Survival of history and habit

Mark Bourrie, winner of 2020 Charles Taylor Prize, being interviewed March 2, in Toronto. Barris photo.

I don’t imagine it’s something you pay much attention to. When you rush into that well-known department store at Yonge and Bloor in Toronto to buy an umbrella or a birthday card or maybe even a coat with the store’s iconic green, red, yellow and blue stripes on it, maybe that’s when you stop to realize that the symbol is three and a half centuries old. Indeed, as we learned from a story published this week in the Toronto Star, the Hudson’s Bay Company store will be 350 years old come this May 2, 2020.

“What’s more, the history of the Bay and the history of Canada are interconnected,” says Mark Bourrie, long-time journalist, historian and author of Bush Runner, a book about Pierre-Esprit Radisson, the acknowledged founder of the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). (more…)

Retail apocalypse

A few weeks ago, I sat down with an old friend. He’s retired now. But when we met 30 years ago, he was a happy, enthusiastic and very upbeat employee in a Canadian retail success story. But when we chatted recently, he shook his head in amazement.

“I cannot believe that Sears is going under,” he lamented. “When I worked there, it seemed as if we’d go on forever.” (more…)