news
Changing Canada, One Photo at a Time
#36: Canada’s “Rosie the Riveter,” 1941. National Film Board of Canada/Library and Archives Canada, PA-119766.
Terry Fox. The Spanish Influenza. John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Vimy Ridge. The Last Spike. Bob and Doug McKenzie. Wayne Gretzky. Nellie McClung. Winnie the Bear. The Halifax Explosion. The moments and people that define Canada are as diverse and wide-ranging as the country itself. No wonder Beaver editor Mark Reid had such a difficult time selecting photos for 100 Photos That Changed Canada.
At the Indigo at Bay and Bloor on Monday night, Reid sat down with CBC personality Don Newman to talk about the Beaver‘s first-ever foray into book publishing, a compilation of Canada’s most influential photographs. The one hundred photos selected span 1847 to 2008 and cover political and natural disasters, gold medals won and lost, moments of inspiration, moments of desperation, and more.
“100 Photos That Changed Canada is a cocky and brash title,” Reid readily admits. “However, we were looking for photos that held such power they made us rethink who were are as people and as a nation.”
CBC’s Don Newman (left) and Beaver‘s Mark Reid (right) onstage at Indigo.
Starting with Peter Martin’s photo of Terry Fox running before dawn during his Marathon of Hope, Reid took the audience on a journey through Canada’s past and told the story behind a sampling of these now-iconic images.
Doug Ball’s 1974 photograph of Robert Stanfield fumbling a football arguably changed the nature of the relationship between Canadian politicians and the media. Shortly after the photo, Stanfield and his Tories would go on to lose the election to Trudeau’s Liberals. “A political image had never before had this much power,” Reid commented. Whether the image influenced the loss or whether the photo represented Stanfield’s political freefall is up for debate. Newman argued for the latter: “The air was going out of the Conservative campaign by the time this photo was taken. It represents far more than Bob Stanfield not catching the ball.”
#92: “The Shawinigan Handshake,” 1996. By Phil Nolan, Global News.
Veronica “Ronnie” Foster (at the very top of this post) became the pin-up girl for the nation’s war effort when her photo was taken by the National Film Board of Canada at the height of World War II. “She’s a good-looking lady and this photo was a great vehicle for showing what women did in wartime for employment,” J.L. Granatstein, author of the companion essay to the photo, explained. Foster worked at the John Inglish Co Ltd plant in Toronto, which produced machinery and weapons. In 1943, Canadians produced 6 vessels, 80 aircraft, 4 thousand trucks and jeeps, 450 armored fighting vehicles, 940 artillery pieces, 13 thousand weapons, 525 thousand military arsenal shells, 25 million cartridges, 10 tonnes of explosives, and $4 million worth of instruments and communications equipment. The image of Foster, smoking while on a quick break from work, became a powerful marketing tool: the NFB used the image to encourage women “to do their part” as the country became entrenched in the war effort.
A surprising inclusion in the book is a photograph of Ethel Catherwood, a member of the 1928 Olympic team. It was the first year women competed in the Olympics, and every female athlete participated in an obligatory beauty contest. “Ethel took home the gold in both the high jump and the beauty pageant, prompting the San Francisco Chronicle to write—I’m paraphrasing here—’Canadian women are a breath of fresh air. Most female athletes have faces like hatchets,'” Reid recalled. “Ethel Catherwood, Nellie McClung, the residential schools apology…this book shows Canadians how far we’ve come.”
Stan Behal, photographer behind #84 “Tarnished Gold.”
From Shaney Komulainen’s “Standoff at Oka,” to Frank Lennon’s photograph of Paul Henderson’s 1972 Summit series goal, images of conflict, sport, and politics dominated the presentation.
“We wanted to share photos with emotional resonance that are of historical importance,” Reid said. “We didn’t actively say ‘oh, we need three images of World War II’ but these photographs are relatable, universal, and helped shape our nation.”
Photographer Stan Behal took the time to come down and celebrate; his photograph of Ben Johnson crossing the 100-metre sprint finish line in the 1988 Olympics was one of those featured in the book.
“Inclusion in such a great work is humbling,” Behal said. “I’m honoured and delighted.”
All photos by Nick Kozak/Torontoist unless otherwise noted.
