Lower Canadian Research Articles

The Lay of the Land: Four New Books in Canadian Rural History

James Murton Rural Protest on Prince Edward Island: From British Colonization to the Escheat Movement. By Rusty Bittermann. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. xii, 372 pp., maps, tables. $65.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-802-00439-1. $29.95 (paper). ISBN 0-802-07229-1. The Other Quebec: Microhistorical Essays on Nineteenth-Century Religion and Society. By J.I. Little. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. xii, 278 pp., maps, illus. $70.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-802-09100-8. $35.00 (paper). ISBN 0-802-09397-3. Diaspora in the Countryside: Two Mennonite Communities and Mid-Twentieth-Century Rural Disjuncture. By Royden Loewen. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006. xxiv, 331 pp., maps, illus. $70.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-802-09144-X. $32.95 (paper). ISBN 0-80209418-X. Contesting Rural Space: Land Policy and Practices of Resettlement on Saltspring Island, 1859-1891. By R.W. Sandwell. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005. xxii, 324 pp., maps, illus., figures, tables. $75.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-173-52859-8. $29.95 (paper). ISBN 978-0-773-52952-6. The trouble with writing a review essay on Canadian rural history is that the field does not exist. Rural history is challenged by the vastness of its reach. The books reviewed here cover a range of communities united chiefly by not being urban. They span a period in which rural people went from being the majority of Canadian society to a small minority. They have much to say about farming but consider also other economic activities of rural people. They might be classed, variously, as social, political, religious, and environmental history. Yet to emphasize heterogeneity and diversity is to miss the common issues that rural historians have grappled with since the field shifted, under the aegis of the 1970s social history revolution, from the economic history of agriculture to broader questions of what it meant to be rural in Canada. How do we explain the shift, over the last several hundred years, from agriculture as a way of life to farming as a business? (Thompson 1990, 111). Given this shift (and not all historians accept that it has happened, or at least not this simply), what is the relationship between rural society and economy, and the forces of market capitalism headquartered in the city? As capitalism and modernization chipped away at rural economic independence, did rural society remain a unique phenomenon, and in what ways and for how long? Finally, who controlled the land, and how did that control contribute to, or impede, rural independence? I pose these as four separate questions, but answering one inevitably leads to another. In Rural Protest in Prince Edward Island (2006), for instance, Rusty Bittermann argues both for the critical importance of debates over the control of land and for a close and mutually constitutive relationship between city and country. He does so in the context of the Escheat Movement of the 183Os and 184Os. The Escheat Movement was an attempt to bring to an end the quasi-manorial land system of Prince Edward Island (PEI). PEI had been colonized in the late eighteenth century through the granting of land to a small group of proprietors. In exchange for the grants, the Crown had required landlords to locate a certain number of people on the land and to ensure its development. Few met these terms. Tenants, seizing on these lapses, called for the imperial government to escheat-revoke -proprietorial and redistribute lands to settlers in fee simple grants (4). Escheators argued that the state was obligated to ensure a just social and economic order (4) and that settlers' work on their land gave them rights-more rights than their landlords. British authorities saw the Escheators as an example of mob rule and crushed them. Out of a richly detailed study of petitions and elections, high politics in London, and rent resistance in places like Bay Fortune comes one of Bittermann's key points: that PEI cannot be understood without considering London, the Escheators without the Lower Canadian Patriotes. …

Fur‑Trade Labour and Lower Canadian Agrarian Structures

L'emploi saisonnier rattaché au commerce de la fourrure a eu des effets considérables sur l'économie rurale dans certaines régions du Bas-Canada et l'auteur se propose ici d'étudier ceux de ces effets qui sont les plus manifestes dans le cas de la communauté rurale de Sorel. Il appert d'abord que, dans cette paroisse, l'emploi saisonnier engendré par le commerce de la fourrure s'est avéré un élément essentiel de l'économie locale pendant les années 1790 à 1820. Il ne s'agit pas ici, comme certains l'ont soutenu, d'une situation simple où des énergies se trouvaient temporairement détournées de l'activité agricole, mais bien d'une situation beaucoup plus complexe où la dépendance vis-à-vis d'un revenu extérieur a conduit à la fragmentation des terres, à la surpopulation rurale et à une pauvreté plutôt généralisée. Cette étude de Sorel démontre aussi que la coexistence, dans un endroit donné, d'une agriculture de subsistance et d'un salaire saisonnier est apparue, dans certaines régions de la vallée du Saint-Laurent, bien avant que l'industrie forestière ne vienne la favoriser ailleurs au Québec.

