I'm quoted several times (along with my great peers!) in this thoughtful feature piece by the Globe and Mail's Nathan VanderKlippe about the many ways the United States has influenced Canada's development - penned for our neighbour's 250th anniversary. www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

I did an interview for Radio-Canada about la fête du Canada that aired today, en français. I can’t bring myself to listen to all my errors, but should the spirit so move you… ici.radio-canada.ca/ohdio/premie...

Happy Canada Day! Bonne Fête du Canada! 🇨🇦 I often say that I think today can be a day for both celebrations and reflection. There are a lot of aspects of this country and its history that are remarkable and that make me glad to be Canadian - and I like to celebrate those today. (🧵)

Thanks to @theglobeandmail.com for giving me a little space to talk about a moment in my life. I hope maybe it'll be useful to (possibly give a laugh to?)others with metastatic cancer? share.google/8dRbC0go2heN...

Being "proud" of your country does not mean burying your head in the sand about its fundamental problems. In fact, Canadians support reconciliation precisely because they want to resolve - not inflame - those tensions to create a better future.

It would figure that in a year when I am not doing a pile of Canada Day interviews, I have a perfect answer for the “and what are you doing to mark Canada Day this year?” question. “Why, painting my front door Fire Cracker red. Isn’t everyone?”

I agree! Just have the government pay for the renovation and be done with this never-ending tempest-in-a-teapot story. It's such a petty, petty issue.

On Wednesday, Ben Bradley spoke with Bill Fee of CBC Radio's Daybreak North show about the historical context behind an "audacious" new proposal to build a highway that would link B.C.'s north and central coast regions with Vancouver and Prince Rupert. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... #cdnhist

#UofG | Dr. Jacqueline Murray weighs in on the manifesto linked to the recent Montreal shooting in this commentary for @theglobeandmail.com#UofG Read more:

Great to see @benbradleyca.bsky.social quoted in coverage of this (absolutely bonkers) idea! #bchist Highway linking Vancouver to P... www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I keep being struck by how much of a gaping hole @raulpachecovega.bsky.social's passing has left behind. He was such a constant, positive, and encouraging presence on social media. I'm grateful to have met him live, and to have been in a conference "ussie" with him (taken at York in 2023).

Peak CanCon premise here! I would be all over this show. And at the end, Wilfrid Laurier swoops in to save the day! (Or whatever the spiritualist equivalent of a presence from the beyond suddenly arriving is called.)

This captures my feelings when people ask me if AI could be used in my writing— one of the most pleasurable parts of my vocation!

Historian here. I really do know that marriage has for a long time been a mechanism in systems of property management and social power. My marriage-scepticism aside, I applaud marriage equality. The history of sexuality is political history. Happy Pride! 1/2

Me, after a fantastic @cndhistassoc.bsky.social conference in Charlottetown. I love all the conversations, the meals, the drinks, and the dancing, but boy do I ever need recovery time once it's all done.

In Canadian terms, railroads give us the perfect blend, the 20-year-old scotch of historiography. And there's more! Western alienation (the Churchill line), maritime underdevelopment (freight rates), the spearhead (and later, the boat anchor) of organized labour

It was a great CHA Conference this year in Charlottetown - apparently our largest ever. Huge thanks to the organizing team, the program committee, and the CHA main office staff. Remember folks - what happens at Cliopalooza stays at Cliopalooza. Nobody needs to see video of historians barn dancing!

Stunned by the news of the passing of Raúl Pacheco-Vega. I mostly knew him through online interactions, but was fortunate to get to meet up with him live as well. He was such a generous and friendly person.

For non- Spanish speakers, this is announcement of the passing of Raúl Pacheco Vega. It doesn’t say when or what happened, but comments on his work and how generous he has been to colleagues not just at his home institution but around the world.

Its' almost the beginning of the Canadian Historical Association annual meeting. So, it's time to bring the wit, snark, and droll insight of the Dorkchester Review to BlueSky!!

I really miss the pre-Elon days when there was a genuine online buzz around conferences on Twitter, live-tweeting sessions, setting up plans to meet up, etc. I understand why not everyone relaunched here, or have not been as active - I haven’t either But it makes me sad to have lost it. #CHASHC2026

Canadian kids grow up reading books expecting most of them to have references to non-Canadian things in them - and having to figure them out or ask about them. That early immersion in American and British references helps you code-shift through the anglosphere, for better or worse.

