A LINK between Yeadon and Canada stretching back more than a century has led to an interview in an online audio archive.

James Powell, from Ottawa Historical Society, is the 69th interview to be published in The Back-Chat Collection. https://back-chat.org.uk.

The connection with the Ottawa group was made in 2017 when Aireborough Historical Society archivist and Back-Chat founder Carlo Harrison sought more information about old images of the city taken by Yeadon photographer Ernest Ethelbert Slater.

The Ottawa historians looked into the connection between Slater and their city. And they discovered that he was in Canada as a delegate at a meeting of the Congress of the Chamber of Commerce of the Empire.

Slater was representing Yeadon, Guiseley and District at the event which was attended by influential delegates from around the empire. The visit to Ottawa in 1903, appears to have been a sight-seeing day trip for delegates.

Mr Harrison said: "The connection between James and I goes’ back 114 years and stretches all the way to Canada, neither of us are quite that old, all is explained in this delightful interview with James.

"We get a fascinating insight into how the Canadian government with two metres of snow each year keep all the roads open, an insight into the two Trudeau Prime Ministers and why the Canadians had a less than favourable view of our prime Minister Boris Johnson.

"James was born in Bermuda and spent his childhood there before attending boarding school in Canada and settling in Ontario."

He added: "There are some very interesting predictions on how we will cope in the future with coronavirus, the interview was recorded in 2020 so that future is now, was he correct?

"Don’t forget to drop in at https://www.facebook.com/BackChatpeople, for some chat and background information on the interviews which started in 2018."

In 1903 the Ottawa Evening Journal recorded how the “cream of Great Britain’s commercial world” had visited the city.

“The visitors comprise some two hundred and fifty of the delegates of the Congress of the Chamber of Commerce of the Empire who have been meeting at Montreal for the past week,” it recorded.

“Amongst them were men who had made their fortune and who were looked upon by their own people as the best qualified to take part in a discussion which the question of preferential trade within the Empire, the pet theme of the Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, was to be the principal subject.”