Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

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May 2, 2021

The first time I met Tom Berger, who died this past week, age 88, was in 2005 when we sat together on a panel of "experts" convened by the Globe and Mail to determine the "top" British Columbians of all time. It is the only time my level of expertise has ever been equated with Justice Berger's.

Actually he was unaware that our paths had crossed, sort of, 35 years earlier. It was the provincial election of 1969, my first time as a voter and his first as leader of the...

March 30, 2021

Vancouver's Chinatown in 1906. (Courtesy Vancouver Public Library 5240)

The epidemic, and more recently the horrible murders in Atlanta, have focussed attention on the corrosive impact of anti-Asian prejudice and discrimination. Most Vancouverites are aware of the city's long history of discrimination against its Japanese, Chinese and South Asian residents. Unable to vote,...

February 5, 2021

While waiting for my next book, Becoming Vancouver: A New History, to be published this fall -- delayed by the COVID situation -- I thought I'd introduce the project by telling some "tales of the city."

The death of James Cross last month took me back to October 1970. Not to Quebec, where the main events took place, but to Vancouver, where tragedy turned to...

December 21, 2020

December 9, 2020

Why not give the gift of history for Christmas?

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