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‘Empire Ontario’: 1867-1945
Department of Canadian Studies
CAST 221H (Fall 2007)
Instructor: Sean Kheraj
Office: Kerr House 206
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00am-1:00pm
Email: seankheraj@trentu.ca
Course Description:
Ontario is Canada’s wealthiest and most populous province. Home to more than 12 million
Canadians, roughly 38 percent of the national population, Ontario provides unique insights
into the idea of regionalism in Canadian history. Often viewed as part of the national
narrative, Ontario’s history is better understood as a distinct regional history. This course
examines the economic, political, social, environmental, and cultural history of Ontario in
order to better understand the province as a region and its role in Canada from
Confederation to the end of the Second World War. Students in CAST 221H may also wish
to take the companion course CAST 222H, “Ontario since 1945: From the ‘Common Good’
to ‘Common Sense’”.
Format:
The class will meet every Monday for a two-hour lecture at 1:00pm and Tuesday for a onehour tutorial (2pm, 3pm or 4pm).
Required Texts:
Montigny, Edgar-André and Lori Chambers, Ontario since Confederation: A Reader. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 2000.
Kheraj, S. CAST 221H, coursepack.
Evaluation:
Tutorial Participation
Tutorial Presentation
Essay
Final Exam
20%
10%
30%
40%
Assignments, Grading, & Attendance
This course has three main assignments. First, students will be required to complete a weekly
set of reading notes based on each reading of the week. Second, students will do one
presentation in tutorial to summarize the readings and provide analysis of the weekly topic
for discussion. Third, students will write an essay of 7-8 double-spaced pages in standard 12point font (due on November 20 in tutorial) based on a list of essay questions to be handed
out in tutorial. Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade per day. All outstanding
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assignments must be turned in no later than the last day before the final examination
period.
The course instructor is responsible for all grading and will be available to meet with
students during office hours to discuss upcoming assignments and returned work. Contact
through email should be limited to short discussion. Any concerns of a more detailed nature
should be brought up during office hours. The course instructor will not discuss grades over
email.
Should you wish to discuss a graded assignment, please allow 24 hours to review the mark
and comments before contacting the course instructor (this includes email).
Tutorial and lecture attendance is crucial and mandatory. If you miss lecture, please contact a
classmate for missing lecture notes.
Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely serious
academic offence and carries penalties varying from failure in an assignment to suspension
from the University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and
cheating are set out in Trent University’s Academic Dishonesty Policy, which is printed in
the University Calendar. (To be added, if applicable: Departmental interpretations of this
policy are posted on the departmental website).
Access to Instruction
It is Trent University’s intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a student has a
disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may need accommodations to
succeed in this course, the student should contact the Disability Services Office (BL Suite
109, 748-1281, disabilityservices@trentu.ca) as soon as possible. Complete text can be found
under Access to Instruction in the Academic Calendar.
Week 1 (September 10) – Introduction: Ontario, Regionalism, and National History
No tutorials
Week 2 (September 17) – Party Politics and the Politics of Federalism
Noel, S.J.R., “Oliver Mowat, Patronage, and Party Building” Ontario since Confederation: A
Reader, 94-104.
Armstrong, Christopher, The Politics of Federalism: Ontario’s Relations with the Federal Government,
1867-1942. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981. Ch. 1 “Remoulding the
Constitution,” 8-32, CAST 221H coursepack.
Romney, Paul. “The Nature and Scope of Provincial Autonomy: Oliver Mowat, the Quebec
Resolutions and the Construction of the British North America Act” Canadian Journal
of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 25 (1) 1992: 3-28, CAST 221H
coursepack.
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Week 3 (September 24) – Agricultural Ontario
Derry, Margaret, “Patterns of Gendered Labour and the Development of Ontario
Agriculture” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 3-15.
Gouglas, Sean W. “A Currant Affair: E.D. Smith and Agricultural Change in NineteenthCentury Saltfleet Township, Ontario” Agricultural History 75 (4) 2001: 438-466, CAST
221H coursepack.
Waisberg, Leo G. and Holzkamm, Tim E., ““A Tendency to Discourage Them From
Cultivating”: Ojibwa Agriculture and Indian Affairs Administration in Northwestern
Ontario” Ethnohistory 40 (2) 1993: 175-211, CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 4 (October 1) – Industrial Ontario
Burr, Christina, “The Other Side: The Rhetoric of Labour Reform in Toronto during the
1870s” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 55-73.
Heron, Craig, “The Crisis of the Craftsman: Hamilton’s Metal Workers in the Early
Twentieth Century” Labour/Le Travail 6 (1980): 7-48, CAST 221H coursepack.
Kealey, Gregory and Bryan Palmer, “The Bonds of Unity: The Knights of Labour in
Ontario, 1880-1900” Histoire Sociale 14 (28) 1981: 369-411, CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 5 (October 8 – No Lecture, Only Tutorials) – Urban Environments
Jones, Elwood and Douglas McCalla, “Toronto Waterworks, 1840-1877: Continuity and
Change in Nineteenth-Century Toronto Politics” Canadian Historical Review 60 (3)
1979: 300-323, CAST 221H coursepack.
