Book Notes: Patricia Roy on John Hart

I sometimes forget to go back to The British Columbia Review (see the link at right), but when I return, it does not just feed my westcoast roots but reminds me of what an impressive survey of all that gets published in the Pacific province the BC Review provides.

Lately, the floods of fiction, poetry, and memoir the west coast produces almost overwhelm my searches for the B C history books I am principally looking for.  Such as this one, an evidently very substantial biography of a long-ago and little-known premier of British Columbia, John Hart, by a historian with a long and extraordinary track record in the history of her province, Patricia Roy. Hart was premier for seven years, but wrote 21 provincial budgets -- a tough score to match. 

Here is Ron Verzuh's review of Patricia Roy's biography of Hart: John Hart: A Businessman in British Columbia Politics.  

History of left coast art

Daniel Francis has been slowing the posting rate on his blog about (mostly) British Columbia and western history, but the online British Columbia Review has recently put up his account of the remarkable history of Vancouver's Emily Carr School of Art, which marked its centenary in 2025.   

In the early decades of the twentieth century, Vancouver was an artistic backwater. Residents were preoccupied with real estate flipping and resource extraction; the arts generated no interest whatsoever.

No longer so. 

History of the empty corridor

Not to keep banging on about the British Columbia Review, but I have to recommend Richard Mackie's essay in historical memoir "Along the Empty Corridor of British Columbia" not only for its historical content but also for its reflections on what has been publishable and unpublishable in Canadian history and journalism over the last few decades.

Photo credit: John Harvey from BC Review.

Review notes from the west coast: UPDATED

Catching up on the British Columbia Review, which must be the most comprehensive review publication in the country these days, online at least (though it only covers BC books), brought me to Ken Favrholdt's review of the new second edition of Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel and Ron Derrickson, with an introduction by Naomi Klein. The first edition was published in 2015, without the introduction.

This review is a mostly biographical sketch of Arthur Manuel and suggests the book is largely a personal memoir. If this truly is the "decolonization manifesto" mentioned in the review's headline, the reviewer might have discussed those matters in more detail.  

But Manuel is important, as readers of his second (2017) book The Reconciliation Manifesto (also co-authored by Derrickson) will recognize. That one still strikes me as the best summary available of what is required for "reconciliation" to succeed and how to go about it: namely, treaty implementation leading to a secure revenue base and serious Indigenous self-government. From this review, I'd recommend going to Reconciliation Manifesto first.  [July14: see more on this in the update below]

The Review also published Jason Colby's review of Possessing Meares Island: A Historian’s Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound by Barry Gough, a prolific scholar of early west coast history whom I feel I've  never sufficiently covered here (or elsewhere). Meares is an island tucked into the west coast of Vancouver Island, the scene of much eighteenth century contact history and also of recent confrontations over both logging and indigenous title. The book under review covers Gough's involvement with both aspects of that history: as a historian of the contact events and as a consultant in the legal struggles over logging and title.

Colby's review suggests the book also provides a glimpse into how "what matters" in Canadian history has been changing, and how that complicates life particularly for long-active historians with a long publication record. Colby praises Gough, "a genial and learned guide":

He gives careful attention to the experience of Indigenous peoples, emphasizing their relationships to land and sea and teasing out their nuanced interactions with Europeans. In doing so, Gough wrestles with the asymmetry of source material that inevitably results from an encounter between an oral culture and a literary culture. Put simply, non-native explorers and settlers tended to leave the written documents that historians have traditionally considered their “primary” sources, thereby privileging European accounts and perspectives. “Of all the challenges the historian faces, this is the most formidable,” he admits. “And so it is with this book” (p. 7).

He also praises Gough's account of his work as a consultant historian in contemporary legal matters:

In 1986 (when I was still in middle school), Barry Gough learned of the threat to Meares Island and the stakes for Indigenous rights, and he answered the call. Over the following years, he marshalled all of his knowledge, research skills, and intuition as a historian to help save Meares Island and secure Indigenous title. That is the big picture, and he deserves our thanks.

Yet Colby has reservations:

Gough’s account is richer in maritime than in Indigenous history, to be sure, and there are moments when his phrasing seems to mimic the diction of non-native sources too closely. At times, this can be innocuous and even charming, such as when he describes characters as “raw-boned” or “well-moneyed” (p. 153). But in other passages, it results in language that demands further analysis.[...]

In addition, despite Gough’s careful attention to contingency, there are also passages that seem to hint that history itself was the product of European agency. Of the decades during which European ships bypassed Vancouver Island’s West Coast, for example, Gough writes that “history had passed the place by” (p. 129). Of the British effort to chart the coast and inner waters, he observes, “The navy’s survey of Clayoquot Sound stands at the gate of history: the ancient giving way to the modern, the Aboriginal world view to that of Western science” (p. 155).

