#cdaus — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cdaus, aggregated by home.social.
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One of the most interesting — and daunting — experiences for an author is to field questions about their book from an informed audience. The audience last night in the officers’ mess of The Queen’s York Rangers was nothing if not well informed about the period I cover.
Their predecessor regiment, the Queen’s Rangers, fought in the American Revolution and managed to preserve their colours (on the wall behind me in the photo) after the British defeat at Yorktown.
I was particularly taken with the comments of Lieutenant-Colonel Gerry Almendradas, the commanding officer, who stressed how attitudes formed long ago might inform current military challenges. A man after my own heart!
My thanks to Vicki Oilers and Darrell Bricker, who made the event happen; Donald McKenzie, chair of the regimental council, for his warm welcome; Jaiden Valentine for his help; and Ross McKee for a great, anecdote-filled tour of the mess, including an improbable painting of General Isaac Brock.
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What a pleasure to talk about my book with members of the Canadian International Council, Waterloo branch, last night at St. Jerome's University. An engaged and thoughtful audience!
There are a lot of people to thank for making it happen. Special thanks to John English for the invitation, Shawky Fahel for smoothing the way, Ryan Touhey of the history department at St. Jerome’s for co-sponsoring my talk, and Krenare Recaj for dashing out and getting more books when it looked like we did not have enough!
#hedidnotconquer #canada #cdnhist #cdaus @dundurnpress
Photo credit: Frances Barclay
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#OTD February 22, 1776, the commander of the American forces occupying Trois-Rivières, Quebec, wrote Benjamin Franklin, urging him to use his reputed supernatural powers to conquer Canada.
“I understood you are a great man that you Can Turn the Common Course of nature that you have power with the Gods and Can Rob the Clouds of their Tremendious Thunder,” wrote William Goforth.
“Rouse once more my old Trojan Collect the Heavey Thunders of the United Colonies and Convey them to the Regions of the North and Enable us to Shake the Quebec walls or on the other hand inform us how to Extract the Electric fire from the Center.
“Then Perhaps we may be able to draw a Vein athwart their Magazene and Send them upwards Cloathd as Elijah was with a Suit of fire. One or the other of these must be done or we shall be drove to the Necessity of another Frolick of boarding the Town.”
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus #america250 @dundurnpress
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“The Unanimous Voice of the Continent is Canada must be ours. Quebec must be taken.” So wrote John Adams in a letter sent #OTD Feb. 18, 1776, to fellow revolutionary James Warren.
At the time, the Continental Army occupied Montreal and Trois-Rivières and were laying siege to Quebec City, the last major population centre in the British colony.
Adams said that if the British kept Canada “it would enable them to inflame all the Indians upon the Continent, and perhaps induce them to take up the Hatchet, and commit their Robberies and Murders upon the Frontiers of all the southern Colonies as well as to pour down Regulars, Canadians and Indians together upon the Borders of the Northern.”
He seemed heartened by the decision to send Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton to Montreal to salvage the faltering invasion. “These three Gentlemen compose a Committee, which I think promises great Things,” he told Warren.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus #America250 @dundurnpress
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#OTD Feb. 15, 1776, the Continental Congress asked Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton to go to Canada to ask the French Canadians to join the American Revolution.
It was acting on the advice of a sympathetic French Canadian, Prudent Lajeunesse, who had told the Committee of Secret Correspondence that the only way to overcome the suspicions of the Catholic clergy and the seigneurs was for delegates to make the case in person.
The clergy and seigneurs were happy with what Britain had given them in the Quebec Act of 1774 and feared the Americans would ban the Catholic religion and end their privileged positions in Canada.
Carroll was not a delegate. But he was a rich Catholic who could speak French. Congress asked him to bring along his relative, John Carroll, a Catholic priest. The three Americans, who would later become founding fathers, would not set out for Montreal until April 2.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus #americanrevolution @dundurnpress
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There’s an ongoing guessing game about how far in the past Trump is trying to drag the US. I argue that it’s 1775, the year the Americans began their revolution and invaded Canada.
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It is heartening to see two former prime ministers, from different parties, have a friendly conversation about Canadian unity in the time of Trump.
I will admit being slightly biased because Mr. Chrétien mentioned my book (He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada).
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus #americanrevolution @dundurnpress
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My take on the historical aspects of the prime minister’s Quebec City speech.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #books #cdaus @dundurnpress
https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/op_eds/opinion-carney-picks-the-wrong-battle-in-quebec-city
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Notice something missing from this chronology of the American Revolution in a commemorative edition put out by Time magazine?
It jumps from August 1775 to January 1776, without mentioning the American invasion of the British colony of Canada, which began in September 1775 and ended in failure.
Canadians consume tremendous amounts of American culture, and with it the American version of history.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #books #cdaus #americanrevolution250
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Benjamin Franklin received a disappointing birthday present when he turned 70 years old #OTD January 17, 1776.
