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.
A blizzard of posters and pamphlets, portraying the country as a land of milk and honey, persuaded immigrants in the millions to come to Canada’s sparsely populated West and become prairie farmers. What wasn’t mentioned were the sod houses, backbreaking labour, regular droughts and long, killing winters.
When World War I broke out, thousands of young Canadians volunteered for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure they thought would be over within a few months. As the war ground on, the government produced propaganda aimed at new recruits for the ranks and to convince the home front that the sacrifice was worth it.
Starting in 1885 with the completion of the CPR line and the creation of the first national park in Banff, tourists from around the world were invited to experience Canada’s awe-inspiring wonders firsthand, tempted with crisp slogans, new national parks, and festivals like Banff Indian Days. Not mentioned were Canada’s racial policies discouraging non-white immigration.
With compelling research, insight, and wit, Daniel Francis documents how these three campaigns established Canada as a destination for immigrants and tourists and turned us into proud defenders of western civilization. In doing so, they also transformed the way Canadians and outsiders thought about Canada, inadvertently providing the raw material for nationhood. Each campaign produced images expressing what Canadians believed to be fundamental about their country. Those images were incomplete and misleading, providing an idealized portrait of Canada rather than a realistic snapshot.
About the author: Born and raised in Vancouver, Daniel Francis travelled east on the Trans-Canada Highway in 1971 to live in Eastern Canada (Ottawa and Montreal) for many years. He has since returned to the West Coast where he makes his living as an historical researcher/writer. He has written 15 books, principally about Canadian history. Titles include The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture (Arsenal Pulp Press, 1992), and National Dreams: Myth, Memory and Canadian History (Arsenal Pulp, 1997). He was editorial director of Horizon Canada, a Montreal-based, bilingual, illustrated history of Canada in magazine format, and the mammoth Encyclopedia of British Columbia, hailed on its appearance in 2000 as one of the most important books about the province ever published. His book L.D.: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver won the City of Vancouver Book Award in 2004.
