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When we think of war we usually think of men—and now women as well—fighting battles on land and sea and in the air. All too often we forget that for these combatants to fight millions of people are required to work behind the front line to provide them with supplies of food, clothing and weaponry and to fill positions the combatants occupied before joining the armed forces. In Canada, during the Second World War, this vital role was filled by hundreds of thousands of women on the home front—in the armed forces, the volunteer sector, war industries, the civilian labour force and agriculture.

British Columbia physician John Sebastian Helmcken had a lot of experience to draw upon when he sat down to write his memoirs in the 1890s. For starters, he had travelled the world, logging some 45,000 miles by sailing vessel. And later, while working as a surgeon for the Hudson’s Bay Company, he had piled up countless miles of rough wilderness travel by canoe and horse. In still another role, he was instrumental in B.C.’s decision [...]

It is a sun-drenched morning and any minute now the 20-metre motor vessel Maple City, owned by the Toronto Harbour Commission, will churn away from a dock on Toronto’s waterfront. On board are 15 walk-on passengers, three cars and a delivery truck, all bound for the Toronto City Centre airport on Toronto Island, a 90-second trip away on the world’s shortest ferry run. Some 2,000 kilometres to the northeast, the flagship of Marine Atlantic’s [...]

In 1890, the legendary railway baron Sir William Van Horne stopped off at the resort town of St. Andrews in the southwestern part of New Brunswick. He had come to negotiate a railway lease, but while soaking up the sights of the Loyalist town he fell in love with the beauty of Passamaquoddy Bay and its islands, so much so he decided to build a summer home on Minister’s Island, just around a point from [...]