Columbia Reviews

I've had the older edition of this book for years and brought it on every road trip we've ever taken. Certainly it doesn't have every wonderful place you've ever stayed at -- but it has so many that are good it would be foolish not to follow the recommendations it provides.

My only complaint is that some of the wonderful places (which, granted, we never would have found had it not been for this book) have become so difficult to get reservations at that we find this book sometimes does not help for those last minute weekend trips out of town.

That said, if you live in the Northwest, consider this your bible -- from Portland to Vancouver, the Islands, and everywhere in between -- you will always find a reliable recommendation for a good table and a warm bed in the pages of this book.

This collection is not only beautiful but hugely significant in the marking of a totally unique Black Experience. Congratulations to Mr.Compton for bringing this to light! The history of the western most province in Canada is unusual in that it is one of very few places that does not, or rather, no longer, has a centralised black Community.A positive aspect of this is that it is not a ghettoised community. The difficult part is that one can have the sense that this still significant and growing community is permanently fractured. What Compton does so well is bring this unique history together.This beautiful blues people pioneering history appears alongside the children of hiphop now. One gets an overview that stretches and eases into that phat orange Pacific sunset.

The book is an inspired Rocky Mountain solid collection of historical document and contemporary prose and poetry .

Recline and read.

It's the only book on the Bowron Canoe Circuit I've found that gives a reader a true photographic picture of the rewards he/she will experience when traveling this circuit. Short on the historic value of this area and short on preparing visitors on what's required to travel in a true wilderness setting.

Sorry to see it was out of print - was looking it up so I could buy another copy.
Lightweight, so travels well, has very good info on most everything u could want to see, including Banff/Jasper Nat'l parks, (even though they are in Alberta Province).
Reasonably well arranged.

Get this book, and if you want to know everything there is to know about Canadian Rocky Mountain flora and fauna, add Ben Gadd's book "Handbook of the Canadian Rockies" (a considerably heavier book, due to color plates) and you won't need anything else but a map.

Mr. Garden has done his homework here , the book is quite a masterpiece . The images shown are all classics. All areas of this hard to railfan line are covered, either by the author or other diligent photographers. The line history is likewise documented, from its beginnings to to present day. After reading this work, I am ready to pack my cameras and hike into some of the locations illustrated for a go at it. This book will be a cult classic in my opinion, well worth the money, even if you have never set foot in British Columbia, Canada.

British Columbia is Canada's most biologically diverse province. If you want a great introduction then there is no better book than this award winning volume. Buy it.

Florence Agassiz was my great grandmother. I've heard stories over the years about her courage and strength of character (not mentioned in Ms. Bridge's version is the fact that she went on to bear John Goodfellow's eleven children)and it's a thrill to read about her in such an exciting book. The hardships of her mother's life, not simply endured but overcome by a deep need to provide a strong and proper upbringing for her children, are the most compelling theme of this story. Amazing!

Harvey describes in considerable but not tedious detail the factors that led to the past and present tranportation corridors in southern British Columbia, spanning a period from the mid-nineteenth century, into the second half of the 20th. Every citizen should become familiar with the shenanigans of the big corporate and government interests that retarded transportation development, and the settlement and livelihoods of the ordinary working people in this part of the west. This account is a good start. The author takes us into the stupid and expensive competition between the early railroaders and the steamboat companies, and the struggle to build roads across the land from east to west. He describes the immense difficulties in creating east-west transport links across a rugged land of north-south valleys, and terrible mountain passes. Given the love/hate relationship many westerners have had with the big railroad interests, Harvey debunks the legends of some of the construction personalities, including the americans J.J.Hill and W.C. VanHorne. He is critical of the short-sighted company and government decisions that led to great inconvenience and delays in development of the interior of the northwest that lasted decades. Clearly a fan of the Sternwheelers in the west, he dwells upon their charms and gives us a clear sense of the romance of traveling the interior lakes, and on the Columbia, Fraser, and Kootenay rivers. He gives us an implicit warning here too, of the dangers of applying yesterday's technology to tomorrow's transportation needs. Harvey knows his stuff, at least partially a result of his long time employment in government Public Works. He has included maps, fascinating photos, good chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index in this well-edited book. This volume is written for the general reader in B.C. and western frontier history, and is recommended for those old enough to remember nothing but dusty gravel roads in the west, youth who think highways and railways have always just been there, rail and steamboat fans, and anyone who wonders why the northern Pacific coast is the way it is! This was an excellent historical read, very entertaining, and hard to put down. Together with it's companion volume, "Carving the Western Path - By River, Rail, and Road Through Central and Northern B.C.", Harvey has written a very good 'popular history' account of the coming of modern transportation and its' enormous effects on settlement and industry in the far west.

If I am not mistaken this book is an extension of the Masters' thesis that Loenen did at the University of British Columbia a couple of years ago. The thesis, in turn, was inspired by Loenen's time in the provincial government of British Columbia's Bill Vander Zalm from 1986-1991.

The main argument of Loenen's book is that the first-past-the-post electoral system (also known as the "Single Member Plurality") has instilled in Canada a political system that is almost dictatorial in nature. He sees power as having become concentrated at the executive (or Cabinet) level, with citizens - and even back-bench MP's - having little real say in how government is run. The solution that is offered is a move to a "Single Transferable Vote" (STV). Which in reality is a move to the Proportional Representation, in which it is beleived that each vote will carry more wieght and be more fairly represented than is currently the case.

Events from the early 1990s seem to be employed by Loenen to back-up his contention that the average citizen is not guaranteed a say within the current system. These are the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords - both of which were soundly defeated by public opinion. The point that is drawn is that is that poiticians were completely out of step with their constiuents on these iniatives. The implication being that a different electoral system might have helped prevent these divisive Accords.

Loenen uses British Columbia as a case study for the book to show how STV would have the potential to open he possibilty for new forms of political behaviour. His chapters deal with issues such as the legislature, the relationship between the Cabinet and the legislature, political parties, and all the different types of voting systems.

My own personal opinion of this book is that it is a very well thought out and argued case. Yet, I personally am a little reluctant to be swayed by the case for proportional representation. I beleive it is simply the substitution of one set of problems for another - with there being no guarantee that STV could be any more democratic than FPTP. Both system have their weaknesses and both are prone to manipulation and detachment from the citizenry. Nevertheless, I still highly recommend the book!