Curious Canadian History

Moe Norman was a Canadian golf legend widely regarded as one of the greatest ball strikers in golf history. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, in 1929, Norman became famous for his remarkable accuracy, consistency, and unique single-plane swing technique. During his career he won more than 50 Canadian tournaments, including several Canadian PGA Championships. Although he struggled to adapt socially to the pressure and culture of the PGA Tour, many professional golfers, including Tiger Woods and Lee Trevino, praised his extraordinary talent. Moe Norman died in 2004 but remains an iconic figure in Canadian golf history.

Lorne Rubenstein is a Canadian writer, broadcaster, and journalist best known for his work covering golf. He has written extensively for major newspapers and magazines, authored several books on golf (including two on Moe Norman), and earned respect for his thoughtful commentary on the sport, its players, history, and culture in Canada and internationally. He is a member of the Canadian golf hall of fame for his work and in 2018 received the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award.

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The Canadian government has a long history of regulation, exploitation, and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and two-spirit (LGBTQ2) people. One of the most painful chapters in this history is the “LGBT Purge,” a term that refers to the expulsion of LGBTQ2 service members and employees from the Canadian Armed Forces, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and federal public service between 1955 and 1992. The LGBT Purge was the subject of a class action lawsuit filed in 2017 that resulted in a settlement agreement in 2018. On a parallel track to the settlement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a formal apology for the government’s history of state-sponsored discrimination against LGBTQ2 people in 2017.

Daniel Del Gobbo is an Assistant Professor and Chair in Law, Gender & Sexual Justice at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law. His research explores how legal processes and institutions can be redesigned to promote access to justice and social justice for historically marginalized groups, with a focus on the rights of women and queer and trans people in Canada. He earned his J.D. from Osgoode Hall Law School in 2011, LL.M. from Harvard Law School in 2015, and S.J.D. from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2021.

Check out Canyon Entertainment’s newest podcast Hostile History!
Hostile History on Spotify
Hostile History on Apple
Hostile History on Amazon

Don’t forget! You can purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:

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Indigo
Dundurn
Goodreads
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John A. Macdonald stands as one of the most influential and controversial figures in Canadian history, a political architect whose vision helped bring a nation into being. The first Prime Minister of Canada. His rise through colonial politics, his central role in Confederation and his leadership in the first decades of this country’s existence shaped the nation we understand today in so many ways. He was a man of ambition, a man of compromises, and a man of contradictions and the complexities that defined him also defined his leadership in a fragile, emerging country dealing with a rapidly evolving world and continent. Through both achievement and controversy, Macdonald’s legacy continues to shape Canada. In this second installment of a two part series we look at John A Macdonald’s early vision for Canada, resistance to that vision, his controversial policies towards First Nations and finally his legacy. This is John A. Macdonald Part 2.

Patrice Dutil is a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has written, co-written and edited fourteen books and has covered many aspects of leadership, both at the political and the administrative level. Dutil is known for having founded the Literary Review of Canada thirty-five years ago. He was also the President of the Champlain Society for nearly a decade.

Dutil has written extensively about Macdonald. He co-edited Macdonald at 200: New Perspectives and Legacies with Roger Hall. That book came out in 2015. More recently, he has published Sir John A. Macdonald and the Apocalyptic Year of 1885 and Ballots and Brawls: the 1867 Canadian General Election.

Don’t forget! You can purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:

Amazon
Indigo
Dundurn
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John A. Macdonald stands as one of the most influential and controversial figures in Canadian history, a political architect whose vision helped bring a nation into being. The first Prime Minister of Canada. His rise through colonial politics, his central role in Confederation and his leadership in the first decades of this country’s existence shaped the nation we understand today in so many ways. He was a man of ambition, a man of compromises, and a man of contradictions and the complexities that defined him also defined his leadership in a fragile, emerging country dealing with a rapidly evolving world and continent. Through both achievement and controversy, Macdonald’s legacy continues to shape Canada. In this first installment of a two part series we look at John A Macdonald’s immigration to Canada from Scotland, his life as a lawyer, his early entry into politics and his role in shaping the confederation debates.
Patrice Dutil is a professor of politics and public administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has written, co-written and edited fourteen books and has covered many aspects of leadership, both at the political and the administrative level. Dutil is known for having founded the Literary Review of Canada thirty-five years ago. He was also the President of the Champlain Society for nearly a decade.

Dutil has written extensively about Macdonald. He co-edited Macdonald at 200: New Perspectives and Legacies with Roger Hall. That book came out in 2015. More recently, he has published Sir John A. Macdonald and the Apocalyptic Year of 1885 and Ballots and Brawls: the 1867 Canadian General Election.

Don’t forget! You can purchase a copy of Punching Above Our Weight: The Canadian Military at War Since 1867 right now at the below links:

Amazon
Indigo
Dundurn
Goodreads
Indiebookstores.ca
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Prince Edward Island is often imagined as a quiet, pastoral place—rolling fields, red sand beaches, and small communities shaped by the rhythms of the sea. But beneath that picturesque surface lies a history that is far more complex, contested, and revealing than its postcard image suggests. Today we trace parts of that story. From its earliest days as Mi’kmaq territory, through European contact and colonization, to its reluctant entry into Canadian Confederation.

We’ll explore how land ownership disputes—particularly the controversial absentee landlord system—shaped generations of Islanders, fueling resistance and political change. We’ll also look at how the island’s strategic position in the Gulf of St. Lawrence made it a site of imperial rivalry, and how its identity evolved over time through migration, agriculture, and cultural mythmaking.

This is not just a regional story—it’s a lens into broader themes of colonialism, resistance, and nation-building in Canada. Prince Edward Island is so much more than little a pastoral escape, it’s a place where identity is foundational and history has left a deep and lasting mark.

Edward MacDonald is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Prince Edward Island, where for a quarter of a century he taught Prince Edward Island, Atlantic, and Canadian history. In recognition of his work as an author, teacher, historian, and public intellectual, he was named to the Order of Canada in 2023 and the Order of Prince Edward Island in 2024. While he has published extensively on the social, religious, and environmental history of his native province, his most recent book, The Geography of Home: Poems for a Lost Time, published by Island Studies Press in 2025, combines poetry with history and memoir.
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