"Canada's most versatile writer of history"

Journalism

"an historian who always writes with grace and intelligence"
Michael Bliss, The Beaver 

CHRIS AT CANADA'S HISTORY

Through almost three decades, Chris’s columns on historians, historical issues, and historical controversies have been a big part of the evolution of Canada's leading magazine of history, Canada’s History. (From 1920 to 2010 it was The Beaver)

Chris’s columns have won honours at the National Magazine Awards, Western Magazine Awards, and Manitoba Magazine Awards.

To view samples of Chris's column please link to the article index.

And check out Canada’s History’s ever-growing online presence for yourself.


LEGAL HISTORY

Since he wrote the acclaimed The Law Society of Upper Canada and Ontario’s Lawyers in 1997, Chris has been writing books and articles about Canadian legal history.

See his prize winning legal history books as part of the “Books” section

Here are a few samples from the column “That’s History” published in the legal tabloid Law Times between 1998 and 2011.

And a few entries from the “Ontario Legal Alphabet” he created, also for Law Times.

A is for Aylesworth
D is for Davis
J is for Jameson
P is for Parsons
V is for VanKoughnet
Y is for Yip

STATE OF THE NATION

After Chris wrote 1867: How the Fathers Made a Deal in 1997 -- and Three Weeks in Quebec City: The Meeting That Made Canada in 2015, he began offering historically-rooted reflections on   history and public policy.   Making leaders accountable, looking at electoral reform , thinking about the Canadian head of state – these essays have appeared in some of Canada’s leading journals and newspapers.

Click here to sample some.