Alan Bowker worked for thirty-five years in Canada's foreign service, including serving as high commissioner to Guyana. He has a Ph.D. in Canadian history and has taught at Canada's Royal Military College. He is the editor of two collections of Leacock essays, On the Front Line of Life and Social Criticism. Today Alan answers some questions for us about his new book A Time Such as There Never Was Before.

If I have learned one thing in over four decades as a student, teacher, and diplomat, it is that it is vitally important for Canadians to know their history, to understand who we are and why our experience matters in the world.