Alan Gordon

Pioneer Living 1963 Style: Imaginations of Heritage in a Post‐war Canadian Suburb

This article connects the origins of a Canadian living history museum to the cultural and social developments of 1960s suburban Canada. Although there exists a strong literature on heritage and commemoration in Canada (and around the world), few scholars have looked explicitly at museums in that country. The literature on history museums elsewhere in the world is stronger. However, despite the strengths of this international literature, its focus has been on the use of museums in the present. An important aspect of the use of heritage, the historical contexts in which past museum visitors interpreted museum themes and displays, has not received much attention. This article argues that museum patrons of the 1960s, the decade in which many living history museums were founded, saw pioneer villages in the context of their own modernising lifestyles. However much Black Creek Pioneer Village might reflect anxiety about the direction of modernity, it also framed the past in ways that legitimated modern, suburban living.

Patronage, Etiquette, and the Science of Connection: Edmund Bristol and Political Management, 1911–21

The political management model, whereby elite dispensers ably distribute patronage as a tool in shaping party and national unity, has long guided Canadian studies of patronage. However, political management vests little agency in the recipients of largesse. A model of reciprocal patron/client relations, in contrast, reveals a greater degree of interplay between elites and their clients in negotiating the price of political loyalty. The patronage practices of Edmund Bristol, Centre Toronto MP from 1905 to 1926, demonstrate the usefulness of this caveat. In his riding, Bristol had to balance a variety of practical political concerns. Making use of his many personal connections among Toronto’s business and political elite and the city’s working classes, Bristol was able to maintain his scat in the House of Commons by mobilizing support through patronage. But Bristol’s patronage also reveals a deeper understanding of political patronage. As the political management model suggests, patronage helped to integrate ethnic minorities and individuals into the national political community. Patronage tied the concerns of peripheral groups – groups that might otherwise have operated independently of the state - with the interests of the state. Potential threats to the state’s legitimating ideology were thereby contained, but, at the same time, peripheral groups played a considerable role in negotiating their own ‘containment.’ Patronage became a vehicle for mediating their place in the national polity. Rather than inhibiting rationality or progress, patronage systems may have helped people to navigate the transition to modernity and the liberal order.

What to see and how to see it: tourists, residents, and the beginnings of the walking tour in nineteenth-century Quebec City

During the course of the nineteenth century, tourism promoters developed prescribed guidebook itineraries and walking tours to help tourists better enjoy their leisure travel. These suggested walking tours offer historians a glimpse into the historical consciousness of visitors and, to an extent, of the local bourgeoisie. In Quebec City, the guidebook walking tour emerged in the middle of the nineteenth century as the local business of tourism became more sophisticated. Yet, while walking tours originated with local promoters seeking to highlight what they believed to be the interesting features of their city, they were quickly adapted to suit the preferences of international, particularly British and American, travelers. Acknowledging that as a cultural exchange, tourism is a site of mediated power relations, this article suggests that as a market exchange, tourism presents an imbalance of power. As tourism promoters and businesses sought to entice international travelers by anticipating their tastes for the exotic, local entrepreneurs adapted their own sense of place to conform with those tastes. Over time, the accumulated decisions of tourist promoters produced a consensus about the historic character of Quebec City that has survived since the end of the nineteenth century.

Royal Spectacle: The 1860 Visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the United States (review)

Part of Halifax’s handicap was the administration’s blind preference for men and supplies from Britain over anything local. This fact held true for just about everything – whether artisans or materials. When skilled local workers were employed, certainly no Acadian, Aboriginal, or AfroNova Scotians would have been given desirable posts. British biases are also evident against local lumber. This is one of the areas where the Halifax yard was unique – its proximity and utilization of timber for the fleet. Even though much of the region’s growth would eventually be tied to lumber (mainly from New Brunswick, which was crafted out of the frontiers of Nova Scotia), the motherland was slow to recognize the high quality of local ‘sticks’ for masts and such. When it came at all, changes in Britain’s policies and attitudes occurred under the extreme circumstances that war can bring. Commissioner Wodehouse seems to have been one of the rare individuals who sought and obtained an increased measure of autonomy for the Halifax yard. While the Navy Board was often intractable and ignorant, the other serious drawback was that inclement weather rendered Halifax harbour hazardous in winter. Such circumstances are difficult to overcome, and anyone who has endured a Maritime winter can appreciate why the fleet opted primarily for the Bermuda base when the American menace evaporated. Despite being entitled Ashore and Afloat, Gwyn’s book deals largely with the naval yard’s affairs ashore. Gwyn is correct in emphasizing the importance of the Halifax yard to the town, yet we are mainly shown its economic impact. Even though the book jacket claims there are ‘no stones unturned’ in this study, Gwyn makes only a few allusions to the social and cultural influence of the yard and the navy. Gwyn has provided copious, informative endnotes, a helpful biographical directory, and useful tables, as well as a glossary and illustrations. Stylistically, it is well written in a straightforward and organized manner. Ashore and Afloat is a storehouse of fascinating facts and information, which can be appreciated by general readers and experts alike. CHERYL FURY University of New Brunswick