Listening T.O. History

5 - Gangs of Fort York: The Orange Order in Toronto

For over a hundred years, Toronto was a stronghold of the Orange Order—a fraternal society founded on principles of militant Protestantism and loyalty to the British Crown—and Toronto's many Orangemen worked to marginalize the city's Irish Catholic population. In an episode that takes us from riots in the streets all the way to City Hall, we talk about what Orangeism was, why people got involved with it (and eventually stopped getting involved with it), what life was sometimes like for Irish Catholics in a bastion of Orangeism, and what all this tells us about Toronto's history.
Some additional resources related to the topics covered in this episode:
Donald Harman Akenson, The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History, 2nd ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999).
Cecil J. Houston and William J. Smyth, The Sash Canada Wore: A Historical Geography of the Orange Order in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).
Gregory S. Kealey, “Orangemen and the Corporation: The Politics of Class during the Union of the Canadas,” in Forging a Consensus: Historical Essays on Toronto, ed. Victor L. Russell (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 41–86.
Ian Radforth, “Collective Rights, Liberal Discourse, and Public Order: The Clash over Catholic Processions in Mid-Victorian Toronto,” Canadian Historical Review 95, no. 4 (2014): 511–544.
Ian Radforth, Royal Spectacle: The 1860 Visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the United States (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004).
William J. Smyth, Toronto, the Belfast of Canada: The Orange Order and the Shaping of Municipal Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2015).
David A. Wilson, ed., The Orange Order in Canada (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007).
If you are interested in further exploring some primary sources used in the episode, see below:
The document from which we sourced the Orange oath is available online: Forms and Ritual of the Orange Order, to be Observed in Private Lodges of the Orange Association of British North America (Cobourg: “The Cobourg Star” Office, 1846). https://hdl.handle.net/2027/aeu.ark:/13960/t9p27z069
Many issues of the Irish Canadian, the newspaper from which we quoted a few times in the episode, are available online via Google News’s database of historic newspapers: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=M3NEmzRMIkIC
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, our intro music was recorded by the National Promenade Band, and our outro music was created by Holizna. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/listeningt.o.history) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Listening-TO-History/61553456499160/) for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!

4 - Why is There an 1885 Statue at Queen’s Park? Toronto's Role in Settler Colonialism on the Prairies

In 1885, ​more than 500 Torontonians headed to the Northwest to defend settler colonialism against a Métis resistance led by Louis Riel. In this episode, we wonder why a monument to these volunteers sits at Queen’s Park, why Toronto became so interested in the prairies in the mid-nineteenth century, and what role Toronto had in settler colonialism in the West. We reflect on how the power of Toronto has always been to project outward to places far away.
Some additional resources related to today’s topics:
Ian Radforth, "Celebrating the Suppression of the North-West Resistance of 1885: The Toronto Press and the Militia Volunteers," Histoire sociale/Social History 47, no. 95 (2014): 601–39.
Doug Owram, Promise of Eden: The Canadian Expansionist Movement and the Idea of the West, 1856–1900 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980).
J. M. S. Careless, Toronto to 1918: An Illustrated History (Toronto: Lorimer, 1984).
Jean Teillet, The North-West is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel’s People, the Métis Nation (Toronto: Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins, 2019).
Gerald Friesen, The Canadian Prairies: A History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984).
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, our intro music was recorded by the National Promenade Band, and our outro music was created by Holizna. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/listeningt.o.history) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Listening-TO-History/61553456499160/) for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!

3 - William Lyon Mackenzie: Rebel, Mayor, Crank

In this episode, we discuss the career of one of history’s most famous Torontonians, William Lyon Mackenzie. Those of you who know your Canadian history have probably heard of Mackenzie; in the late 1830s he famously led a failed rebellion against the government of Upper Canada. Less well known about Mackenzie, though, is that just a few years before that rebellion he actually served as the city of Toronto’s first mayor.
So in this episode, we discuss not only Mackenzie himself, but also politics in Toronto’s early history. Why did the town of York incorporate as the city of Toronto in 1834, and what did it mean to do so? What were the major issues of the day in the city? And what were the priorities of Toronto’s first government? We discuss all this and more in this episode.
Some additional resources related to today’s topics:
Paul Romney, "William Lyon Mackenzie as Mayor of Toronto," Canadian Historical Review 56, no. 4 (December 1975): 416–436.
F.H. Armstrong, "William Lyon Mackenzie, First Mayor of Toronto: A Study of a Critic in Power," Canadian Historical Review 48, no. 4 (December 1967): 309–331.
Mark Maloney, Toronto's Mayors: A History of the City's Leaders (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2023).
Michel Ducharme, The Idea of Liberty in Canada during the Age of Atlantic Revolutions, 1776–1838 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014).
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, our intro music was recorded by the National Promenade Band, and our outro music was created by Holizna. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/listeningt.o.history) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Listening-TO-History/61553456499160/) for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!

2 - The Rise of British Toronto

In this episode, we discuss how the initial establishment of Toronto (at the time, York) was part of a British imperial project. We also look into how decision-makers inscribed Britishness on Toronto's landscape through naming practices. We also address how this dynamic continued (but in some ways changed) over time, and how it compares to elsewhere in Canada.
Some additional resources related to today’s topics:
Eric Arthur, Toronto, No Mean City, 3rd ed., rev. by Stephen A. Otto, repr. with new essays by Christopher Hume, Catherine Nasmith, Susan Crean, and Mark Kingwell (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003)
E. A. Cruikshank, The Correspondence of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe, with Allied Documents Relating to His Administration of the Government of Upper Canada, 5 vols. (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1923–31); digital copies are available at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001445013
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, our intro music was recorded by the National Promenade Band, and our outro music was created by Holizna. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/listeningt.o.history) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Listening-TO-History/61553456499160/) for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!

1 - What We Acknowledge

In this episode, we look into the history behind Toronto’s land acknowledgements! Who are the Indigenous nations and confederacies alluded to by the acknowledgements, and what are the histories of the various treaties that are referenced? We discuss all this and more in our very first episode!
Some additional resources related to today’s topics:
Talking Treaty Collective, A Treaty Guide for Torontonians (2022)
Toronto Area treaty map, from Canada by Treaty project: https://www.history.utoronto.ca/sites/www.history.utoronto.ca/files/images/Toronto%20Treaties%20Map_0.pdf
Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, and Brian Wright-McLeod, eds., Indigenous Toronto: Stories that Carry this Place (Coach House Books, 2021)
Kayanesenh Paul Williams, Kayanerenkó:wa: The Great Law of Peace (University of Manitoba Press, 2018)
John Burrows and Michael Coyle, eds., The Right Relationship: Reimagining the Implementation of Historical Treaties (University of Toronto Press, 2017)
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, our intro music was recorded by the National Promenade Band, and our outro music was created by Holizna. Follow us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/listeningt.o.history) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/people/Listening-TO-History/61553456499160/) for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!

Trailer - What is Listening T.O. History?

Hello and welcome to Listening T.O. History, the podcast all about the histories that made Toronto! In this short trailer, we introduce ourselves and what this podcast is all about. Be sure to check out our first episode, coming very soon!
 
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Listening T.O. History is created and hosted by Steve Penfold and Louis Reed-Wood. Our artwork was made by Nethkaria, and the music in this episode was recorded by the National Promenade Band. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for additional content and announcements, and get in touch at listeningTOhistory[at]gmail.com!