Canadian History Highlights 2017 Speaker Series
Posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2017
2017 is a very special year for Canada and Algonquin College. Both have a milestone birthday as the country celebrates being 150 years old and the College marks its 50th anniversary.
To celebrate these two occasions, Algonquin College’s Waterfront Campus is dedicating its 2017 speaker series to covering topics of Canadian history.
The Speaker Series kicked off recently with Steve Paikin, long time host of TVO’s popular political program, The Agenda. Paikin has written a book on former Ontario Premier, Bill Davis, the founder of the Ontario college system.
Davis was Ontario’s second longest serving Premier and over his 14 years heading the province he had many accomplishments, but his legacy focuses on education through his work in founding colleges and introducing equal funding for the Catholic school system.
On April 18th, the College will welcome Tricia Logan, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The NTR commission issued 94 calls to action in its landmark report which dealt with several sensitive issues including residential schools.
Logan’s presentation will focus on the legacy of the residential schools, the inclusion and exclusion of the schools in Canadian history and what it means to approach a new version of Canada and revised Canadian histories.
Sean Conway is well known at Queen’s Park for his oratory skills. Now retired as an elected member of provincial parliament, Conway is a frequent lecturer at universities across the province.
He has put together a talk entitled, “The Character and Colour of the Ottawa Valley Political Tradition” that he will present at the Waterfront Campus on May 8th. Filled with stories about politicians at all levels who represented Ottawa Valley constituents, the lecture will be a wonderful history lesson on local politics.
The now closed Kingston Penitentiary was Canada’s oldest and most notorious prison. It was also the backdrop for author Merilyn Simonds’ best selling book, “The Convict Lover” which tells the story of a young Renfrew man who is imprisoned, but has a romance with a young woman while serving time for a series of misdeeds in the Ottawa Valley.
Simonds, who has authored 17 books, will participate in the Speaker Series on September 12th sharing many stories about what led to Canada’s first prison riot.
For Canadian hockey fans, September 28, 1972 is a date that will live on as one of the defining moments in Canadian sports history. It was the day that Paul Henderson of the Toronto Maple Leafs scored a late goal for Canada in the deciding game of the Summit Series with the Soviet Union.
2017 marks the 45th anniversary of that historic game, and author Roy MacSkimming will be in Pembroke on September 28th to talk about the series and his book entitled, “Cold War.” MacSkimming wrote the book for the 25th anniversary of Henderson’s goal, and will re-live the series which was about much more than hockey, but rather a battle between two political systems at a time when tensions between the west and the Soviet bloc were at their peak.
The 2017 series wraps up with Charlotte Gray on November 8th, as she speaks about her book entitled, The Promise of Canada. Gray will explore the great achievements in our country’s history, while acknowledging the darker shadows of our past.
More speaker series engagements may be added, but 2017 is shaping up to be a very special time for those interested in Canada’s history.
Posted by: Jamie Bramburger, Manager of Community and Student Affairs
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