image deteriorated and again it faced dissolution. However, in 1920 it became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) after merging with the Dominion Police, a force that was set up in 1868 to protect Ottawa’s parliament buildings.

The new body was to enforce federal laws across Canada. It was also responsible for national security and intelligence, and closely monitored groups such as the Communist Party of Canada as well as Chinese and Ukrainian communities. It continued the RNWMP’s role of breaking up strikes. The RCMP Marine Section was created in 1932, patrolling the country’s Arctic territory. In 1939, the RCMP Security Service was set up as a specialized intelligence unit.

In the postwar period, the RCMP Security Service decided to weed out undesirables from the public sector after Russian defector Igor Gouzenko revealed Soviet espionage activity. The RCMP targeted communism and then homosexuality. It developed a device that became known as the “fruit machine” to measure changes in a man’s pupil dilation when viewing pictures of nude men, which was supposed to determine if a man was gay. It operated the gadget in the 1950s and 1960s. Despite inconclusive results and funding being cut, the RCMP continued gathering information until it had files on more than 9,000 suspected homosexuals.

Women first joined the ranks of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1974, with 32 females comprising Troop 17. The first female to become a corporal was in 1981. The first to serve in a foreign post was in 1987. A woman was made a detachment commander in 1990 and the first female officers were appointed in 1992. The force had its first female Assistant Commissioner in 1998 and its first female (interim) Commissioner in 2006 before a male civilian got the top job in 2007, the first non-officer to do so.

In the late 1970s, the RCMP Security Service was accused of stealing the documents of separatist Parti Quebecois, setting fire to a barn, and other crimes. The “Royal Commission of Inquiry into Certain Activities of the RCMP” resulted in intelligence duties being removed to a new separate organization, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, in 1984. Later, in 1993, the RCMP lost its counter-terrorism unit, the Special Emergency Response Team, to the Canadian Armed Forces.

Controversy continues to haunt the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Since 1994, it has provided training and support for the Haitian National Police, an organization that attracts plenty of allegations of human rights abuses. In recent years, a number of officers have been killed and several suspects have died during RCMP operations. The Canadian Government had to pay $10.5 million to Maher Arar when the RCMP provided wrong information, leading to his imprisonment and torture in a Syrian gaol. In 2007, the Canadian Press named the RCMP as Canadian Newsmaker of the Year.

Biography: Sir John A. Macdonald

Sir John Alexander Macdonald was Canada’s first prime minister, holding office for more than 18 years from 1 July 1867 to 5 November 1873 and from 17 October 1878 to 6 June 1891. He won six majority governments, still a Canadian record, and could rightly be called the father of Canada.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland on 11 January 1815, Macdonald was the third of five children to Hugh and Helen Macdonald. He was five years of age when the family moved to Kingston, Upper Canada after his merchant father’s business failures at home. His family struggled to afford to send him to the Midland Grammar School in Kingston where he was noted as a voracious reader who would immerse himself in a book for hours and not be distracted. After briefly attending another school, he left at age 15.

At the beckoning of his parents, Macdonald pursued a career in law. He passed the Law Society of Upper Canada examination and was apprenticed to a young lawyer called George Mackenzie. In 1835, at just 19, he was running his own practice. He moved into criminal law in 1837 and his name started to spread beyond the small Kingston business community. During the Rebellions of 1837, he defended and gained acquittals for eight political prisoners who had been charged with treason. There were bigger risks to come. Macdonald defended a group of American raiders who were part of an unsuccessful attempt to free Canada from British colonial oppression. But he could only give advice, as civilian lawyers couldn’t address the judge or question witnesses.

Macdonald became Alderman of Kingston in 1843 and was elected as a Conservative to the parliament of the Province of Canada the following year to represent Kingston. He became Receiver General in 1847 but the government lost the next election and he resigned from his party. He then helped form the Liberal-Conservative Party who won office in 1854. Macdonald became Attorney-General and was regarded as the most powerful minister in cabinet. After the next election in 1856, he became joint premier of the Province of Canada. Despite the government’s defeat in the 1858 election, the governor-general asked previous joint premier George-Etienne Cartier to be the senior premier only a week later and Macdonald returned to the cabinet with him. This was allowed so long as it was done within a month of resigning from previous cabinet positions. The government was defeated in 1862 and Macdonald became opposition leader before his party won again in 1864.

