Dr. Penny Bryden
Position
Contact
Credentials
BA (Trent), MA, PhD (York)
Area of expertise
Modern Canadian History, Political and Constitutional History, Scandal
Bio
My research interests revolve around power—who has it, who wants it, and how they use it. While I generally study Canada, there are lots of connections with other parts of the world in my work. In the past, I’ve looked at how particular policies have emerged out of internal party power struggles and out of intergovernmental battles. I have been especially interested in the emergence of social policies in the 1960s (which I wrote about in Planners and Politicians: Liberal Politics and Social Policy, 1957-1968) and the evolution of economic and constitutional policies (which, combined with social policies, were the focus of ‘A Justifiable Obsession’: Ontario’s Relations with Ottawa). Policies take on more of a backseat role in Canada: A Political Biography, which looks at the people – both well known and obscure – who have shaped the political environment since the 19th century. Now I have turned my attention toward the institutions where power resides, and the scandals that have resulted when people have gone a step too far in their use of power. In one project I examine the evolution of the Prime Minister's Office in Canada, and have been surprised with how much power has grown within that institution in the last 50 years. The other project examines political scandals in Canada or, more generally, the misuse of power. I have published several articles on each of these topics, with books nearing completion.
Selected publications
Books
Canada: A Political Biography Oxford University Press, 2016.
‘A Justifiable Obsession’: Conservative Ontario’s Relations with Ottawa, 1943-1985 Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2013.
(edited with Colin Coates, Maureen Lux, Lynne Marks, Marcel Martel and Daniel Samson) Visions: The Canadian History Modules Project Toronto: Nelson, 2011.
Individual modules edited by P. E. Bryden:
- Confederation: What Kind of Country Are We To Have? (pp. 1-48);
- The Great War: Leaders, Followers and Record-Keepers (pp. 1-48);
- Protest, Parties and Politics Between the Wars, 1919-1939 (pp. 1-48);
- The Great Depression in Canada: How Did People Cope? (pp. 1-48);
- Constitutional Negotiations in Late 20th Century Canada: Will We Survive? (pp. 1-48)
(edited with Dimitry Anastakis) Framing Canadian Federalism Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
(edited with Michael J. Tucker and Raymond B. Blake) Canada and the New World Order: Facing the New Millennium Toronto: Irwin Publishers, 2000.
Planners and Politicians: Liberal Politics and Social Policy, 1957-1968, Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997. pp. ix-233.
(edited with Raymond B. Blake and J. Frank Strain) The Welfare State in Canada: Past, Present and Future, Toronto: Irwin Publishers, 1997.
Recent Articles
“Social Policy in an Era of Expansion” in Oxford Handbook of Social Policy in Canada Daniel Béland, Rianne Mahon and Alison Smith, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025)
“The Seduction of Vivian Macmillan: Scandal, Politics and Perception in Depression-Era Alberta,” in Rethinking Feminist History and Theory: Reflections on Gender, Class and Labour, Lisa Pasolli and Julia Smith, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2025): 187-205.
“Lester Pearson and Cabinet Government: The Diplomat in Charge,” in Statecraft: Prime Ministers and Cabinet Government in Canada, Stephen Azzi and Patrice Dutil, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2025): 263-281.
“The Ontario-Quebec Axis: Postwar Strategies in Intergovernmental Negotiations,” in Ontario Since Confederation: A Reader 2nd edition. Lori Chambers, Edgar-André Montigny, James Onusko and Dimitry Anastakis, eds. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2024): 208-233.
“The Packaging of Politics in the Journal: Embedded, Embodied, Splintered and Repeated,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, vol. 33 no. 1 (2023): 85-101
“An Emerging Constitutional Culture in Canada’s Postwar Moment,” in North of America: Canadians and the American Century, 1945-1960, Michael Stevenson and Asa McKercher, eds. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2023): 121-140.
“Jean Chrétien’s Reactive Foreign Policy,” in Statesmen, Strategists and Diplomats: Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Making of Foreign Policy Patrice Dutil, ed. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2023): 285-302.
“Scandal and the Decentering of Canadian Biography: The Case of Gerda Munsinger,” in People, Politics, Purpose: Biography and Canadian Political History, Greg Donaghy and Whitney Lackenbauer, eds. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2023): 159-174
“’To the stars in the twinkling foam’: a consideration of the act of making history in history-breaking times,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association vol. 32 no. 1 (2022), 1-17
“A Very Canadian Revolution: The Transformation of Backroom Power in Canada’s 1968,” in 1968 in Canada Michael Hawes, Andrew C. Holman and Christopher Kirkey, eds. (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2021), pp. 33-50.
Courses
| HSTR 230A | Canada to Confederation |
| HSTR 230B | Canada Since Confederation |
| HSTR 322A | Canadian Political History Since 1867 |
| HIST 322B | Canadian Constitutional History |
| HSTR 323 | Canadian-American Relations |
| HSTR 330 | Topics in Canadian History |
| HSTR 430 | Seminar in Canadian History |
Topics include:
- Quebec Since Confederation
- Social and Political History of Food in North America
- Comparative Canadian/American Political History
Grad students
Completed Doctoral Students
Thirstan Falconer, Through the Revolving Door: The Liberal Party of Canada’s Engagement of Ethnocultural Communities, 1959-1974 supervisor (defended October 2017)
Lee Blanding, PhD: “Re-Branding Canada: The Origins of Multiculturalism Policy in Canada, 1945-1974,” (defended May 2013)
Lisa Pasolli, PhD: ‘Talkin’ Day Care Blues’: Motherhood, Work and Child Care in Twentieth Century British Columbia,” (defended June 2012)
Completed Master's Students
Nathan Ruston, MA: LeDain Commission and Student Testimony (completed August 2019)
Brent Cantarutti, MA: “British Columbia’s High Modernist Fallacy: The Columbia River Treaty Dams” (completed August 2016)
Alexis Leriger de la Plant, MA “Nelvana and the Evolution of Canadian Culture” (completed December 2015)
Rachael Conway, MA: “Reservations to Citizenship: The Voting Rights of Status Indians, 1950-1960” (completed December 2012)
Bryan MacLeod, MA: "Something to Declare: Customs and Border Policy in Canada 1990 - 2011" (defended December 2011)
Stephen Harrison, MA: "The Alternative Vote in British Columbia: Values Debates and Party Politics" (defended July 2010)
Catherine Ulmer, MA: "Charlotte Whitton and the Welfare State" (defended August 2009)