O Canada

“My five-year-old could paint that.”  This was a familiar response from viewers staring at “Voice of Fire.” The huge painting—on a canvas measuring 5.4 metres by 2.4 metres—by American artist Barnett Newman occupied a central place in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The problem wasn’t that it consisted solely of a vertical red stripe against a blue background, it was that in 1990, $1.76 million of Canadian taxpayers’ money had been used to buy it. It didn’t help that the Canadian economy was sliding into recession at the time. And it didn’t help that the artist was an American. “Voice of Fire” did have a Canadian angle; it had been created for Expo 67, where it was displayed in Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome—the United States pavilion. But when news broke that the Nation...

In the course of its remarkable life, HMCS Haida was attacked by German bombers, engaged with enemy battleships, participated in the Normandy invasion, escorted Russian convoys, sank U-boats, circumnavigated the globe, and shelled trains during the Korean War. One of 27 Tribal-class destroyers built between 1937 and 1945, Haida is the only one that has survived. It sank more enemy ships than any other Canadian warship, earning it the nickname “the fightingest ship in the Royal Canadian Navy.”  Haida was launched in a shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, on Aug. 25, 1942, and commissioned into RCN service a year later. Its first few months were spent in escort duty, but it saw more action the following year. In January 1944, Haida joined Operation Tunnel and Operation Ho...

The Château Frontenac opened on Dec. 11, 1893, one of the grand Canadian Pacific Railway hotels that include the Banff Springs Hotel and the Chateau Lake Louise. Designed by American architect Bruce Price, it sits on a prominent site in Quebec City, perched 54 metres above the St. Lawrence River. Several additions over the years have yielded an 18-storey, 618-room castle that has been called the most photographed hotel in the world. Both the Château and the site are steeped in history. It was named for Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac, the governor of New France from 1672 to 1682 and 1689 to 1698. Under his sometimes-choleric leadership, the French took possession of much of the continent. To the west are the Plains of Abraham, the country’s most famous battlefield, where the French s...

George (Buzz) Beurling was credited with 31½ “kills” in the Second World War, more than any other Canadian pilot, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Flying Cross and two Distinguished Flying Medals. He was a gifted pilot, a superb marksman and fearless in battle. He died young, at 26. These qualities are usually enough to create a mythic figure, but Beurling failed to capture the public imagination the way First World War ace Billy Bishop did, and he wasn’t beloved by fellow pilots or his superior officers. Born in Verdun, Que., Beurling wanted to fly from an early age, taking his first flight when he was 12. He tried to join the RCAF but was turned down because he lacked academic qualifications, having dropped out of school at 15. So he went to England and t...