Leading the Conservatives in a tripartite arrangement known as the Great Coalition, his main aim from 1864 to 1867 was to organize legislation to confederate the Province of Canada and the various other colonies into the country of Canada. He presented his views at the Charlottetown Conference in September 1864 and again at the Quebec Conference in the following month. The final confederation conference was held in London where agreement of the colonies was reached. The Dominion of Canada was created under the British North America Act of 1867, effective from 1 July. Queen Victoria knighted Macdonald for his role in confederation on the same day.

His Conservative Party won the August 1867 election and he became prime minister. His vision was to make Canada even larger and to unify it. His government bought Rupert’s Land and North-Western Territory, two large areas to the west of the country for 300,000 pounds from the Hudson’s Bay Company. British Columbia was added to Canada in 1871 after Macdonald promised to connect it to the transcontinental railway. But he was accused of bribery relating to rail construction contracts, which became known as the Pacific Scandal, and he was forced to resign on 5 November 1873.

He regained power and the prime ministership in 1878 with his National Policy of promoting local industry and protecting it from the industry of other countries. He met his promise of finishing the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, but sent Canada deep into debt in the process. He and the project regained favor during the North-West Rebellion led by Louis Riel who had returned from exile. Troops were quickly sent to the Saskatchewan District by train and quelled the independence bid. Macdonald again won the 1891 election but by this time he was 76 and feeling the effects of overwork, drinking, and illness. He suffered a stroke on 29 May 1891 and never recovered, dying eight days later aged 76.

In contrast to his public life, his personal life was less successful, and was marred by sickness, drunkenness, debt and unhappiness. He suffered an undiagnosed illness in 1840 to 1842, leaving him weak and listless. In 1842, he sailed to Britain with a large sum of money he had won playing cards and met his cousin Isabella Clark. Six years older than Macdonald, she returned with him to Canada and they married on 1 September 1843. She fell sick in 1845 with headaches and numbness, and took opium and sherry to relieve the severe pain. They traveled to Savannah, Georgia for a while, in the hope that the warmer climate would aid her health but she remained ill. Their son, John Alexander, was born in 1847 but he died in his cot at 13 months. A second son, Hugh John, was born in 1850. Isabella never recovered from her sickness and died in 1857, and the son went to live with Macdonald’s sister Margaret.

The time away from work caring for his sick wife, together with the cost, pushed him into debt. Politicians at the time received only token pay. These pressures drove him to drink and he was often seen at various bars and lounges binge drinking. He once vomited on the speaker’s podium and jokingly told the crowd that hearing his opponents speak caused him to be sick. He was also known for his temper, tearing across the House of Commons floor to attack opponent Donald Smith before being restrained. One of his nicknames was Old Tomorrow as he tended to put things off until circumstances were politically favorable to him. Macdonald married again in 1867 to Susan Agnes Bernard. Their daughter, Margaret Mary Macdonald, had hydrocephalus at birth and suffered physical and mental disabilities but lived to 64 years.

John A. Macdonald is Canada’s second longest serving prime minister. He appears on the 10 dollar bill. Macdonald-Cartier is the name of an international airport, a highway, and a bridge. In Kingston, there is Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard and Macdonald Park, as well as a statue on the corner of West and King streets. Various buildings carry his name too. In 2004, he was voted among the top 10 “Greatest Canadians” by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation viewers.

How Ottawa became the capital of Canada

The Ottawa area was originally the home of the Odawa people, a name that supposedly means “traders”. The first Europeans to settle in the area were a group of families who started farming the banks of the Ottawa River near Chaudiere Falls in 1800. After the Rideau Canal was completed in 1832 by Colonel John By, the population grew steadily. A town that formed was called Bytown. It became a city in 1855 and was renamed Ottawa after the original inhabitants.

At the time, Ottawa was a city in the Province of Canada, covering Labrador, the western part of Quebec, and the southern part of Ontario along the Great Lakes. The province was a British colony from 1841 to 1867 and had been formed through amalgamation of mainly French speaking Lower Canada (Labrador and Quebec) and mainly English speaking Upper Canada (Ontario).

