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Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
@CraigBaird
May 7, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
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It is #AsianHeritageMonth and this is the story of Larry Kwong!

Kwong was born in Vernon, B.C. on June 17, 1923, two days before Canada enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, which prohibited Chinese immigrants from entering Canada.
As a child, Kwong often faced racism.

🧵1/5 Image
At one point, he was denied service at a barbershop because of his ethnicity.
Kwong began playing hockey on the frozen ponds around Vernon & became one of the top players in the area.
He began to play for the Trail Smoke Eaters, who had recently won the World Championship

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While other players were given high-paying jobs at the local smelter, Kwong was denied this & worked as a bellhop at a hotel.
In 1946, Lester Patrick saw Kwong play and was impressed and he signed him to the New York Rangers farm team, where he became a star player.

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On March 13, 1948, Kwong became the first person of Chinese heritage to play in the NHL.
He played one minute in the NHL & was sent back down, never to be called up to the NHL again.
Despite his skill, other players were selected for call ups instead of him.

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Kwong continued to play hockey & found a great deal of success. With the Valleyfield Braves of the QSHL from 1948-1955, he averaged a point-per-game & led the team to the Alexander Cup, the top senior hockey trophy in Canada.
Kwong died in Calgary on March 15, 2018.

🧵5/5 Image

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More from @CraigBaird

Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Oct 20
Outside of Canada, many assume that the entire country uses bagged milk.
The truth is, only part of Canada have bagged milk in the fridge.
But why? Well, it comes down when Canada made the transition to the metric system.
This is the story!

🧵 1/9 A supermarket aisle displaying various dairy products, including bags of milk and cartons of cream, with brands such as "Sealtest" and "Lactantia" prominently featured. The products are arranged on shelves, with some bags of milk in blue and red packaging in the foreground and various milk and cream cartons in the background.
The story of milk bags in Canada begins in the 1960s. At the time, milk came in glass bottles primarily. Some producers sold milk in cardboard or plastic jugs.
In Canada's Centennial Year of 1967, DuPont introduced milk bags to the country.

🧵 2/9 A supermarket shelf displaying bags of milk from the "Neilson" brand, available in 1% and 2% partly skimmed varieties. The bags are labeled with nutritional information, including "fresh partly skimmed milk" and "lait partiellement écrémé," and are branded with the "Foodland Ontario" logo. The packaging features blue and white designs with images of a milk glass and hand, and the bags are sized at 4 liters each.
This turned out to be a good move because in the 1970s, Canada moved towards the metric system. While other companies had to redesign all of their bottles, jugs and cartons, milk bag packaging machines only needed to be resized at a very low cost.

🧵 3/9 A kitchen counter with a 1-liter bag of "Neilson" brand 2% partly skimmed milk, labeled in both English and French ("lait partiellement écrémé frais"), placed next to a white plastic pitcher. The milk bag is partially inserted into the pitcher, with the milk being poured into it. The background features a tiled wall and an electrical outlet.
Read 10 tweets
Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Oct 18
Today is Persons Day.
This day honours The Persons Case, which ended in a victory for The Famous Five on Oct. 18, 1929. The ruling declared women to be persons under the law and qualified to sit in the Senate.
This is the story of that case.

🧵 1/12 A group of bronze statues depicting five people in a park setting, with some standing and others seated around a table, set against a snowy background with bare trees and a clear blue sky.
When the British North America Act of 1867 was passed, it used the word "persons" to refer to more than one person, and "he" to refer to one person.
It was argued that only a man could be a person, which excluded women from many things.
Enter The Famous Five.

🧵2/12 A black-and-white painting depicting a large group of men in formal attire seated and standing around a long table in a room with three large arched windows, engaged in what appears to be a formal meeting or conference.
Henrietta Edwards was born in 1849.
She was a Red Cross leader during the First World War, a founding member of the Victorian Order of Nurses and helped create Canada's first YWCA.

Learn more in my Deep Dive 👇


🧵3/12canadaehx.com/2023/01/24/hen…
Read 13 tweets
Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Oct 4
On Oct. 4, 1957, the Avro Arrow was unveiled with the intention of it being the RCAF's primary interceptor in the 1960s.
Less than two years later, the program was abruptly cancelled and 14,528 Avro employees were put out of work.
This is the story of the Arrow.

🧵 1/12 A black-and-white aerial view of the Avro Arrow, a delta-winged jet aircraft marked with "RL-201" and a Canadian maple leaf insignia, displayed on a tarmac surrounded by a large crowd of people and a stage with officials, near a building and parked cars.
In the 1950s, with the dawn of the nuclear era, there was a concern that the Soviet Union would attack North America with bombers over the Canadian Arctic.
To deal with this possibility, the RCAF commissioned Avro Canada to build an all-weather nuclear interceptor.

🧵 2/12 A black-and-white photo of the Avro Arrow, a delta-winged jet aircraft marked with "RL-201," flying above the clouds with a clear sky in the background.
It needed to fly higher and faster than any aircraft of its class. With the Arrow contract, Avro quickly expanded and had 20,000 people working for it by 1957. Nine models, one-eighth the size of the finished plane, were tested in rockets over Lake Ontario.

