(Part 2) Best canadian historical biographies according to redditors

My grandpa also had a similar situation. He fought in Cassino, Italy during WW2 and whenever he would go back, he was a local celebrity. He published a book about his experiences as a soldier.

Not exactly what you asked, but here's the wiki for the voyageurs, who transported furs during the fur trade era. Several books like this one go into further detail.

I should refer you to this map I just saw in /r/MapPorn. French territory was much poorer than English territory. New France was typically not very stable and resulted in a substantial degree of integration with the Native population. Relations between the locals and the settlers are much better than in Spanish-controlled territory, as the Spanish take a pretty brutal approach to living life in North America. The French traded with natives from the outset of the New French colony in an effort to gain a monopoly over the fur trade. The French exploited existing inter-tribal alliances and rivalries to establish trade relationships with the Huron, Montagnais, and Algonquins along the St. Lawrence River and further inland toward the Great Lakes. These Native Americans competed for exclusive status as intermediaries between other Indian traders and the French. Guns, silverware, and textiles were traded regularly for furs and pelts. Life there was dirtier, gritter, harder, and slower than in the 13 British colonies due to economic downturns and failure to control the fur trade. One might say a day in the life of a French settler involved more positive interaction with the Native Americans and hunting than a farming or bureaucratic lifestyle (which the British tended towards.) The Native Americans often taught the New French how to survive off of the land, which was useful to the settlers because France was never really able to support her colonies in America very well due to constant strife in the mother country as well as strong competition from the British and Dutch. One can infer that life became rather aboriginal at times for these French. France formally ceded New France to the British in the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763. French culture and religion remained dominant in most of the former territory of New France, until the arrival of British settlers led to the later creation of Upper Canada (today Ontario) and New Brunswick. After the British surrendered to the Americans at Yorktown in 1781, the Treaty of Versailles in 1783 gave all former British claims in New France below the Great Lakes into the possession of the nascent United States. The Louisiana Territory, under Spanish control since the end of the Seven Year's War, remained off-limits to settlement from the thirteen American colonies. Twenty years later, Third Treaty of San Ildefonso secretly returned Louisiana to France in 1801, leading Napoleon Bonaparte to sell it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and separating Lousiana from Canada. This represented the end of the French colonial empire in North America In 1803, Emperor Napoleon sold the entire territory to President Thomas Jefferson because it was largely regarded as an economic burden/failure. It wasn't worth contending with the United States, a rising power.
Source: The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760 and The People of New France

edited for grammar.

Add these to your list:

https://www.amazon.ca/How-Cold-War-Began-Gouzenko/dp/0786718161

https://www.amazon.ca/Spies-Our-Midst-Incredible-Gouzenko/dp/1554390281

He's most definitely talking about Beausoleil. This guy was a mother-fucking badass Acadian guerrilla warrior. He would lead coordinated attacks with his brother, the two of them simultaneously attacking British troop garrisons in different locations, so the British thought he had magical powers to be in two places at the same time. He was caught by the British multiple times and managed to dig his way out of prison just to return to the fight. He even hijacked British ships and formed a small Acadian Navy to help fight against the British. He's a total hero. There are ongoing expeditions attempting to find his burial site.

My father actually wrote a book on him :0) Here is a short essay he wrote on the topic.

Based on the description by the poster, I'm guessing this guy since he matches the radio show, good-with-his-hands, wrote for a weekly magazine, attended university, and has authored several books parts of the identification.

Edit: And this may be a stretch, but based on his background and last known location, I'm guessing he ended up here as the publisher. But then, it's probably a common name so I'd be surprised if I was right.

I just read this book about life on native reservations, and your comment would apply equally well to that context, but it's taboo (in Canada, anyway) to say those things about indigenous communities, even though the living conditions are probably even worse than the rural U.S. areas you're referring to.

Distant Fires by Scott Anderson.

This book details his canoe trip from Duluth, MN to the Hudson Bay.

Try the Right Fight, by Jacques Poitras (CBC NB political reporter). It's 10 years old, so some of the predictions about Bernard Lord's future were not proven.

It tells the story of how the NB Progressive Conservative Party, an amalgam of protestant English Loyalist NB and Acadian nationalists utterly collapsed at the end of Richard Hatfield's two decades in power. The Liberals swept every seat in the legislature in 1987, and the Tories were smashed into pieces. An anti-bilingualism party took hold in English Tory ridings, and became the Official Opposition in the 1991 election. The old PC party staggered from no seats to 3 in 1991, then to 5 in 1995. The book concludes with Bernard Lord, a thirtysomething bilingual Acadian lawyer, putting the party back together to win a massive majority in 1999.

