Leadership/Management Talks
Management at 50 Strokes a Minute
The canoe is an enduring symbol of many things in Canada including how to run a successful business. Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company 1820-1850 took the helm of a nearly bankrupt company and turned it back to profitability through what might...
The Grail of Character: Wither risk and adventure
Back in 1909 when educational philosopher Thomas James lamented that the "bracing oxygen of effort" had been surreptitiously removed from education and called for "The Moral Equivalent of War" to compel youth to rise to the challenges of the day with character and...
The Governor’s Way: Enduring management wisdom from Sir George Simpson during the golden years of the North American fur trade
Sir George Simpson took the reins of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1820, just shortly after it had amalgamated with the Northwest Company, following years of cut-throat corporate competition that had very nearly run both companies into bankruptcy. Simpson first task...
The Captain and the Canoe: Kirk Wipper and the founding of the Canadian Canoe Museum
James Raffan first encountered Kirk Wipper and his passion for canoes and collecting at Camp Kandalore as 5-year old camper at Wipper's summer camp for boys called Kandalore. Although their paths diverged for several decades, James got reconnected with Kirk's canoe...
The Arch of Experience: Expeditionary Learning
One of the most often quoted poems in the annals of expeditionary learning is Alfred Lord Tennyson's Ulysses wherein an old sailor is looking back on his life and says "All experience is an arch wherethro' gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades forever and...
From George Simpson to Arctic Sovereignty: Confessions of a professional geographer
Responding to an invitation from the Geography Department at the University of Guelph to speak about his life as a professional geographer, James prepared this presentation that follows an arc through the teaching, research, speaking, service and writing for books,...
Sir George Simpson and the Remarkable Story of the Hudson’s Bay Company
James's research into all of his book topics takes him always into the Archive of the Feet, which means onto the ground and into the experiences of whatever or whomever he is writing about. This was particularly the case as he entered the life of Sir George Simpson,...
Beyond the Map
Originally prepared for a lecture in the International Polar Year Polar Perspectives Series for at forum for youth from across the Canadian Arctic that was held at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, this is a presentation is a story about climate change as...
Remembering Temiskaming
This presentation was originally prepared in conjuction with the writing and creation of an exhibit at the Canadian Canoe Museum of the same name that was developed around the appearance, 27 years after the Temiskaming tragedy, of Père Lallemant, one of the four 22'...