When I was a kid growing up on Vancouver’s west side the book shelves in the living room of my family’s home contained the usual middle-brow reading of the 1950s – Nevil Shute’s apocalyptic nuclear novel On the Beach; the odd Thomas Costain and Pearl Buck title; some volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. But the only book of my parents that I ever took down from the shelf was a copy...

To its credit the Vancouver Sun has signed up Steven Hume to write a series of historical articles to commemorate BC's sesquicentennial of Confederation.

Hume, who is one of BC's finest writers, began his account of the province's history last Saturday and it contines for the rest of the week. 

"And so in 1871, the fire bells rang — as much in...

On July 20 British Columbia commemorates 150 years since it joined the rest of Canada. There will doubtless be many celebrations but a new history of the province written by a group of academics and social justice progressives is not one of them.

Challenging Racist "British Columbia": 150 Years and Counting is a warts and all account -- check that, it is an only-the-...

Canada's historians, through their professional association, the Canadian Historical Association, have chosen to mark Canada Day this year by releasing a statement about the role of genocide in the country's past.

You can read the statement here.

UPDATE: Looks like the CHA's official statement has stirred...

My friend Gil Hewlett passed away the other day. He was 80.

Gil was a respected marine scientist who grew up in Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. He told the story of walking past the Vancouver Aquarium one day when he was a young man arguing with himself about what to do with the rest of his life. This was 1964 when the Aquarium was just getting into orca research. Gil went inside to...