The Fear of God in Early Modern Political Theory

A group's collective identity is a complex phenomenon which is always difficult to delineate and understand, but however one does so, historical antecedents must be a crucial element. This year's "Presidential Address" explores this important question, which was raised in an earlier presidential discourse. On that occasion, Robert Craig Brown noted that "historical knowledge is an essential component of a nation's sense of cultural identity. ' ' Professor Wallot elucidates this theme: without a concept of what you have been, you cannot know who you are, or what you can be. As one of the characters in Joy Kogama's novel Obasan observes, "you are your history. If you cut off any of it, you're an amputee. ' ' Professor Wallot sets out to explore this problem by examining the Lower Canadian identity between roughly 1780 and 1815, in order to place the colony within the context of the culture of the North Atlantic world. Though Quebec/Lower Canada has often been portrayed as a closed society, relatively homogenous in its attitudes, cut off from its intellectual roots, and somewhat unsympathetic to new ideas, study of aspects of its culture suggest otherwise. The colony had access to contemporary international thought, in all of its variety, and was more than a passive observer in the clash of ideas and the rhythms of cultural change then current in Europe. In arriving at these conclusions, the author presents a two-part defence; in the first part of his paper, he examines the means of cultural diffusion, the role of printed materials in the formation of attitudes and the rapidity with which European ideas were transferred to Quebec. He concludes that, when one removes the time required to transmit these ideas, the colony was aware of, and deeply involved in, the intellectual cross-currents of the North Atlantic world. The author then proceeds to test the validity of this point by examining three quite different aspects of public culture: the discussion aroused by the fear of overpopulation and consequent impoverishment; the banking system and money, and finally, parliamentary theory and practice. In each of these fields, Professor Wallot concludes, the colony's cultural élite, at the very least, was aware of, and responsive to, recent European thought. In a society which boasted nearly universal literacy, this conclusion suggests a culture far more up-to-date than previous work would lead us to expect.

Discours du président : Frontière ou fragment du système atlantique : Des idées étrangères dans l’identité bas‑canadienne au début du XIXe siècle

A group's collective identity is a complex phenomenon which is always difficult to delineate and understand, but however one does so, historical antecedents must be a crucial element. This year's "Presidential Address" explores this important question, which was raised in an earlier presidential discourse. On that occasion, Robert Craig Brown noted that "historical knowledge is an essential component of a nation's sense of cultural identity. ' ' Professor Wallot elucidates this theme: without a concept of what you have been, you cannot know who you are, or what you can be. As one of the characters in Joy Kogama's novel Obasan observes, "you are your history. If you cut off any of it, you're an amputee. ' ' Professor Wallot sets out to explore this problem by examining the Lower Canadian identity between roughly 1780 and 1815, in order to place the colony within the context of the culture of the North Atlantic world. Though Quebec/Lower Canada has often been portrayed as a closed society, relatively homogenous in its attitudes, cut off from its intellectual roots, and somewhat unsympathetic to new ideas, study of aspects of its culture suggest otherwise. The colony had access to contemporary international thought, in all of its variety, and was more than a passive observer in the clash of ideas and the rhythms of cultural change then current in Europe. In arriving at these conclusions, the author presents a two-part defence; in the first part of his paper, he examines the means of cultural diffusion, the role of printed materials in the formation of attitudes and the rapidity with which European ideas were transferred to Quebec. He concludes that, when one removes the time required to transmit these ideas, the colony was aware of, and deeply involved in, the intellectual cross-currents of the North Atlantic world. The author then proceeds to test the validity of this point by examining three quite different aspects of public culture: the discussion aroused by the fear of overpopulation and consequent impoverishment; the banking system and money, and finally, parliamentary theory and practice. In each of these fields, Professor Wallot concludes, the colony's cultural élite, at the very least, was aware of, and responsive to, recent European thought. In a society which boasted nearly universal literacy, this conclusion suggests a culture far more up-to-date than previous work would lead us to expect.