That may be where more than one veteran Canadianist is: trying to work with a new paradigm, still not entirely succeeding -- or, at least, not entirely satisfying some younger, born-woke readers.

Update, July 14:  Reader Jared Milne expands on Arthur Manuel and his reviewers:

I caught your blogpost about the writings of the late, great Arthur Manuel today. I don't know if you've read Unsettling Canada, but I have and I can say that while the book is excellent, the review you cited...not so much. 

Unsettling Canada gives a lot of historic, personal context towards the struggle for Indigenous rights and self-determination, including Manuel's idea of taking the resistance international by appealing to various UN agencies. The book also summarizes some of the most long-standing problems surrounding Indigenous governance-namely, how band councils can still be overridden by Ottawa bureaucrats even today. 

He and Grand Chief Ronald Derrickson also offer some interesting political points, namely how Algonquin peoples in Quebec developed good working relationships with lumber companies and provincial authorities that could have led to mutual benefits for everyone, made with actual in-depth Native involvement. They even point out that Indigenous territories with full control over their resources might actually charge lower stumpage fees than provincial governments, and more of the wealth from resource development itself would stay in Canada. 

Unsettling Canada is perhaps more personal and historical than The Reconciliation Manifesto, but the former gives the latter some more context and background.

Thanks, Jared, I think you are right. And (should have been made clear) I have not read Unsettling Canada.

 

  

 

History of museums

I've been following remotely the quarrel over a new British Columbia Museum, which has now led to cancellation of the current plans. The issue is well covered by Daniel Francis here, and I share his feelings right down to the "royal" part. 

Though I might add: at least they have a BC Museum to fight over in BC.  In Toronto, we have an Ontario Museum, which I love dearly and have supported for decades, but it's not about Ontario at all! Consider the possibilities!

History of Vancouver, history of history

The Tyee posts an interview with Daniel Francis about his new book on Vancouver, and since it's an interview with Dan Francis, it becomes as much about the nature of history as about the history of Vancouver.  Book and interview, both worth reading.

History really is an argument about the past. It’s about contention. There’s nothing unhealthy about historical dispute and historical debate. [History’s] role is not to console us and remind us of great achievements. That’s part of it. But it’s [also] to welcome opposing points of view and to debate them. 
[...] 

I guess, at certain points of time, it seems that if you’re reinterpreting history, you’re somehow attacking the country, attacking its notions of itself. This is a position that I don’t agree with, but apparently this is a position that many people hold — that we can’t have a complicated history. That there’s a single history, the single story to be told, and the purpose of studying history is to sort of celebrate the country, rather than to explain it. It’s usually people in power who want to use history to buttress the prevailing view of the country.

I was recently reading the 2021 biography of Mackenzie Bowell, the prime minister from the 1890s, and I found the author, Barry K. Wilson, wrapping up his preface by quoting me as saying "History is not the past. History is an argument about the past."  I recognize the phrase as my own, and appreciated the reference. But damned if I can remember where I published it for Wilson to find.  

Now I wonder if even at the time, maybe I was innocently paraphrasing Dan Francis. 

Update January 29:  Dan tells me I'm too modest. Would it be boasting for me to agree?  

    And I got in touch with Barry Wilson about his source, and he admits he cannot find it either.

Robin Fisher on statues and memories

At The Ormsby Review, a nuanced reflection on statues and memorials and the taking-down thereof, by British Columbia historian Robin Fisher.

When I came to British Columbia, after learning and writing about Maori/pakeha history in New Zealand, I was stunned at the absence of Indigenous people from the historical writing on this province. There were exceptions like Wilson Duff’s Indian History of British Columbia, but the silence of historians was deafening. With the supervision of Wilson Duff and the help of others, I tried to make a contribution to changing the received view of British Columbia history and the role of First Nations people. My second supervisor, Margaret Ormsby, was not always happy with my conclusions, particularly about colonial figures like Joseph Trutch who led an assault on First Nations lands and cultures. Other colleagues thought better of my efforts when, to my amazement, my first book as an historian was awarded the John A. Macdonald prize in Canadian history.

History of -- and by -- Chinese railroad workers

For almost 140 years, the voices of the thousands of Chinese who built the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) have been silent.

That's a statement that strikes me as true. In all the writing about the building of the CPR, even by those who wished to say something vivid and detailed about the lives and perspectives of its labour force, first- person testimonies have been scarce. That's the case for labourers of European and North American origins, but even more so for the imported Chinese work force. Even those who may have wished to overcome the neglect and disparagement of the Chinese workers in railroad history, I think, have been hardpressed to present much in the way of first hand accounts. 

