The Mormon Presence in Canada

George A. Rawlyk is a professor of History at Queen’s University and
the author of Champions of the Truth: Fundamentalism, Modernism, and the
Maritime Baptists.

There are 16 articles in this disjointed and disappointing book—the
result of a major conference dealing with the Canadian Mormon
experience, held in Edmonton in May of 1987. As in many such volumes,
the chapters vary considerably in quality. Most, moreover, seem to be
aimed at a somewhat-uncritical Mormon academic audience.

The first two sections, concerned with historical roots, are
surprisingly uncritical. Little attention is devoted, particularly in
these chapters, to the more-negative aspects of the Canadian Mormon
experience; Mormon hagiography is the norm throughout the volume.
However, the exceptions—Maureen U. Beecher’s superb “Mormon Women
in Southern Alberta: The Pioneer Years,” and Jessie L. Embry’s
fascinating “‘Two Legal Wives’: Mormon Polygamy in Canada, the
United States and Mexico”—underscore the fact that this could have
been a ground-breaking study. Instead, it is yet another limp and tired
literary manifestation of a well-funded Canadian academic conference.