Observed Changes in Cyclone Activity in Canada and Their Relationships to Major Circulation Regimes

Abstract This study assessed the climate and trend of cyclone activity in Canada using mainly the occurrence frequency of cyclone deepening events and deepening rates, which were derived from hourly mean sea level pressure data observed at 83 Canadian stations for up to 50 years (1953–2002). Trends in the frequency of cyclone activity were estimated by logistic regression analysis, and trends of seasonal extreme cyclone intensity, by linear regression analysis. The results of trend analysis show that, among the four seasons, winter cyclone activity has shown the most significant trends. It has become significantly more frequent, more durable, and stronger in the lower Canadian Arctic, but less frequent and weaker in the south, especially along the southeast and southwest coasts. Winter cyclone deepening rates have increased in the zone around 60°N but decreased in the Great Lakes area and southern Prairies–British Columbia. However, extreme winter cyclone activity seems to have experienced a weaker increase in northwest-central Canada but a stronger decline in the Great Lakes area and in southern Prairies. The results also show more frequent summer cyclone activity with slower deepening rates on the east coast, as well as less frequent cyclone activity with faster deepening rates in the Great Lakes area in autumn. Cyclone activity in Canada was found to be closely related to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Overall, cyclone activity in Canada is most closely related to the NAO. The simultaneous NAO index explains about 44% (41%) of the winter (autumn) cyclone activity variance in the east coast, 31% of winter cyclone activity variance in the 60°–70°N zone, and 17% of autumn cyclone activity variance in the Great Lakes area. Also, in several regions (e.g., the east coast, the southwest, and the 60°–70°N zone) up to 15% of the seasonal cyclone activity variance can be explained by the NAO/PDO/ENSO index one–three seasons earlier, which is useful for seasonal forecasting.

The Death of Whiggery: Lower-Canadian British Constitutionalism and the tentation de l’histoire parallèle

The Constitutional Act of 1791 was sought to create in Lower Canada a community whose social and political values reflected the basic assumptions of late-eighteenth-century Whiggery. These included representation of interest rather than of individuals, the importance of the "due" weight of property, and the organic nature of the British constitution. These values of "Liberty and Property" constituted the focus of the emotional and cultural image of the British Constitution. For the British Lower Canadians of the 1830s, these values were not fossilised remnants. Rather, they formed a coherent framework that made legitimate their conflict with the French-Canadian majority for control over politics. The influence of organised Constitutionalism did not disappear with the Act of Union of 1841. In the opening years of the union, anglophones identified with the Constitutionalist party which dominated both opposition and government in Canada East. They remained an influence until midcentury. Indeed, the final disintegration of Constitutionalism as a defensible basis for British Lower-Canadian politics was not the result of the inevitable triumph of La Fontaine's Responsible Government. Because they strongly identified, not simply with Britain, but with specific elements of British society, English-speaking Lower Canadians responded to changes in British political society. “La tentation de l'histoire parallèle” ensured that the Irish Repeal agitation and the Free Trade campaign would disrupt the assumption of a united British "interest." After the 1840s, the disproportionate power of British-Canadian élites in Lower Canada was based on their influence among the leaders of political parties rather than a collective identity rooted in the values of ''Whiggery.''

Tocqueville and Lower Canadian Educational Networks

Tocqueville and Lower Canadian Educational Networks

Adverse-Weather Trends in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract This study provides an assessment of changes in the occurrence frequency of four types of adverse-weather (freezing precipitation, blowing snow, fog, and low ceilings) and no-weather (i.e., no precipitation or visibility obscuration) events as observed at 15 Canadian Arctic stations of good hourly weather observations for 1953–2004. The frequency time series were subjected to a homogenization procedure prior to a logistic regression–based trend analysis. The results show that the frequency of freezing precipitation has increased almost everywhere across the Canadian Arctic since 1953. Rising air temperature in the region has probably resulted in more times that the temperature is suitable for freezing precipitation. On the contrary, the frequency of blowing snow occurrence has decreased significantly in the Canadian Arctic. The decline is most significant in spring. Changes in fog and low ceiling (LC) occurrences have similar patterns and are most (least) significant in summer (autumn). Decreases were identified for both types of events in the eastern region in all seasons. In the southwest, however, the fog frequency has increased significantly in all seasons, while the LC frequency has decreased significantly in spring and summer. The regional mean rate of change in the frequency of the four types of adverse weather was estimated to be 7%–13% per decade. The frequency of no-weather events has also decreased significantly at most of the 15 sites. The decrease is most significant and extensive in autumn. Comparison with the adverse-weather trends above indicates that the decline in no-weather occurrence (i.e., increase in weather occurrence) is not the result of an increase in blowing snow or fog occurrence; it is largely the result of the increasing frequency of freezing precipitation and, most likely, other types of precipitation as well. This is consistent with the reported increases in precipitation amount and more frequent cyclone activity in the lower Canadian Arctic.

