Book One: Discovery
This is the story of Canada. No one person can write the definitive story of my homeland so this is my offering.
I have lived in three countries now - Canada, the United States and now Germany. I can honestly report that the place of my birth and where the most important events in my life occured has given me so much for which to be thankful.
It has become what it is not out of sheer willpower on the part of its people but from thousands of individual decisions and circumstances, some good and some not so good. It has a history worth learning. Yes, the larger behemoth to the south sometimes glitters like the lights on Broadway and some would argue Canada has no history. But that is Canada’s advantage. While everyone was gazing at the addictive roar emitting out of the States, Canada has been quietly creating a nation that many decades ago already surpassed its larger cousin to the south in so many ways.
Canada avoided the gut-wrenching traumas of a civil war and an abusive slavery system that took that war to dismantle. It built a social safety net that evened out the worst elements of a free-market capitalist system. It even managed to meld very distinct French and English cultures within a single Confederation, despite pressures to rend it in two from time to time. I could go on with more and I am sure you can list many more advantages the “Great White North” has over its rambunctious neighbour to the south.
So, how to explain this difference, this unique Canadian culture. The only way is to understand the history of Canada.
Where to begin?
At the beginning, of course. And the beginning is Discovery.
Canada is hockey.
Canada is baseball.
Canada is basketball.
Canada is sport fishing along rivers or on one of the thousand of lakes.
Canada is the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
Canada is the great open plains of the West and big sky country.
Canada is the majestic peaks, glaciers, mountain streams and thick forests of the Rockies.
Canada is long backroads heading off into the horizon past farms, villages, forests, and lakes. Canada is a beaver dam, a moose wandering amongst trees in the boreal forest, or a muskellunge (Musky) landed in a rowboat on a Muskoka Lake.
OK, so now that we have flipped through the pictures on the wall calendar, Canada is much more than this.
What Canada?
Whatever you might imagine about Canada, no one image can capture this vast and diverse nation. Its vast landscapes, its peoples from all over the world, its multitude of languages and the proud heritage of its Indigenous peoples all form part of the fabric of this country.
But Canada has its dark past as well. The recent discoveries of mass graves in the Residential Schools has shown that the Federal Government and mainstream Churches have been complicit is the abuse of Indigenous children who were ripped from their families to be “Christianized” and made into “good Canadians.” In some places in Canada, these prejudices still hold sway.
These atrocities cannot be ignored. As we will discover, the roots of these problems existed from the first encounters of the St. Lawrence Iroquois by Jacques Cartier and the Inuit by Martin Frobisher.
That being said, Canada did not become what it is by chance. It did so over hundreds or even thousands of years (in the case of its First Nations peoples) of seemingly small decisions that built upon each other as the years progressed.
Therefore, my Canada
My goal for Beyond Brant and Brock is to tell the story of these decisions, both the good and the bad, that resulted in the formation of Canada in 1867, one of the oldest democracies on earth.
I called this Substack Beyond Brant and Brock because of a belief that most Canadians know little about the founding of Canada, or even the history of Canada after Confederation. By offering bite sized segments of this story, I hope to make it digestible. Mostly, I hope to make it fun.
Joseph Brant - Thayendanegea
By the time most Canadian graduated high school, they may have heard about the famous Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, whose real name was Thayendanegea, who has been remembered by the naming of the town of Brantford, Ontario.
General Isaac Brock
They may also have heard about General Isaac Brock, the British military commander who was given a monument in Niagara Falls. These two leaders succeeded in preventing an American invasion and assimilation of Upper Canada into a young and inexperienced United States.
But going beyond the stories of Brant and Brock, I hope to encourage you, my dear readers, to appreciate how this country came into being, warts and all. It isn’t the United States for a reason. It isn’t British or France for a reason. It is a unique experiment.
Beyond Brant and Brock is a people’s history because that ultimately history is the sum total of people’s actions and decisions throughout their lives.
Note about AI: These articles are based on original research, secondary sources, and Canadian archives. Where sources are not available, I have made educated guesses. Out of principle, I have refused to use ChatGPT and other AI tools.