But here is a new source. The quotation at the top is from a review by May Q. Wong in the Ormsby Review of the recently published Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, translated by his granddaughter Wanda Joy Hoe, in a new publication edited by David McIlwraith.

Editor McIlwraith notes that "pervasive myths tend to dissuade the searcher: the Chinese were illiterate, the Chinese didn’t keep diaries, their diaries could not have survived the decades, it was all destroyed in the Cultural Revolution, and so on." But Dukesang Wong's diary exists, and it is an important find. He was there, and he took notes:

Autumn 1881 — The people working with me are good, strong men. There are many of us working here, but the laying of the railroad progresses very slowly. It seems we move two stones a day!  

Early autumn 1883 — My soul cries out…. Many of our people have been so very ill for such a long time, and there has been no medicine nor good food to give them. Even the strongest of us are weak without medicine to fight against these diseases, which spread very rapidly…. These are troubled times for us Chinese.

  

History of Chinese British Columbians

The Ormsby Review, named for pioneering historian and UBC professor Margaret Ormsby, is a remarkable and comprehensive online review of more British Columbia books than you ever imagined existing -- the west coast publishing market is lively.  It covers fiction, poetry, politics, memoir and much else, as well as a lot of local and west coast history.

Recently reviewer May Q Wong took note of Journeys of Hope: Challenging Discrimination & Building on Vancouver Chinatown’s Legacies, by Henry Yu; edited by Sarah Ling, Szu Shen, and Baldwin Wong.

The book does three things: it tells succinctly the story of the early Chinese immigrants, their fight for equality and justice, and their role in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Canada; shows how the City of Vancouver, since its incorporation in 1886 until the 1970s, used legislated as well implicit tactics to support white supremacy, which highlights the significance of an apology; and it introduces steps for reconciliation and to gain a UNECSO designation of World Heritage Site for Chinatown.

Printed in English and traditional Chinese, the book is extensively illustrated and distributed by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia. 

In the BC Archives

Spend a very contented day yesterday here, in the Reference Room of the British Columbia Archives in Victoria.  Online registration waiting for me, two trucks of document boxes at hand, friendly staff, and terrific documents, mostly handwrittens and carbon copies, that hardly anyone has looked at in fifty years. Wish I could have stayed a month.

Reading B.C. Bookworld on the ferry, amazed as ever at the sheer volume of books the province produces, I found both an article by and a review of a new book by the always productive British Columbia historian Patricia Roy -- the book actually being a history of the BC Museum and Archives. This led me to her recollections of her early years at the University of Victoria in the mid-1960s. Read 'em and weep, academic job-seekers:

Those of us from the relatively small cohort born during or just before the war were expected to report to classrooms and complete our dissertations while teaching full-time. Academic jobs were rarely advertised. In some cases, department heads seeking new faculty contacted their equivalents in departments that offered graduate degrees; in others, graduate students wrote to those departments where they thought they might like to teach with an outline of their qualifications and their interest in a position if one were available.

This is just a quick and busy trip west, so I trust my left-coast friends will forgive being neglected.  Blogging should get more active next week.

Francis on Neary on Depression Work Camp letters

On his blog and at the remarkable online history review site The Ormsby Review, Daniel Francis considers the letters of Alan Collier, Ontario artist turned labourer in the relief camps established by British Columbia in the dirty thirties

The camps were an attempt to deal with the challenge of unemployment and the social unrest the government feared would result. Tens of thousands of single men were travelling across the country looking for work and when work was not available, looking for relief. A large number congregated in Vancouver, which became known as “the Mecca of the Unemployed.” But the city was overburdened and could do very little for the men.

Collier's letters from the camps are collected in Alan Caswell Collier, Relief Stiff: An Artist's Letters from Depression-Era British Columbia, edited by historian Peter Neary and newly published by UBC Press.

Terry Glavin on British Columbia history

PM Trudeau and Tsilhqot'in representatives

Writer Terry Glavin, always an interesting -- and unpredictable -- writer on British Columbia and much else, has a recent couple of notable pieces of historical journalism in Maclean's, where he is a contributor.

One is a solid backgrounder on the Chilcotin/Tsilhqot’in war of 1864, which led to the hanging of six First Nations leaders Lhats’as?in, Biyil, Tilaghed, Taqed, Chayses, and Ahan. This was the event for which the government of Canada formally apologized in the Canadian Parliament.

The shame and disgrace at the heart of the Chilcotin War’s legacy occurred shortly after 8 a.m. on Aug. 15, 1864, when the war leader Lhats’as?in and several of his comrades agreed to enter the encampment of William Cox, the leader of an expeditionary force of several dozen armed men dispatched by the just-appointed Governor Frederick Seymour, to talk truce. Instead, Lhats’as?in and his warriors were arrested and put in chains.

