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In Labourers on the Rideau Canal, editor Katherine M.J. McKenna presents both the statistics and the stories in a portable and picturesque manner.

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the canal was started by the British military to prevent attack from the United States after the War of 1812. Completed in 1832, it cost £822,000 –– £600,000 more than the projected cost. Malaria and other diseases, as well as accidents, violence, and abject poverty, took their toll on the workers, who were a largely Irish and French-Canadian group, but included a small number of English and Scottish.

The book is divided into three chapters: William N.T. Wylie explores the poverty, distress, and disease the workers experienced; McKenna looks at the daily life and dangerous conditions at the Isthmus construction site; and, of particular interest to budding genealogists, Bruce S. Elliott traces Rideau Canal families.

Although the Rideau was never used for its proposed purpose, it nonetheless served as a major route for immigration and cargo transportation, until the St. Lawrence locks were completed in the late 1840s. Today the canal is used for boating, skating, and other seasonal sports.