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From our 2025–2026 Season
On January 10, 2026
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The Last Ship

Exploring Sir Ernest Shackleton's Quest

John Geiger, PM, CM

John Geiger is a man of many accomplishments. Besides being a former journalist and a former Chair of the Editorial Board of the Globe and Mail, he is..

  • the author or co-author of several books, some of which have been translated into other languages. His books include..
    • Quest: Shackleton's Last Ship & The End of the Heroic Age. Sutherland House, forthcoming, 26 May 2026. (Order from your local bookseller; see our Home page for links. Also available online from www.Indiebookstores.ca.)
    • Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition Co-authored with Owen Beattie. (1987, revised 2004.)
    • The third man factor (2008); sub-title varies by publisher and publication date: Surviving the Impossible, and The secret to survival in extreme environments (2009, 2014)
  • a shipwreck hunter who in 2014 oversaw and participated in the Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS)'s search for Franklin's Erebus
  • a member of the RCGS's Board of Governors from 2002
  • President of the RCGS since 2010
  • CEO since 2013 of both the RCGS and Canadian Geographic Enterprises, which publishes Canadian Geographic magazine on behalf of the RCGS
  • Mr. Gieger's honours and awards include..
    • The Polar Medal, the Governor General of Canada, 2015
    • Honorary Fellow, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, 2018
    • Member, the Order of Canada, announced 30 Dec 2020, presented in 2021
    • The RCA Medal, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, 2023

Mr. Gieger holds a BA in history and an honorary Doctor of Law degree, both from the University of Alberta.

The photo of John Geiger was not found.
 
The photo of the Quest was not found.
 

Watch John Geiger's Presentation

Our speaker's presentation is followed by a ques­tion-and-answer (Q&A) ses­sion hosted by HAALSA Councillor David Galbraith, and some closing words of thanks, also from Dr. Galbraith. (1h 10m 10s. The first 9 seconds are muted.)

Concerning Our Recordings

  • The video stream is limited to what was dis­play­ed to the audience on the large screen at the front of the lecture venue. We have no picture-in-picture video of our speaker at the podium.
  • The audio was captured by the microphone at the podium and a lapel mike worn by our speaker.
  • You will find that during the Q&A session the questions asked by audience members are invariably too faint to be heard, even when your device's audio volume is set to maximum. For that reason we always ask our speaker, or the Q&A host), to repeat the question before the speaker begins their answer.