He and fellow delegates to the Continental Congress learned that the Continental Army failed to take Quebec City by storm more than two weeks earlier.
It would take many more months and a personal visit by Franklin to Montreal before they realized that the American invasion of Canada, begun in September 1775, was a complete failure.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus #books #bookstodon #americanrevolution @dundurnpress @lizcovart.bsky.social
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Trump is not inventing a new foreign policy with his threats to take over Greenland. He’s resurrecting an approach that was used 250 years ago on the British colony of Canada.
I wrote about it for the Centre for International Policy Studies.#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #cdaus @dundurnpress
https://www.cips-cepi.ca/2026/01/14/americas-roots-are-showing-with-its-threat-to-greenland/
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#OTD Jan. 6, 1776, David Wooster, the general in charge of American troops in Canada, issued a declaration that threatened any Canadian who opposed the American invasion.
Wooster was reacting to the disastrous failure of the Continental Army to take Quebec City on December 31. Privately, he told a superior officer the defeat rendered the army’s prospects in Canada “very dubious.” Publicly, he cracked down on the inhabitants of Montreal and Trois-Rivières, the towns the invaders still controlled.
See reply for text of the declaration.....
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #books #cdaus #americanrevolution @dundurnpress
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There are a lot of lessons Canada can learn from the American invasion of 1775-1776, including that it could happen again.
I wrote about that invasion in my book, He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada.
#hedidnotconquer #canada #history #books #cdaus @dundurnpress
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#OTD Nov. 22, 1775, Guy Carleton, governor of the Province of Quebec, expelled American sympathizers, who he called “useless, disloyal, and treacherous persons,” from Quebec City.
American troops had taken Montreal and Trois-Rivières earlier in November and were approaching Quebec City. If they captured it, Canada would be theirs.
Carleton did not want anyone within the city walls who would not fight on his side. Many of those who left were English-speaking merchants who had moved north from the 13 colonies when it became a British colony and supported the American invaders.
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I was both happy and sad to see that Tim Cook, whose work I respected and admired, reviewed my book for the Literary Review of Canada.
“This is a good book that has arrived at an opportune time,” he wrote.
But coming so soon after the announcement of his death, the moment felt bittersweet.
He was Canada’s preeminent military historian, the author of 19 books that told us who we are and where we came from. He is already missed.
#cdahist #cdaus #hedidnotconquer #history #canada
https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2025/12/how-vain-an-attempt-review-he-did-not-conquer/
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On this day 250 years ago, Canadians were at war with American invaders and with each other. American colonists had exported their civil war north, enticing some Canadians to fight with them against the British whereas others fought to defend the imperial power. It was a divisive invasion that ultimately failed.
Yet success seemed within the Americans’ grasp on Nov. 11, 1775. Troops led by the rebel general, Richard Montgomery, had finally taken Fort St. Jean on the Richelieu River and were nearing the gates of Montreal. It lay undefended after Guy Carleton, the colonial governor, fled in the night with his small garrison to Quebec City.
Philip Schuyler, the general in charge of the invasion, wrote the Continental Congress on Nov. 11 to say that “our affairs wear so favourable an aspect in Canada, that if Colonel Arnold should penetrate to Quebeck, the whole country will, in all probability, be in our hands soon.” It did not work out that way.
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Most authors like talking about their books. But it is especially fun when you have an interested and informed group to talk to. I had that this evening with the Friends of Lifelong Learning of Ottawa-Carleton at the Glebe Centre. Lots of challenging and in-depth questions. Thanks for inviting me!
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Had a great time at the Toronto launch of my book, He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada.
My thanks to Meghan Macdonald of @dundurnpress for kicking things off, Rupert and Danielle of Ben McNally Books for hosting, and all the friends, family members, and book lovers who came!
#hedidnotconquer #cdahist #cdaus -
“What think you of a North American Monarchy?” John Adams, one of the founding fathers, asked a friend in October 1775. “Suppose We should appoint a Continental King, and a Continental House of Lords, and a Continental House of Commons, to be annually, or triennially or Septennially elected?”
Adams made clear this wasn’t his idea. But, he said, it was being “whispered about in Coffee Houses” and had some supporters.
Two things to note: Some American colonists were already thinking in terms of controlling the continent. The invasion of Canada had already begun. Second, the idea of a North American wearing a kingly crown did not begin with Donald Trump.
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Had a good time speaking this week with Tom Fournier @tom4141tom of the History Symposium about my book, He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada.
Our interests are complementary: He specializes in the War of 1812, whereas one of my chapters focusses on the invasion of Canada in 1775.
I even got to show a lot of old maps, which make it so much easier to understand the long-standing conflict in North America. Thanks for having me on, Tom!