Vol. 39, No. 2 (2011)
Publication Date: 2011-05-16
Number of articles: 14
Articles
Abstract
Although at a safe remove from combat during the Second World War, many citizens of Saskatoon exhibited a strange sense of embattlement. During these years fearful residents believed the city to be under threat by a succession of enemies, including German Canadians, Hitler's Wehrmacht, Japanese Canadians, communists, and the provincial Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. Which foe occupied the spotlight shifted with time and the changing fortunes of war. Come the summer of 1944, enemies that had seemed so real during the early years of the war had all but vanished. By D-Day and the June provincial election, Saskatonians had overcome their wartime paranoia and optimistically turned their attention towards the more pressing needs of domestic reconstruction.
Abstract
This article offers a critique of the cohesiveness and solidarity implied in many studies of diaspora by exploring the role of historical memory as a disruptive force in the local sites of the diasporic experience. The focus of the article is on a series of controversial housing and development debates in Vancouver from the 1960s to the 1980s, all of which involved groups of Chinese Canadians or recent Chinese immigrants. Through archival research and interviews, the controversy over the construction of "monster homes" by Chinese investors and immigrants in the late 1980s is shown to be completely divorced from the solidarity generated within the Chinese community in Vancouver a generation earlier as a result campaigns to save the residential neighbourhood of Strathcona and the adjacent commercial Chinatown area. The article concludes that the absence of shared memories in a local space undermines the potential for political mobilization within a diasporic community.
Abstract
This article examines the pivotal role played by the unelected Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) in the opposition to the Spadina Expressway, from initial proposals in 1963 to the expressway's 1971 cancellation by the provincial government. After considerable grassroots protests, the matter came to a head in a full OMB hearing in late 1970. There, the OMB had to balance majority interests—as expressed by Metro Council, strongly in favour of the project—versus minority interests of community activists, residents in the path of the expressway, and a growing international network of expressway opponents. Indeed, because the scope of the OMB's mandate was wide, it was able to study the effects of expressways elsewhere in North America. While the OMB eventually voted in favour of the expressway, this was the first non-unanimous decision in its long history. Chairman Joseph Kennedy's dissenting opinion stood up for minority rights, set the stage for a debate on the role of the OMB in municipal planning and governance, and made it palatable, legitimate, and respectable for the Ontario premier to cancel the expressway four months later. This article also discusses the OMB more generally, exploring its significance in light of continuing municipal debates surrounding the role of unelected land use tribunals versus local governments.
Abstract
This paper examines the emergence and the evolution of apartment buildings in Montreal from 1880 to 1914. The study of Montreal's first apartment buildings is set within the broader context of the city's rapid economic and social growth during the latter decades of the 19th century and the years preceding World War I. It is against this backdrop of urbanization, industrialisation and territorial expansion that the evolution and the characteristics of this new type of residential building are examined. The detailed analysis of 218 buildings shows that the history of Montreal's apartment buildings can be divided into three distinct phases. The first phase, from 1880 to 1904, was marked by a shift from the apartment hotel to the apartment building, a limited number of new constructions confined to a small geographical area and a will to experiment with different architectural forms. During the second phase, from 1905 to 1909, the number of buildings grew, new types of apartment buildings were developed and they spread to a greater number of neighbourhoods. During the final phase of construction, from 1910 to 1914, the apartment building continued to grow in popularity, conquer new city spaces and the range of building types stabilized. This paper also argues that three specific types or models of apartment buildings dominated the Montreal's market between 1880 and 1914. These types can be differentiated according to their footprint, height, and degree of ornamentation. Each of these types is examined and relevant examples are provided.