Resources

Books Specifically dealing with the On to Ottawa Trek

A Basic Bibliography
- compiled by David Yorke, On to Ottawa Historical Society Director

Recollections of the On to Ottawa Trek
Ronald Liversedge

Edited by Victor Hoar, published by McClelland and Stewart Limited and The Carleton Library, 1973.

This edition contains the colourful 122 page memoir of the relief camps, the relief camp strike in Vancouver, and the trek itself, by trekker Ron Liversedge of Lake Cowichan, B.C. This memoir was originally published in a limited mimeograph edition in 1961. The edition produced by Victor Hoar includes the memoir, together with a number of documents related to the trek. These include the Report of the Macdonald Commission into the "Regina Riot", and documents from official sources relating to the relief camp strike, the trek, and the police action against the trek in Regina.

When Freedom Was Lost
Lorne Brown

Published by Black Rose Books, Montreal and the University of Toronto Press, 1987, ISBN 0 - 920057 - 77 - 2.

This is an excellent history of the establishment of the relief camps, the camp strike, the trek, and the Regina Riot. It is drawn from many archival sources as well as the oral histories of many trek participants, and describes the degree to which the officials were prepared to dispense with legalities and civil rights in order to stop the unemployed demonstrators.

All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On to Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot
Bill Waiser

Published by Fifth House Ltd., Calgary, 2003, ISBN 1 - 894004 - 88 - 4.

A popularly written and very detailed recounting of the Trek from the time it left Vancouver, with a particularly full description of the "Regina Riot". Waiser draws heavily on government and recently released police records for his description, and describes the political tussling between the federal and Saskatchewan governments during the period the trekkers were in Regina. Also included is a description of the work of the Citizen's Emergency Committee, a coalition which aided the trek. The book also contains a list of the names of many of the trek members - about twenty percent of the 1,400 young unemployed who reached Regina.

We Were The Salt Of The Earth!
Victor Howard [Victor Hoar]

Published by Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1985 ISBN 0 - 88977 - 037 - 9

Another history of the camps, the trek and the Regina Riot, by a US academic who took a keen interest in the unemployed and left-wing protest movements in Canada. It sets out the 'narrative' of the events from archival documents and many interviews with trek participants. It was criticized by a number of trek participants in Prairie Forum magazine, published by the University of Regina, (Fall 1986 - Vol. 11 No. 2), and the author published a reply also in that magazine, (Spring 1997 Vol. 12 No. 1).

Pubs, Pulpits & Prairie Fires
Elroy Deimert

Published by Roseway Publishing, Halifax and Winnipeg, 2009
ISBN-10: 1552663205    ISBN-13: 978-1552663202

A fascinating re-telling of the story of the depression, the Trek, the Regina police riot, and the aftermath, told in the novel form of a fictitious series of meetings between some contemporary prairie pub-goers and Trek veterans. It is in the twilight between hard history and fiction, but the material regarding the Trek is right on, well documented, and supplemented by the extensive interviews the author did have with leading trekkers.

On to Ottawa Historical Society Ph: (604) 254 0703 ontoottawa.ca This page updated 17/02/2013