TPA use for Stroke in the Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network

Thrombolytic therapy with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) has been shown to be cost-effective and safe. Thrombolysis for stroke with tPA is now a standard of care in North America. However, it is only used on a small percentage of patients. The Registry of the Canadian Stroke Network was a consent-based stroke registry from 21 hospital sites across Canada. Using the thrombolysis data in phase 1 and 2 of the Registry, we sought to describe the use of stroke thrombolysis and its outcomes. A total of 4107 patients were diagnosed with ischemic stroke in phase 1 and 2 of the Registry, of which 8.9% were treated with tPA. In consented tPA patients, the method of tPA administration was 85.8% i.v. only, 9.0% ia only, and 5.2% i.v./i.a. combined. Patients had a median onset-to-treatment time of 167 minutes [IQR 140-188]. One quarter (25.5%) of eligible candidates (time from onset <150 minutes) were treated with tPA. Protocol violations occurred in 27.7% (67/242) of patients with 14.9% (10/67) mortality. Overall, in-hospital mortality was 11.6%. Lower Canadian Neurological Scale score and higher glucose level were predictive of mortality The symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) rate (phase 2 only) was 4.3%. The mean Stroke Impact Scale-16 score at six months was 73.2, approximately equivalent to a modified Rankin scale score of 2. At selected hospitals in Canada, thrombolysis use is higher than previously reported rates. Thrombolysis continues to be safe and effective in Canada.

Internet Pharmacy: Undoing Canada's Goals for Life Science Innovation?

Canada is home to a number of rapidly growing Internet pharmacies that export drugs to the US. The practice takes advantage of lower Canadian drug prices that are enforced by legislation. The trade threatens to destabilize the global pharmaceutical business model because it undermines higher prices that have traditionally been accessible in the US. The approach tends to reduce the attractiveness of Canada as a target for pharmaceutical investment by major corporations and, therefore, weakens Canadian public policy approaches that seek to promote pharmaceutical R&D activities.

Prices And Availability Of Pharmaceuticals: Evidence From Nine Countries

This study compares average price levels for pharmaceuticals in eight countries--Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and the United Kingdom--relative to the United States. Our most comprehensive indexes, adjusted for U.S. manufacturer discounts, show Japan's prices to be higher than U.S. prices, and other countries' prices ranging from 6 percent to 33 percent lower than U.S. prices. The decline of the Canadian dollar and rise of the U.K. pound contribute to the finding of lower Canadian prices and higher U.K. prices in 1999 than in 1992. Our findings suggest that U.S.-foreign price differentials are roughly in line with income and smaller for drugs than for other medical services.

Should the US allow prescription drug reimports from Canada?

As a result of public outrage over lower prescription drug prices in Canada, Congress passed legislation that would allow these drugs to be imported into the US. The lower Canadian prices reflect price regulation. Opponents of allowing these imports have argued that the US will import Canadian price controls and that profits of pharmaceutical companies will be hurt. In this paper, a model is developed in which a good sold in the foreign country is subject to a negotiated price which is determined in a Nash bargaining game. When imports back into the home country are allowed, this negotiated price also becomes the domestic price. This causes the home firm to make fewer price concession in the Nash bargaining game. Home firm profits are found to rise under the reimport regime for both of the demand functions analyzed in this paper.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon residues in the sediments of a dune lake as a result of power boating

