The Powered Generation: Canadians, Electricity, and Everyday Life

Most studies of electricity in Canada have examined the process of electrification from a business or political perspective, emphasizing the role of private and public institutions in electrifying the country. Such approaches neglect the primary targets of the electrification process: Canadians as consumers of electricity. This dissertation analyzes electrification as a social phenomenon. Drawing from archival sources in Canada and the United States, as well as newspapers, magazines, and government documents, the author addresses technological debates in Canadian history and investigates the relationship between technology and society. The broader themes in this dissertation include: urban electrification, rural electrification, domestic electrification and the changing role of electricity in medicine. These areas of electrification in Canada indicate that while electricity may have had some transformative effect on Canadian society, it stopped short of revolutionizing people’s lives; electricity simply made it easier — for those who could afford it — to accomplish the same tasks (at home, on the farm, and in the city) people had been performing for hundreds of years. Canadians adopted new electrical technologies to suit traditional needs, and evidence suggests that established cultural practices informed the path of electrical development in Canada. This dissertation is the first study of the social implications of electrification in Canada on a nationwide scale, and a step toward understanding the broader social implications of technological change for Canadians

Impassioned Objects And Seething Absences: The Olympics In Canada, National Identity and Consumer Culture

This dissertation critically analyzes the commercial practices and products of the 1976 Montreal, 1988 Calgary and 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The central questions I ask are: how did the Olympics in Canada become a platform for the intersection of patriotism and consumption? What were the key ideas about Canadian identity, history, and citizenship that Olympic organizers and corporate sponsors promoted? How did commodities symbolize these ideas? Finally, how do these ideas relate to political policies and practices? This work contributes to an understanding of how branded commodities shape Canadian identity and citizenship norms by arguing that the objects sold during the Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver Olympics embodied unresolved contradictions in the meaning of national identity. Commodities (like mascots, Petro-Canada glassware and Hudson’s Bay Company mittens) represented a version of national identity that glorified European settlement in Canada and obscured the disparity between Indigenous and Settler Canadians’ quality of life. Further, by buying these commodities, Settler Canadians constructed their identity as valued citizens who make important material contributions to the nation. The production, consumption and promotion of branded products helped popularize the idea that reconciliation between Indigenous and Settler Canadians has been achieved when, in fact, it is an ongoing and unfinished process. Moreover, these practices deepened pre-existing conflicts involving land and natural resources in Canada, often at the expense of Indigenous peoples’ interests and well-being. The research is grounded in material from Olympic archives in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, which I use to conduct the first book-length study of the Olympics hosted in Canada. The theoretical framework that underpins this project is based on Anne McClintock’s conceptualization of fetish and Avery Gordon’s theory of “ghostly hauntings.” McClintock’s work helps explain how commodities can hold together contradictory ideas about Canadian identity while Gordon’s theory provides a basis for understanding how the absence of information (e.g. facts about Canada’s colonial past) can become perceptible or, in her words, “seething absences.” Using this approach, I demonstrate the importance of studying the symbolic significance of Olympic commodities rather than focusing exclusively on Olympic-related sponsorship and marketing practices. I argue that the production, consumption, promotion, and symbolism of the commodities have significant social and political consequences which include: shaping Canadian identity, influencing public knowledge about the nation’s past, intervening in debates about land possession and resource allocation, including and excluding citizens from participation in civic life, educating children and teens about the nation, and influencing reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples

Special Libraries, February 1931

Volume 22, Issue 2https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1931/1001/thumbnail.jp

C. Anthony Law and 'An Artist's Paradise'

xv, 165 leaves : ill. (mostly col.) maps, portraits ; 29 cm.Includes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-161).C. Anthony Law was a classically trained artist whose style was rooted in the Group of Seven. He was also an accomplished and well-respected officer in the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), renowned for his intellect, skill at sea and for painting naval action during the Second World War. During the Cold War, Law carried on with his art and recorded RCN activities from the Arctic to Easter Island in addition to painting the landscape of Nova Scotia. Upon retirement from the RCN, Law was appointed the first artist-in-residence at Saint Mary's University (SMU) where he nurtured artistic minds for twelve years. Using leadership skills, fine-tuned on the bridges of Canadian warships, Law contributed significantly to the establishment of cultural institutions in Atlantic Canada, namely the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and SMU's Art Gallery. 'An Artist's Paradise' explores Law's notable artistic and military careers

Bureaucratizing the Atlantic Revolution: The "Saskatchewan Mafia" in the New Brunswick Civil Service, 1960-1970

Louis J. Robichaud recognized at the time of his election as premier in 1960 that bureaucratic modernization was urgently needed to translate the political gains of the "Atlantic Revolution" into workable social and economic programs in New Brunswick. To provide leadership in civil service reform, Robichaud recruited seven ex-Saskatchewan Co-operative Commonwealth Federation bureaucrats who became known as the "Saskatchewan Mafia." This article uses their experiences to explore the bureaucratization of the Atlantic Revolution, and argues that this group played a crucial role in the transformation of New Brunswick’s political bureaucracy and thus in the modernization of the province as a whole. Résumé Lors de son élection comme premier ministre en 1960, Louis J. Robichaud reconnaissait qu’il était urgent de moderniser l’appareil bureaucratique afin que les gains politiques de la « Révolution atlantique » se traduisent par des programmes sociaux et économiques réalisables au Nouveau-Brunswick. Pour exercer le leadership dans la réforme de la fonction publique, Robichaud recruta sept anciens fonctionnaires sous le gouvernement de la Co-operative Commonwealth Federation de la Saskatchewan, que l’on appela la « Saskatchewan Mafia ». À partir de leurs expériences, cet article explore la bureaucratisation de la Révolution atlantique et fait valoir que ce groupe a joué un rôle crucial dans la transformation de la bureaucratie politique du Nouveau-Brunswick et, par conséquent, dans la modernisation de l’ensemble de la province