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This thesis is the first full-scale historical treatment of Canadian ornithology from 1860 to 1950. Ornithology is one of the most important branches of modern biology, and ornithologists were pioneer researchers in the areas of evolution, systematics, animal behaviour, zoogeography, migration, population biology and ecology. The institutional development of ornithology in Canada was much retarded by the prevailing utilitarian attitude towards science with its lack of funding for fundamental research. It was not until the second decade of the twentieth century that ornithology became part of the scientific establishment of the Canadian government. Despite this, Canadian ornithologists, in face of considerable difficulties stemming from the lack of encouragement and financial support, pursued pioneering studies in migration, behaviour and population biology of birds. Their research contributions were instrumental in taking ornithology from nineteenth century natural history to twentieth century avian biology.

The dissertation develops a theory-based, state-centered revisionist explanation of the development of Canadian broadcasting policy during the years 1955 to 1968. The hypothesis contends that state officials seek their own preferred policy outcomes rather than reflecting the preferences of societal actors. The concept of decision points is used to explore the origins of the 1958 Broadcasting Act and the 1968 Broadcasting Act. The evidence suggests the content of these measures was largely determined by bureaucratic actors. Two aspects of the 1968 legislation (the power to approve broadcasting licenses and extension of broadcasting regulatory jurisdiction to cable television) are examined in detail. In both cases, the evidence points to the decisive role of state rather than societal actors in the policy process. Confirmation of the central hypothesis raises questions about society-centered theories of the democratic state.

This thesis undertakes a critique of Canada's Stratford Festival as an institutional site of theatre production in the years 1953 through 1967. I propose to identify the major recurring "statements" of the institutional discourse; those statements which were circulated through various printed documents, including commentaries on the Festival and its work and the Festival's public relations material. The exercise of critique reveals that the Festival discourse became a hegemonic discourse, circulating a set of normative and prescriptive understandings as to what should constitute theatre and culture for Canada. The ideology dominating the discourse was that identified by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno by the term the "culture industry." This ideology allowed for the autonomy of the Festival's productions to be eliminated, such that they functioned as commodities in which all capacity for critique has been abrogated. / It will be shown that the Festival discourse privileged an aesthetic of spectacle and effect throughout these years, an aesthetic which implied a concept of cultural experiences as passive spectatorship and the easy consumption of effects; in short as commodity. In conjunction with this aesthetic, the discourse registered a concept of culture as affirmative--as an experience which affirms existing social relations in offering an apparent, if false, resolution or catharsis of conflict and of social inequality. When the Festival was identified as proof of Canada's cultural maturity and the focus of the nation's "life of the mind" these values were established as the nation's dominant cultural values. Moreover, this discursive portrayal of the Festival established it as Canada's foremost cultural commodity. And so the discourse simultaneously conveyed a concept of culture and of the Festival as commodities. / By the 1960's the Festival was being identified as not simply a leading voice in Canadian culture, but as the institution on which the development of Canadian culture depended, thereby positioning the Festival as hegemonic. The Festival discourse thus articulated the Festival's central duality, its capacity to function as both cultural commodity and authority. The position of the Festival and its discourse as cultural authority ensured that it was the Festival concept of affirmative culture, marked by the displacement of the political, philosophical and existential role of culture, which dominated the discourse on theatre and the wider discourse of Canadian culture. In this respect the Festival failed to offer an active-critical experience which would counter the tendency towards the ethos of spectatorship and passivity which followed from the developing mass media.

