Web material related to the 2021 Federal Election in three northwestern Ontario ridings: Kenora, Thunder Bay-Rainy River, and Thunder Bay-Superior North. Candidate sites and social media were captured regularly throughout the election period.
The records document Ruth Tye McKenzie’s life and career as an exhibiting artist. They also reflect her career in business as owner of the Painted Turtle Art Shop.
Ruth Tye McKenzie was born October 6, 1929, in Edmonton, the youngest of 3 children. She attended the Ontario College of Art, and graduated in 1952. She lived in Dundas, ON, for some time, exhibiting in Hamilton, St. Catherines, and other southern Ontario locations.
In 1976 she moved to Thunder Bay with her family, and became a key part of Thunder Bay's artistic community. She opened the Painted Turtle Art Shop in 1983, and ran it for 20 years until selling to new owners in 2003. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the province. Ruth Tye McKenzie passed away January 31, 2023.
As well as this archival collection, many of her works are held in Lakehead University's art collection.
The fonds consists of a photograph album assembled by Arthur Malcolm Mushlian, featuring his own photography, primarily of the 1920s and 1930s. The photographs depict a wide variety of subjects and locations, but with a particular focus on aviation and mine development in Northwestern Ontario.
Arthur Malcolm Mushlian (1902-1961) was born in England, and married Mary Ruby Austen on 22 December 1924, in Kenora, Ontario. He would later serve with the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War.
Text and photographs comprising a biography/memoir of Dan Ward, who worked and travelled across Northern Ontario in the early 20th century. The material covers the period 1880-1940. This text is based on Ward’s handwritten memoirs, and stories told, and edited and compiled by Crandall Benson, his son-in-law.
The fonds consists of notes, correspondence, bird observation data, and the natural history journals of Dr. Allen. The fonds contains the following series:
-Dr. A.E. Allen Bird Observations
-Natural History Notes of A.E. Allen
-Dr. A.E. Allen Ephemera
The correspondence, receipts, newspaper clippings, and several articles of the Canadan Uutiset, a Finnish-language newspaper based in Thunder Bay.
A vast and varied collection of records documenting the experiences of Finnish immigrants to Northwestern Ontario. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, interviews, published material, and ephemera. The photograph collection is extensive and covers a wide range of subjects.
The records are arranged into the following series:
A - Bay Street Project
B - Finnpraxis Project
C - Collections
D - Photographs
E - Miscellaneous
F - Finnish Experience
Collection is organized into the following series:
I. Hoito Restaurant
II. Port Arthur Workingmen’s Association: Imatra no. 9
III. C.T.K.L. (Canadian Industrial Unions: Port Arthur’s Finnish Association)
IV. C.U.T. (Canadian News Service) and C.T.K.L.
V. Finlandia Club
VI. Finnish Socialist Local no. 6: Port Arthur
VII. Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union of the One Big Union
VIII. New Attempt Temperance Society
IX. Finnish Athletic Club: Nahjus
X. Finnish Building Company
XI. Miscellaneous
Lakehead University evolved from the Lakehead Technical Institute (LTI), which was established in 1946. From LTI, Lakehead became the Lakehead College of Arts, Science and Technology in 1956. The Lakehead University Act was given Royal Assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario in 1965, and Lakehead University was established. The first degrees granted by Lakehead University were in Arts and Science in 1965.
The Lakehead University fonds includes records of administrative offices and former administrators.
These papers consist of photographs, certificates, pamphlets, programmes, correspondence, notebooks, memos, balance sheets, and newspaper clippings all relating to Coghlan's insurance business, his numerous careers, political and social involvement, and personal life.
The CTKL fonds receives its title from Canadan Teollisuusunionistinen Kannatus Liitto, the Finnish organization which translates to the Canadian Industrial Union Support Circle. This organization was the majority shareholder of the Labour Temple at 314 Bay Street in Port Arthur from 1925 to 1972 and was disbanded in 1979. Prior to 1926, the central administration of the CTKL was in Sudbury after which it relocated to Port Arthur.
