"I became a writer so I wouldn't have to leave home." -- Daniel Francis

QUICK REFERENCE ENTRY:

If one were forced or instructed to select one book, above all others, that should be found in every B.C. household, one would have a hard time not selecting The Encyclopedia of British Columbia (2000). No other book has given British Columbians a better mirror in which to see themselves.

It is important for British Columbians to know about the world champion Trail Smoke Eaters or the explosion of Ripple Rock. Or how the Quaker lawyer Irving Stowe founded the Don't Make A Wave Committee, giving rise to Greenpeace. Or the Hope Slide. Or the soccer-playing Lenarduzzi brothers. That's why the Encyclopedia is the most essential book for and about B.C. It is both populist and smart. It efficiently reminds us of how and why we are unique, as a psychological and historical zone, west of the Rockies, where maverick sensibilities have thrived. It is remarkably comprehensive, lively and accurate.

Accepting the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for best book about B.C. in 2001, editor Daniel Francis said, "The whole project is based on a conversation Howie [White] and I had over a decade ago. I never had a contract with him; the project was not based on a business relationship, it was based on a friendship, one that miraculously survived some very tense moments. For most of the project Howie had no outside support. Much of the help was voluntary and it felt at times that we were flying by the seat of our pants. But we both knew that if we waited for the money and set up the committees and consulted all the experts and drew up a flow chart, we'd never get the damn thing done. So instead, we just went ahead and did it. I wouldn't recommend this as the best way, but it seems to me to be a typically B.C. way, and it worked."

Francis wrote approximately 80 per cent of the 4,000 entries, and Howard White, a long-time Pender Harbour resident, who also co-conceived the Raincoast Chronicles series with his wife Mary, was the driving force behind the project. He conceived it, took the financial risk, and believed it was both necessary and viable, even though Mel Hurtig's The Canadian Encyclopedia project had met with financial ruin.

The future of books is now uncertain. Small bookstores are closing; electronic media is increasingly prevalent. The proliferation of Chapters outlets across Canada has influenced the book trade enormously. Hence the successful release of the million-word, 824-page Encyclopedia of British Columbia in 2000 marked the pinnacle of a thirty-six year progression for a provincial industry that engendered the highest per capita book reading rate in Canada.

FULL ENTRY:

Historian Daniel Francis edited the most essential book about the province, the Encyclopedia of British Columbia (Harbour, 2000), having previously worked as an editor for Mel Hurtig's Encyclopedia of Canada. Accepting the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for best book about B.C. in 2001, Francis said, "The whole project is based on a conversation Howie [White] and I had over a decade ago. I never had a contract with him; the project was not based on a business relationship, it was based on a friendship, one that miraculously has survived some very tense moments. For most of the project Howie has no outside support. Much of the help was voluntary and it felt at times that we were flying by the seat of our pants. But we both knew that if we waited for the money and set up the committees and consulted all the experts and drew up a flow chart, we'd never get the damn thing done. So instead, we just went ahead and did it. I wouldn't recommend this as the best way, but it seems to me to be a typically BC way, and it worked." He later provided a truncated history of the province for young readers.

Francis has also written the definitive biography of Louis Denison Taylor, the newspaperman who served as mayor of Vancouver more times than anyone else, and who built one of the city's most enduring landmark buildings, the World Tower, now known as the Sun Tower. His biography of Taylor received the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2004. Francis' first book on the fur trade arose from a contract with the Quebec government. "I spent two years in the archive reading microfilm," he recalled in 1995. "It was sort of an apprenticeship, and probably why I have to wear glasses now." That work reflected the changing perception of Natives from abject victims of the fur trade to skilled and active participants in it. Francis' subsequent books on northern Canada and whaling have become standard resources; Copying People and The Imaginary Indian are valuable contributions to the history and analysis of aboriginal peoples of Canada; plus he has probed the national psyche in his much-praised National Dreams and a social history of Canada. "The myth of the CPR as creator of the country is, in fact, as old as the railway itself, which is not surprising given that it was the railway itself which created the myth. Once the CPR had built the line, it set about promoting its achievement in countless books, pamphlets, stories and movies. 'The construction of the Canadian Pacific consummated Confederation,' the company crowed in one of its early publications. The mundane act of constructing a railway was transformed into an heroic narrative of nation building. After a while it was almost impossible to imagine one without applauding the other."

