Alberta's North: A History, 1890-1950

Fritz Pannekoek is an associate professor of heritage studies, director
of information resources at the University of Calgary, and the author of
A Snug Little Flock: The Social Origins of the Riel Resistance of
1869–70.

Wetherell and Kmet exhaustively trace the absorption and the
transformation of one “north west” of Alberta by the industrial
capitalism of Canada’s more southern parts, and the marginalization of
its more northeastern parts by that same phenomenon. They argue that
Alberta’s north had a unique regional identity up until the 1890s—an
identity that was formed out of the fur trade and its dominance by the
Hudson’s Bay Company. Euro-Canadians and their agent, the state,
readied the north for settlement by securing title to the land and
providing state-assisted transportation. With differing economic bases,
the region soon became divided. The uncaring and relentless impact of
southern capital and its agent, the state, is an equally critical theme.


Organized initially in a chronological fashion, the book moves on to a
consideration of such topics as resource management, Métis scrip,
Treaty 8, and the Grimshaw highway. Each vignette is carefully
integrated into the larger chapter but can also be read on its own.
Wetherell and Kmet are to be congratulated for their ability to weave
several complex themes throughout what in many ways is a history of
despair. Their book is recommended for libraries, courses on northern
development and Alberta history, and general readers interested in the
role of the state in Alberta’s past.