The CTKL was made up of supporters of industrial unionism who formed associations in their own local communities and observed rules and regulations as established by an executive committee. This executive committee, the Toimeenpanevakomitea (TPK), was comprised of members of the CTKL elected annually from the central administration and from the local associations. This committee managed the affairs of the league and supported industrial unionism through agitation by engaging speakers, supporting workers in their union activities, and through monetary assistance, as well as writing, publishing, and distributing written materials.
Significant cultural and social events at the Labour Temple and at other branches were supported by the CTKL during the peak years of labour organization.
The records contain minutes of meetings, correspondence, financial records, publications, and miscellaneous items. The fonds has been divided into series as follows:
A - Finnish Building Company
B - Hoito Restaurant
C - One Big Union
D - CTKL
E - Industrial Workers of the World
F - Lumber Workers Industrial Union #120
G - Canadian News Service
H - Miscellaneous
Records of the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö [Finnish Organization of Canada], Vapaus Publishing Company (responsible for publishing Vapaus and Liekki and other publications), Suomalais-Canadalaisen Amatoori Urheiluliiton [Finnish-Canadian Amateur Sports Federation], co-operatives, and more.
Includes meeting minutes, reports, financial statements, and correspondence related to the operations and administration of these organizations. Also includes a variety of document and pamphlets related to socialism, communism, and the peace movement in Canada and worldwide.
The Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada) is the oldest nationwide Finnish cultural organization in Canada. For over a century the CSJ has been one of the main organizations for Finnish immigrants in Canada with left-wing sympathies and, in particular, those with close ties to the Communist Party of Canada. Through the early to mid 1920s, Finnish-Canadians furnished over half the membership of the Communist Party and some, like A.T. Hill (born Armas Topias Mäkinen), became leading figures in the Party. Beyond support for leftist political causes, the cooperative and labour union movements, many local CSJ branches in both rural and urban centres established halls – some 70 of which were built over the years in communities across Canada – that hosted a range of social and cultural activities including dances, theatre, athletics, music, and lectures. The CSJ is also known for its publishing activities, notably the Vapaus (Liberty) newspaper.
The CSJ underwent several changes in its formative years related to both national and international developments. Founded in October 1911 as the Canadan Suomalainen Sosialisti Järjestö (CSSJ; Finnish Socialist Organization of Canada), the organization served as the Finnish-language affiliate of the Canadian Socialist Federation which soon after transformed into the Social Democratic Party of Canada (SDP). By 1914, the CSSJ had grown to 64 local branches and boasted a majority of the SDP membership with over 3,000 members. One year later the organization added two more local branches but membership had dropped to 1,867 members thanks, in part, to a more restrictive atmosphere due to Canada’s involvement in the First World War and an organizational split that saw the expulsion or resignation of supporters of the Industrial Workers of the World from the CSSJ.
In September 1918, the Canadian federal government passed Order-in-Council PC 2381 and PC 2384 which listed Finnish, along with Russian and Ukrainian, as ”enemy languages” and outlawed the CSSJ along with thirteen other organizations. The CSSJ successfully appealed the ban in December 1918 but dropped ”Socialist” from its name. The organization operated under the name Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö until December 1919. The SDP, however, did not recover from the outlawing of its foreign-language sections, leaving the CSJ without a political home. Stepping into this organizational vacuum was the One Big Union of Canada (OBU), founded in June 1919. The CSJ briefly threw its support behind this new labour union initiative, functioning as an independent ”propaganda organization of the OBU” until internal debates surrounding the structure of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union affiliate and the OBU decision not to join to the Moscow-headquartered Comintern led to its withdrawal shortly thereafter. In 1924, CSSJ activists including A.T. Hill helped to found the Lumber Workers Industrial Union of Canada (LWIUC).
Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution that toppled the Tsarist Russian Empire in November 1917, and following the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) as an underground organization in May 1921, the CSSJ rapidly became an integral part of the nascent Communist movement in Canada. Reflecting this change, in 1922 the organization was renamed the Canadan Työläispuolueen Suomalainen Sosialistilärjestö (FS/WPC; Finnish Socialist Section of the Workers’ Party of Canada) – the Workers’ Party of Canada being the legal front organization of the CPC. In 1923, Finnish-Canadian Communists formed a separate cultural organization, the Canadan Suomalainen Järjestö (CSJ; Finnish Organization of Canada Inc.), to serve as a kind of ”holding company” ensuring that the organization’s considerable properties and assets would be safe from confiscation by the government or capture from rival left-wing groups. With the legalization of the CPC in 1924, the FS/WPC became the Canadan Kommunistipuolueen Suomalainen Järjestö (FS/CP; Finnish section of the Communist Party of Canada). Between 1922 and 1925, membership in the CSJ through its various transitions also doubled as membership in the Communist Party. This arrangement ended in 1925 when the FS/CP was disbanded following the ”bolshevization” directives of the Comintern. These directives demanded that separate ethnic organizations in North America be dissolved in favour of more disciplined and centralized party cells. It was hoped that this reorganization would help attract new members outside of the various Finnish, Ukrainian, and Jewish ethnic enclaves that had furnished the bulk of the CPC dues paying membership in Canada. From this point onwards, the CSJ officially functioned as a cultural organization but maintained a close, albeit sometimes strained, association with the CPC. The 1930s represent the peak of the CSJ size and influence, occuring during the Third Period and Popular Front eras of the international Communist movement. During this period CSJ union organizers assisted in the creation of the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union – a unit of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of the American Federation of Labor, successor to the LWIUC – and the reemergence of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Sudbury and Kirkland Lake. CSJ activists also helped to recruit volunteers for the International Brigades that fought against nationalist and fascist forces in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Finally, in the 1930s some 3,000 CSJ members or sympathizers embarked on the journey from Canada to the Soviet Union to help in the efforts to industrialize the Karelian Autonomous Soviet. Hundreds of Finns in Karelia would later perish in Stalin’s purges.
Despite the CSJ’s active support for the Canadian war effort, the organization was still deemed to be a threat to national security by the federal government and again outlawed in 1940. All FOC properties were seized and closed. The Suomalais Canadalaisten Demokraattien Liitto (SCDL; Finnish-Canadian Democratic League) served as the FOC’s main legal surrogate until the organization was legalized in 1943. The rapid decline of the FOC following this period is apparent from the fact that of the 75 locals in operation in 1936, only 36 remained active in 1950.
Further reading:
Edward W. Laine (edited by Auvo Kostianen), A Century of Strife: The Finnish Organization of Canada, 1901-2001 (Turku: Migration Institute of Finland), 2016.
Arja Pilli, The Finnish-Language Press in Canada, 1901-1939: A Study of Ethnic Journalism (Turku: Institute of Migration), 1982.
William Eklund, Builders of Canada: History of the Finnish Organization of Canada, 1911-1971 (Toronto: Finnish Organization of Canada), 1987.
Records relate to the United Steelworkers of Amercia's (USWA or U.S.W.A.) District 6, Northwestern Ontario, and industries, sites, and companies where Union members worked.
Files include: collective agreements between the union and various companies, correspondence between various company and mine representatives (notably Henry Gareau), as well as presidents of the local unions and officials at different levels of government.
Records relate to the work of business and industrial development and policy throughout Northwestern Ontario.
The role of the Northwestern Ontario Development Association / Northwestern Ontario Development Council was to support and promote business and industrial development across the Northwestern Ontario region. This involved supporting individual businesses and entrepreneurs; organizing and carrying out research on existing and potential industries and availability of services in the region; facilitating the flow of information between governments, researchers, existing businesses and prospective businesses; and advocating for the needs of Northwestern Ontario to multiple levels of government. Transportation, utilities, and financial incentives are recurring themes; mining, forestry, manufacturing, agriculture, tourism, and more are also heavily reflected in the records.
