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This article is from our Toronto Feature series. Features from past programs are not updated.

This article is from our Toronto Feature series. Features from past programs are not updated.

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (13 September 1759), also known as the Battle of Quebec, was a pivotal moment in the Seven Years’ War and in the history of Canada. A British invasion force led by General James Wolfe defeated French troops under the Marquis de Montcalm, leading to the surrender of Quebec to the British. Both commanding officers died from wounds sustained during the battle. The French never recaptured Quebec and effectively lost control of New France in 1760. At the end of the war in 1763 France surrendered many of its colonial possessions — including Canada — to the British.

(This is the full-length entry about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. For a plain-language summary, please see Battle of the Plains of Abraham (Plain-Language Summary).)

Ksan (or ‘Ksan) is a historical village, museum and campground, owned and operated by the Gitanmaax Band. It is located at the junction of the Skeena and Bulkley rivers in Hazelton, British Columbia. Ksan was established in 1970 as way to promote and preserve Gitxsan culture and history.

In the 18th century, Louisbourg was a fortified town and an important strategic capital in the French colony of Île Royale (Cape Breton Island). It was the scene of two major military sieges in the Anglo-French wars for supremacy in North America. The fall of Louisbourg to the British in 1758 paved the way for the capture of Québec and the end of French rule in North America. Today, Louisbourg is a national historic site and a popular tourist destination in Cape Breton.

Hogan’s Alley was a Vancouver, BC, neighbourhood that was home to multiple immigrant communities but was known largely for its African-Canadian population. The name “Hogan’s Alley” was not official, but was the popular term for a T-shaped intersection, including Park Lane, and the nearby residences and businesses at the southwestern edge of Strathcona. Beginning in 1967, the city of Vancouver began leveling the western half of Hogan’s Alley in order to construct freeway, spelling the end the neighbourhood.

The Blanc-Sablon area is located on Québec's eastern edge, close to the border with Labrador.

The Igloolik archaeological sites are located on the islands at the northern end of Foxe Basin, close to the village of Igloolik.

Founded in 1830, Fort Pitt was the major Hudson's Bay Company trading post between Forts Edmonton and Carlton (Saskatchewan), located at a large bend in the North Saskatchewan River just east of the modern Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

Fort Carlton, situated on the south branch of the North Saskatchewan River near Duck Lake (Saskatchewan), was established in 1810 as a Hudson's Bay Company fur trade and provision post.

The Red River Resistance (also known as the Red River Rebellion) was an uprising in 1869–70 in the Red River Colony. The resistance was sparked by the transfer of the vast territory of Rupert’s Land to the new Dominion of Canada. The colony of farmers and hunters, many of them Métis, occupied a corner of Rupert’s Land and feared for their culture and land rights under Canadian control. The Métis mounted a resistance and declared a provisional government to negotiate terms for entering Confederation. The uprising led to the creation of the province of Manitoba, and the emergence of Métis leader Louis Riel — a hero to his people and many in Quebec, but an outlaw in the eyes of the Canadian government.

Upper Canada was the predecessor of modern-day Ontario. It was created in 1791 by the division of the old Province of Quebec into Lower Canada in the east and Upper Canada in the west. Upper Canada was a wilderness society settled largely by Loyalists and land-hungry farmers moving north from the United States. Upper Canada endured the War of 1812 with America, William Lyon Mackenzie’s Rebellion of 1837, the colonial rule of the Family Compact and half a century of economic and political growing pains. With the Act of Union in 1841, it was renamed Canada West and merged with Lower Canada (Canada East) into the Province of Canada.

In 1771, Moravian missionaries were the first Europeans to settle in Labrador. Over a 133-year period, they established a series of eight missions along the coast which became the focus of religious, social and economic activities for the Inuit who gradually came to settle near the communities. Moravians had a huge impact on the life and culture of Labrador Inuit. What emerged was a unique culture rooted in Inuit traditions with indigenized European practices. The last Moravian missionary left Labrador in 2005, but the Moravian church, its customs and traditions are still very much alive in Labrador.

Ville-Marie was a French colony founded on 17 May 1642 on the Island of Montreal by the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal to bring Christianity to local Indigenous peoples. The colony was located in a key region for the development of agriculture and the fur trade. The colony became the modern-day city of Montreal.

Paldi, British Columbia was established in 1917, about 75 km northwest of Victoria. It was one of the first multi-ethnic, migrant mill towns on Vancouver Island. Sikh entrepreneur Mayo Singh (born Mayan Singh Manhas) founded the community. He named Paldi after his own village in District Hoshiarpur in Punjab, India. (Singh originally named Paldi after himself, calling the settlement Mayo Siding. However, because there was already a town named Mayo in Yukon, Singh changed the name to Paldi in 1936.) Though Paldi no longer has a registered population, it remains a symbol of successful, intercultural living in Canada.

Upper Fort Garry, situated at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in the heart of the Red River Colony, was a Hudson's Bay Company post established in 1822. Previous fur-trade posts had been located periodically in the area.

In 1858, around 30,000 gold seekers flooded the banks of the Fraser River from Hope to just north of Lillooet in British Columbia’s first significant gold rush. Although it dissipated by the mid-1860s, the Fraser River Gold Rush had a significant impact on the area’s Indigenous peoples and resulted in the Fraser Canyon War. Fears that the massive influx of American miners would lead the United States to annex the non-sovereign British territory known as New Caledonia also resulted in the founding of British Columbia as a colony on 2 August 1858 (see The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia). By the mid-1860s, the Fraser Rush collapsed, and British Columbia sank into a recession.