Volume 118, Number 2, Fall 2026 Access to current issues of this journal requires a subscription.

EN:

George Holmes Young occupies a fascinating place in Ontario (and Canadian) history, thanks to his unique entanglements with Louis Riel. A native of Niagara, and the son of the minister who established the first Methodist mission in the Red River Settlement, Holmes Young became Riel’s prisoner during the Red River Resistance of 1869–1870 and his guard at the end of the North-West War of 1885. Then in 1913 he presented four Historical Papers at two churches in Brampton on the two conflicts. Given the national reversal of opinion about Riel in English-speaking Canada in general and Ontario in particular—from Confederation’s archfoe to the epitome of Canadianness—Holmes Young reminds today’s readers that the rehabilitation of historical figures is not just about embracing new heroes. It is also about distancing oneself from previous generations, a process that is possible only if one disregards the archival record.

EN:

The history of provincial power generation highlights the integral role that Northern Ontario played in the development of Ontario Hydro and the province’s vision of an economy powered by domestic resources. The growth of Ontario’s electrical grid depended on the expansive waters of Northern Ontario to generate power—and, in turn, that electricity fuelled the growth of resource industries essential to the grid’s continued expansion. At the onset of the nuclear age, Ontario once again turned to Northern Ontario as an abundant source of uranium to supply its emerging nuclear energy program. When nuclear waste became a problem in the 1970s, the region was again called upon—this time to be a waste storage site. The development of hydro-electric dams, uranium mines, and the proposed deep geological repository in Northern Ontario reshaped the physical landscapes and waterscapes of the region and imposed new social, economic, and environmental challenges on northern communities. Power infrastructure, resource development, and capital were all entangled in the growing relationship between the state and private interests, as northern development grew to be an important portion of the provincial economy. The history of Ontario’s electrical utilities illustrates the complex challenges of northern development and the social, economic, and environmental inequalities of hinterland-metropolis relations.

EN:

As technology evolved, a tradition of travelling rural photography developed across Ontario and the rest of North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Two of its accomplished but lesser-known practitioners were Carter & Isaac. For twenty years, William Webster Carter (1869–1935) and Alberta Mabel Isaac (1880–1961) covered an impressively wide area of southwestern Ontario, producing striking portraits of rural families posed outside their homes and barns. They were not alone among photographers vying for this market; what distinguishes their firm is the extent to which Alberta Isaac’s labour and household management were integral to the mechanics of their operation. This husband-and-wife team produced tens of thousands of images between 1902 and 1922, many of which survive as cherished family heirlooms, and as visual records of the past in public collections. Carter & Isaac’s photographs illuminate aspects of rural life in the province, while an examination of their approach, productivity and personal lives reveals how one married couple navigated the challenges of operating an itinerant photography firm in the first years of the twentieth century. Moving to different communities throughout their careers, this biographical examination considers the defining first years of Will Carter and Alberta Isaac’s familial and professional partnership.

EN:

A lawyer based in Markdale, Grey County, Walter Edward Harris served as the Liberal Member of Parliament for the rural Ontario riding of Grey-Bruce from 1940 to 1957. His parliamentary career was interrupted when he joined the Canadian army. Harris became Canada’s only serving MP wounded in action during the Second World War. Little known nationally but especially popular among his fellow caucus members, he was widely considered a rising star in the Liberal government and soon touted as a leading candidate to succeed Louis St-Laurent as party leader and Canadian prime minister. Harris could be coy about his leadership aspirations, saying “Don’t try to make a statesman out of me; I am just an Ontario farm boy,” but his ambition was undeniable. As Canada’s first Minister of Citizenship and Immigration from 1950 to 53, he oversaw changes to the country’s post-war immigration policies, as well as the first substantial revisions to the Indian Act since the 1880s. From 1953 to 57, he served as Minister of Finance, establishing a reputation for fiscal conservatism. Despite years of favourable publicity highlighting his leadership prospects, Harris opted not to compete in the 1957 Liberal leadership convention won by Lester Bowles Pearson, a veteran diplomat, Secretary of State for External Affairs, and recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. Harris attempted to revive his political career in 1958 by running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party but lost by a narrow margin.

EN:

An analysis of female involvement in labour, this article aims to explore the role of women at the Canadian Lakehead (Port Arthur and Fort William) during the First World War. While reflective of provincial and national norms of the time with regards to the gendering of labour, the Lakehead presents a unique view of regional experience. Much of the information is derived from local newspapers and those of local organizations and industries, including those produced by women themselves to provide, as much as possible given the acknowledged limitations of print media, a view centred on women.