Oooh! And Paul Gross is part of this year's Stratford company (he's in Waiting for Godot).

Allan Greer's a fantastic historian, and so this book is worth reading on its own merits (and attending its launch). But now I'm trying to think of a new project that lends itself to very cool - and delicious - venues for book launches. A jump shift to studying the history of Belgian chocolates???

One of the fascinating dimensions of Joe Clark's career - and it was part of the 1979 election - is how ideas about masculinity and feminism shaped (in my view, sexist, harsh, often unfair) media narratives about politics. I'll be exploring this in my @cndhistassoc.bsky.social conference talk.

1. Thinking about Canadian referenda b/c of the AB situation, but the echoes from history don't pan out if the end goal is to quash the separatists. A thread...🧵

OTD in 1979, Joe Clark and the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality of seats to form a minority government. My biography of Clark, "Joe Clark: Progressive, Conservative, Canadian" will be published by @mcgillqueensup.bsky.social in early 2027!

I bet @mhayday.bsky.social is somehow marking 1979's Joe Clark election win today. Looking forward to his upcoming bio of the man. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Ca...

Gearing up for the Canadian Historical Association (@cndhistassoc.bsky.social) Conference in Charlottetown at the start of June. Working on my opening remarks for a panel on historical biography, based on my forthcoming book about Joe Clark.

4) Every AI model sold in Canada must be fully costed to users, including for externalities like water use and pollution. 5) Any taxpayer investment in machine learning will be guided by content subject-area experts and based on the results of rigorous, independent studies.

2) Canadian Copyright Act to be updated to better define mosaic plagiarism and complex uncredited use as violations subject to penalty. 3) The Federal government will invest heavily in natural intelligence by radically improving funding for post-secondary education

CBC covering "National AI strategy." My proposal: 1) The Canadian government will sue every company offering an LLM trained on stolen material to protect Crown Copyright and on behalf of Canadians whose work has been stolen.

Historians: which non-Google search engine works best for you when it comes to finding relevant articles for what you are searching for? #history

28 years ago, I took a course on the history of the EU as part of my MA. Today, my husband (who I started seeing a few months later) is humouring me by going on a tour of the European Parliament Hemicycle in Brussels. And it’s Pride week here, which was a happy coincidence!

Major hotel chain: To get our Green certification and protect the environment we’d like you to re-use your towels and skip housekeeping - and we’ll give you a bar credit! Guest: That’s fantastic. And you’ll have a proper towel rod so the towels can dry, right? Hotel: …. Guest: Right??

This is on point! I definitely think of Harper when I fill out the census. And when I hope to get the long-form one.

Imagine an investment of nearly a billion dollars in our national museums/archive/gallery/library, which together are the actual beating heart of our national memory.

The rules on this actually changed back in 1973, thanks to an intervention by Joe Clark, then MP for Rocky Mountain, who protested to the Speaker when three First Nations leaders from his riding were denied entry to the members' gallery because they weren't wearing suits.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti.... Bill Waiser on the democratic importance of access to government records in Canada and the need for proper funding.

“Canada, Apartheid, and the Defence of the Liberal Order” traces Canadian attitudes and policy toward South African apartheid over nearly four decades, revealing why Canada was prompted to take a leading role in the global fight against South Africa’s system of racial oppression. bit.ly/4tECgmL

“If you don’t embrace AI you’ll be left in the dust” like yes that sounds lovely one dust please

Looking forward to next Monday’s launch of Daniel Manulak’s book Canada, Apartheid, and the Defence of the Liberal Order at UofT - featuring special guest the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark. Manulak’s work has been so helpful as I worked on my biography of Clark. billgrahamcentre.utoronto.ca/events/book-...

Overnight the Ford government secretly advanced legislation that will make FOI requests - the main way you and I find out what Ford is up to behind the scenes - dramatically more restricted. Today, they will force a vote to make it law. This is completely undemocratic. What have they got to hide?

The more I think about this the funnier it is...

With thanks to @estaitis.bsky.social from whom (on another platform) I ripped this off.

The Ontario government (and Globe) are concerned with school attendance at the elementary/secondary level. They’d be appalled by what happens at post-secondary. I wish we could have minimum attendance requirements in university. 1/2 www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

My daffodils, like me, are celebrating the end of the winter semester!

A few years ago, I bought a house with the aim of making it my home. I succeeded. But I also became part of a serious national problem, and shame. thewalrus.ca/i-bought-a-h...