Wild Things: Nature, Culture, and Tourism in Ontario, 1790-1914

Wesley B. Turner is an associate professor of history at Brock
University and the author of The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides
Won and The Military in the Niagara Peninsula.

Patricia Jasen’s examination of the origins of tourism in Ontario
leads her to conclude that the industry was a self-invented phenomenon,
its “search for wilderness and wildness” deriving from the
contemporary cultural context. As a simulated activity, available only
to those with the time and money to indulge in it, tourism in Jasen’s
view was, and remains, fundamentally exploitative. She follows her brief
introduction with individual chapters on Niagara Falls, the St. Lawrence
River, the upper Great Lakes, Toronto’s “recreational hinterland”
(particularly Muskoka and Toronto Island), and Northern Ontario.

Although it is heavy going at times, Wild Things breaks new ground in
its exploration of the impetus behind the astonishingly rapid
development of tourism in Ontario. Jasen’s discussion of the interplay
among individual motives, business incentives, and wider social and
cultural currents is both fascinating and enlightening. Her book will
appeal to students of Canadian history and to general readers alike.