I was disappointed last week to hear that the BC premier, John Horgan, was revisiting his government's plan to build a new provincial museum.

I understand that the $800-million project had become an anchor that was threatening to sink his political ambitions. The opposition, and the press, had successfully portrayed the rebuild as a boondoggle and a "vanity project". (Why are sports...

No point in having a blog if you don't use it to promote your friends' books.

Jim Marsh and I met at Carleton University in 1973; he was working in book publishing and I was doing a graduate degree. Not long after, Jim became the founding editor of The Canadian Encyclopedia, a hugely ambitious and hugely successful project initiated by Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig.

Jim has...

A very nice review of my new book appears in the May issue of Literary Review of Canada. 

"As Francis skillfully demonstrates," writes reviewer Marisa Grizenko, "the place called Vancouver has always had a rich story -- if you know where to look and to whom to listen." You can read her piece in the pages of the magazine or it is...

I nicked this book from my parents' shelves when I left home back in the Sixties. Don't know why. At the time I had no interest in the subject but I must have known it would come in handy someday, which it has. Anyway, it has stayed with me through many moves.

I was reminded of it when I read Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa...

April is National Poetry Month in Canada. Let's celebrate by recalling the Vancouver Poetry Society, one of the earliest arts organizations in the city.

The founding meeting of the VPS took place on the third floor of the Rogers Building downtown on Granville Street on October 21, 1916. It was organized by Dr. Ernest Fewster, physician, theosophist, tireless networker and...