L’entrepreneurship au Québec by Jean-Marie Toulouse (review)

236 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW wouldbeidleto denythatthesedo notbringadvantages in manyfields.It is perhaps thestrongest incentive for manyparents tosendtheirsons tooneor anotherof the independentschools. Asoriginallyconceived byColborneandothers,thecollege wasintendedto meet an urgent need. But 'on November •5, •9øo, the College,at its own request, wascut off from itshistoricrole asthe expensive anomalyof the Ontariosecondary school system.' To thismaybeaddedthefactthatithadalso castoff itsbasically parochialcharacterandrapidlyemergedthereafterasa trulynational institution. Itshistory isasignificant partofCanadian history. It followsthat Mr Howard'sbook is an importantcontributionto Canadian literature. w.c. BASSETT Kimberley, Ont. L'entrepreneurship auQuebec. JEAN-MARIE TOULOUSE. Montr6al,Fides,•98o.Pp. xxxiv, •39. Thisslimbutambitious booksets itselfthreegoals: topresent ageneraltheory of entrepreneurship, to usethismodelto explainthe evolutionof FrenchCanadian business activity, andtoprojectitslikelyfuture.The organization of the book reflectsthese themes in a straight-forwardmanner. The most convincing part of this monographis the discussion of smalland medium enterprises incontemporary Quebec andhowthenewgeneration offormallytrained business and commerce students have asserted themselves in this business environment.Fortunately,by thislate stagein the manuscript the authorhaslargelyabandoned hismodel. The model,presentedat the outsetand usedto explainthe historyof French-Canadian entrepreneurship, isanabsurdity. A mixtureof effects, the theoryattempts to mapthevarioussociological, psychological, andeconomic trade-offswhichmighthaveconfrontedFrench-Canadian society, itsactual and potentialentrepreneurs.Not only is the geometryof the model (5) confusing butsubsequent discussion gives noadequate definitionof thethree principal axes des valeurs, del'action, etdes risques. The authorshould notcallon the reader to locateCartesianco-ordinates withoutgiving,at least,notional measurements. Unfortunately,this type of vagueness permeates the book whichtoooftenadopts thejargonof socio-psychology tobeaverycomfortable read. Applied to history,the model is employedin a relativelyharmless mannerto the well-knownliteratureon French-Canadian business activity. Not surprisingly, it demonstrates thatFrench-Canadian entrepreneurs of the past wereconstrained bothbytheforces withinasmall, relatively closed society andthepreponderance of English-speaking entrepreneurs. In summary,thereislittle in thisvolumewhichrecommends itselfto the historian. Whatisfascinating aboutthebookisthatitisarationalization, albeit REVIEWS 237 animperfect one,ofthehistoriography ofFrench-Canadian entrepreneurship andthecontemporary growthofbusiness school education inQuebec, theMB,• phenomenon. Nevertheless, theeditorof theseries Histoire •conomique etsociale duCanada francaisshouldnotethat he hasa faithful readership builton the strength ofdeephistorical inquiry.A bookwhichaddssolittletohistory, such astheoneunderreview,wouldbestbepublished elsewhere. r•o•AI•r• c. }'ATERSO• University ofBritish Columbia PrairiePolitics and Society: Regionalism in Decline. }tocEaGIBBINS. Toronto, Butterworth,•98o.Pp.•8. $•.95. Professor Gibbins apparently arrivedinCalgaryin •973onlytodiscover thatit wasnolongertheexclusive domainof thecattleman andthepoliticized grain farmer. Gibbins'traditionalimagesof the prairie westwere no longer adequate. Upondiscovering this,hewaspromptedtowriteabookwhichwould explainhowtheprairiewest haschanged andevolved intheperiodsince•95o. Thecentralthesis of Gibbins' workisthateconomically andsocially thewest isbecomingmore and more like other partsof Canada;that is to say,it is becoming moreurbanandmoreindustrialized. This,in turn, hasalteredthe political aspirations of prairiepeople,erodingsomeof theregionally distinctivefeaturesof theold graineconomy. Oneof themainattractions of thebookisthatit provides in adetailedand factualmannerthestatistical evidence of demographic, economic, social, and political changes thathavetakenplaceon theprairiesin thelastthirtyyears. Mostofthiswork,however, isnotbased onnewororiginalresearch inprimary sources. Instead,Professor Gibbins provides uswithareasoned andthoughtfultreatise based onareadingof theavailable secondary literaturetowhichhe hasaddeddetailedstatistical material, oftenin theformof graphs or tables. The book suffers from two rather serious weaknesses.First, the author's conception andviewofCanadaseems undulynarrowandrestricted. Thereare almostno referencesto Quebecand only a few to the Maritimes.Western Canada,wearetold,isbecoming moreliketherestof Canada,buttheevidence presented reallyonlyshows thatitisbecoming morelikeOntario.Anyworkon Canadian regionalism whichpays aslittleattention toQuebec andsogenerally equates Ontariointerests andaspirations withthose of thenationmustremain somewhat suspect. A second problemrelates tothealmost complete silence ontheimpact ofthe newstaple resources of thewest-oilandpotash-andhowthese haveaffected western regionalism. Gibbins failseventodoff hishatin thedirection ofJohn Richards, LarryPratt,andtheotheroilpatchscribblers. It iscertainly truethat thewesthasbecome moreurbanandhasdeveloped astronger industrialand manufacturing base.But the basisof the prairie economystillremainsthe ...