The last time I surrounded myself with microfilm I was in University, and a research assistant for a two-volume biography of Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. It didn’t take long to get back into the swing of things, weaving celluloid over the hill and dale of rollers, whirring through images, losing myself in the detritus of […] Read more…
“Take him, Captain. He is my last and is all I have left to give.” The mothers and sweethearts campaign pled to allow Berlin’s Johnny Canucks to be real men and do the right thing by signing up with the 118th Battalion. Captain Kreitzer’s recollection of a mother handing over her youngest son last autumn, […] Read more…
Parliament re-opens Freed of most of the usual frills and fanfare, the new Canadian Parliament’s session opening was also freed of Prime Minister Borden, who was too ill to attend. When he addressed the MPs, Canada’s war contributions front-and-centre, from the bumper crop of wheat to the steady stream of munitions. He also echoed Militia Minister […] Read more…
They came from the land down under For days, Berliners prepared for the arrival of a group of touring Australian Cadets making their way through Canada and the US. They were part of their fledgling nation’s land defence, which required males aged 12-26 to take universal training, something onlookers at other stops noted and seemed […] Read more…
Happy New Year! On to business Berliners welcomed 1916 with the usual democratic business: JE Hett was acclaimed for a second term as mayor and would preside over a 15-man council. Allegiances were known: roughly half the aldermen were with the Board of Trade and a quarter were aligned with the Labour and Trades […] Read more…