Demography in Canada in the Twentieth Century (review)

Demography occupies a special place in Canada, both on university campuses and in political debate. From the time of seventeenth-century New France, the counting of people has had political, economic, and cultural importance not only for those doing the counting but also for those being counted. The reasons have changed significantly over the years in keeping with the different preoccupations of secular and religious authorities, as well as popular opinion. However, scholars have recently begun to focus on the history of demography in Canada as distinct from Canada's historical demography; government officials, church leaders, and other researchers, including those in universities, still have agreat deal to learn about the study and perception of population patterns.

As a key contributor to demographic analysis during her career at Statistics Canada, Wargon is ideally situated to contribute to our understanding of this topic. Though writing as a private scholar, Wargon's obvious familiarity with the academic community reflects her significant role in Canadian demographic research. It is not surprising that Demography in Canada in the Twentieth Century is a major addition to recent scholarly literature in an increasingly important field of research.

The book begins with an overview of the birth and development of demography as a discipline in Europe during the 1600s and elsewhere during the following three centuries. Wargon then focuses on the twentieth-century Canadian experience in six chapters organized chronologically and institutionally. The century is divided into three periods: 1900-1950, 1950-1970, and 1970-2000. The first period is covered in one chapter; the second period is allocated two chapters; and the third period is discussed in three chapters.

Wargon distinguishes four institutional settings for demographic work: English-language universities, French-language universities, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics and Statistics Canada, and various government departments and the private sector elsewhere. These chapters lead to a concluding discussion that emphasizes the characteristic features of demographic research during the century.

Unlike many Canadian scholars, Wargon is at ease with both French-language and English-language evidence, and her analysis carefully distinguishes between developments in each context. In addition to documentary sources, Wargon used interviews and a questionnaire to collect information from a long list of familiar names in demographic scholarship in Canada. The respondents are listed in an appendix; an additional appendix focuses on the "historical, conceptual and political dimensions" of the "race" question on Canadian censuses.

Wargon perceives two different scholarly and political environments inside and outside Quebec, resulting in two different twentieth-century histories for the study of demography. Wargon's analysis makes clear why the study of demographic change became so important among French-language scholars, especially at such institutions as the Université de Montréal and later at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi. She also shows the leadership role played by Statistics Canada in English-speaking research. English-language universities began paying attention to population change only in recent years and still do not give demography a formal departmental status. Happily, however, Canada has produced an unusually rich collection of religious and secular sources for demographic analysis. Scholars are increasingly employing it to produce internationally significant research results on such topics as fertility change and linguistic transfer. In fact, the Catholic Church parish registers offer unparalleled sources for family reconstitution studies in certain regions, and the census enumerations provide unusually comprehensive evidence of socioeconomic and cultural change across Canada since the nineteenth century. Wargon's book will appeal to all those interested in the history of demography internationally as well as to scholars of the Canada experience.