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Create AccountThe Treaty of Paris, signed on 3 September 1783, concluded the American Revolution and established a boundary between the newly-independent American colonies and remaining British territories in North America.
On the plans which he had prepared for the construction of the Hôtel du Parlement de Québec (Québec's parliament buildings), Eugène-Étienne Taché took the initiative to inscribe, under the provincial coat of arms above the main door, a MOTTO of his own invention: Je me souviens (I remember).
The Treaty of Versailles is the name given to the document stipulating the peace terms imposed on Germany by the Allied victors of the First World War.
L'Action nationale was founded in 1933 by economist Esdras Minville as the voice of the Ligue d'Action nationale. It is the oldest journal of intellectual opinion writing in Quebec.
The term franchise denotes the right to vote in elections for members of Parliament, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. The Canadian franchise dates from the mid-18th-century colonial period. At that time, restrictions effectively limited the right to vote to male property holders. Since then, voting qualifications and the categories of eligible voters have expanded according to jurisdiction. These changes reflect the evolution of Canada’s social values and constitutional requirements.
In the end, the protest sputtered out, a victim of high seas and bad weather in the choppy Straits of Florida. The 35 boats and several private planes that set out from Key West, Fla.
While they may not have had access to the battlefields, a number of Canadian women artists made their mark on the visual culture of the First World War by representing the home front. First among these were the women affiliated with the Canadian War Memorials Fund, Canada’s first official war art program. Founded in 1916, the stated goal of the Fund was to provide “suitable Memorials in the form of Tablets, Oil-Paintings, etc. […], to the Canadian Heroes and Heroines in the War.” Expatriates Florence Carlyle and Caroline Armington participated in the program while overseas. Artists Henrietta Mabel May, Dorothy Stevens, Frances Loringand Florence Wyle were commissioned by the Fund to visually document the war effort in Canada.
Attempts to bring Newfoundland into Confederation in the 1860s and 1890s were met with lukewarm interest in the colony. In 1934, Newfoundland was in bankruptcy during the Great Depression. It suspended responsible government and accepted an unelected Commission Government directed by Britain. In a 1948 referendum, Newfoundlanders were given the choice to either continue with the Commission Government, join Canada, or seek a return to responsible government as an independent dominion. The independence option won the first vote. But the Confederation option won a run-off vote with 52.3 per cent support. The British and Canadian parliaments approved of the union. Newfoundland became Canada’s 10th province on 31 March 1949. In 2001, the province’s name was officially changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Stories about Paul Martin always seem to contain an element of frenetic activity or plain haste. There's the one about what amounted to his first date with Sheila Cowan, a friend of his younger sister.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was the largest non-denominational women’s organization in 19th century Canada.
This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on June 23, 1997. Partner content is not updated.
These days, the classrooms and corridors of Matthew Elementary School in Bonavista, Nfld., are like a shrine to John Cabot.When all else fails - and in recent years baseball's stock has been slipping like the loonie - there is always the history.
The 1917 Halifax Explosion is well-known as the biggest human-made explosion in the pre-atomic era, but it was also the largest mass-blinding in Canadian history and played a crucial role in the founding of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
In 1956, in the crucible of the Suez Crisis, L.B. Pearson invented United Nations peacekeeping. The Canadian foreign minister did not do so alone, and peacekeeping as it evolved was not exactly what he had in mind.
On 15 February 1965, at hundreds of ceremonies across the country and around the world, the red and white Maple Leaf Flag was raised for the first time. In Ottawa, 10,000 people gathered on a chilly, snow-covered Parliament Hill. At precisely noon, the guns on nearby Nepean Point sounded as the sun broke through the clouds. An RCMP constable, 26-year-old Joseph Secours, hoisted the National Flag of Canada to the top of a specially-erected white staff. A sudden breeze snapped it to attention.
In April 1935, about 1,500 residents of federal Unemployment Relief Camps in British Columbia went on strike. They travelled by train and truck to Vancouver to protest poor conditions in the Depression-era camps. After their months-long protest proved futile, they decided to take their fight to Ottawa. On 3 June, more than 1,000 strikers began travelling across the country, riding atop railcars. By the time they reached Regina, they were 2,000 strong. But they were stopped in Regina, where the strike leaders were arrested, resulting in the violent Regina Riot on 1 July 1935.
Refus global not only challenged the traditional values of Québec ("To hell with the holy-water-sprinkler and the tuque!") but also fostered an opening-up of Québec society to international thought.
The SS Queen Victoria played host to crucial discussions about Confederation in Charlottetown harbour in 1864. Two years later, the ship was lost in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras. The wreckage has never been found.
Held on 30 October 1995, the referendum on Québec sovereignty was settled by a narrow victory for the “No” camp — as had been the case in the 1980 referendum.
