Canadian Institute for Historical Education

10/07/2026

10/07/2026

Sir Charles Tupper was a key figure in getting the CPR built while he was Canada’s Minister of Railways and Canals between 1879 and 1884.

Watch the full History Matters episode with Michael Hill: https://cihe.ca/2026/10/01/episode-35-michael-hill-on-the-lost-prime-ministers/

10/07/2026

Canada is turning toward Europe—again.

Prime Minister Mark Carney is pursuing a deeper economic and security partnership with the European Union as Canada tries to reduce its dependence on the United States.

It sounds new. But Canada confronted a remarkably similar problem more than 50 years ago.

In 1969, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau famously described the Canada/US relationship this way:

“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant.”

Two years later, President Richard Nixon imposed a 10% surcharge on American imports. Canada expected an exemption because the two economies were so closely connected.

It didn’t get one.

The “Nixon Shock” exposed an uncomfortable reality: Canadian jobs and exports depended heavily on the United States, but Canada had little control over decisions made in Washington.

At the same time, American companies owned large portions of Canadian industry, while Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community weakened Canada’s traditional economic relationship across the Atlantic.

In 1972, Trudeau’s government responded with the “Third Option.”

Canada could maintain the existing relationship, integrate more closely with the United States—or strengthen its domestic economy while developing new markets in Europe, Japan and elsewhere.

Trudeau chose the third.

Canada eventually signed an economic cooperation agreement with Europe in 1976. But the policy never substantially reduced its dependence on the United States.

Historian and former diplomat Paul Meyer attributes that failure to “the powerful pull of geography and the inertia of established trading patterns.”

Today, Canada is looking toward Europe once again—through trade, defence, critical minerals, energy and technology.

The Third Option offers both inspiration and a warning:

Canada can diversify its partnerships.

But overcoming the economic pull of the elephant next door has never been easy.

10/06/2026

Prime Minister John Thompson suffered a massive heart attack and died while having lunch at Windsor Castle with Queen Victoria. And she sent his body back to Canada on a battleship painted black.

Watch the full History Matters episode with Michael Hill: https://cihe.ca/2026/10/01/episode-35-michael-hill-on-the-lost-prime-ministers/

10/05/2026

Alberta’s separation debate did not begin with oil.

It began with wheat.

That sounds strange, but the basic complaint is more than a century old.

In 1879, John A. Macdonald’s National Policy tried to build a Canadian economy using tariffs, western settlement and a transcontinental railway.

From Ottawa, it looked like nation-building.

From a Prairie farm, it could look very different.

Farmers sold wheat at the price set by the world market. But when they bought tools and manufactured goods, Canadian tariffs pushed the price up.

Then railways and grain companies controlled how their crops reached the market.

That was how many farmers saw the deal: sell cheap, buy expensive and pay the railway in between.

So they organized.

The grain growers’ movement grew. The United Farmers of Alberta won provincial power. And in 1921, the Progressive Party won 58 federal seats—more than the Conservatives.

Then wheat gave way to oil.

Freight rates became pipelines. Tariffs became federal regulation and spending. But the complaint remained familiar: the West produced the resources while important decisions were made somewhere else.

Today, Alberta is preparing for a non-binding vote on whether to remain in Canada or begin a future process toward a separation referendum.

Whatever happens next, this argument did not appear overnight.

Alberta’s separation debate may be about oil today.

But its political roots run through a wheat field.

10/05/2026

In October 1970, Canada invoked the War Measures Act during peacetime, for the first and only time.

The FLQ’s kidnapping of James Cross and Pierre Laporte brought Quebec’s October Crisis to national attention. The government’s response raised difficult questions about public safety, state power and civil liberties that still resonate today.

Watch to explore this pivotal moment in Canadian history, and follow CIHE for more history that helps us understand the present.

Visit us at cihe.ca

10/04/2026

Should Canada complete its purchase of 88 American-built F-35 fighter jets or acquire at least some Swedish-designed Gripens, with more of the aircraft’s production, maintenance and intellectual property located in Canada?