During that period, the province had six changes in capital city. Kingston in present day eastern Ontario was chosen as the new province’s capital in 1841. However, it was considered too small, and vulnerable to American attack so close to the border, and the capital was shifted to Montreal in Quebec in 1844. Five years later, Tories burned the parliament building to the ground in protest against the Rebellion Losses Bill which was to compensate Lower Canadians for property losses in the Rebellions of 1837.

This prompted a shift in the capital to Toronto in 1849 but it only remained the capital until 1852 when Quebec City became capital. It had been a capital city for well over 200 years, having been the capital of New France, a huge area covering roughly the eastern half of today’s Canada and the US. Later it was capital of Quebec province and Lower Canada. By 1856, the capital moved back to Toronto, before it once again shifted to Quebec City in 1859.

Concerned about the constant need to shift the capital city of the Province of Canada due to riots and buildings being burnt in several of the capitals, the advisers to Queen Victoria recommended to her in 1857 to name Ottawa as the capital city. Their reasons were several:

– It was the only sizeable settlement along the old Upper and Lower Canada border, thus being seen as a compromise between the English and French populations.

– The Crown owned Ottawa’s Barrack Hill, the site of an old military base. It was a prominent location and suitable as a site for parliament buildings.

– Ottawa is halfway between Quebec City and Toronto, each being about 300 miles away.

– It would be less likely to be attacked, being in the middle of a dense forest and further from the border than the larger cities, which showed their vulnerability to American attacks in the War of 1812.

– If need be, troops could be easily moved along the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal in case of impending attack.

– Finally, the city’s small size meant it was less likely to be attacked by mobs with political motivations.

Queen Victoria officially chose Ottawa as the province’s permanent capital in 1857 and work on the new parliament buildings began in 1859 on Barrack Hill. It was North America’s largest construction project to that date. There were delays and cost overruns leading to a commission of inquiry. Construction was still in progress when Queen Victoria’s birthday was celebrated at the site in 1865. This further cemented Ottawa’s position as the future capital and the renamed Parliament Hill as the political centre of the province.

Meanwhile, the move for a confederated Canada was gaining momentum. Following the Charlottetown Conference in September 1864 and the Quebec Conference in the following month, 16 delegates from Canada province and the colonies of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attended the London Conference of 1866-1867. They drafted the British North America Act and named the new country the Dominion of Canada. The Act was passed on 29 March 1867, effective from 1 July of that year. The Province of Canada was redivided into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, while New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were the other two provinces. More provinces were added over the years.

Ottawa, with its grand parliament buildings still unfinished and with a population of 18,000, automatically became the permanent capital city of the new country on 1 July 1867. The parliament buildings were finally finished in 1876. Ottawa now has a population of about 900,000 people and continues as the country’s capital.

Who were the Beothuk people?

The Beothuk people lived on the Canadian island of Newfoundland when the Europeans arrived in the late 15th and 16th centuries. They were regarded as a separate ethnic group who had lived on the island for at least 1,500 years.

Their origins are uncertain. Surviving examples of the Beothuk language appear to link it to the Algonquian languages, and recent DNA evidence seems to back this up. In 2007, tests were conducted on parts of the teeth of Nonosabasut and his wife Demasduit who were two of the last surviving Beothuk in the 1820s. These tests linked them to the Mikmaq people who lived on the Nova Scotia peninsula.

Algonquian languages were spoken across a large area of Canada, including the peninsula as well as in the Quebec and Labrador areas, opposite Newfoundland. This indicates that the Beothuk may have migrated from the mainland across the narrow northern entrance to the Gulf of St Lawrence, a distance of about nine miles. They would have seen the island from the mainland and perhaps escaped from an enemy by boat to the island. Or perhaps they were forced to migrate due to famine.

Their first migration is thought to have occurred about 2,000 years ago. The Beothuk went through four cultural phases, each lasting up to about 500 years, suggesting further migration waves.

The DNA testing also showed the Beothuk had only Native American ancestry, quashing an earlier theory that they also had European blood. They may have had early European contact though, when Norse seafarers around 1000 CE encountered people in Newfoundland they called “skraelings”, meaning barbarians.

