Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500 by Marcel Martel (review)

At first glance, the use of the word ‘vice’ in Martel’s title might strike some readers as anachronistic – surely the term, with its Christian connotations and moralistic ring to it is out of fashion in the twenty-first century. And, indeed, Martel begins with a justification of his use of the term. ‘I persist in using it’, he writes, ‘partly because Christianity has had such a profound influence on the definition of proper and unacceptable behaviours, prior to the twentieth century’s secularizing processes’ (p. 3). The other reason he uses it, though, is that, despite its lineage, it is still an acceptable word that captures the broader range of substances, activities, and lifestyles that he aims to discuss. The major topics with which Martel engages – alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, and sexuality – have moved in and out of legality, and differ widely enough (some being substances, others being activities or inclinations) that vice seems an appropriate catch-all word.

In this short work, Martel surveys the whole of Canadian history to argue that ‘when addressing the issues of abortion, alcohol and drug use, gambling, homosexuality, prostitution, and smoking, Canadians have responded in a variety of ways: condemnation, repression, prohibition; but also defiance, resistance, and tolerance’ (p. 151). In a short 158 pages, Martel does a fairly good job of outlining the way that the history of northern North America has existed in some measure as the construction of a regulation regime. From the earliest contact with Aboriginal peoples, through the formation of Canada in the nineteenth century, to the present-day debates about marijuana (on which Martel is particularly strong, no doubt stemming from his research background on marijuana and public policy), British North Americans and Canadians have been engaging with what is meant by ‘proper behaviour’ and how best to regulate and understand these questions. Martel shows that over 500 years of history, these responses have been constantly in flux.

Martel declares in his Introduction that this book is a ‘brief historical synthesis’ (p. 8). Indeed, if one was looking for an original piece of research that redefined the paradigms through which Canadian historians understand moral regulation, this book would not be it. That said, it is decidedly unfair to judge a book against a standard it has not set out for itself – Martel is not, after all, attempting to write such a book. What he did intend is very much what was produced: a short book, consumable by first- or second-year undergraduates over a week or two to give them a solid background in the way social reformers and the state in Canada have regarded and dealt with what Martel defines as vice. While he could have cast a wider net, this book is nevertheless a decent introduction to social and moral reform, and the state-level legislation that has been instituted as a result of the response to different vices in Canada.