The government has committed funding for the first 16 F-35s, but its review of the remaining purchase continues. The debate is about military capability and cost. But it is also about something larger: how much control Canada should retain over the technology required to defend itself.

It is a question Canada has confronted before.

On October 4, 1957, thousands of people gathered at Avro Canada’s plant in Malton, Ontario, to see the unveiling of the CF-105 Arrow.

Designed and built in Canada, the sleek, delta-winged interceptor was created to fly at twice the speed of sound and defend North America against Soviet bombers. It represented an extraordinary concentration of Canadian engineering talent and industrial ambition.

Canada was not merely buying advanced technology. It was attempting to create it.

Less than two years later, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s government cancelled the program. The Arrow was highly capable, but enormously expensive. Military thinking was also changing as intercontinental missiles appeared to replace bombers as the principal threat.

The decision immediately eliminated thousands of highly skilled jobs. The completed aircraft, production tooling and many of the project’s records were ordered destroyed. Canada subsequently acquired American-built CF-101 Voodoo interceptors and BOMARC missiles for continental air defence.

The Arrow has since become more than an aircraft. It has become a symbol of what Canada might have achieved and of how quickly technological expertise can disappear when a major national project ends.

Today’s F-35–Gripen decision is not a simple replay of 1959. Canada is choosing between foreign-designed aircraft, not deciding whether to continue developing an entirely Canadian fighter. The F-35 also connects Canada to its NORAD and NATO allies and already involves Canadian suppliers. Gripen’s manufacturer, meanwhile, is proposing greater Canadian production, maintenance and technology transfer.

But the underlying question feels familiar.

Should Canada prioritize access to the most integrated allied defence system? Or should it place greater weight on domestic production, technological independence and freedom from reliance on a single foreign partner?

On October 4, the Avro Arrow reminds us that defence procurement is never only about which aircraft flies faster, farther or more quietly.

It is also about what capabilities a country chooses to build—and what it is prepared to surrender.

#[avro arrow]

10/03/2026

Why didn’t Macdonald anoint a successor, even when he knew he was dying?

Watch the full History Matters episode with Michael Hill: https://cihe.ca/2026/10/01/episode-35-michael-hill-on-the-lost-prime-ministers/

10/02/2026

October 2 1944: The Battle of the Scheldt: The Victory That Opened Antwerp

In the autumn of 1944, Allied forces captured Antwerp—one of Europe’s largest ports.

But there was a problem.

Antwerp was about 80 kilometres inland, connected to the North Sea by the Scheldt estuary. German forces still controlled its shores, making the port unusable.

Without Antwerp, Allied armies advancing across Europe faced a growing shortage of food, fuel and am******on.

Opening the Scheldt fell largely to the First Canadian Army.

Beginning in October, Canadians fought across flooded fields, muddy roads and heavily defended d***s. They crossed the Leopold Canal, cleared the Breskens Pocket and battled their way toward South Beveland and Walcheren Island.

It was a brutal five-week campaign. More than 6,300 Canadians were killed, wounded or reported missing.

But they succeeded.

The Scheldt was cleared, the mines were removed, and on November 28, the first Allied convoy entered Antwerp—led by the Canadian-built freighter Fort Cataraqui.

The Battle of the Scheldt is not as widely remembered as D-Day. But without it, the Allied advance might have stalled.

Canada did more than help liberate Europe.

Canadian forces opened the route that helped make victory possible.

10/01/2026

Before Britain and the United States officially became wartime allies, a Canadian was already helping build the intelligence partnership between them.

Winnipeg-born William Stephenson—codenamed **“Intrepid”**—worked behind the scenes to track enemy agents, protect Allied supply lines, and strengthen intelligence cooperation during the Second World War.

His story is a reminder that some of Canada’s most consequential wartime contributions happened far from the battlefield.

Learn more about the people and stories that shaped Canada at CIHE.ca.