Top History Journalists in Canada (2025)

Frances Rooney specializes in uncovering hidden cultural histories through archival research and community narratives. Based in Toronto, she writes primarily for Second Story Press while maintaining an active freelance career preserving regional histories.

Key Coverage Areas

• Cultural Preservation: Documents disappearing traditions through oral histories and material culture analysis
• Biographical Works: Focuses on overlooked female creatives and tradespeople
• Regional Histories: Examines how geography shapes community identity

Pitching Recommendations

• Lead with primary sources: She prioritizes stories with access to unpublished archives or physical artifacts
• Highlight multigenerational impact: Looks for narratives showing tradition evolution across age groups
• Avoid celebrity angles: Focuses on everyday cultural contributors rather than famous figures

Career Highlights

• Authored 6 books blending historical research with narrative storytelling
• Recipient of Canadian Historical Association's Public History Prize
• 20+ years preserving community histories through editorial projects

Jon Wells is a veteran journalist at The Hamilton Spectator and author of six nonfiction books. His work spans:

• Historical Investigations: Reconstructing overlooked narratives, particularly wartime experiences and Indigenous history.
• Criminal Justice Reform: Analyzing systemic inequities, police accountability, and community-led solutions.
• Economic Policy Impacts: Humanizing trade, labor, and industrial policies through local stories.

Pitching Tips

• Avoid Celebrity-Driven Angles: Wells prioritizes grassroots voices over sensationalism.
• Emphasize Primary Sources: Proposals should include access to archives, interviewees, or underrepresented communities.

Awards: Spruill Prize Honorable Mention, Residential College Directorship at University of Michigan.

Magda Fahrni is a Canadian historian and journalist specializing in social history, health narratives, and cultural evolution. Her work appears in academic journals and public-facing platforms, particularly through Histoire sociale/Social History and Oxford University Press publications.

Key Focus Areas

• Family Dynamics: Examines kinship structures across 500 years of Canadian history
• Health Crises: Analyzes pandemic responses through historical lenses
• Gender Politics: Traces evolution of reproductive rights and bodily autonomy

Pitching Recommendations

• Historical Parallels: Connect current events to archival precedents
• Intersectional Analysis: Highlight overlapping class/gender/ethnic narratives
• Primary Sources: Emphasize unpublished diaries, letters, or institutional records

Fahrni’s award-winning research continues to shape understandings of Canadian identity, particularly through her innovative blending of academic scholarship and public engagement.

As Canada’s preeminent public history journalist, Reid specializes in:

• Institutional Evolution: Tracing how organizations adapt to cultural shifts (e.g., his 10-year study of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s editorial influence)
• Visual Historiography: Analyzing photographs, maps, and artwork as historical documents
• Commemorative Practices: Examining how societies memorialize contested pasts

Pitching Priorities

• Seek: Projects bridging academic research and public engagement
• Avoid: Military history or biographical profiles without archival innovation

Career Highlights

• Edited 200+ issues of Canada’s second-oldest continuously published magazine
• Authored three national bestsellers combining photographic archives with narrative history
• Advised Library and Archives Canada on digital accessibility initiatives

Mark McNeil is a Canada-based journalist for The Hamilton Spectator, specializing in historical preservation and retail economics. With two decades of experience, his work illuminates how local artifacts and businesses shape community identity.

Pitching Guide

• Do Pitch:
  • Untold archival discoveries: He prioritizes primary sources like diaries, ledgers, or photographs with clear provenance.
  • Retail comebacks: Focus on businesses reviving historic practices (e.g., a department store reintroducing 1950s window displays).
• Avoid:
  • National policy debates: His work centers on hyper-local impacts rather than federal initiatives.

Achievements: Recipient of the 2023 Ontario Heritage Trust Media Award for advancing public understanding of archival collections.

Mary Baxter is a Canadian journalist and historian specializing in justice, history, and human rights. As TVO Today’s southwestern Ontario reporter and a contributor to Broadview Magazine, she amplifies marginalized voices through rigorous investigative work.

Pitching Insights

• Focus Areas: Rural healthcare access, historical memory, community-led advocacy
• Geographic Scope: Primarily Ontario, especially non-urban regions
• Avoid: Celebrity profiles, international politics without local ties

Notable Achievements

• 2024 CAJ Award finalist for exposing reproductive care barriers
• PhD research on environmental history funded by SSHRC

Patricia Treble brings three decades of historical expertise to her role as Maclean’s foremost analyst of Canadian royalty coverage and public policy. Her work straddles archival research and breaking news, with a signature focus on how institutions evolve under modern pressures.

Current Focus Areas

• Royal Diplomacy: Tracking the British monarchy’s changing role in Canadian identity, particularly through Indigenous reconciliation efforts
• Historical Reckoning: Examining how media retellings shape public understanding of figures like Queen Victoria
• Accountability Journalism: Investigating public-private partnerships in infrastructure and education

Pitching Insights

• Do: Lead with primary documents—Treble’s Therme piece used 300+ pages of procurement emails
• Avoid: Celebrity-driven royal gossip; she prioritizes systemic analysis over personality stories