The Beothuk lived throughout the island, especially around the bays of Notre Dame and Bonavista along the northern coast. Recent estimates of their number at the time of European contact in the late 15th century are 500-700. They were hunter-gatherers who lived in small tribal groups of 30-60 people.

Their conical shaped houses, or “mamateeks,” were made of a number of sticks leaning inwards and tied at the top before the structure was covered  with birch bark. Extra padding was laid over it in winter. A fireplace for cooking and warmth was dug in the middle. They painted their bodies with red ochre, giving rise to the early European description as “Red Indians.” Their houses, most possessions and even their babies were smeared with this ochre.

Food sources included caribou, seals, salmon and other animals, as well as an assortment of plants. They trapped deer by erecting a line of fencing up to 30-40 miles long. A pudding was made from great auk eggs. They would build up a store of food in their houses for winter. Animal skins were used as clothing. They made canoes of bark.

Regular European contact began in 1497 when John Cabot, an Italian explorer sponsored by the English, set foot on Newfoundland soil. Unlike many indigenous peoples, the Beothuk avoided European contact, moving inland as the new settlements expanded. There was fierce competition between the Beothuk and the newcomers for food and other natural resources and many violent encounters ended in bloodshed. The migrants could be quite cruel towards the Beothuk, leading to many retaliatory attacks by the local people although they seemed reluctant to use firearms.

During the colonial period, other native groups moved to Newfoundland, resulting in loss of territory, causing cultural frictions and placing extra pressure on resources. Mikmaq came from Nova Scotia while Inuit migrated from Labrador as tensions between these groups and Europeans escalated on the mainland. The Beothuk fought these new arrivals as well as the Europeans.

Their numbers declined for these reasons plus disease. They had no immunity to infectious diseases of the Europeans such as smallpox, and also suffered from tuberculosis. Officially, the last surviving Beothuk, Shanawdithit, died of tuberculosis in 1829 aged just 28. Her grave at St. Mary the Virgin Church in St. John’s had to make way for railway construction in 1903. A monument marks the site of the church and her grave. She is well known in Newfoundland.

With Shanawdithit’s passing, the Beothuk race was declared extinct. However, there may have been a few survivors in the Exploits River and Twillingate areas of Newfoundland and also in Labrador. They may have married into European-Canadian, Mikmaq and Inuit families. In 1910, a 75 year old woman, Santu Toney, claimed she had a Beothuk father and Mikmaq mother and recorded a song in Beothuk for Frank Speck, an American anthropologist.

Some scholars believe the Beothuk ultimately became extinct due to European genocide rather than solely through fighting, loss of food sources and disease. They argue that the Tasmanian Aborigines in Australia met a similar fate.

How Alberta became a province

Alberta has been a province of Canada since 1905. The smaller district of Alberta, along with the districts of Athabasca, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan, had been established in 1882 as part of the vast North-West Territories for administrative purposes, as the area was becoming more populated with various traders and settlers. The districts were officially known as provisional districts.

All four districts contained part of the area that would become the province of Alberta. The district of Alberta covered the southwestern part of today’s province. Athabasca was in the northern half. Assiniboai was mainly in Saskatchewan but it stretched west into current Alberta province. Part of Saskatchewan district also extended west into today’s province of Alberta. The more remote areas of the North-West Territories were divided into further districts in 1895.

Local leaders, especially territories premier Sir Frederick Haultain, lobbied for provincial status for Canada’s western areas for some years. Born in England in 1857 and migrating to Ontario with his family in 1860, he studied law in Toronto before being elected to the territories Legislative Assembly in 1887. He soon led a group of members who wanted responsible government. The Canadian government finally agreed to their wishes and Haultain became the territories first premier in 1897. He was opposed to party politics and although he led the territories Liberal-Conservative Party, there were also a number of liberals and conservatives in his cabinet.

He led provincial status negotiations with the Canadian government, arguing in 1904 that the North-West Territories should become one large province called Buffalo to be run by a non-partisan government. He wanted the town of Regina to be its capital city rather than the larger centers of Calgary or Edmonton to the west. However, residents of each of those cities pushed for their own city to become the capital of any new province. Other proposals included three provinces, and two provinces with a west-east border.

