The Modernization of the Prairies

The Modernization of the Prairies ALEXANDER CAMERONRUTHERFORD: A GEN7LEMAN OF STRATHCONA. D.R. Babcock. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1989. 193 pp. COLONELJAMES WALKER: MANOFIBE WESTERN FRONTIER. Grant MacEwan. Saskatoon: Westem ProducerPrairie Books, 1989. 171 pp. A SNUG LIT7LE FLOCK: THE SOCIAL ORIGINS OF THE RIEL RESISTANCE, 1869-70. Friis Pannekoek. Winnipeg: Warson & DwyerPublishing, 1990. 276pp. 'THE FREE PEOPLE - OTIPEMISIWAK" BATOCHE, SASKATCHEWAN, 1870-1930. Diane Paulette Payment. Ottawa: Canadian Parks Service, 1990. 366pp. VULCAN: THE MAKING OF A PRAIRIE COMMUNITY. Paul Voisey. Toronto: University ofToronto Press, 1988. 341 pp. In his recent biographyofAlberta's first Premier, D.R. Babcock notes that Alexander Rutherford came to the prairies because "there was business and professional opportunity for the taking.... A new and better Ontario could be built and he could contribute " (4)/ This was an attitude shared by most early Jiettlers from the East who wished to build a version of British Ontario on the prairies. While this notion of the West as a replica ofOntario was appealing, numerous factors emerged to frustrate this ambition. The major difficulty facing the Ontario immigrants was the colonial status oftheWest following its annexation by Canada. This subordinate status within Confederation forced many political leaders, typified by Rutherford, to push for increased autonomy and full provincial status for the Western provinces. Equally important in Western development was the dominant influence of the CPR and the elevator and grain companies , which for decades caused considerable unease among farmers, merchants and politicians. The Depression ofthe 1930s with the attendant rise of agrarian populism, in both left- and right-wing versions, alsocaused a disruption in the pattern ofprairiedevelop142 ment. Finally, aggressive province-building purchased with the oil revenues ofthe 1970s emphasized again the gulf separating West from East. While the prairie provinces have experienced a unique pattern ofdevelopment and in the process acquired a different political culture, it is also truethat theprairies followed Ontario down the well-worn path toward what is loosely called "modernity." As with Ontario, the most significant factors in this movement have been that great modernizing triumvirate ofProtestantism, capitalismand science.To oneextentoranotherall thebooks under review indicate the effects of these forces on the development of the prairies. Protestantism was extremely important in the early struggles to settle the West, particularly in the first communities centred around the Red River valley. Frits Pannekoek, in a well-argued and thoughtful new book on the socialoriginsofthe Riel Resistance, suggests that the conflict between the Catholic Metis and the incoming Protestant settlers was at the heart ofall the political conflict in the community ofRed Riverduring the period from 1820until 1870when English Protestant hegemony was firmly established in the Red River valley. The Metis, and their Catholic clergy allies, never managed full integration into the social structure of Red River due, in large measure, to the hostility of the Englishspeaking Protestant establishment. Pannekoek notes that the "Catholic clergy, because of their religion, language, and Quebec origins were excluded almost entirely from the English-speaking Protestant group that ruled Red River" ((i()). But neitherwas the Catholic clergy very interested in creating a little Quebec in this outpost; rather, they were content to look after the spiritual needs ofthe Metis. For the Catholic clergy, Christianity, notcivilization, was at the heart ofthe gospel, and indeed, among the so-called nomadic clergy that traveled with the Metis, there was a tremendous amount of sympathy and respect for the existing Metis way of life. In comparison, the Protestant clergy were eager to create a replica of British Ontario culture in the settlement. Before the merger of the Hudson's Bay Company and the North-West Company, Revue d'erudes canadiennes Vol. 27. No. 2 (£1e 1992 Summer) there existed a fur trade culture that was a unique blend of European and Indian, of structure and freedom. It was, according to Pannekoek, a culture based on the shared experience of the fur trade, close male camaraderie and the kinship ties of family. But after the fur-trade merger and the arrival of the Church of England around 1820 this culture was called into question; successive waves ofProtestantclergy were determined to rid the West ofthe "barbaric"elements of its culture, particularly those aspects that were identified as...