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...

One of the funny things about "growing up" is seeing a bunch of the people who used to be big names on the debating circuit when I was in university become high-profile staffers or politicians. I remember Danielle Martin being tremendously good. See also Gerry Butts, Katie Telford, Rob Silver...

I would love it if publishers would go back to having footnotes in scholarly books, instead of endnotes. I /hate/ flipping back and forth. As a compromise, I would love to have space for Terry Pratchett-style "bon mot" footnotes!

We are thrilled to announce that the CHA’s next Annual Meeting will be held June 14-16, 2027, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. We hope to see you there! #CHASHC2027 #Winnipeg #cdnhist #history

From our Prime Minster, who I am increasingly convinced actually hates education.

If the Hungarians can do it, against an autocrat who actually won a majority of the vote and used his decade and a half in power to stack and manipulate all his country’s institutions in his favour with Putin‘s explicit backing, then Americans can do it. Israelis can do it.

Canada: Hold my beer, eh?

I spent the whole of Friday working through student papers flagged as probably AI generated. Job more interesting? Some might think so. Job more rewarding? Hardly. Job more stressful and soul destroying? Absolutely.

Good. Because this is the kind of shit that criminals do.

Loving all the hot takes on whether Canada has a majority government, or not. It feels incredibly Canadian to have people fighting about what 50% + 1 means :-P

Lots of people are writing about whether or not Carney now has a majority government. But given the diverse array of people involved & likelihood of more departures (e.g. Erskine-Smith), the question of surviving confidence votes is still precarious. Just a little less so with each floor-crosser.

So are we all just supposed to “shake off” the fact that the president of the US could very easily have detonated a nuclear weapon yesterday and go on with our daily work and lives? Because that’s a level of stress that is not sustainable nor easily absorbed.

The official position of the White House is that if the president wants to do a genocide, he has sole authority to make that decision on his own www.wsj.com/world/middle...

Historian and department chair by weekday, Easter bunny’s assistant by weekend.

This is exactly it. You are welcome to use AI, you are well within your rights, and I am also equally welcome NOT to use it and to actively fight against it. Also well within my rights. The right you do NOT have is the right to force me or anyone else to use a tool, even if “it is everywhere”

Tenure-track position in Canadian history at Lakehead!

Your yearly reminder that this account is a prank-free zone today because things are already confusing enough as it is. This is a safe space for the anxiety-ridden. Happy March 32st, everybody.

I don't see this said enough: the widespread use of generative AI is not only making our jobs as educators harder logistically, but also emotionally. It is genuinely sad to be suspicious of students when you have spent so much time building a pedagogy based on trust and not being a cop. It sucks.

History =/= heritage =/= past

The French version of this website has existed for years. I order all my French books through it. So happy that it’s now available in English throughout Canada. Can’t recommend it enough. An Amazing tool that helps independent bookstores.

I’m just going to say it. It’s a darned good thing that Cadbury Mini Eggs are available in the “big gulp” bags during peak grading season. Especially now, in the age of AI slop and hallucinated citations. Because boy does my mood need boosting sometimes.

This CBC story about RCMP surveillance of Indigenous organizations in the '70s should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following historians' research on the RCMP and social movements. Hewitt, Sethna, Martel, Adjetey & others have been on this for over a decade. www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...

Just saw in today’s Globe & Mail that Hugh Winsor passed away. I was editing a footnote earlier this week that referenced one of his columns. It’s one of the weird aspects of writing history of recent periods that people you interview or whose writings you cite often pass away during the project.

There's something so repugnant and insulting when such a generic letter, filled with bland platitudes, is sent to an association of historians who know full well who is to blame for these cutbacks. Many of us specialize in the histories of government, politics, and the state, for goodness sakes!

Delightful letter saying it is not the government's fault these programs were cut, because the institutions are arm's length. Forgetting of course that the government just slashed their budgets.

Attended the University of Guelph production of Into the Woods last night. I really enjoyed it and was impressed by the talent of the cast! Excited to see the musical theatre programming developing here. A few tix left for the final performance tonight. www.eventbrite.ca/e/u-of-g-int...

Not everyone needs to, nor wants to, use LLMs in academic research, and Taylorizing the scholarly enterprise does nothing positive for the pursuit of a better understanding of society and the world.

We're hiring! University of Guelph is looking for a Head, Collections & Content. The role reports to me and manages a team of about 20. careers.uoguelph.ca/job/Guelph-H...

How did I not know about this epic, tragically ludicrous, charity celebrity single released for the 1991 Gulf War? I am now going to have to inflict this on my future students. I’m picturing the planning: “You know who we need? The cast of LA Law. And Céline Dion.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_...

Almost 90 people being cut. Canadian historian Adam Chapnick, a professor of defence studies at the Royal Military College of Canada: “I don’t know how you justify this decision if you have any sort of commitment to history."

A not true but very very true observation on public opinion in the modern era

I spoke to a member of the Globe’s editorial team a little over a week ago about the levels of English-French bilingualism among English-spkg Canadians. Some of my comments and suggestions seem to have informed the last few paragraphs. But I think the provinces need to step up - not just Ottawa.

One of the things I value my newspapers.com subscription for is that I can diversify my footnotes to historical newspapers and not just have an abundance of the Toronto Star & the Globe & Mail, the two Canadian databases my university library subscribes to with earlier 20th century content.

I very much hope that other universities will follow this lead. My department @uguelphhist.bsky.social left X over a year ago, and the College of Arts @uofguelpharts.bsky.social did so back in January. It's time for the rest of the University of Guelph (@uofguelph.bsky.social) to follow suit!

My lectures in my Canadian history survey course this week are about post-WW2 foreign policy and international engagements: the UN, NATO & the Warsaw Pact, the Korean War, Suez, NORAD, the Cuban Missile Crisis. It all feels a little more "on point" than in previous years.