Another problem for Haultain was his poor relationship with Canadian prime minister and federal liberal leader Sir Wilfrid Laurier. He had led his party since 1887 and built a strong enough following to become prime minister in 1896 after a string of conservative and liberal-conservative prime ministers. Laurier was the country’s first francophone prime minister and built a power base in Quebec, a previous conservative stronghold. He believed in the separation of church and state, which was strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church. The last thing he wanted was a large province in the west run by a liberal-conservative party with a liberal-conservative premier.

Haultain was becoming increasingly identified as a conservative and campaigned for the Conservative Party in the federal election in 1904, arguably in a bid to have Laurier ousted as prime minister and boost the chances of his dream of the territories becoming the province of Buffalo. But Laurier was returned with an increased majority. The liberal vote was highest in the territories, perhaps as a backlash against Haultain by Edmonton and Calgary residents.

Basking in his re-election success, Laurier decided he didn’t want one large province of any political persuasion which might eventually rival Quebec or Ontario. Nor did he support three provinces in the less populated western areas. He chose a two province plan and introduced bills in the House of Commons on 21 February 1905 to create Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces. The Alberta Act and the Saskatchewan Act were passed into law on 20 July 1905. Edmonton and Regina would be the respective capital cities of the new provinces.

Alberta was promoted to province status at noon on 1 September 1905 in an official inauguration ceremony attended by Laurier at Rossdale Flats, Edmonton. (Saskatchewan’s turn came three days later at Regina.) About 12,000 Edmonton residents attended the ceremony. As part of the celebrations, a concert featuring a 15 piece orchestra and 41 member choir was held at the Thistle Rink the previous evening. A parade was held on Jasper Avenue on the morning of Inauguration Day. Alberta was named after the fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, who was married to John Campbell, Canada’s governor-general from 1878 to 1883.

Alexander Cameron Rutherford was appointed as Alberta’s premier on 2 September, the day after the inauguration. Elections were held on 9 November 1905 with Rutherford’s Alberta Liberal Party winning 23 of 25 seats. It was a bitter election with the liberals accused of vote tampering and harassing conservative voters. The conservatives had little clout as Haultain had moved to Saskatchewan where its first election, on 13 December 1905, was also won by the liberals, and Haultain became that province’s Opposition leader.

Thus the four districts of Alberta, Athabasca, Assiniboia, and Saskatchewan were reorganized into the two new provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Both provinces were considerably smaller than Ontario or Quebec. The Acts allowed the Canadian government to retain control of all natural resources and public lands of both provinces until the Natural Resources Transfer Acts were passed in 1930.

Who was Coriolanus in ancient Rome?

Gaius Marcius Coriolanus may have been a Roman aristocrat and army general in the fifth century BCE. He allegedly led an army against the Volscians, a tribe who invaded Roman territory in central Italy. He acquired his title “Coriolanus” due to his valor during a siege of Volscian city Corioli. The two major factors dominating his career were the war with the Volscians and the conflict of orders within the new Roman Republic. He later changed sides.

In the lead up to the Volscian war, Roman king Tarquin the Proud had been expelled by two princes, Lucius Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, who themselves fell out. When Collatunis was banished and Brutus died in battle, Publius Valerius Publicola became ruler. He decided to share this power, forming a republic to be run by two consuls: himself and a colleague. This arrangement only lasted one or two years, but it weakened Rome.

Nearby Latium cities wanted independence. Although they were defeated by Roman leader Aulus Postumius Albinus, Rome’s perceived weakness encouraged mountain tribes such as the Volscians to seek better pastures on the plains. They conquered the towns and the battles continued on an annual basis.

The conflict of orders resulting from the replacement of the king by several aristocrats was the other main issue. Few Romans had benefited from the new republic. The economy contracted, product quality declined, imports fell, and a debt crisis emerged. Social tensions developed between rich and poor, something a king might have been able to resolve more satisfactorily than the ruling aristocrats who favored the rich. The plebeians, who were the poorest Romans, had earlier set up a “tribunus plebes” to help defend their rights and this had been recognised by the aristocrats.

