Author: admin

What was your goal while writing this book?

I wanted to tell a story about a disastrous – probably the most destructive – example of Indigenous-European contact, one that was already famous as a heroic narrative, and explore the motivations of all the people involved. Telling this story was, I believe, a good way of explaining how all sides entered an Indigenous-European partnership, and how these new relationships often had unforeseen catastrophic consequences. Almost always, these consequences were suffered by Indigenous people. 

Was there a book or piece of writing that made you want to pursue writing as a career? What was it?

I am a life-long reader. I was raised in a home where history was important. My dad took university courses starting when I was about 12 and I would read all the books. We lived in a tourist area near Collingwood, and there was a lot of time when there weren’t many kids around. It was quite a while later when I realized I might actually be able to write books.

Who or what were your influences while writing this book?

This is the first book that explores some of the intertwining of my own family with a historical event.One of Champlain’s young interpreters, Nicolas Marsolet, one of my ancestors, got into a dispute with Champlain and Brebeuf, documented with some hostility by the Jesuits in the 1630s, about the way Champlain treated young Indigenous girls. To my great relief, Marsolet took the right side of the argument. One of my great uncles supposedly used a miracle to find the site of Brebeuf’s death. Another great-uncle built the interior of the Martyrs’ Shrine. My great-great grandfather actually bought part of the site of the Jesuit mission ruins more than a century ago, and as a teenager, I was a friend of the archaeologist who excavated the site.

What is one thing you learned while writing this book you wish everyone knew?

People can have good intentions and may honestly want to help people but are so blinded by their own ideologies and cultural norms that they fail to see the damage they do to people who see the world differently. They may be very kind people with good hearts, but they need to respect the beliefs and practices of those they want to help. We still see this in what we think of as developing countries. 

Tell me a bit about why writing about Canada/Canadians is important to you?

A sense of self and place is important to me, and, I believe, to many readers. Canada is more like a continent than a country. It is very complex. Its history is complicated and nuanced. And it’s very different from the story of the United States and every other country. If we are to survive as a country, fending off the influence and threats of the United States and overcoming the internal forces of division, we need to understand how we got to the place where we are. History – more accurately, pseudohistory – has also become an important weapon in the ideological and cultural fights within Canada. When people do use Canadian history to try to make some kind of point, they need to know what they’re talking about, and they must have access to good source material.

What was your goal while writing this book?
I wanted to make a case for Norquay’s importance in the first decades after
Confederation and for the relevance of his thinking and of his example today.

Was there a book or piece of writing that made you want to pursue writing as a career?
What was it?
I read a lot during my elementary school years. Books on sports and several mystery
series stand out in my memory, as does a book of humour that I thought was amazingly funny when I was nine years old.

Who or what were your influences while writing this book?
During my childhood and teen years in Prince Albert I studied, played, and worked with
First Nation and Métis people. In the fifty-plus years I’ve lived in Winnipeg, I have worked with many people in Manitoba schools, in the trade union movement, and in government. My wife sat in the legislature for thirteen stressful years which offered insights into the complicated business of politics. These were influences I could see while I was writing. I wanted to express respect for Indigenous activism, to acknowledge the commitment of civil servants, union leaders, teachers, and political representatives, and to reveal a little of the intellectual challenges and partisan realities that shaped the electoral fortunes and fate of this one good person, John Norquay.

What is one thing you learned while writing this book you wish everyone knew?
Norquay’s vision of Canada differed from the thinking of those few among his
contemporaries who are remembered and celebrated today. He expressed an ideal of bilingual and multicultural citizenship, he insisted that First Nations and English and French Métis were equal in status to other citizens, and he campaigned for a rebalancing of national and provincial powers within the Canadian federation. His perspective was just as worthy as the Ontario “national” vision represented by John A. Macdonald.

Tell me a bit about why writing about Canada/Canadians is important to you?
Each of us belongs to many communities, from the very local to the global and universal.
I believe (I know not everyone shares this view), that the nation-state is one of the most
important of these communities because of its power to impose limits and open possibilities for us all. If our nation-state, Canada, is to function well, citizens have to find the means to express their own views and interests while learning to respect others’ views and interests. They have to argue more or less amicably, even when they disagree vehemently. I want to live in a democracy where discussion is encouraged, and group decisions are reached fairly. And I believe that a history book can tackle significant public matters in the past – Indigeneity, Prairieness, business strategy, and election campaigns, in the case of the Norquay biography – while offering a useful perspective on our lives today.