Brace, Catherine, “Public Works in the Canadian City: The Provision of Sewers in Toronto,
1870-1913” Urban History Review 23 (2) 1995: 33-43, CAST 221H coursepack.
Cruikshank, Ken and Nancy B. Bouchier, “Blighted Areas and Obnoxious Industries:
Constructing Environmental Inequality on an Industrial Waterfront” Environmental
History 9 (3) 2004: 464-496, CAST 221H coursepack.
Dean, Joanna, ““Said tree is a veritable nuisance”: Ottawa’s Street Trees, 1869-1939” Urban
History Review 34 (1) 2005: 46-57, CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 6 (October 15) – ‘New Ontario’ and Northern Development
Telford, Rhonda, “The Wikwemikong First Nation and the Department of Indian Affairs
Mismanagement of Petroleum Development” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 4054.
Manore, Jean, “Indian Reserves v. Indian Lands: Reserves, Crown Lands, and Natural
Resource Use in Northeastern Ontario” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 195-213.
Baldwin, Douglas O. and David F. Duke, ““A Grey Wee Town”: An Environmental History
of Early Silver Mining at Cobalt, Ontario” Urban History Review 34 (1) 2005: 71-87,
CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 7 (October 22) – Reading Week (No classes)
Week 8 (October 29) – Public Power
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Freeman, Neil, “Turn-of-the-Century State Intervention: Creating the Hydro-Electric Power
Commission of Ontario, 1906” Ontario History 84 (3) 1992: 171-194.
Armstrong, Christopher, The Politics of Federalism: Ontario’s Relations with the Federal Government,
1867-1942. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981. Ch. 3 “Public Power and
Disallowance” CAST 221H coursepack.
Armstrong, Christopher and H.V. Nelles, Monopoly’s Moment: The Organization and Regulation of
Canadian Utilities, 1830-1930 Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986,
Introduction “Community Property” CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 9 (November 5) – Race, Gender, and Class on Trial
Pon, Mon-Margaret, “The Case of the ‘One Good Chinaman’: Rex v. Charles Lee Hing,
Stratford, Ontario, 1909” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 147-165.
Dubinsky, Karen and Franca Iacovetta, “Murder, Womanly Virtue, and Motherhood: The
Case of Angelina Napolitano, 1911-1922” Canadian Historical Review 72 (4) 1991: 505531, CAST 221H coursepack.
Backhouse, Constance, Colour-Coded: A Legal History of Racism in Canada, 1900-1950 Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1999. Ch. 6 “‘It will be quite an object lesson’: R. v.
Phillips and the Ku Klux Klan in Oakville, Ontario, 1930” CAST 221H coursepack.
Week 10 (November 12) – Imperial Citizenship and the Great War
Heap, Ruby, “‘Salvaging War’s Waste’: The University of Toronto and the ‘Physical
Reconstruction’ of Disabled Soldiers during the First World War” Ontario since
Confederation: A Reader, 214-234.
Gardner, Nikolas, “The Great War and Waterloo County: The Travails of the 118th Overseas
Battalion” Ontario History 89 (3) 1997: 219-236, CAST 221H coursepack.
Currie, Philip, “Reluctant Britons: The Toronto Irish, Home Rule, and the Great War”
Ontario History 87 (1) 1995: 65-76, CAST 221H coursepack.
Morgan, Cecilia, “History, Nation, and Empire: Gender and Southern Ontario Historical
Societies, 1890-1920s” Canadian Historical Review 82 (3) 2001: 491-528, CAST 221H
coursepack.
Week 11 (November 19) – The Farmer-Labour Revolt
*Essays due in tutorial this week*
Chamber, Lori, “Illegitimate Children and the Children of Unmarried Parents Act” Ontario
since Confederation: A Reader, 235-259.
Kechnie, Margaret, “The United Farm Women of Ontario: Developing a Political
Consciousness” Ontario History 77 (4) 1985: 267-280.
Crowley, Terry, “J.J. Morrison and the Transition in Canadian Farm Movements During the
Early Twentieth Century” Agricultural History 71 (3) 1997: 330-356 CAST 221H
coursepack.
Week 12 (November 26) – Ontario in the Great Depression
Campbell, Lara, “‘A Barren Cupboard at Home’: Ontario Families Confront the Premiers
during the Great Depression” Ontario since Confederation: A Reader, 284-306.
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Srigley, Katrina, “Clothing Stories: Consumption, Identity, and Desire in Depression-Era
Toronto” Journal of Women’s History 19 (1) 2007: 82-104.
Klee, Marcus, “Fighting the Sweatshop in Depression Ontario: Capital, Labour, and the
Industrial Standards Act” Labour / Le Travail 45 (2000); 13-51.
Week 13 (December 3) – The Ontario Homefront: World War II
Evenden, Matthew, “Lights Out: Conserving Electricity for War in the Canadian City, 19391945” Urban History Review 34 (1) 2005: 88-99.
Copp, Terry, “Ontario 1939: The Decision for War” Ontario History 86 (3) 1994: 269-278.
Dunkerson, Jennifer, “Wartime Housing and Boarding: A Case Study of the Catherine Street
North Area of Hamilton, Ontario” Urban History Review 20 (3) 1992: 109-116.