The Commemorate Canada program, managed by the Government of Canada, provides funding for projects that honor and celebrate significant national milestones, historical events, and influential figures. Its goal is to enhance awareness, appreciation, and understanding of Canada’s rich history, values, culture, and heritage. By offering financial support, the program helps community organizations, educational institutions, and other groups create meaningful commemorative initiatives. A key focus of the program each year is to celebrate significant anniversaries that highlight pivotal moments in Canada’s history.
Our Approach
To celebrate milestone anniversaries highlighted by Commemorate Canada, The Walrus Lab created the Canadian Time Machine podcast and its French counterpart, Voyages dans l’histoire canadienne, with each episode spotlighting a significant anniversary in Canadian history.
What we did
The team conducts in-depth research into Canadian history, drawing from primary sources, historical records, and expert interviews to ensure accuracy and authenticity.
Each episode is carefully crafted to present historical events in a dynamic and accessible way, making complex topics engaging and easy to follow for a wide audience.
We employ professional sound engineering, including music and archival audio, to create an immersive and atmospheric listening experience that enhances the storytelling.
All episodes are transcribed in both English and French, and can be accessed on a dedicated page of The Walrus website.
Results
The first season of the podcast was released in 2022, followed by season two in 2024.
The podcast has a 4.4/5 rating on Apple Podcasts.
Canadian Time Machine has achieved remarkable success, ranking no. 2 in the history podcasts category and no. 34 overall on Apple Podcasts charts in Canada.
Canadian Time Machine was featured on the “We are Loving” and “New & Noteworthy” sections of Apple Podcasts.
There was a 38x increase in downloads and a 786 percent increase in subscribers from season one to season two.
Episodes of Canadian Time Machine have been featured on many other top Canadian history podcasts, including The Secret Life of Canada, Canadian History Ehx, and Curious Canadian History.
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As tensions in Canada–US relations continue, we are facing big questions about sovereignty and how our identity and values can best meet this moment.
It’s moments like this that reaffirm the mission of The Walrus. We take pride in continuing to provide independent journalism you can trust. We pledge to keep delivering the full story: the research, context, and analysis needed to make sense of such a hurried and momentous news cycle.
With our paywall-free election coverage, we will continue to look to the future of Canada—a nation that practises integrity through trust and honesty, compassion through diplomacy and allyship, partnership through peacekeeping, and strength through diversity.
If you’ve enjoyed these stories, please consider making a donation today to help us continue this national self-examination. By doing so, you will help provide everyone with paywall-free, fact-based reporting on the critical issues that stand to define our generation.
Thank you for your support.
Jennifer Hollett
Executive Director, The Walrus
Our promise to you
As tensions in Canada–US relations continue, we are facing big questions about sovereignty and how our identity and values can best meet this moment.
It’s moments like this that reaffirm the mission of The Walrus. We take pride in continuing to provide independent journalism you can trust. We pledge to keep delivering the full story: the research, context, and analysis needed to make sense of such a hurried and momentous news cycle.
With our paywall-free election coverage, we will continue to look to the future of Canada—a nation that practises integrity through trust and honesty, compassion through diplomacy and allyship, partnership through peacekeeping, and strength through diversity.
If you’ve enjoyed these stories, please consider making a donation today to help us continue this national self-examination. By doing so, you will help provide everyone with paywall-free, fact-based reporting on the critical issues that stand to define our generation.
