Episode 26 Donald Wright on the Canadian Historical Association and Donald Creighton

In this episode, recorded at the annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Charlottetown, Allan talks with Professor Donald Wright, past president of the Canadian Historical Association and professor of history at the University of New Brunswick, about his biography Donald Creighton: A Life in History. The conversation opens with a look at the CHA itself, its bilingual mandate, its annual conference, and the role of the presidential address, before turning to Wright's own presidential address on historian Ramsay Cook and Cook's complicated relationship with his thesis supervisor, Donald Creighton. From there, Wright traces Creighton's life: his Toronto upbringing and devotion to literary storytelling, his Laurentian thesis of Canadian history, and his celebrated two-volume biography of Sir John A. Macdonald, a work Wright calls brilliant but deeply flawed in its hero-worship and silence on Indigenous issues. The episode closes with Creighton's bitter later years, his widely panned book on Mackenzie King, and Wright's reflections on writing a biography with the cooperation of Creighton's family. Chapters 00:00 – Introduction and guest overview 01:21 – Donald Wright's background and books 01:53 – What is the Canadian Historical Association? 04:36 – Inside the annual conference 06:45 – The presidential address tradition 08:01 – Wright's address: Ramsay Cook 10:18 – Cook vs. Creighton's backgrounds 11:32 – Cook's 1984 presidential address 13:09 – Creighton's controversial 1957 address 16:08 – Why write about Donald Creighton? 17:39 – Creighton's youth and education 19:15 – Oxford and return to U of T 20:04 – The Laurentian thesis explained 21:18 – The Commercial Empire of the St. Lawrence 22:24 – Writing the Macdonald biography 25:54 – Macdonald as "superhero" – the book's flaws 27:05 – Toll on Creighton's family 28:39 – Comparisons to Churchill's writing process 29:24 – Peak of Creighton's career and acclaim 30:33 – Creighton's difficult 1960s–70s 32:49 – The Forked Road and its problems 35:07 – Working with Creighton's children 36:38 – Praise for the biography 37:51 – Wright's other books and side projects 38:53 – How Wright got into Canadian history 40:41 – Book recommendations 43:50 – Closing remarks