sbhist.bsky.social
Historian of disability and Canadian politics. Researcher, PhD. Jazz, horror, and cli-fi guy.
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It might be worse than Molotov-Ribbentrop! (depending on how much weight one wants to put on the postwar Soviet narrative)
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I think Ontario might be winning.
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This is really great- Richard Crandell or Nick Jonah Davis-ish. Nicely done!
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For every smarmy American comment about France surrendering in 1940 there should be a smarmy retort about the United States abandoning France and shrugging at Nazism. You guys finished strong, but man did you not start strong.
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Bible Hill. But I left in my 20s.
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(From one son of Colchester to another)
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Definitely it can’t be glossed over. I think where we differ is I think that the colonial archipelago of institutions and petty violence from settler Canadians and the state is the central story. I think we need to stare into the pit. But I look forward to your book!
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Oh noone’s saying Canadians know this history well. That number would be low. We’re both saying Canadian history is too wrapped up in American stories, I think. I’m just suggesting that I don’t think we should return to an old way of understanding Canadian expansionism. I’m with you on a lot.
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…that I think we need to get past. The Wild West/Mild West thing has been Canadian pablum for a very long time.
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Oh I’m not saying there’s no distinction. I’m saying that while comparison and continuities are important to look into, if we only evaluate Canadian state-Indigenous relations against the American model we will always find ways to feel like we are better. It’s an old historiographical trick…
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But I’m not putting your thoughts in with the reactionary crowd, tbc. I just really think the comparison on indigenous-state relations with the U.S. is not very helpful if we want a real appraisal of the Canadian historical contexts
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Yeah, that’s fair. I come from the standpoint of a person who has completed a PhD in a different field but worked in research in RG10 as a career. It’s been eye opening and has pushed me toward self recrimination whether it’s good for the country or not.
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I think you should engage more with the emerging imperial/colonial turn in Canadian history. But your point on the Quebec Act is well taken!
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I take your assertion that the British/Cdns had to colonize differently because of political/military weakness. But leaning on a comparison with the U.S. is an old nationalist crutch. I’m not trying to be a dick, but I think you use that to be far too kind to the Canadian state and people.
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… is to define ‘common sense.’ The person that does that is the person who leads the court. We do not want to play this game. Everybody loses, especially anyone who cares about accountability. /fin
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(I know this is generous to bureaucracies. But try a court government. It is far far worse). Anyway, this is a long way of saying that I get chills when the conservatives scream ‘common sense!’ Government run by common sense is impossible and will result in a battleground where the whole game /4
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But I think Canadians need to think about solutions rather than problems. Bureaucracies did not magically appear- they were a response to the corruption of court governments and governments based on patronage, which was Canada up until (at least) Borden. /3
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Canadians think they are immune. I think it’s unlikely that a Poilievre government can institutionalize corruption as fealty and control in the way it appears that a new Trump admin is. He won’t need to in his (first?) term. /3
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This message seemed to me to be the central metaphor of the series Succession, and why I think it was a top 5 series of all time. /2
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Canadian historian here who has spent years in RG10. This sucks, and you need to diversify your reading.
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We slept on one hedge fund buying almost every local paper in the country.