🧵 3/12 A black-and-white photo of a rocket marked with the number "8" being prepared on a launch platform, with several people working around it. One person stands on a scaffold adjusting the rocket, while others on the ground assist, under a partly cloudy sky.
Read 13 tweets
Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Sep 28
In 1885, Montreal was ravaged by smallpox.
To stem the spread of the disease that had killed thousands so far, public health officials enforced vaccinations. Those that mistrusted the vaccine rioted in the streets.
This is the story of the Montreal Smallpox Riots.

🧵 1/10 An old-fashioned illustration depicting a group of people in a train compartment. A man in a suit is assisting a woman who appears to be unwell, adjusting her clothing or providing aid. Other passengers, including a woman seated and a child standing nearby, observe the scene. The setting includes detailed period clothing and interior design, with luggage and fabric draped around.
On Feb. 28, 1885, George Longley, a conductor with the Grand Trunk Railway, arrived in Montreal feeling sick. After visiting a doctor, he was diagnosed with smallpox. While he survived, the disease quickly began to spread throughout the city, infecting thousands.

🧵 2/10 An old-fashioned illustration of a hospital ward with several beds, each occupied by a patient covered with blankets. Nurses or caregivers in long dresses attend to the patients, with one standing near a table holding medical supplies. The room features large windows allowing natural light, and the scene is rendered in a detailed, cross-hatched style typical of historical engravings.
At first, the City of Montreal did not pay to provide vaccinations to fight the epidemic. In response, Sir William Macdonald donated $25,000 to pay for the vaccines.
Through the spring and summer, the disease killed upwards of 100 people per week in the city.

🧵 3/10 A black-and-white photograph of an elderly man with a bald head and white beard, dressed in a formal suit with a bow tie and vest, posing against a dark background.
Read 11 tweets
Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Sep 28
Today is British Home Child Day.
This is the annual day that Canada acknowledges and honours the over 100,000 children who were sent from the UK to Canada to work on farms and in homes.
They were separated from siblings and many were abused.
This is their story.

🧵 1/12 The black-and-white photo shows a large group of children and a few adults posing for a group photograph in front of a large industrial building with a "No Smoking" sign. The children, mostly girls, are dressed in coats, scarves, and hats, typical of early 20th-century attire, and are arranged in several rows, with some standing on the building's steps. The setting appears to be outdoors, possibly at a school or institution, with a utilitarian structure in the background.
The Children's Friend Society was founded in London in 1830 to suppress "juvenile vagrancy" through "reformation and emigration". In 1833, 230 children were sent to Toronto and New Brunswick.
It was a few decades before more children were sent to Canada.

🧵2/12 The black-and-white photo depicts a group of children working in a field, harvesting crops. They are dressed in early 20th-century rural attire, including overalls and hats, and are using tools such as sickles and baskets to gather the harvest. The background features an open field with trees and hills under a clear sky.
In the 1860s, philanthropist Annie MacPherson was appalled at the conditions children were forced to work in at factories in London. She decided to help them and believed sending them away from the cities and even Britain was the best option for a better life.

🧵3/12 The black-and-white photo shows a formal portrait of a woman, identified as Annie Macpherson, dressed in Victorian-era clothing with a high-collared dress adorned with a floral brooch. Her hair is styled neatly and pulled back. Below the image, there is handwritten text that reads, "Yours very faithfully, Annie Macpherson."
Read 13 tweets
Craig Baird - Canadian History Ehx Profile picture
Sep 22
On Sept. 22, 1994, a show debuted on CTV featuring a street-wise Chicago cop and a Mountie on the trail of the man who killed his father.
The critically-acclaimed hit reshaped Canadian television and made a star out of Paul Gross.
This is the story of Due South.

🧵 1/14 Sepia-toned promotional still from the TV series Due South, showing two men seated inside a rusted metal shipping container with open doors. On the left, a bald man in a gray pinstripe suit, white shirt, and red dotted tie sits with hands clasped, looking pensive. On the right, a man in a red Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform with gold buttons and shoulder epaulets holds a beige cowboy hat on his knee, glancing sideways with a subtle smile, a wristwatch visible on his arm. Faded labels and chains hang on the container walls, with dim light filtering from outside.
The idea for Due South came from one of the biggest movies of the 1980s. In 1986, Crocodile Dundee debuted and was a massive hit. Robert Lantos, chair of Alliance Communications, saw that success and spoke with CBS President Jeff Sagansky about creating a similar show.

🧵 2/14 Color promotional still from the film Crocodile Dundee, showing actor Paul Hogan as Mick Dundee grinning confidently while seated on a muddy riverbank, one arm draped over the massive open jaws of a snarling saltwater crocodile with visible sharp teeth and scaly skin. He wears a wide-brimmed cork hat, sleeveless tan leather vest with multiple pockets over bare chest, beaded necklace, leather wristbands, khaki cargo pants, and rugged boots. The background features shallow blue-green water with lily pads, lush green overhanging foliage, and misty tropical haze.
Lantos wanted something involving a stereotypical Canadian working with Chicago Police. Sagansky liked the idea and took it to Paul Haggis and told him to make a series about a Mountie or trapper, or something Canadian like that. From there, Due South was born.

🧵 3/14 Color promotional still from a film featuring a man in a red Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform with gold accents and a wide-brimmed Stetson hat, raising his right hand in a gesture while standing outdoors. His uniform includes a black leather strap across the chest and gold insignia on the shoulder. The background shows a blurred outdoor setting with green trees and a stone wall under a soft, golden-hour light.
Read 13 tweets

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