Posts with the Prime Minister Mackenzie King tag

Barris Beat

Fix nationhood. Don’t abandon it.

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
First Peoples of Canada print of Battle of Batoche, 1885.

It was the climax of the chapter, about a 19th-century military battle in western Canada. It was an important feature in my first non-fiction book, written 44 years ago. It pitted a massive force of army militia troops from eastern Canada against Métis communities defending their land rights in the Saskatchewan territory. That spring of 1885, it became known as the Battle of Batoche.

In my book, Fire Canoe, I referred to the stand that Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont made at Batoche as “the Riel rebellion.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Where do baby boomers come from?

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
As apparently improbable as Truman defeating Dewey in the 1948 U.S. presidential race, was the realization that 80 million children would be born between 1946 and 1964.

It was the month that the longest serving Prime Minister – not just in Canada, but across the British Commonwealth – Mackenzie King retired after 21 years of service. The Communists officially took over East Berlin; the Wall soon followed. Democrat Harry Truman confounded the political pundits by defeating Republican Thomas E. Dewey and became president of the United States. For the first time TV cameras captured a production (of “Othello”) on the Metropolitan Opera stage in New York.

Oh yes, and sometime during November 1948, I was conceived.

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