These records reflect the work of Alexander Phillips as General Manager of NODA/NODC, and include correspondence with municipalities, government, business leaders, entrepreneurs, colleagues in other regions, and others, and cover a wide variety of subjects. The division of records into series reflects how they were initially kept and filed by NODA; searching within the collection will be valuable to researchers as files related to a particular subject may be found in multiple locations.
Phillips' own files are also integrated into this collection, and so records reflecting his work with the Quetico Provincial Park Advisory Committee, the Mississippi River Parkway Commission, and various other organizations can also be found within the collection. There is additionally a small amount of personal material.
Sans titreThe correspondence, government employment program material, reports, and minutes for Paul McRae's years as Liberal MP for Fort William and then Thunder Bay-Atikokan. The records cover both national and local issues.
McRae was first elected in 1972, and served four terms in Parliament until 1984.
Materials related to the architectural history of Lakehead University, as presented at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
The records related to cancer diagnosis and care in Northwestern Ontario, and across Ontario more broadly. Information found in this collection covers a wide variety of material which include, but are not limited to: cancer care prevention, early diagnosis and care, clinical trial notes and lectures, information on screening for cancer and breast cancer. Information regarding the Thunder Bay Regional Hospital (Ethics Committees, Pilot Projects) and the Lakehead University Centre for Health Care can be found within this collection on Cancer Care.
Douglas Fisher was a politician and journalist from Northwestern Ontario. He served as Member of Parliament for Port Arthur from 1957 to 1965, representing the CCF and then NDP.
These papers largely consist of correspondence from his time as MP, and cover a range of subjects, most notably including: transportation, shipbuilding, shipbuilding industries and the St. Lawrence Seaway; labour; House of Commons documentation; and Canadian Federal Politics in general.
Records detailing the planning and execution of the Canada Sea-to-Sea Alexander Mackenzie Bicentennial Expeditions, 1989-1993, to celebrate the bicentennial of the voyages of Alexander Mackenzie, who was the first European person to cross Canada and reach the Pacific Ocean. Expedition leader was Dr. Jim Smithers, of Lakehead's School of Outdoor Recreation, Parks, and Tourism.
Students traced Mackenzie's routes travelling by canoe and overland, and held events in communities along the way.
1989: from Fort McMurray, Alberta to Kendall Island on the Beaufort Sea
1990-1991: development of educational materials and full plan
1991: Lachine, Quebec, to Winnipeg, Manitoba
1992: Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Peace River, Alberta
1993: Peace River, Alberta, to Mackenzie Rock, British Columbia
Records include planning documents, brochures, sponsorship information, route maps, and reports.
Photographs of mining and transportation in Northwestern Ontario in the first part of the twentieth century.
Includes:
The collection consists of newspapers (primarily the Orillia Daily Packet and Times) with stories related to the proposal to establish a campus of the Waterloo Lutheran University in Orillia.
The proposal made by the Orillia University Committee in September 1965 to Simcoe County Council to establish funding for the new university campus was approved, and $600,000 allocated. Fundraising commenced, but was halted in 1968 by the Ontario Ministry of University Affairs.
Records relate to the creation and development of the Orillia Campus.
Fonds consists of the records of the Age Friendly Giants project, initially conducted in 2017 through Age Friendly Thunder Bay and StoryCentre Canada. This project provided a digital storytelling workshop to 10 older adults, with a focus on neighbourhoods, communities, and aging at home. Results of the projects included 10 videos produced by the participants, posters and tip sheets, and several public events.
Phase II of Age Friendly Giants took place in 2019. Phase II included the development of an education kit to accompany the Phase I videos, Tea Talks held throughout the summer to develop community, the concluding Giants Castle event in October to share information about aging at home, and various media including cable television programs.
Phase I records include videos and handouts, as well as project documentation. Phase II records include project documentation, videos, and material produced for participants.
Consists of reports, letters, and minutes of the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority.
Sans titreSites crawled include those of local Finnish heritage and Finnish-Canadian groups and organizations.