The Canadian version evolved over 150 years and its evolution was as complicated as the country’s. The idea of a coat of arms originated in medieval Europe. The name was literal: a fabric that went over armour bearing the insignia of the realm. Its original purpose was to discern friend from foe in battle and to identify the dead. Over the centuries, they came to identify other things: families, professions and property ownership among them.  They also became incredibly intricate. Often, a shield remained the central feature, divided into chief and base (top and bottom) as well as sinister and dexter (left and right). The Royal Arms of the United Kingdom features a shield that shows England (three leopards), Scotland (a lion) and Ireland (a harp). It is encircled by the Order of th...

On Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center towers fell, 2,871 people died, among them 24 Canadians. One of them was former NHL player Garnet (Ace) Bailey, who was on United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the South Tower. The last person out of that tower before it collapsed was believed to be Ron DiFrancesco of Hamilton, who worked on the 84th floor. When the American Airlines passenger plane hit the North Tower first, an announcement told everyone that the South Tower was secure; there was no need to evacuate. DiFrancesco decided to leave anyway. Before he could get to the elevators, the plane carrying Ace Bailey hit the tower between the 77th and 85th floors. DiFrancesco was able to run through smoke and burning debris and finally get to the ground floor. The building then began i...

In 1866, the Fathers of Confederation—among them John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier, Alexander Galt and George Brown—were in London, staying at the Westminster Palace Hotel. They were fine-tuning the British North America Act which, when passed, would create the Dominion of Canada. At a different hotel was Joseph Howe, who was trying to get Nova Scotia out of Confederation, waving a petition with 30,000 signatures. “Macdonald was the ruling genius and spokesman,” according to Sir Frederic Rogers, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. But there were a few non-genius moments. Macdonald woke up in the middle of the night to find that both he and his bed were on fire. His hair and hands were singed and his shoulder was burned—but he carried on.    The road...

It began, as so many things did in this country, with John A. Macdonald.  In November 1885, he declared that 26 square kilometres on Sulphur Mountain overlooking Banff, Alta., would be designated for the public. It contained the Cave and Basin hot springs, which had been used by Indigenous peoples for centuries but had recently been discovered by railway workers. Macdonald had an ulterior motive. The hot springs could become a tourist attraction and help make his beloved railway economically viable. The following year, a legal survey of the area declared that “a large tract of country lying outside of the original reservation presented features of the greatest beauty, and was admirably adapted for a national park.” In 1887, the Rocky Mountains Park Act created what is now Banff Nationa...

When Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, was Governor General of Canada, he donated a trophy—known originally as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup—for Canada’s best amateur hockey club. It became known as the Stanley Cup. Lord Frederick Stanley of Preston, Canada’s Governor General from 1888 to 1893, saw his first hockey game on Feb. 4, 1889, and like so many of us, he was hooked.  Three years later, he donated a trophy to be awarded to the best hockey team in the country. The gold-lined silver bowl was 18.5 centimetres tall and cost $48.67. On May 15, 1893, the first Cup was awarded to a Montreal team (quelle surprise!)—the Montreal Athletic Association.  Among early winners were the Winnipeg Victorias, Montreal Wanderers, Kenora Thistles, Vancouver Millionaires and Ottawa Sen...