Married, with two adult children, Francis lived in Ottawa (1971-84) and Montreal (1984-87) before returning to live in B.C. He has his BA from UBC (1969) and his MA in Canadian Studies from Carleton University (1975). He worked as a newspaper reporter for two years before turning full time to historical writing and research. He has written six social studies textbooks produced for Ontario, Manitoba and B.C., and several important trade books on Canadian history. He has also been an editor with Geist magazine and has served on the executive of the Writers Union of Canada, the B.C. Federation of Writers, the Vancouver Word on the Street Festival and the West Coast Book Prizes Society. From 1985 to 1987 he was Editorial Director of the Horizon Canada project, an illustrated bilingual popular history of Canada. He has also been a contributor to the Canadian Encyclopedia and a contributing editor to the Junior Encyclopedia of Canada. During his presidency of the Federation of B.C. Writers, he re-established the credibility and viability of the organization.

Daniel Francis was named recipient of an Award of Merit from the Vancouver Historical Society on April, 11, 2010, recognized for "his significant contributions to the history of Vancouver and British Columbia through his prolific writing." The award was presented at the society's annual Incorporation Day Luncheon celebrating the creation of the City of Vancouver, April 6, 1886. Francis was the keynote speaker at the event, discussing his book LD: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver.

Between 1880 and the 1930s, the big railway companies, and the federal and provincial governments launched three aggressive campaigns to "sell" Canada at home and abroad. Dan Francis' Selling Canada: Three Propaganda Campaigns that Shaped the Nation recalls, with extensive illustrations, how the national government mounted propaganda campaigns to convince European immigrants to populate the prairies, to encourage young Canadian men to enlist in World War I and to attract tourists to visit Canada's awe-inspiring natural wonders with the completion of the CPR line in 1885. It was re-released in a paperback version as Selling Canada: Immigrants, soldiers, tourists, and the building of our nation (2012). Francis reveals how these three propaganda campaigns transformed the way Canadians and outsiders thought about Canada, inadvertently providing the raw material for nationhood in the process.

Dan Francis' Trucking in British Columbia (Harbour, 2012) was shortlisted for the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award presented to the originating publisher and author(s) of the best book in terms of public appeal, initiative, design, production and content.

Canada and Prohibition - March 1918, the federal government bans the manufacture and importation of liquor. It is now illegal to have a drink anywhere in Canada. For 21 months, social reformists and zealots preaching hell-fire and damnation believe they have won the war on the evils of drink. But have they? Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-Runners, and Border Wars (Douglas and McIntyre $39.95) looks at the federal and provincial governments' attempts to cleanse Canada of alcohol's corruption, while liquor smugglers and rum-runners wage a violent battle for profit. Using historical anecdotes and illustrations, Francis explores the legal and historical context of Prohibition, comparing the past with present-day prohibition of certain recreational drugs.

Where the Mountains Meet the Sea (Harbour, 2016) is Francis' love letter to the District of North Vancouver on the 125th anniversary of its incorporation. From early sawmilling days through to the postwar population boom and evolution into a bustling community in its own right, to the District's development of outdoor recreation, Francis details the development of a thriving community.

CITY/TOWN: North Vancouver

DATE OF BIRTH: 19 April 1947

PLACE OF BIRTH: Vancouver

AWARDS:

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, 2001; Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award, 2001; both for the Encyclopedia of British Columbia

City of Vancouver Book Award, 2004; for LD: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Francis, Daniel. Partners in Furs: The Indians and the Fur Trade in Eastern James Bay, 1670-1870. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1982. Published in French as La Traite des Fourrures dans l'est de la Baie James. (with Toby Morantz).

Francis, Daniel. Battle for the West: Fur Traders and the Birth of Western Canada. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishing, 1982.

Francis, Daniel. New Beginnings: A Social History of Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1981-1982. Two volumes.

