Regular readers may recall from the blog schedule that I posted earlier this fall that today’s post was supposed to address the challenge of teaching Canada-U.S. relations. My take on the subject appeared earlier than planned. The kind folks at ActiveHistory.ca—special thanks to Professor Daniel Ross of UQAM—shared my article on the subject on Tuesday. Here is a preview; you can keep reading on ActiveHistory.

From television news programming to social media, a politically unaware visitor to Canada would easily believe that we are in the midst of a heated national election. We aren’t, of course, but we have had front-row seats—the mediatic splash zone—to unending American electioneering. Early reports suggest that the current presidential campaign may not end today, nor even this week. In that uncertainty, bruised relations and misperceptions between our two countries will also persist. I believe that history teachers have a special duty to counter those misperceptions as well as inflammatory media coverage. Continue reading…

The energy in the Franco-American community remains unabated. My interests, as you know, are primarily historical in nature, and I am but a fellow traveler in a cause I find very much worthwhile. Many wonderful projects are already on the horizon for the year ahead, projects that will help cement ties between (and within) the French-heritage worlds of Canada and the United States. One such venture is already with us. I am immensely pleased to welcome to the Franco blogging world Melody Keilig, who may be known to many regular readers as the voice of the news on the FCL Podcast and a contributor to My French-Canadian Family. Melody is a young writer who brings fresh perspective and a no-holds-barred attitude. Make sure you subscribe to Moderne Francos.

Earlier this year, another young Franco launched a petition to have la Saint-Jean-Baptiste recognized and celebrated—as it once was—in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. I hope francophones and francophiles will lend their names to Calvin Fox’s petition. If you know someone who lives in Woonsocket, consider asking that person to support the petition and communicate with local public officials.

In the next two weeks, this blog will be traveling back (figuratively, alas) to Vermont. In a Twitter poll that I opened last spring, followers chose St. Albans, Vermont, as the next location I should study as part of my “Those Other Franco-Americans” series—well, a plurality chose St. Albans. Poor Malone, New York; Rumford, Maine; and Newmarket, New Hampshire! One day you too will get your day in the sun! A short preview…

In 1860, Canadian-born individuals and children born in the United States to Canadian parents represented a full quarter of the population of St. Albans; the same was then true of the city’s rural neighbor, Swanton. One out of every four residents that the Confederate raiders met in their eventful outing in St. Albans would likely have been a French-speaking Canadian. But these migrants’ visibility in census records is not mirrored in contemporary newspapers, such that this set of back-page Americans is often relegated to obscurity.

Continue reading next week!