Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

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June 3, 2016

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Nice to see that John Thistle's book, Resettling the Range, has won this year's Basil Stuart-Stubbs Prize.

The prize goes to the best scholarly book on a British Columbia subject and at first blush the subject -- the consequences of settlement on the ecology of the province's Interior -- may seem "academic" in the disparaging sense. Far from it. Thistle's prose is very...

May 22, 2016

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The Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is one of Vancouver's feature attractions. Opened in 1986, it was built under the direction of master craftsmen from Suzhou and was the first garden of its type outside China.

Last week I paid the garden a visit, not I must admit to drink in its...

May 17, 2016

Not long ago I noted that one of the pleasant discoveries I made during the research for my new history of the District of North Vancouver was the enclave of West Coast modernist houses in the Edgemont Village area, just five minutes from my own home.

Now I've discovered an interesting online feature on the career of another practitioner of the West Coast Style, Judah Shumiachter, and other Jewish architects in...

May 13, 2016

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It may be Friday the 13th but it is a lucky day for me. My latest book, Where Mountains Meet the Sea, An Illustrated History of the District of North Vancouver, has gone to press. Now the waiting for final printed copies begins.

(This image from the book shows a Japanese logging crew at Rice Lake in the upper Lynn Canyon area...

May 2, 2016

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A wonderful new book about The Ward neighbourhood in Toronto (The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood) from Coach House Books prompts me to wonder if non-historians are breathing new life into ...

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