Francis, Daniel. I Remember...: An Oral History of the Trent-Severn Waterway. Ottawa: Parks Canada, 1984. Also published in French.

Francis, Daniel. Arctic Chase: A History of Whaling in Canada's Arctic. St John's: Breakwater Books, 1986.

Francis, Daniel. Discovery of the North: The Exploration of Canada's Arctic. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishing, 1986.

Francis, Daniel. The Great Chase: A History of World Whaling. Toronto: Penguin, 1990.

Transit in British Columbia: The First Hundred Years. Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 1990.

Francis, Daniel. The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press / Tillicum Books, 1992. Re-released: Arsenal 2011; Re-released: Arsenal 2014).

Francis, Daniel. A History of Fort Dunvegan. Winnipeg: Watson & Dwyer, 1993.

Francis, Daniel. Imagining Ourselves: Classics of Canadian Non-fiction. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1994.

Francis, Daniel. Copying People: Photographing British Columbia First Nations, 1860-1940. Saskatoon: Fifth House, 1996.

Francis, Daniel. National Dreams: Myth, Memory and Canadian History. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1997; 5th printing Arsenal 2014

Francis, Daniel (editor). Encyclopedia of British Columbia. Madeira Park, B.C.: Harbour Publishing, 2000.

Francis, Daniel. Discovering First Peoples and First Contacts. Toronto: Oxford Canada, 2000. School text, ages 10-14.

Francis, Daniel. LD: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2004.

Francis, Daniel. A Road for Canada (Stanton, Atkins & Dosil, 2006). 09732346-7-9

Francis, Daniel. Far West: A History of British Columbia for Young Readers (Harbour, 2006). 1-55017-410-X

Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade (Subway Books, 2006) 0-9736675-2-4

Francis, Daniel & Gil Hewlett. Operation Orca (Harbour, 2007).

Francis, Daniel, editor. Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place (Anvil 2008).

Francis, Daniel. Seeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada's First War on Terror (Arsenal 2010).

Francis, Daniel. Selling Canada: Three Propaganda Campaigns that Shaped the Nation (Stanton, Atkins & Dosil 2011). $45 978-0-9809304-4-3

Trucking in British Columbia: An Illustrated History (Harbour, 2012) $49.95 978-1-55017-561-5

Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-Runners, and Border Wars (Douglas and McIntyre, 2014) $39.95 978-1-77162-037-6

Where the Mountains Meet the Sea (Harbour, 2016) $39.95 978-1-55017-751-0

Reviews of the author's work by BC Studies:
Imagining British Columbia: Land, Memory & Place
The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture (2nd Edition)
Encyclopedia of British Columbia
LD: Mayor Lous Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver
Seeing Reds: The Red Scare of 1918-1919, Canada's First War on Terror
Selling Canada. Three Propaganda Campaigns that Shaped the Nation
Trucking in British Columbia: An Illustrated History
Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-Runners, and Border Wars

[BCBW 2016]

REVIEW

Becoming Vancouver: A History by Daniel Francis
(Harbour $36.95)

Review by Mark Forsythe

Peering into Vancouver’s history can be like perusing contemporary headlines: frenzied real estate speculation, housing shortages, labour strife, racism and even a campaign to shut down jitney drivers (who were akin to today’s taxi and Uber drivers). Plenty of common threads between then and now are found in Daniel Francis’s book, Becoming Vancouver: A History—the first chronological survey of the city’s history in 50 years.

A West-sider by birth, Francis grew up in 1950s Vancouver, then a “low rise city” with few tall buildings. From his Kitsilano bedroom he looked across English Bay “at the dark shape of Stanley Park and the buildings of the downtown peninsula.” It was a postwar city in transition: highly industrialized areas like False Creek and Coal Harbour were being shaped into residential neighbourhoods. Today they’re among the most desirable locations on the planet.