AbstractThe potential chemical effects of motorized recreational activities (power boating, water skiing, jet skiing) on Brown Lake, an Australian perched, acid dune lake, were investigated. The objective of this study was to identify and quantify polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds (PAHs) that may have accumulated in the water and/or the organic bottom sediments of the test lake as a result of the operation of powered recreational watercraft, and to evaluate any risk to aquatic biota. To achieve this, a detailed sampling and analysis programme of the lake water and sediments was implemented. Basic water quality, ionic and nutrient data gave no indication of any deterioration in the water quality of the lake, which was attributable to human usage in general or motorized recreational activities in particular. However, analysis of samples taken from the organic bottom sediments of the lake revealed the presence of 10 PAH, including benzo(a)pyrene, chrysene, fluoranthene, phenanthrene and pyrene, which are known to be indicative of fossil fuel combustion processes. Three PAH compounds were found at all survey sites: benzo(a)pyrene (in 46% of samples), fluoranthene (in 53% of samples) and pyrene (in 44% of samples). Results of the analyses were compared with values from published guidelines for residues in freshwaters and sediments, as well as with previous studies dealing with the effects of fossil fuel combustion products on lakes. The highest PAH concentrations in sediments were recorded for benzo(a)pyrene, with three values (830, 955 and 1070 μg kg–1 dryweight) exceeding the upper threshold recommended in the draft Canadian freshwater sediment quality guidelines. Benzo(a)pyrene also exceeded the lower Canadian sediment threshold in 51 (40%) samples. These results indicate a significant level of chemical contamination of Brown Lake as a consequence of four decades of motorized recreational activities and present a significant risk to aquatic biota, particularly benthic and littoral invertebrates associated with the contaminated sediments.

Should the U.S. Allow Prescription Drug Reimports from Canada?

As a result of public outrage over lower prescription drug prices in Canada, Congress passed legislation that would allow these drugs to be imported into the United States. The lower Canadian prices reflect price regulation. Opponents of allowing these imports have argued that the U.S. will import Canadian price controls and that profits of pharmaceutical companies will be hurt. In this paper, a model is developed in which a good sold in the foreign country is subject to a negotiated price which is determined in a Nash Bargaining game. When imports back into the home country are allowed, this negotiated price also becomes the domestic price. This causes the home firm to make fewer price concession in the Nash Bargaining game. When the example of linear demand is analyzed, it is found that home firm profits are always higher when reimports are allowed.

Do Foreign Birth and Asian Minority Status Lower Canadian Women’s Earning?

Do Foreign Birth and Asian Minority Status Lower Canadian Women’s Earning?

Hiring Practices in Canadian Legal Education: Linkages among Top Ranked Law Schools

The top ranked Canadian law schools were not linked to one another by employing one another's graduates as were the top ranked U.S. law schools. The four top ranked Canadian law schools, however, employed more faculty members with terminal law degrees from the 10 top ranked U.S. law schools than did the 12 lower ranked Canadian law schools.

Rationalization effects of tariff reductions

We analyze a panel of 230 Canadian manufacturing industries to investigate whether trade liberalization promotes efficiency through increased scale. During the six years following the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Canadian manufacturing exhibited substantial rationalization – a decline in the number of plants accompanied by increases in output per plant. We find that the bilateral tariff reductions had opposing effects on scale. Contraction induced by lower Canadian tariffs largely offset the 10% scale increase caused by U.S. tariff cuts. The observed increase in scale arose due to currency depreciation, compositional shifts towards high-scale industries, and undercounting of small establishments.

Brian Young, The Politics of Codification: The Lower Canadian Civil Code of 1866, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 1994. Pp. xviii + 264. $44.95 (ISBN 0-7735-1235-7).

Brian Young, The Politics of Codification: The Lower Canadian Civil Code of 1866, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press for the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, 1994. Pp. xviii + 264. $44.95 (ISBN 0-7735-1235-7).

A deep sense of wrong. Beverley D. Boissery, The treason, trials and transportation to New South Wales of lower Canadian rebels after the 1838 rebellion

As a recent book, Canadians in Australia by Jim Bennett and Ian Fry makes clear, connections and interchanges between the two nations are rather more plentiful than most would expect, whether it be our shared Commonwealth past or the surprising fact that the Eureka Flag was designed by a Canadian involved in that up-rising. Perhaps one of the least known associations is that of the transported English and French Canadian 'convicts' as a result of rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada (now Ontario and Quebec respectively) in 1837 and 1838. As a French Canadian, who has recently discovered a possible relative among the francophone convicts sent out here in 1839, I have a particular interest in the latter.

The Politics of Codification: The Lower Canadian Civil Code of 1866.

The Politics of Codification: The Lower Canadian Civil Code of 1866.