Suicide rose in importance as a major public health concern in post-war Canada, concurrent with the relative decline of infant and childhood mortality and the rise of the behavioural sciences. In response to a perceived crisis in suicides during the 1960s and 1970s, a new technology-the rotary telephone-was reconceived as a "therapeutic instrument" to reach people in crisis. Voluntary and religious groups began establishing "suicide hotlines" across the country as a participatory public health intervention aimed at saving lives. However, as suicide rates continued their seemingly inexorable rise, suicide hotlines witnessed a discursive transformation, away from a goal of reducing suicide rates and toward mental health crisis intervention more broadly.
This research note is based on a small-town Quebec borderland newspaper's death notices and obituaries published during the last half of the nineteenth century. The number of death notices in the sample years increased until 1880, after which there was a sharp decrease, reflecting a decline in infant and early childhood mortality. As for the obituaries, which were much fewer in number, there was a distinct gender divide within the messages conveyed. Those for men generally focused on their commitment to family and their neighbourliness, while those for women tended to stress their charitableness as well as their martyr-like suffering in their final days. In contrast to urban American obituaries, there was little change in the heavily religious tone until as late as 1890, nor was there any reference made to nation-building patriotism.
Student newspapers, conference documents and delegate reports offer insight into how the executive of the University of Alberta Students' Union, affiliated with the youth wing of the Progressive Conservative Party, tried to establish the Canadian University Students' Executive Council (CUSEC) in the mid-1980s. CUSEC organizers envisioned creating a narrowly focused, low-cost, easy-to-join, national student organization exclusively for student union presidents from Canadas' largest universities to undermine the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). CUSEC organizers were unable to effectively challenge the legitimacy of the CFS, a relatively well-established, social-democratic, national-level student organization that arose in the 1970s and 1980s after the collapse of the Canadian Union of Students in 1969. Leadership attrition, shifting organization tactics, and a general lack of interest outside the large universities in Western Canada (and McGill University in Quebec) led CUSEC to dissolve in 1988, but it was successfully revived under different organization names in the 1990s.
Abstract: In the 1960s and 1970s, tobacco became an important agricultural commodity in Canada due to global demand for tobacco products. In regions like Norfolk County, the heart of Ontario's "tobacco belt," many families growing tobacco were first-generation European immigrants who were drawn to its profitability. During harvest, it was commonplace for farm wives to provide homecooked meals to seasonal agricultural labourers, and farms known to serve good meals attracted reliable workers. To assist cooks with this mammoth chore, a monthly column in the Canadian Tobacco Grower magazine offered recipes and tips. Drawing on these columns, this article examines how harvest meals not only contributed to a farm's financial success but also allowed women to preserve their ethnic identities and maintain traditional foodways. In the ongoing scholarship around gender, immigration, and food in the post-war period, this study contributes an important rural and agricultural dimension. Abstract: Dans les années 1960 et 1970, le tabac est devenu un produit agricole important au Canada en raison de la demande mondiale pour les produits de cette industrie. Dans des régions comme le comté de Norfolk, au cœur de la « ceinture du tabac » de l'Ontario, de nombreuses familles cultivant le tabac étaient des immigrants européens de première génération attirés par la rentabilité de cette activité. Pendant la récolte, il était courant que les femmes des agriculteurs fournissent des repas faits maison aux travailleurs agricoles saisonniers, et les fermes réputées pour leurs bons repas attiraient des travailleurs fiables. Pour aider les cuisinières dans cette tâche colossale, une rubrique mensuelle du magazine Canadian Tobacco Grower proposait des recettes et des conseils. S'appuyant sur ces chroniques, cet article examine la manière dont les repas de récolte ont non seulement contribué à la réussite financière des exploitations agricoles, mais ont également permis aux femmes de préserver leur identité ethnique et de maintenir leurs traditions alimentaires. Cette étude apporte une dimension rurale et agricole importante aux recherches actuelles sur le genre, l'immigration et l'alimentation dans la période d'après-guerre.
