The traditional textbook version of Canadian history is a familiar narrative for anyone who was educated in our public school system. The creation of modern Canada, from its inception through Confederation in 1867, was the culmination of a long-running experiment in which French and English-speaking colonists attempted to live together peacefully. A new book is zooming out from that view.
“It was a case of good timing, I think, considering Canadians at the moment feel like they’re living through history in a way that maybe they haven’t done in a while,” said Greg Koabel, author of The Making of Canada: An Epic History in Twenty Extraordinary Lives.
Indeed, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump openly muses about erasing the 49th parallel and making Canada the 51st American state, The Making of Canada is a good reminder of what makes us distinct from the United States.
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Koabel argues Canada is “not just the product of legislation and constitutional conferences, but the culmination of the contributions, choices, and actions of men and women over 400 years of history.”
“[It’s] the idea of a Canada that isn’t hammered out in conference rooms in Quebec or Charlottetown, but one that’s actually emerging from Canadians living in a particular moment and making decisions about their circumstances that we live with today,” he said.
In choosing the 20 figures covered in the book, he made a conscious effort to avoid what he calls the “usual suspects” of Canadian history, like Sir John A. Macdonald. To Koable, Canada wasn’t inevitable, but the result of a series of choices, and not just by the great and powerful either.
“So, the great man isn’t necessarily a politician or military leader, but entrepreneurs, missionaries, and farmers; they can all have their own impact in a cumulative sense.”
John Ackermann sits down with Greg Koabel, author of The Making of Canada: An Epic History in Twenty Extraordinary Lives.
And while the traditional narrative centers around the two founding nations of English and French speakers, Koabel feels Canada’s story has far more regional, national, and human diversity than the structure of that narrative allows. And he admits it was difficult narrowing the book down to 20 historical figures.
“I wanted to effectively portray the diversity of Canada. I think you’ve got sort of a broad range of military figures, political figures, but also traders, merchants, entrepreneurs, explorers, and fishermen. So, I really wanted to get a broad spectrum of everyone that contributed to the Canadian story.”
“Diversity also means regions. You have to make sure each region is represented. I didn’t want to have Newfoundland calling me up saying, ‘Hey, where’s our where’s our part of the story?’ So that was important as well, making sure we had the proper geographic scope for the story.”
So, alongside familiar names like Samuel de Champlain and John Cabot, the reader is also introduced to Agathe de Saint-Père of New France who developed a new form of textile, and Mary Ann Shadd, the first Black woman in North America to edit and publish a newspaper.
For Koabel, few figures are as extraordinary as James Douglas, often credited as being the father of British Columbia. Douglas was a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader tasked with finding a new base of operations on the British side of the then newly drawn border at the 49th parallel. He formed a trading post at the site of present-day Victoria in 1843. By 1849, Victoria was the capital of the new Crown colony of Vancouver Island. Douglas became its governor in 1851.
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“[He] found himself in charge of a fairly remote, fairly small British colony on Vancouver Island, faced with a fairly large American presence to the South, and he really came up with some innovative ways to make sure that colony stayed British and ultimately became Canadian,” he said.
One of the ways Douglas did that was by promoting migration from California’s Black community, offering them more civil and political rights than they would have enjoyed back home at the time “which, in a sense, is a very bold, innovative, tactical move on Douglas’ part, to find migrants into his colony, which would, although not being British subjects, almost immediately become allies in that work.”
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Koable says Douglas watched as the British gave up the Oregon territory to the Americans in 1846, and he wasn’t about to sit by and watch it happen again. He feels the preoccupation Douglas had with Americans flooding to the region during the Fraser River Gold Rush has parallels to modern concerns about Canada’s reliance on American investment and corporations.
“I think if there is a great man in history in the book, it probably is James Douglas,” he said.
Koable is also careful to remind the reader that the development of Canada often came through conflict and violence, but he hopes they take away the notion that our history doesn’t have to determine our future.
“I think the lesson to draw from all of this is that there are always options. There are always decisions.”
The Making of Canada: An Epic History in Twenty Extraordinary Lives is published by Sutherland House.