Governor General’s History Awards 2014
- At November 11, 2014
- By Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail
- In Featured, News, Travel
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Mark Zuelhke with his Excellency David Johnston after receiving the Pierre Berton Award for Popular History (Photo credit: Sgt Ronald Duchesne, Rideau Hall)

Janet Walker, President and CEO of Canada’s History Society delivering her remarks (Photo credit: Sgt Ronald Duchesne, Rideau Hall)

The award recipients, finalists, family and friends – a few dignitaries – at the ceremony. I’m about four rows from the back! (Photo credit: Sgt Ronald Duchesne, Rideau Hall)

Afterward there was a reception and we were allowed to go on a guided tour of Rideau Hall. Fellow history geek Lina Crompton, me, and Jennifer Huang from Canadian Heritage took advantage!
Book Tour Part 1: Toronto, Yellowknife and Whitehorse
September 25: Book party at The Pilot pub from 5-7pm (Toronto)

Me with cousins Richard and Marianne in the great space at the rear of the Pilot – unfortunately it was the only place that didn’t have aviation artwork. Oops!
September 28: Launch event at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Café (Yellowknife)

Yvonne Quick, an aviation legend in her own right, cuts the huge cake I bought for the event. Thank goodness some groups of tourists wandered through to help us out.

The Book Cellar was on hand with copies of Polar Winds, which owner Judith Drinnan artfully arranged.

Me signing books for Chuck Tolley, Rocky Parsons and Mike Burns. Chuck and Mike are central to the Fox Moth Society, which supported my research.

Outside the Heritage Centre the next day I happened to run into colleague Whitney Lackenbauer, who just published The Canadian Rangers (UBC Press).
September 30: Signing at Mac’s Fireweed Books and launch party at Yukon Transportation Museum 6-9pm (Whitehorse)

My book on display at the Yukon Transportation Museum gift shop – keep an eye out for signed copies when it opens again in the spring!

Chatting about book to an audience of aviation legends including Joe Muff and Rick Nielsen in the back (photo by Bruce Barrett)
#YEG Essay in Avenue Magazine
A Central-Canadian gal learns to love Edmonton
I have a confession to make. Back in 2008, when my husband and I had just finished our degrees and the world economy was in a downward spin, he was offered a job. Good news. Great, even. But — and it’s tough to admit — this central-Canadian girl swallowed hard when she heard it would mean moving to Edmonton. Edmonchuck. Deadmonton.
They are unfortunate nicknames that don’t fit the city I now know, love and, yes, champion (pun intended) to people around the world.
So it might be the most northerly metropolis in North America, but it’s certainly not a Siberian gulag or sleepy backwater. In fact, Edmonton combines the best of the different places I’ve lived, creating a wonderful geographic fusion.
It’s the same size and feel as Ottawa — my childhood home — with its abundant parks, government workers, and festivals. But it’s also a little libertarian like Wyoming, where I hung my hat for two years.
There are times I swear I’m back in Dawson City, Yukon, where I spent half a winter writing in Pierre Berton’s childhood home. It’s especially strong when I’m walking my dog through the snowy back alleys of Mill Woods and smell a wood fire, or happen to catch a glimpse of the northern lights, while hanging out in a backyard hot tub.
And if I squint just right looking at Whyte Avenue, I’m back at university in Montreal. On a rainy fall afternoon, I could easily be in the Kerrisdale or Kitsilano neighbourhoods of Vancouver.
Edmonton also indulges my international tastes. Missing France? I head to Duchess Bake Shop. And I promise you won’t find better butter chicken in Leeds than at one of our great Indian restaurants.
After two years of enjoying all this city has to offer, I have a new nickname for it: Home.
Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail is the author of For the Love of Flying. She is currently working on two books, Polar Winds: A Century of Flying Canada’s North (forthcoming from Frontenac House), and a Second World War-era novel, Chasing Skies. She is a member of Avenue’s Top 40 Under 40, class of 2012.
(Published in Avenue Magazine, February 2013. The lovely illustration is by Byron Eggenschwiler )
Travel article about Alaska and Yukon on Beststory.ca
I recently found out about a new journalism site, www.beststory.ca, being set up by Montreal-based reporter and editor Warren Perley. After checking out this new delivery model – readers pay only for the stories they want to read, and there’s no advertising – I was intrigued. Enough so to get in touch and offer to write something on spec, which I’ve never done before!
There are some great articles (with photos) by Canadian journalists and writers available, including:
- Duane Radford’s “Yukon Discovery Day in Dawson: singing, dancing and a barrel of fun”
- Warren Perley’s “Little Albert’s whacky world of bullets, beatings and bad guys”
- Margaret Somerville’s “Ethics and law governing abortion must catch up with current science”
And, of course, mine: “Quirky, colourful characters emerge in winter tour of Yukon and Alaska.” A little teaser…
A September snowstorm blew in the day we arrived in Whitehorse. Other tourists were fleeing as we arrived. Were we foolhardy ‘outsiders’ tempting Mother Nature’s mood swings with a three-month car tour of the frigid North? The road sign as you enter the Yukon reads, ‘Larger than Life’. We discovered that it refers to more than the scenery!
Beautiful British Columbia (and Washington State)!
Some shots from a recent road trip from Edmonton, Alberta through to BC and WA (and back):

From there we drove east to North Cascades National Park, stopping for a permit at the park office. Then we did the 30 min hike through temperate rainforest to Thunder camp site.

Flying High in Yellowknife
Last weekend I was lucky enough to be in Yellowknife, NWT for the Midnight Sun Float Plane Fly-In doing research for my book on northern Canadian aviation history. Here’s a little photo album from this amazing event:

Our pilot was “Buffalo” Joe McBryan (below) himself, and co-piloting the aircraft was Tyler Sipos. And of course they have a few good luck charms, like this polar bear I’m holding.
I guess I behaved okay (and didn’t get airsick), because he then invited me to join him, his granddaughter, and the director/videographer of Ice Pilots NWT for a trip down memory lane for a 50th anniversary special. Up we went in the Norseman again, this time bound for Gordon Lake.
There was no sleeping in the next day for me, though, as I had an interview lined up at 8:30am with a local aviation legend. Then at 9:30am I was back in Joe’s orange jeep headed to his dock in preparation for the bush pilot memorial fly-by.
After a bbq lunch it was tour time at the Buffalo hangar, where I got to see Joe’s office just full of aviation history books, photos, and even a motorcycle!




Berton House Top Ten
It’s that time of year. The time of year when magazines, tv shows, internet sites, and everyone else make top ten lists. So I will too. About my time up north (although it’s very hard to pick just ten!).







Yukon Reads and Writes!
I’ve met some neat writers, historians, and storytellers during my time in the Yukon and I wanted to share some of their 2010 works with you (while I sit in the Whitehorse airport awaiting my flight home to Edmonton!):

Hike on Dome Mountain
With a week till I leave Dawson and the temperature at a balmy -15 Celsius, I decided yesterday I would climb Dome Mountain one more time.
I’d climbed the Dome twice before. Once with Doug when we first arrived in the Yukon in late September. It was -10 degrees, sunny, and there was just enough snow to make the powerline trail treacherous. The second time was late October. That time I took the road, which was slick, and didn’t bring any snacks or water. An hour and a half in I decided to pack it in. But I memorized all the shortcuts…






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