William Lyon Mackenzie King was Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister, from 1922 to 1930 and from 1935 to 1948. Historians have ranked him as Canada's greatest Prime Minister for his political leadership in winning Canada's autonomy from the British Empire and for organizing Canada's enormous war effort that enabled Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt to lead the western allies to victory in World War II. But what many people don’t realize is that Mackenzie King was also a die-hard spiritualist. From fortune tellers, to mystics, to seances with the dead, Mackenzie King used every tool in his spiritualist toolbox to communicate with his dead family and to help guide him in important political decisions.

To help us dive into this matter we’ve brought on the show Anton Wagner. Anton Wagner was a founding executive member of the Association for Canadian Theatre Research and has edited ten books on Canadian theatre and drama. He was the Director of Research and Managing Editor of The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, published by Routledge. Anton was a member of the Hiroshima Nagasaki Day Coalition steering committee in Toronto for more than a decade, and produced and directed Our Hiroshima on Canada, Mackenzie King, and the atom bomb for Canadian and international television. He holds doctorates in drama (University of Toronto) and theatre (York University). Anton has recently published a two-volume history of William Lyon Mackenzie King titled The Spiritualist Prime Minister which offers a uniquely fresh look at Canada’s longest serving PM.

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For today's episode we've done something a little different. Craig Baird is a friend and fellow podcaster over at the great Canadian history podcast Canadian History Ehx and today CCH has opened up its floors to a CHX episode on a legendary moment in Canadian musical theatre history. In 1972 the hottest new Broadway production, Godspell, came to Toronto and hundreds of young actors auditioned for it. When the dust settled, and the cast was announced little did anyone know the legendary impact that this cast would end up having on Canadian and North American theatre, television and film. The cast became a veritable who’s who of Canadians that would become central to some of the most important television and film moments in the ensuing decades.

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It is impossible to deny the legendary status that Jackie Robinson has had in the game of baseball. There have been movies, songs, poetry, books and essays about his career and countless tributes and celebrations of his life and impact on the game. Jackie was born in Georgia in 1919 but spent most of his life growing up in Pasadena, California. By the time he went to college he was already a star athlete, in both baseball and football. He had a short stint in the army during the Second World War before joining the Negro Baseball League. It was there that he caught the attention of Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Ricky who in turn thought Jackie would be the perfect player to break the MLBs historic colour line and forever change the game of baseball. On his path to his legendary career Jackie spent one season on the Brooklyn Dodgers minor league affiliate, the Montreal Royals. In today’s episode we deep dive into Jackie’s incredible life focusing on his one season in Montreal and how that season set him up for a legendary career.

For today’s episode we’ve brought on historian and author William Humber. Bill is a member of the Order of Canada (2021), and the first historian inducted into Canada’s Baseball Hall of Fame (2018). He has authored 15 books. Seven of which have been primarily focused on baseball’s history in Canada. (two have just recently been released– Tex Simone: The Man Who Saved Baseball in Syracuse, co-authored with the Simone family; and Old Ontario at Bat: Baseball’s Unheralded Ancestry, released by the Centre for Canadian Baseball Research). As well, he has written on soccer, bicycling, African-Canadian athletes, winter sports, his hometown of Bowmanville, Ontario and on the topic of urban regeneration. He has been listed in Canada’s Who’s Who for over 35 years. A retired Seneca Polytechnic administrator he was recognized for his work in environmental education including Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s Sustainability Educator of the Year, an Yves Landry Award for sustainability leadership, and by the College and Institutes of Canada for his Green Citizen campaign at Seneca. He has held secretarial positions, and still sits, on the Boards of Jury Lands Foundation, as well as Valleys 2000, both focused on enhancing the heritage and environment of Bowmanville within the Municipality of Clarington. His initial volunteer position was as President of the Visual Arts Centre of Newcastle in 1975, so he approaches 50 years of community engagement. His roots in Bowmanville date back to his great grandmother’s birth here in 1860 and Bill and his wife Cathie still live there but their grownup children, Bradley, Darryl and Karen have opted for the attractions of nearby big cities.

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.