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Like many Canadians of the baby boom generation, I gained my first knowledge of the Great Depression from my parents. In particular, I remember my father’s stories about the dirty thirties and how he always emphasized the precarious [...]

British Columbia’s commercial salmon fishery has garnered a great deal of media attention in recent years, dominated by the annual “fish wars” that have erupted over the way that the catch will be shared by Canadian and American fishers. International law suits, ferry seizures and political posturing by federal and provincial politicians make for good newspaper copy. Less dramatic, but more compelling, is the social and environmental history of a once-flourishing industry that is now in trouble. For over a century, commercial salmon [...]

There’s an old black and white photograph at the British Columbia Archives that shows a group of men standing next to a team of oxen. Most of the men are loggers and their hardened looks resemble the very stuff they are harvesting from Canada’s West Coast forest. One man is leaning on an axe, two more are standing on top of logs that appear to be 1.2 metres in diameter. The old photograph also tells us something about the crucial role Canada’s West Coast timber industry [...]