22 November 2017

Historical Society of Ottawa; November Meeting

November 24, 2017 - Ian McKercher -- 1930s Ottawa & Birth of the Bank of Canada

Details: The Great Depression buffeted Ottawa, but failed to bring the city to its knees. Key events took place here during the 1930s that have had a lasting impact on Canadian history into the twenty-first century. Creation of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (forerunner of the CBC) in 1932 and the Bank of Canada in 1935 contend to lead this list.

Biography: Ian McKercher was born in London, Ontario, attended Queen’s University and moved to Ottawa in 1969 to teach English at Glebe Collegiate. He has a strong interest in local history and was a founding member of the Glebe Historical Society. After retirement, he became a regular columnist at the Glebe Report, a community monthly, and has published over a hundred articles during the last fifteen years. His first historical fiction novel, The Underling was published in 2012. The sequel, The Incrementalist, came out in 2016. Both books are set in Ottawa in the 1930s and revolve around the fictional exploits of Frances McFadden, a secretary hired to help get the Bank of Canada up and running. The novels are multi-layered, and deal with the coming of age of a young woman, a national institution, and Canada itself. McKercher’s writing flows from a belief that Canada has an esteemed but undiscovered history that is ripe for acknowledgement. Copies of his novels may be purchased for $20 each.

The meeting starts at  at 1:00 pm in the lounge of the Routhier Community Centre, 172 Guigues Street at Cumberland.

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