Rebellions of 1837

The Rebellions of 1837

The media love anniversaries. A historical subject of no current interest becomes instantly pertinent when its age is a multiple of fifty.  This worked in my favour in 1987, when the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada came around, and the stories of these forgotten wars were suddenly topical.  I was delighted.  In a series I had done a couple of years before called "Richard Cartwright and the Roots of Canadian Conservatism," I had seized on a distant ancestor of mine to explore the ways in which the Tory tradition had shaped Canadian political culture.  Now here was my chance to explore the radical traditions that led to armed revolt in the Canadas in 1837.  Once again, I was lucky to have the musical assistance of Anne Lederman and Ian Bell, who then performed together as Muddy York and who were both scholars of early Canadian music as well as skillful musicians.  An ample cast of talented actors allowed me to portray a variety of the historical characters.  They were: Chris Wiggins, Sandy Webster, David Fox, John Jarvis, Lynne Deragon, Albert Millaire, François Klanfer, and Richard Partington.  And, finally I had the assistance of a number of excellent historians, some of whom were by now becoming friends, as I undertook my third excursion into early Canadian history.  They were: in Part One - William Kilbourn and Robert Fraser; in Part Two - Sydney Wise and William Kilbourn; in Part Three - Stanley Ryerson, Murray Greenwood, Jean-Pierre Wallot, Philip Buckner, Fernand Ouellet,  and Alan Greer; and in Part Four - Alan Greer and Murray Greenwood.  The series was first broadcast in December of 1837...