Finding a book in a garbage bin

I'm going to create a new newsletter for paying subscribers. It's going to be the nerdiest thing you've ever heard of.

A book in a garbage can

The other day I was moseying around the city, minding my own business, and it was minus thirty outside. This freezing cold weather was prohibitive to any joy or hope being found in my evening, and I had yet to make it home after a long day out (I bike all winter long by the way, so minus thirty is a painful bike ride.)

As I completed my long stroll through the downtown core, towards my bike, I came across a garbage can with a book in it. The book? It was a compilation of speeches by great Canadian leaders across our short history. I reached into the bin and fished it out, joy filling my nerdy little Canadian soul. The first speech I looked up?

The Elliot speech by Pierre Elliot Trudeau.

Of course, this speech defined a nation. This speech was the parting word on the first Quebec referendum, and the goodbye to a battle between two of the most interesting, and perhaps the two most important leaders we ever had in Canadian history. But in this little book, I discovered so many other speeches. So many other great leaders who had a vision for a Canada that meant something. Tommy Douglas’ mouse speech. René Levesque’s “À la prochaine fois” speech. For someone as needlessly nerdy as myself, it was an excuse to dig through and read, discovering more about these leaders.

The problem?

This strange little book, which you can buy here, gave virtually no context for any of these speeches. What’s the point of writing these down if there isn’t a re-contextualization of these speeches??? I mean, come on! The book gives one paragraph to explain the context of each speech. How can we understand a people without an economic and social analysis of the period!?

Well, no matter, because the important work had been done. Many of these speeches are damn near impossible to find online. Canadian speeches are almost always transcribed immediately by places like Global News– thank god for that– but old speeches of Canadian history take some digging. Sometimes we don’t get the name right. Often, to find the speech, you need to know the exact wording, because there’s no consensus on the title of the speech. There are often archives available in the Canadian Federal Archives, but often they take way too much work to get. So, I want to better digitize these speeches, and give them a full explanation with the context they so need. So on one hand, people will be able to read the speech as I will transcribe them. On the other, the context will be fully explained.

The announcement

I am starting a special project that will be available only to paying subscribers. It’s not a news project– it’s a core belief of mine that all the news on the site should be free. This should be a several month long project that I’m hoping to see through to its end. It’s something I’ve been toying with for a bit, and something I’m excited to do since I have a profound love of Canada (warts and all,) as well as a deep rooted obsession with Canadian history. There are few historians working to document Canadian history, mostly because we are a mid-sized nation with no substantive legacy, but I fancy myself a budding historian on top of my desire to be a data/gonzo journalist.

Also I might be working on something more literary, and hiding that work behind a paywall might or might not be for my own sake. Maybe. Hint hint.

Canadian history doesn’t get any love. The USA and the other great powers, or historical powers like Germany, France, and Britain– they’ll always have endless historians writing about them.

Every major moment of France’s history is written. If you want to know about any King of Britain, or Queen of Britain, one cursory google search will teach you all you need to know.

If I tell you about John A. Macdonald’s speech at the Charlottetown Conference, you might realize that it’s probably to do with the Confederation of Canada. But you probably couldn’t tell me more. How does it reflect his ideology? How did the context of the period influence what he said?

“I believe we shall have at length an organization that will enable us to be a nation and protect ourselves as we should. Look at the gallant defence that is being made by the Southern Republic– at this moment they have not much more than four millions of men– not much exceeding our own numbers– yet what a brave fight they have made…”

What is he referring to here? What could be concerning Macdonald at this time, that he would say “protect ourselves as we should” and start comparing Canada to the United States? He seems to wonder about their millions of men, and points out how they don’t much exceed Canada’s own numbers.

Well, full context is needed to explain the gravitas of that speech. Removed from context, removed from fear, urgency, and a moment, we struggle to understand the weight of words– without context, words are deprived of meaning. Without knowledge, words are deprived of power.

Okay, but Macdonald is pretty famous, and you could probably learn about that speech on your own. But what if you want to learn about Joey Smallwood?

You probably don’t even know who that is!

“Our people’s struggle to live commenced on the day they first landed here, four centuries or more ago, and has continued to this day.”

What people? Unless you looked him up, you’d have no idea. Well, this speech changed the whole nation, but it’s not one you’ll easily find. And I’m going to give it the analysis and contextualization that it deserves.

But this is the type of project that I don’t feel bad hiding behind a paywall, because it’s entirely done to fulfill my own interests. Sometimes I want to do more than talk about our political world. This is a side project that won’t change the nation. It’s not challenging modern leaders and holding people to account, it’s just a desire of mine to do this.

If you’re nerdy and want to see this happen, you can subscribe, you can pirate it and share it with your friends, etc. I don’t mind. Just don’t tell me.

I’m more and more of the view that our society might do better if we knew our own history and if we crafted something that built upon what came before. As I said the other day in my historical piece on Harper– you can’t go back. You don’t want to go back. Nostalgia is a trap that will stop you from achieving something greater. Trust me, even though it was cheaper to live, and capitalism was a bit better in the sixties, you don’t want to go back to that time.

That being said, their fashion was really cool.

So I’m gonna do my little experiment, and you can ignore it if you want. Historical journalism is one of my favourite things to do, so alongside my Saturday reports and my Monday podcast, paying subscribers can expect periodic drops all about Canadian history. Like a bunch of nerdy losers.