The Lord PC party remains in power now, although Bernard Lord left after a Liberal victory in 2006. The Graham Liberals were one and done, and the remnants of the Lord Cabinet regained power in 2010.

A Thousand Shall Fall: The True Story of a Canadian Bomber Pilot in World War Two by Murray Peden

Not to be a downer, but Bill just recently died. This summer he finished his second book while battling Parkinson's.

Check this out at Amazon.ca
Merchants Exchange: Ignatius Cockshutt, 1812 - 1901 Canadian Entrepreneur https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1525502662/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_tZjLAbW283776

Damn shame, they were supposed to be good tractors according to my dad.

I'd like to recommend Champlain's Dream by David Hackett Fischer, which covers early exploration and the first permanent European settlements through the life of Samuel Champlain.

Francis Poole, a copper prospector, was the first white person to live among the Haida, and also witnessed their destruction from disease. He wrote an ethnography, Queen Charlotte Islands. Here is a brief quote recounting the introduction of smallpox to the islands.

Poole was employed by the Hudson Bay Company's office in Vancouver to evaluate the islands for potential copper sites. One humorous part I remember was that he would hire a native to paddle him along the coast during his searches, and would pay him in pancakes. However, he quickly learned, to his consternation, that the natives could eat an unlimited amount of pancakes. So after frying what he considered a proper number of pancakes, he would secretly switch from frying them in oil to frying them in paraffin. That slowed down the pancake consumption soon enough.

When the Great Red Dawn is Shining, by Christopher Morry.

Memoirs of a Blue Puttee by A.J. Stacey.

Blue Puttee at War by Sydney Frost.

Grand Bank Soldier by Bert Riggs.

Check out this book. I read it recently. Fantastic read. https://www.amazon.ca/Diplomat-Lester-Pearson-Suez-Crisis/dp/0864928742

Lure of the Labrador Wild. You've likely never heard of it.

Description from Amazon
"In the late spring of 1903, Leonidas Hubbard, a young writer, and Dillon Wallace, a forty-year-old New York attorney, set off with George Elson, a native guide with no firsthand knowledge of their destination, to explore the incompletely mapped Lake Michikamau region of interior Labrador. Beset by delays, the men paddle past their intended route, the Naskaupi River, and head up the horrible Susan River instead. When in early September they finally glimpse the vast waters of Michikamau from the top of an unknown mountain, Labrador's cold winds had begun. With scant scraps of food remaining, the three begin a desperate struggle against starvation and the rapidly approaching and unforgiving winter as they race home for their lives."

I spent the entire book waiting for them to either smarten up or at least admit what a colossal fuck up they made by walking in that deep without skill or preperations. Nope, just chapter after chapter of them eating boiled bird entrails and rawhide.

Campaigns matter, and polling before the writ drops never seems to match election night.

Every time Doug fumbles policy questions, more Ontarians will wise up to his incompetence. Plus, there's so much damaging evidence from his time at city hall that can still come out, if PC voters don't simply ignore it.

Here's a fascinating read from Rob's Chief-of-Staff for what to expect from Premier Doug:

https://www.amazon.ca/Mayor-Rob-Ford-Uncontrollable-Notorious/dp/1634500423

Despite Doug hiding behind his "business experience" to avoid policy questions, Towhey says Rob and Doug had no idea how to staff the Mayor's office. And Doug was unreliable, popping in and out of meetings for only 10-15 minutes at a time. This should come as no surprise, since Doug has actually run the company his daddy gave him into the red.

When the Mayor's own Chief-of-Staff paints you as an incompetent bully who leaks information to the press for his own gain, something's up.

He also calls critics "racist" for no reason.

So there are plenty of reasons to think Doug won't make it to the finish line.

Here's hoping that doesn't result in another Liberal Government; though, let's hope whoever gets in doesn't have an unaccountable majority.

Here are two good books on the subject:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Canadian-caper-Jean-Pelletier/dp/0688007562/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347524202&sr=8-1&keywords=canadian+caper

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Man-Tehran-Americans-Ambassador/dp/1590514130/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347524202&sr=8-2&keywords=canadian+caper

https://www.amazon.ca/Blind-Mechanic-Davidson-Survivor-Explosion/dp/1771086769

Apperently you can make a loving as a mechanic when you're blind, a book about a guy from my hometown lol.