Canadian Countercultures and the Environment ed. by Colin M. Coates (review)

Colin Coates has edited an entertaining, timely, and informative collection of articles that will stir the memories of those who, like this reviewer, were living in Canada in the late sixties and early seventies. It is the fourth in a themed series from the University of Calgary Press and acts as a fascinating resource for cultural historians and others interested in the growing Canadian counterculture of that time.

The underlying theme is of interfacing with environmental topics but the more general roots of the Canadian counterculture are well covered. Not all is memorialising/recording – there is enduring relevance. Most visitors to Ontario will have encountered the blue box recycling scheme and here its founders/origins are outlined. As Coates explains, the book project itself grew from a meeting on Hornby Island, BC in 2011 with, appropriately, some additional recycled research in places. Coates's introductory chapter stresses contextual and push factors such as the oil crisis but, more especially, Vietnam and the Nixon administration that drove 100,000 mostly young Americans over the Canadian border in record numbers. Not all headed back to the land (First Nations, of course, queried whose land it was that they were now occupying), nor embraced/drove the nascent Canadian counterculture. Yet here are some interesting examples on how many of them did stay to fight a different war – to preserve or enhance the environment. A key point made is that the young, educated protester has the capacity to use powerful arguments against the status quo. That option is not always available to locals and many locals, often dependent on work in extractive industries, do not always concur. That said, Dukhobors and Quakers seem, from the examples offered, to have been notably welcoming.

In locations such as Denman Island and Slocan Valley – as well as Hornby Island – there were battles against pesticides, logging, mining, and a host of other 'good causes' that a youthful cohort engaged with … plus the Ontario Blue Box recycling scheme. Indeed recycling did later offer notable wealth-creation opportunities for those with experience gained in the early days. This is not quite a parallel to the observations in 2018–fifty years on from revolutionary '68 – by firebrand Tariq Ali. He pointed out that he had spotted a former fellow 'leftie' in the Belgian Finance Ministry and that 'Danny the Red' was to be found advising President Macron. Back east there are examples from the curious Ark project in Prince Edward County and the Maritimes and a lively recounting of pro-cycling activism in car-friendly Montreal (Vive la Velorution!). This will also be recalled as a time when youth grants were available and canny activists became proficient at applying for as many as possible – that young, educated, theme again.

Other topics include the movement to natural childbirth while a specific back to the land example draws on Prince Edward Island. A rather moving chapter unites back to the land and Aboriginal countercultures in the Yukon.