Town and City: Aspects of Western Canadian Urban Development ed. by Alan F.J. Artibise (review)

282 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW missing exceptforthetwoitemsissued in •968.Asaresult,theimportantstudy ofThe Ward(•9•8) isleftout.Also,theseveral planningstudies ofTorontothedowntown , waterfront, andtransportation in •9o9,•9•2, •9•5,and•929are not listed.(Perhaps thereviewerand otherTorontohelpershaveto take some responsibility forthefailuretolistthese crucial reports.) Second, theirneatdistinctions of urbanasentity(dependent), asprocess (independent), andasa setting arehardtosustain. Certainly cities areplaces, andwards,for example, are places. Urbansystems withcities aspointsare regions. Yet,under'urbanasprocess,' in particular,the studies theyuseto support theircontention donoteasily fittheformula,citytosocial life,because theyarenotenvironmentally deterministic. The thirdcategory caninclude almost anything social. Thisraises thefundamental problem ofdefining whatis uniquely urban;manyofthestudies discussed undertheothertwocategories couldbeconsidered underthethird.Asageographer, I canshare theirinterest inspace, access, places, andregions, yet'urban'hardlyexhausts whatwedo.We workwithinaninescapable dualism: social, economic, andpolitical concerns areasrealasurbanplaces themselves. Butthemaintask,thatof presenting aworkable reference, issuperbly carried out. We are indebted to Professors Artibise and Stelter and their assistants. JAMES LEMON University ofToronto Town andCity: Aspects ofWestern Canadian Urban Development. EditedbyAI•AN F.J. ART•B•SV.. Canadian Plains Studies no •o. Canadian Plains Research Center, •98•. Pp.xx, 455. The appearance offifteennewpapers in anysmall'field ofhistory isanimportant event.When the papersexamineaspects of a singlesubject within one region,theimpactshould beevengreater. Town andCity, bythese standards, isa usefulbutnotan exceptional volume.It tellsusa gooddealmorethanwas known before about the cities and towns of Western Canada, but it does not significantly alterourunderstanding ofthatsociety. The strength ofthevolume liesinitsscope. Twointroductory essays discuss theprairieandBritish Columbia urban'systems; respectively, andthusestablishthesites andfunctions oftheWest's majorurbancentres withinabroader economic framework. Fivemoreessays examine thedevelopment oftownsites bymeans ofacarefulexamination ofindividual cases, including theHudson's Bay Company townsites,the Canadian Pacific-federalgovernmentcooperative ventures, twoexamples ofvillage networks inManitoba andAlberta, and one single-enterprise community. Another six paperstake different approaches to the themeof city-building in Saskatoon, Edmonton,Calgary, andVictoriaandtwomoredealwithvarioussubjects in social history- child welfarein Calgaryand the unemployedin Vancouver. Finally,the volume REVIEWS 283 contains araft of statistical andotherdata:fifty-onetables concerning populationandeconomic trends,twenty-five mapsandtownplans,andatwenty-page appendixwhichlists thepopulation of allincorporated centres inthewestfrom •87• to •97•. The citiesand townsof westernCanada,like their counterpartsin the western UnitedStates, did notgrowhaphazardly nor did theyevolveslowly, asF.J. Turner wouldhaveit, from pioneersettlementto townand city.Rather,the adoption oftownplans preceded development; andtheprocess ofgrowthand determinationof functiongenerallyoccurredsoquicklythat the fate of an aspiringmetropoliswassealedwithinadecadeof thearrrival of arailway.The individualentrepreneuror groupof business leadersplayeda decisive rolein thestruggle for urbanhegemony, according tomanyof thecontributors tothis volume:the argumentseems irrefutable,giventhat railwaysand the stapleexporteconomy werethe prime determinants of site,function,and size.But these manyeffective analyses ofurbandevelopment are,almost withoutexception ,based upontheconcept of'boosterism.' Reliance uponsuch anarrowidea limitstheappealof thevolume. Boosterism isdefinedasa campaign to stimulate economic andpopulation growth047). Morethanrhetoricbutless thanideology (2••), theconcept has attractedstudents of urbandevelopment because it acknowledges theroleof individualactivity in theimpersonal process of economic development. Boosterismmaycapturethespiritof townpromoters butit isinadequate asameans of understanding thesociety inwhichit flourishes. According toitscategories, social dissent becomes 'knocking';the objections of smalltownsto urbancultural pretensions areexplainedasthejealousyof losers; failureto ameliorate the wretchedconditions of urban ghettoes iscausefor lamentor outragebut not for explanation. One mightwellaskwhysocialclass is not discussed in fifteen essays on citiesand townsand whydebatesaboutmetropolis- hinterland relationships or regionalunder-development - are neverraised.Boosterismisa flagwhichcallsattention to theedificebelow, notan explanatory concept. Andit isthisnarrowinterpretive approach whichwilllimittheuses of Town andCitytostudents of Canadianprairieandurbanhistory. Everyreaderwillhavehisownfavouriteamongthearticles.Mine includea suggestive piece onEdmonton society in •9o6byCadBetke,theonlypaperto raisequestions about socialstratification; an incisiveanalysis of small-town development inManitoba byBarryPotyondi whichsuggests thattowndwellers in Manitobacameto identifywithurbanratherthanrural society aroundthe turn of thetwentiethcentury;anda verythoroughstudyof a similarnetwork in Alberta,theCarmangay-Vulcan district,by PaulVoisey. This latterworkis unusuallyprecisein itsdepictionof the selection of site,the competitionfor hinterlandtrade,thelocalleaders' search for 'development,' andtheimpactof newbranchlinesand the automobile.Interestingly, Voiseydisagrees to some extentwith Potyondi on the question of town-country hostility, arguingthat 284 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW suchdivisionmay havemarked the relationbetweenrural areasand larger towns(over•ooopopulation)but did not occurin areaswithsmallerservice centres. Specialists willfindthisvolumetobemostinformative.Indeed,everyessay is a thoroughandcompetent treatmentof itssubject. The editorandthe CanadianPlains Research Centershould becongratulated fortheconsistent standardof thenarrative andof theproduction. GERALD FRIESEN University ofManitoba Burrs andBlackberries fromGoodwood. ELEANOR TODD.Goodwood, Ont.,Author, •98o.Pp.xxi, 35•,illus.$•4.95. Goodwood isavillage inUxbridgeTownship, OntarioCounty. Asacommunity it isunremarkable exceptthatit represents manyothersmallcommunities in Upper Canadathat had their originsin the period •8oo to •85o, reached maturity with the arrivalof the railway,and then, in outwardappearances, changedvery little or very slowlyover the next century.In an attractively manufactured andillustrated book- withsome fine,professional drawings by her daughters - EleanorToddhasbroughttogetheracompendium of anecdoteandinformation thatshould bea pleasure for...