Nearly three years ago, I wrote a post called “Canada’s Historical Newspaper Digitization Problem” in which I agreed with the findings of a Higher Education Academy study that found that Canada lagged behind the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand in the digitization of historical newspapers. I found that Canada’s […]
Episode 41: Closing Federal Libraries, 3 February 2014Â [45:45] Download Audio In 2012, the Canadian federal government began closing and consolidating many of its departmental libraries. More than a dozen research libraries have closed at Parks Canada, Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Foreign Affairs, Citizenship and Immigration, Human Resources and Skills […]
Last night, I appeared on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin. The episode focused on the question, “Does History Matter?” The premise of the program was that Canadians seem to be dissociated from history and that historical context is not adequately incorporated in public discourse and news media. We were […]
By Andrew Watson, Stacy Nation-Knapper, and Sean Kheraj Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. Following up […]
Last month, judges for the 2013 City of Vancouver Book Award selected Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History as one of five finalists for this annual prize. The award recognizes books of any genre that “contribute to the appreciation and understanding of Vancouver’s history, unique character, or the achievements of its residents.” Amber […]
By Stacy Nation-Knapper, Andrew Watson, and Sean Kheraj Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. […]
Last week, CBC News published a series of articles about energy pipeline safety on Canada’s federally-regulated system of oil and gas pipelines, revealing that between 2000 and 2011 Canada suffered 1,047 separate pipeline incidents. Its findings confirm my own earlier research on the history of oil pipeline spills on the […]
Episode 40: Environmental History of Atlantic Canada, 5 November 2013 [55:30] Canada is a country of regions and from a biogeographic perspective, it can be useful to take a regional approach to exploring its environmental history. In 2004, BC Studies published a special issue on the environment of Canada’s Pacific […]
Last week, I appeared on The City on CiTR 101.9FM and CJSF 90.1 FM to speak about my new book, Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History. As a UBC alumni, I was very happy to have the chance to speak over the airwaves of the campus radio station. The host, Andy Longhurst, took us […]
By Stacy Nation-Knapper, Andrew Watson, and Sean Kheraj Last year, Nature’s Past, the Canadian environmental history podcast, published a special series called, “Histories of Canadian Environmental Issues”. Each episode focused on a different contemporary environmental issue and featured interviews and discussions with historians whose research explains the context and background. […]
Episode 39: The Environmental History of Stanley Park, 30 September 2013 [39:20] In 1888, the City of Vancouver officially opened its first urban park to the public, Stanley Park. The park lies adjacent to downtown Vancouver, encompassing a nearly 1,000-acre peninsula. It is one of the best-known parks in Canada […]
Precisely 125 years ago, the City of Vancouver opened Stanley Park to the public. This past summer in Vancouver, the city celebrated the anniversary about a month early. However, what many people might not know is that Vancouverites began to use Stanley Park as a recreational area months before the […]