Whose passion for and services in thename of history are at once my inspirationand my pride.
As this book is published, Canada is celebratingher fiftieth birthday. The thoughts of all of ustravel back along the line of those fifty years sinceConfederation swept away all divisions andmade the people of what is now Canada one inname, that they might become one in purpose,ideal, and spirit. We see our country served bya succession of great men. Their greatness consistedin trying to weld Canada into this onenessand in trying to develop our illimitable resources.For this fifty years and for the fifty before it,Canada had no war to engage her attention until,in 1914, she joined with Great Britain in the GreatWar that the world might be “made safe fordemocracy.”
While we look with pride at the progress ourcountry has made during this time of peace, wemay well go further back and see some of theultimate contributory factors. And as we do thiswe shall see that in those troublous days as inthe calmer that succeeded them, the history ofCanada gathers itself round two or three men.One of these is Major-General Sir Isaac Brock.
Brock is called “The hero of Upper Canada.”That he undoubtedly was, but he was more.He was the hero of Canada, for while his effortsboth as soldier and statesman were peculiarly forone province, their effect was felt by Canadiansof later days from the Atlantic to the Pacific.Indeed it is not too much to say that Brock’spart in the War of 1812-14 made fast and surewhat is now the Dominion of Canada for theBritish Empire. This makes him at once theprimal hero of Canada. We have our other heroes.The names of Frontenac, Wolfe, Montcalm,Carleton, and others stand out from Canada’s“storied page” and deservedly so, but not one ofthem served our country in a way eventually sosignal as did Brock. Wolfe conquered the French;Carleton defended Canada against invasion in1776; but their work had not the crucial qualityof Brock’s.
He was certainly a man of action, and hisbiography is fittingly the first title in a series ofCanadian Men of Action. The older nations ofthe world have their great ones. France hasits Joan of Arc, Italy its Garibaldi, Russia itsPeter, and Britain its Arthur and its Alfred. Inten short years in Canada, Brock accomplishedmuch, fo