Travel accounts are an important source of information about eastern Canada during the period 1763-1838. The authors included civil and military officers, merchants, and farmers, of British, French, German, and American nationality. Most of them displayed the outlook and prejudices of the middle and upper classes, and almost all of them were Protestants of varying degrees of conviction. Between the Conquest and the Peace of Paris, these travellers found a conquered province inhabited mainly by French-speaking peasants with distinctive customs. The influx of Loyalists after the American Revolution augmented the small but influential English-speaking community and led to the establishment of the separate provinces of Lower and Upper Canada in 1791. After the War of 1812, immigration from Great Britain and Ireland added to the complexity of the eastern province and greatly increased the population of the western. Racial antagonism became serious in Lower Canada, but it was never important in Upper Canada. Social conditions showed gradual improvement throughout the period 1763-1838, but intellectual and cultural progress was slow, particularly in Upper Canada. The dominance of the Roman Catholic church in Lower Canada had no parallel in the western province, where religious diversity was the rule. Economically, "both provinces were backward, even in agriculture, the mainstay of their people. Transportation facilities were generally primitive, with certain important exceptions. The political struggle in Lower Canada was essentially an attempt by the French-speaking majority to assume the direction of its own affairs by subordinating the executive to the popular legislature. This racial issue did not arise in Upper Canada, where the reformers sought to put into effect democratic principles of British and American provenance. The Rebellions of 1837 came as a surprise, despite the evidence of mounting tension in the years immediately preceding. The observations of travellers were sufficiently consistent to act as a useful complement to Lord Durham's Report. On the whole, they confirmed his diagnosis and supported his recommendations. The picture of the Canadas derived from travel literature is of considerable value for an understanding of Canadian development during the period 1763-1838. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This thesis investigates one of the major factors in the supply and cost of housing, land. The hypothesis of this thesis is that a principal reason why Canada continues to have a housing problem is that government housing policy has treated land as a market commodity much like any other and has rarely examined, let alone challenged, the ramifications of this assumption in terms of its impact on the supply, quality and price of housing. The examination of the land component of urban housing is pursued by exploring the following research questions: How have Canadian government officials, politicians and reformers defined the urban land problem as it relates to housing and what land policies have been considered and implemented in relation to housing problems? The public, professional and academic discussion of these questions is pursued by a review of the professional and academic literature, municipal plans, technical reports and government studies and the debates on housing and urban land policy in the federal parliament. The thesis is divided into two parts. First, the philosophy of private landownership and the basic thrust of public land policy is examined. Most attention is given to the nature of property rights and their protection and enforcement by government as it is the most fundamental land policy. Also, the nature of urbanization and the intervention of government in urban development and housing since 1900 is reviewed. Second, an historical overview of land policy and the provision of housing is provided. This discussion is divided into four historical periods: 1900-1929, 1930-1939, 1940-1969, 1970-1985. The constraints on and opportunities for urban land policy are examined and the nature of land policy in each period is discussed. There have been, in general, five categories of land policies adopted since 1900: land use zoning, subdivision regulation, public infrastructure and servicing programmes, public land assembly programmes and unearned increment taxes. These policies have emphasized the treatment of land as a privately held market commodity. There is a conflict between the desires of private land owners to maximize the return on their land and the need of the broader community to obtain land for housing at prices which make affordable and physically adequate housing feasible. This conflict is at the crux of the urban land problem. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

This paper critically re-examines the long held belief that parties in the first decade after Confederation were rather loose coalitions of provincial and ethnic factions, and that they were, on the whole, rather undisciplined. Taking as the focus for criticism Escott Reid's work during the 1930's on the development of national parties in Canada, this paper first presents his arguments (and of those who accept his thesis); following this perusal, the paper turns to the creation and examination of an "alternative thesis", one which argues that parties in the early post-Confederation period were, in fact, fairly cohesive. Unlike most other work done in this area, this paper is based largely upon an analysis of empirical evidence. The core of this paper lies in a comprehensive examination of the individual and collective voting behaviour of all M.P.'s on all divisions recorded during each of the first three parliaments (1867-1872; 1872-1874; 1874-1878). By undertaking such an examination it is possible to discern precisely the degree to which parties were, or were not, fairly cohesive voting blocs. In addition to examining the overall loyalty of M.P.'s to their party leader, a number of highly salient and critical issues have been singled out for further examination. The findings of this paper prove quite interesting. Contrary to orthodox opinion, we find that the two parties were, in fact, fairly cohesive voting blocs even as early as 1867. The main core of Reid's thesis having been critically reexamined (and somewhat disproved) the writer turns to a critique of several of Reid's other arguments. While the arguments presented by the writer are largely of a speculative nature, their intended purpose is merely to present alternatives to those presented by Reid, and to show that there may be other explanations for the supposed tightening up of party lines after 1878. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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