BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//YP Speakers Series - ECPv6.17.4.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for YP Speakers Series REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Toronto BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20260308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20261101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20270314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20271107T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20260930T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20260930T190000 DTSTAMP:20260930T175743Z CREATED:20260921T180131Z LAST-MODIFIED:20260930T175743Z UID:2623-1790794800-1790794800@ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com SUMMARY:250 Years of Fending Off the Americans DESCRIPTION:Donations at the door or when you watch online are voluntary and only partially cover program costs. If you agree that continuing education is worth the investment\, we’d love to hear from you.\n \n DONATE NOW\n \n \n \n \n \n A new browser tab will open the Yorkminster Park Canada Helps donation page\, please select YP Speakers Series from the dropdown menu.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n In her book\, He Did Not Conquer: Benjamin Franklin’s Failure to Annex Canada\, Madelaine Drohan\, tells the story of American designs on Canada during the colonial period focusing on Benjamin Franklin who not only hatched one plan after another to join Canada to the American colonies and later to the United States\, but even was dispatched by the Continental Congress in early 1776 at age seventy through the wilderness to Montreal to try to rescue a faltering occupation by American forces and persuade the Canadians to become the fourteenth colony.  In this lecture\, Drohan will tell this dramatic story and reflect on why it is not better known today\, on either side of the border\, while suggesting that “a better understanding of what happened 250 years ago would help Canada shape relations with its powerful – and increasingly unstable – neighbour.”  Joining Madelaine Drohan will be historian Greg Koabel who will offer his insight into several other occasions over the past 250 years when American expansionism threatened Canada’s sovereignty\, and how Canadians responded at the time. \nBIOGRAPHIESMadelaine Drohan spent most of her journalistic career as a foreign correspondent\, reporting on Europe for the Toronto-based Globe and Mail and then on Canada for the London-based Economist.  She is senior fellow at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs\, University of Ottawa\, and is on the advisory council of the Canadian Institute for Historical Education.  Madelaine Drohan lives in Ottawa. \nGreg Koabel holds a PhD from Nottingham Trent University in the field of early modern English history\, and has taught European history and European politics at the University of Regina. He is the writer and host of The Nations of Canada Podcast\, and also the author of The Making of Canada: An Epic History in Twenty Extraordinary Lives\, (Sutherland House Books\, 2025).  Greg Koabel Greg lives in Toronto\, Ontario. \nCopies of both Madelaine’s and Greg’s books will be available for sale and signing.  This event is co-sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Historical Education\, www.CIHE.ca. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ← Previous Speaker\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Join our email listJoin our email list to get an email advising you of our next event\, as well as a reminder email thirty minutes before each event with a link to watch online\, for those unable to attend in person. \n \n \n \n \n \n Success!\n \n \n \n \n First Name\n \n \n \n \n Last Name\n \n \n \n \n Email\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Send Me A Reminder\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Donations at the door or when you watch online are voluntary and only partially cover program costs. If you agree that continuing education is worth the investment\, we’d love to hear from you.\n \n DONATE NOW\n \n \n \n \n \n A new browser tab will open the Yorkminster Park Canada Helps donation page\, please select YP Speakers Series from the dropdown menu. URL:https://ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com/event/250-years-of-fending-off-the-americans/ LOCATION:Cameron Hall\, 1585 Yonge Street\, Toronto ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/CIHE_Banner-scaled.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Toronto:20261016T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Toronto:20261016T190000 DTSTAMP:20261013T142241Z CREATED:20261005T164711Z LAST-MODIFIED:20261013T142241Z UID:2677-1792177200-1792177200@ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com SUMMARY:The Explorer’s Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges\, New Flavours\, and the Blank Spots on the Map DESCRIPTION:Donations at the door or when you watch online are voluntary and only partially cover program costs. If you agree that continuing education is worth the investment\, we’d love to hear from you.\n \n DONATE NOW\n \n \n \n \n \n A new browser tab will open the Yorkminster Park Canada Helps donation page\, please select YP Speakers Series from the dropdown menu.\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Why is it that we’re sometimes drawn to the blank spots on the map—or\, more prosaically\, to ordering unfamiliar dishes at a restaurant? In this talk\, journalist Alex Hutchinson will dig into the ancient patterns of human migration and modern theories of neuroscience that explain the itch to discover new things\, expressed not just on the slopes of Everest but in the ways we work\, play\, and live. New evidence also suggests that having an exploratory mindset has a powerful impact on brain health. To navigate what scientists call the explore-exploit dilemma\, then\, the best approach is to be “optimistic in the face of uncertainty”— even if it means getting lost sometimes. \nAlex Hutchinson is an award-winning science journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of Endure and The Explorer’s Gene. He is a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail\, Outside\, and Canadian Running on fitness\, endurance\, and outdoor adventure\, and his writing also appears in publications such as The Atlantic\, the New York Times\, and Canadian Geographic. Before journalism\, he completed a PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge then worked as a quantum computing researcher with the U.S. National Security Agency. He also competed as a long-distance runner for the Canadian national team. He lives in the west end of Toronto\, focusing his exploring efforts along the banks of the mighty Humber River. \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n ← Previous Speaker\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Join our email listJoin our email list to get an email advising you of our next event\, as well as a reminder email thirty minutes before each event with a link to watch online\, for those unable to attend in person. \n \n \n \n \n \n Success!\n \n \n \n \n First Name\n \n \n \n \n Last Name\n \n \n \n \n Email\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Send Me A Reminder\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n Donations at the door or when you watch online are voluntary and only partially cover program costs. If you agree that continuing education is worth the investment\, we’d love to hear from you.\n \n DONATE NOW\n \n \n \n \n \n A new browser tab will open the Yorkminster Park Canada Helps donation page\, please select YP Speakers Series from the dropdown menu. URL:https://ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com/event/the-explorers-gene-why-we-seek-big-challenges-new-flavours-and-the-blank-spots-on-the-map/ LOCATION:Cameron Hall\, 1585 Yonge Street\, Toronto ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://ypspeakersseries.yorkminsterpark.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Web_Banner_no_header_Oct_16-2.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR