Beginnings

Ann Walsh has selected fourteen captivating stories written by accomplished authors from across Canada for this historical anthology. Each of the stories focuses on a 'first time' historical experience, such as the meeting between natives and Europeans at Fort St James; the ships carrying filles du roi as brides for the settlers of New France; the first elections in which women in Canada were allowed to vote; the first gourmet meal cooked in a CPR rail camp for Cornelius Van Horne; a mine disaster in the Crowsnest Pass, with the subsequent introduction of safety lamps for the miners; and an account of the 'Home Children' first sent to Canada during the nineteenth century, supposedly for a better life, but often to work in slave-labour conditions. The volume also contains an appendix with substantial accounts of the historical context of each story. The contributors are Ann Walsh, Barbara Haworth-Attard, Beverley Brenna, Constance Horne, Margaret Thompson, Anne Metikosh, Carolyn Pogue, Margaret Florczak, Jean Rae Baxter, Catherine Goodwin, Victoria Miles, Susan Lee, Laura Morgan and Cathy Beveridge. A vibrant introduction to Canada, from the mid-seventeenth century to the 1930s, through the eyes of some of its youngest participants.