O. W. Saarinen
pp. 1–15
Record
Abstract
Kapuskasing, Ontario warrants special mention in the history of Canadian land use planning. The town first acquired special prominence immediately following World War I when it was the site of the first provincially-planned resource community in Canada. The early layout of the settlement reflected the imprints of both the "city beautiful" and "garden city" movements. After 1958, the resource community then became the focus for an important experiment in urban "fringe" rehabilitation at Brunetville, a suburban area situated just east of the planned Kapuskasing townsite. The author suggests that the role of the Brunetville experiment in helping to change the focus of urban renewal in Canada from redevelopment to rehabilitation has not been fully appreciated.
Patricia Dirks
pp. 17–29
Record
Abstract
The fight over municipalization of electrical services in Quebec City waged between 1929 and 1934 grew out of the determination of a prominent dentist, Dr. Philippe Hamel, to rescue his fellow citizens from the grip of the electricity trust. Initially Hamel's attack on the Quebec Power Company, in a monopoly position in Quebec City after 1923, received support from local businessmen's associations with the notable exception of the Board of Trade. Quebec Power's co-operation in the board's schemes to attract new big business ventures to Quebec City and Hamel's favourable disposition toward government-run electrical utilities combined to produce a bitter confrontation when the city administration appeared to be responding positively to his campaign. Ultimately divisions within the business community, personality clashes, and political rivalries contributed to the success of Quebec Power's carefully orchestrated defence of its interests carried out at the provincial as well as the municipal level of government.Hamel's involvement in the French-Canadian nationalist movement and his association with L'École Sociale Populaire during the 1930s added a unique dimension to the attack he led against the electricity trust in Quebec City. The crusading nature of his drive to secure government-run competition in the electricity field proved to be an effective weapon in the hands of Quebec Power and its allies and thus contributed to the failure of the public power movement spearheaded by Hamel in Quebec City in these years.
William A. White
pp. 31–38
Record
Abstract
This paper examines the entrepreneurial strategies of Torontonians. It focuses upon public referenda held in 1850 and 1851 to decide whether to invest municipal funds in railways to Lake Huron and Guelph. Historians who have tried to explain why the citizens rejected the investment in the line to Lake Huron and approved the line to Guelph have limited their analyses to the backers of each project. Toronto's merchants opposed the first subscription but approved the second one. The independently wealthy Tories led the promotion in the spring of 1850 but were in the background in the fall of 1851. The meaning seems inescapable: Torontonians responded positively to the appeal of the merchants who appeared to understand, as the Tories did not, the new options open to a community's development which railways created.By concentrating only upon individuals, this analysis ignores the persistence of the developmental attitudes of the 1830s and 1840s. The paper is not concerned with how transportation projects were financed, or the numbers of people, wheat, and hogs which passed over them, but with the style and speculation which attended their discussion. It explains the decisions of 1850-1851 by way of a tradition and briefly examines the responses of Chicagoans to the railway frenzy as a sharpening contrast. Faced with many of the same challenges and possibilities as were the people of Chicago, Torontonians responded with far less confidence and unity. Their own beliefs and values, not those of a Hamilton or a Montreal, were hurdles for the citizens of Toronto. Exuberance over railway schemes only gradually displaced prudent attitudes of the 1830s and 1840s.
Bruno Ramirez
pp. 39–48
Record
Abstract
As the pattern of Italian immigration to Montreal changed from one made up
predominantly of sojourners to one of permanent settlement, important changes
occurred both in the composition of that immigrant population (sex ratio, age
structure, etc.) and in its internal organization (residential patterns, kinship and
paese-based network).
These changes made possible the enactment of familial economic strategies
characterised by the use of extra-market resources to complement the means of life
deriving from earnings. Though the magnitude of this practice escapes precise
quantification, its occurrence seems to have been so widespread among Italian
immigrants as to constitute a socio-economic subsystem existing alongside the
official market system. Moreover, in this sphere of economic behavior, Italian
immigrants enjoyed a greater autonomy in their use of time and space and thus could
more freely resort to their cultural values as an important resource for their
adaptive strategies. More detailed analysis of the socio-economy of settlement may
throw important light on the specificity of the ethnic cohesion characterising
Italian immigrant communities in Montreal during those years.