Seeking a little background on the Chilcotin war at the time of the apology, I was taken aback by how little standard references -- from Wikipedia to the Canadian Encyclopedia  -- had to say. If you still need some of the details behind the apology, this story by Glavin and Maclean's is a place to start.

The other Glavin story covers the remarkable discovery of a set of preserved footprints in Heiltsuk territory on Calvert Island on the west coast of British Columbia.  The 29 footprints, apparently of a man, woman, and child, have been determined to be 13,000 years old. Footprints!

These prints now become part of the growing body of evidence sustaining the theory that movements along the then ice-choked British Columbia coast were among the very earliest human presence in the Americas. Glavin tells the story well.  I was sorry, however, that he framed it as a conflict: the suggestive wisdom of indigenous traditions about early presence against the ignorance of pigheaded scientists.

In fact, the Simon Fraser University archaeologist Knut Fladmark has been arguing for decades that a coastal migration down the west coast of North America, almost certainly using small boats and relying on marine resources  (for an analogy, consider the adaptation of the Inuit to the glacier-bound coasts of Greenland and the Canadian north) was more plausible as a first entry route than the "ice-free corridor" route east of the Rockies. I interviewed Fladmark 25 years ago on the subject, and advances in underwater archaeology, geology, and glaciology continue to shore up his arguments.

So there has been convergence rather than than conflict between indigenous knowledge and scientific thinking for quite a while on this question.  Still, a couple of interesting and well-sourced pieces of historical journalism.

Image:  from Maclean's

History of: Newspapers, Vancouver Heritage, and Trade Wars

It's a morally fraught business, reading a newspaper these days. Get one delivered to your door and you feel not only a hopeless dinosaur but also responsible for all those dead trees. And in any case more and more of the content is bland syndicated material from someplace in middle America.

So you go to an online source like The Guardian, and you can't read a single article without getting a little lecture about how The Guardian loses money and you need send them a cheque stat.

Anyway, qualms aside, yesterday The Guardian had a thoughtful piece by Tyler Stiem about how Vancouver is simultaneously one of the most liveable cities in the world and one of the least affordable, and how one consequence of that is the wholesale demolition and replacement of a whole category of the city's architectural heritage, the late 20th century modernist work that is too new to survive as heritage and too old to please the global developers.  It's not journalism you would be likely to read in any Canadian newspaper; it's supported by foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation,

The same issue has a piece on the 219% tariff the United States, at the behest of (militarily-subsidized) Boeing, has just imposed on Bombardier aircraft sold in the United States. Since Bombardier does a lot of construction in the United Kingdom, it is a loser along with Canada. The lesson the Guardian draws is mostly about Brexit, As part of Europe, Britain could play hardball with American in trade wars. Alone it is too small, and stands to get royally screwed. The way Canada is, it is too polite to say, but that's the Canadian reading that we don't get from our Canadian business press.

Image: Andy Clark/Reuters from The Guardian

Crisis no crisis in BC

Lorne Sossin makes sensible observations on the political crisis in British Columbia -- mainly by noting that it is not really a crisis at all. Yeah, there will be some uncertainty for a while, but the procedures of parliamentary democracy are perfectly capable of dealing with a situation where there may be no clear majority government and therefore no autocratic leader to make things simple and clear for commentators.

I particularly admired Sossin's point on parliamentary conventions:

Some have claimed there is a rule barring modern day Speakers from using their tie-breaking vote to pass a new law. But no such rule exists. ...

Parliamentary conventions form out of practice — and reflect a principled pragmatism. They are not written in stone and should not be treated as if they were. Conventions guide the daily work of lawmaking, but only those which continue to adapt to changing circumstances remain relevant. They are not tailored for every situation, nor should they become roadblocks to the will of the legislature.

Some of the political scientists who equate parliamentary conventions with constitutional requirements -- that they alone get to define -- should read and ponder. A convention is a practice that helps a legislature function smoothly -- and is accepted by the members of the legislature.

Whale history

Historian Daniel Francis reviews Mark Leiren-Young's The Killer Whale Who Changed the World, which explores the unintended consequences of the 1964 accidental live capture of "Moby Doll":

Moby Doll’s time in captivity was brief but it was a transformative event in the history of the BC coast. It marked the beginning of a remarkable change in public perception and scientific understanding. This is the real subject of Leiren-Young’s book and the reason why he argues that Moby Doll “changed the world.” Able to get close to an orca for the first time, people began to recognize that it was a peaceable, intelligent animal, not a fearsome monster.

The review appears in The Ormsby Review, a new initiative in British Columbia historical journalism named in honour of the mother of British Columbia history, the late Margaret Ormsby.