PERSONAL

I was born in Kitchener, Ontario, in October 1974, and grew up in this community. Our family travelled a lot through Ontario and Quebec while we were kids, so I have a very intimate attachment to central Canada. I went to high school at St. Jerome’s and Resurrection Catholic Secondary School before heading off to do my undergraduate degree at the University of St. Jerome’s College (now St. Jerome’s University) at the University of Waterloo.

By the time I was finishing high school, I knew that I wanted to be an historian. I particularly thank my grandfathers for that interest: Eddie Lackenbauer got me hooked on stamp collecting when I was five years old, and my Pepere (Leo Lalonde) was a marvellous story-teller who captivated me with his reminiscences of growing up in rural northern Ontario. The rest is history, so to speak!

Of course, the best thing to ever happen in my life was meeting my wife, my best friend, and my muse, Jennifer. Jenn has a B.A. in Political Science from Carleton University and an M.Sc. in Rural Planning and Development from the University of Guelph. Her sharp mind and brilliant editorial skills help to keep me in line.

We love our dog Macy, who is a bundle of energy and source of endless joy. She likes to eat fruit and vegetables, run (and run, and run), and cuddle with us in bed. She is strange indeed – she must take after her adopted parents.

And last, but never least, are Harrison, Rendall and Pierce – our handsome boys, the centres of our universe.

We are also very fortunate in having wonderful family close to us. My parents, Paul and Paulette, have always been generous in their support of my decisions and life-choices. So too have my parents-in-law, David and Ina. Thanks to them, we live in a beautiful century farmhouse in southwestern Ontario, just down the road from where famous Canadian historian Harold Innis grew up.

I love Canadiana (literature, art, music, movies, board games, and lots of other odd stuff), hockey, and books. I also enjoy helping out around the farm, although my self-identification as “scholar-farmer” is somewhat of a misnomer – the jobs that they give me around here are pretty basic! Nevertheless, I get to drive the skid steer from time to time, and I have become pretty handy with the broom and feed cart. Every morning before I start work as a professor, I feed cattle. It’s a pretty neat life for a former city-boy like me!