Lions Gate by Lilia D’Acres and Donald Luxton (review)

Book Reviews 395 There is a certain irony, considering the book's title and objectives, in many ofthe essays. These include Brian Low's interesting account ofthe ways in which the National Film Board propagandized the quality of elementary education in the town of Lantzville on Vancouver Island in the early 1940s; Daniel Marshall's discussion of British Columbia's reaction against federal tariffpolicy on entering Confederation (1871-4); and Tony Arruda's narrative on gender and labour markets in urbanizing Williams Lake between 1945 and 1975. lbe irony is this: besides a certain ruralness, there is a great deal in these and other essays that is distinctly urban. Such urbanity includes the locale or setting of study (e.g., Victoria, Kamloops, Williams Lake, Prince George); the urban impulse of political control, whether from Ottawa, Victoria, or some other urban centre; and the urban origins of law, education, and other public policy issues that had a direct bearing on negotiating the 'ruralness ' of British Columbia. Surely Sandwell was aware of the urban shadow cast over her shoulder as she considered and edited these various essays. But she is decidedly silent in explaining the significance of this urban presence. lbis omission raises the question of whether the rural history of British Columbia, or of anywhere else for that matter, can be written without reference to the urban factor. Of course, it is all a matter of degree: Just how much of a narrative about ruralness actually rests on rural terrain? Can ruralness escape the urban shadow? Asked somewhat differently, in writing any rural history, just how much of that history really lies 'beyond the city limits?' lbe answer is clearly lacking in this otherwise very fine collection of essays. It seems worthy of serious consideration by Sandwell and her colleagues as they continue their task ofredressing the balance ofscholarly inquiry in the urban-rural equation that comprises the history ofBritish Columbia. L.D. MCCANN University ofVictoria Lions Gate. LILIA o'ACRES and DONALD LUXTON. Burnaby, BC: Talon Books 1999. Pp. 176, illus. $29.95 Lions Gate tells of the promotion, construction, and history of Vancouver 's Lions Gate Bridge, a city landmark since it opened to traffic in November 1938. Designed to reach a broad rather than a specialized readership, Lions Gatenarrates the storyofthe bridgethroughimageswith anaccompanyingtext. Abookofcelebration, notanalysis, itemergedfrom the efforts ofheritage-minded Vancouverites to save the bridge once the 396 The Canadian Historical Review possibility occurred that it might be replaced. To research the history of the bridge, the Heritage Vancouver Society created a subcommittee, among whom was Donald Luxton, a founding director of the Heritage Vancouver Society and the head ofa heritage consulting firm in Vancouver . He later joined with Lilia D'Acres, a literature teacher with a long history of commitment to the literary arts in British Columbia, to write Lions Gate. Their desire to publicize the bridge through colourful stories and striking illustrations has shaped the research from which the stories are drawn. Emphasis is given to the 'clash oftitans' that animated the history of the bridge, particularly the clash between A.J.T. Taylor, the Victoriaborn engineer and land promoter who played the single greatest role in selling the idea of a supension bridge across the First Narrows from North Vancouver through Stanley Park to Vancouver, and the British investors, led by the Guinness family, who first purchased mountainside land in West Vancouver and then funded the building ofa toll bridge to make it accessible. Interesting and richly illustrated sidebars that flow from the central narrative, often consuming two full pages, provide some of the most compelling reading in the book. Notable examples include the connections between British investment in New York's Rockefeller Center and West Vancouver's British Properties, and the history of Charles Marega, 'the first and best known of Vancouver's professional sculptors,' who created in concrete the lions' heads that grace the southern entrance to the bridge. Sources for the book are drawn from newspaper and archival records available in Vancouver and interviews with key members ofTaylor's family and leaders ofthe Squamish nation, whose lands were made available to the bridge builders without adequate compensation to the Squamish or their...