Coriolanus defeated the Volscians and gained the support of the aristocrats in the senate. But he had little time for the plebeians, wanting to use the current food crisis to punish them. The government had to import grain and Coriolanus proposed that the tribunate be abolished before they could receive any food. Riots ensued and he was asked to front a people’s assembly arranged by the tribunes. Perhaps fearing for his life, he refused and went into exile. Another version has him convicted of misappropriation of public funds and banished from Rome for life.

As payback for not getting his way, Coriolanus joined the Volscians, his old enemy, and would fight against the Romans. He went to the home of Volscian aristocrat Tullus Aufidius and convinced him to help persuade his people to break their truce with the Romans and build an army to invade Rome. He became a general in the Volscian army and led a successful attack against the port of Cercii in the south before capturing the towns of Tolerium, Bola, Pedum, Labici, Corbio, and Bovillae.

When his army threatened Rome itself, Coriolanus’ wife and mother were among the women sent to try and convince him not to attack. He relented before returning to Antrium. In a second campaign, he took Longula, Satricum, Ecetra, Setia, Pollusca, Mugilla, and Corioli. He ordered his troops to destroy plebeian farms but not those of aristocrats. In the end, he was put on trial by the Volscians but was assassinated before its conclusion.

Historians in later ancient times, such as Livy and Plutarch, believed that Coriolanus was a real person. However, most modern historians regard the story as a legend written to show traits like disloyalty and ingratitude and how Rome had indeed lost battles to the Volscians.

How were women treated in ancient Rome?

Women in ancient Rome had fewer rights than their male counterparts, although they probably weren’t treated as poorly as in some societies at the time and things did appear to improve over the Roman period.

In the years after the founding of Rome, women were abducted from the Sabines, a tribe who already lived in the area. This practice stopped after the Romans and the Sabines formed a single nation. Women soon became more respected due to the need to boost the birth rate and the overall population so that Rome could defend itself and expand its territory.

Despite some improvements, women did not have citizenship, nor could they vote or hold public office, and could not own property. Their main role, apart from bearing children, was to wait on their husbands, look after their family, and do the housework, including making clothes and other items. In households with slaves, women would usually supervise their work.

A woman was regarded as a minor in Roman law and her husband was her guardian, or if she had no husband her nearest male relative filled this role. If her husband died intestate, his property automatically passed to the nearest male relative. Perhaps surprisingly, divorce was fairly easy and would be granted if the woman left her husband’s house.

In the early and middle years of the Roman Republic, or around the third to the fifth centuries BCE, women were not usually allowed to leave the house without their veil, or to speak in private to a man outside the family, or to drink wine. Breaking these rules could result in punishment or even divorce. Women did not eat with their husbands, but ate with other female family members and children.

In the late republican period, these rules were often eased, such as women being allowed to eat with their husbands in the dining room. They could also walk the streets freely or go to bath houses. In 195 BCE, women publicly complained about laws preventing them from wearing expensive clothing and jewelry or riding in chariots. Roman statesman Cato the Elder chided them but the laws were rescinded. The education of women also began around this time.

By the first century BCE, the standing of women was considerably higher than in early republican times, although they still couldn’t hold office. The increasing wealth of Rome meant that women had more time and money to pursue interests outside the home.

In marriage, they were able to stay under the authority of their family rather than their husband; other relatives tended to be less strict than their spouse. When they married, they could retain their own money, which meant easier divorce if they needed one, and greater freedom. Adultery was becoming less of a sin. Women could provide advice to their husband and it became socially acceptable for a man to admit he took this advice. This is in contrast to earlier times where women were not permitted to even make suggestions.

Emperor Augustus tried to make a series of changes relating to women and families soon after the start of the Roman Empire in 27 BCE. He felt that women did not value marriage and had too much freedom. Various reforms were put in place. A woman would be banished or lose half her dowry is she committed adultery. If the offence took place in her husband’s house, he was entitled to kill her. Similarly, he could kill his daughter for adultery. Women under the age of 50 had to be married or lose their inheritance. Further, they could not attend public events by themselves.

But the reforms were unpopular with just about everyone and were regarded as a backward step in a society where the standing of women had increased steadily over the years. The “reforms” were doomed to failure.

Women in ancient Rome continued to have a lifestyle that was better than in most other ancient societies, although they never gained anything close to equality. While their lives were centered around the home, they did have considerable freedoms.