Waiser grew up in Toronto but developed an interest in western Canadian history through visiting his grandparents' Manitoba homestead each summer.

Waiser received the College of Arts and Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2003 and was named the university's Distinguished Researcher at the spring 2004 convocation.

He was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, the province's highest honour, in 2006, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the following year.

All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot won the 2003 Saskatchewan Book Award (SBA) for non-fiction.

[10] He had previously been nominated for the award in 1997 for Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, co-written with Blair Stonechild.