Francis launches Becoming Vancouver by acknowledging the deep history of First Nations who were forcibly removed from their lands as Vancouver grew (think Stanley Park and False Creek). In 1933 chief city archivist Major James Matthews spoke with August Jack Khatsahlano and other Squamish and Musqueam elders about where their people had lived, and he learned some of their stories. Names like E-yal-mough (Jericho) Ay-yul-shun (English Bay Beach) Xway’xway (Lumberman’s Arch) appeared on an illustrated map that Matthews created. Before The Pale-Face Came: Indian Names for Familiar Places drew praise from local Indigenous leaders who said their history had been lost. Francis writes, “The map reflects not just a different version of history but also a different understanding of the way the world worked.”

Vancouver as we know it emerged from white settler communities at Stamps Mill (later Hastings Mill), Gastown (a “jerry-built settlement” surrounding Gassy Jack Deighton’s Globe House saloon) and the CPR’s massive land grant (6,275 acres). “It was standard practice for the railway to secure grants of public land in return for building its facilities, but nowhere else in Western Canada was the grant as generous as it was in Vancouver,” writes Francis. Terminal City “changed everything.” Vancouver was now connecting to the world via rail and an expanding port.

The Great Fire of 1886 tore through the settlement leaving one building standing on the waterfront (shades of the recent devastation at Lytton). Whiskey sales resumed the next day, and the Advertiser proclaimed, “Though disfigured, we are still in the ring.” People immediately set to rebuilding. The famous H.T. Devine photograph of city council members sitting in front of a tent with a handmade City Hall sign foreshadowed Hollywood North—it was staged three months after the fire. Council had already set up shop in a nearby warehouse.

Francis is an historian with 30 books to his credit, including the highly successful Encyclopedia of British Columbia—a 10-year project with Harbour Publishing. Becoming Vancouver skillfully chronicles tensions that defined the city through the decades: business vs labour; wartime losses and innovation (the expanding role of women in factory work and shipbuilding); and anti-Asian fear mongering (businessman Tong Louie’s move to Dunbar in 1941 was considered by many an “oriental invasion”). After large swathes of Strathcona were razed, including the home of Vancouver’s Black community, Hogan’s Alley, community groups pushed back and politicians began to listen. Francis regards this as a “turning point in civic politics.”

Vancouver could be a wild and rough place, from loggers on Skid Road in the Downtown Eastside to corrupt cops on the take from brothels and gamblers. Early in the city’s life there was also a brilliant tram system, impressive theatre venues, a school of arts that attracted the likes of Group of Seven members Fred Varley and Jock MacDonald, and bike paths —before streetcars and cars chased them off the road. The city’s footprint often followed BC Electric streetcar lines, over stumps and slash to CPR lands or developments. Eventually the waterfront was rescued from heavy industry and complemented by a seawall begun by master stonemason James Cunningham in 1917. It is now the longest uninterrupted waterfront path in the world.

In the 1960s and 1970s community protests halted plans for a freeway through Chinatown and some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city. Liveability became important and local people would have a greater voice in future development plans. Francis also considers the pros and cons of more recent mega-projects like Expo ‘86 and the 2010 Winter Olympics. Each drew international attention and new investment to the city, but they also displaced people in poorer neighbourhoods. Mixed in with fact and anecdotes are short profiles of key figures like L.D. Taylor, the city’s longest serving mayor and activist Helena Gutteridge, the first female councillor. Ample photos help tell the stories and a Jack Shadbolt painting on the cover vividly captures nightlife on Granville Street in 1946.

A central theme in Becoming Vancouver is what Francis terms “the city’s competing ideas of itself.” The quest to create a “world class” city of steel and glass (with heritage buildings left in a pile of dust) often conflicts with other values calling for a liveable city that includes development on a more human scale. “Vancouverism” realized.

These desires are not so new. British landscape architect and planner Thomas Mawson observed “commercialism vs nature” impulses in the Vancouver population back in 1912. As Daniel Francis sees it, Vancouver remains “a city with a split personality.” This book’s wise insights into Vancouver’s past just might help two competing visions forge a future together. 9781550179163

BCBW 2021-22

BC Historical Federation council member and former CBC radio host, Mark Forsythe co-authored with Greg Dickson, From the West Coast to the Western Front: British Columbians and the Great War (Harbour, 2014).