"To Be and Build the Glorious World" examines the educational thought and practice of Watson Thomson, the most passionate and controversial of the activist educators who worked in Canada from the mid-1930s to the mid-1940s. Using a contextual biographical methodology, the evolution of Thomson's motivational structure and world-view is examined. The opening chapters identify the educative forces that shaped Thomson's transformative-communitarian educational philosophy. Subsequent chapters analyze the interplay of Thomson's transformative- communitarian vision with the Canadian context—Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. A critical examination of Thomson's educational thought and practice shows that he adopted a consistent modus operandi. For Thomson, study-groups were to be spearheads of social change. Guided by the vision of a new, fully co-operative society, these groups would gradually initiate a social and intellectual revolution. Thomson's spearhead theory, put into practice in many contexts, was most successful in Saskatchewan. There he found support in a left populist culture. Thomson's accomplishments as an adult educator were many. First, he had a significant impact on many individual lives, helping people to see life as an indivisible whole. Second, Thomson participated in, and initiated, a remarkable range of educational ventures, some successful, others not. Thomson's educational thought and practice raises important questions on the relationship between nonformal education, social movements and policy outcomes. Indeed, a close study of Watson Thomson's career reveals the existence of a gentle, but persistent movement towards cultural revitalization in Western Canada in the 1930s and 1940s. Further, it suggests the presence of some unexpected avant-garde themes in the life of the Canadian left. This thesis, then, "explains" Watson Thomson's educational thought and practice contextually. In so doing, it also offers an explanation of the previously undocumented histories of adult education in three prairie provinces. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The 1870 Resistance at Red River and the Saskatchewan Rebellion of 1885 form an important chapter in the history of the Canadian West and are considered pivotal episodes in the development of the region. Despite the presence and participation of the white settlers in certain aspects of these protest movements, especially in the latter, studies have tended to characterize these events primarily as the result of the actions of Louis Riel and the Metis, relegating the role of the whites to a subordinate position in their analyses. This trend has had important consequences for the interpretion of Western Canadian history. As the idea of Western discontent and distinctive regionalism is fundamental in understanding the history of the region, the focus on the Metis role in protests against the Canadian Government has led to the conclusion that Western discontent grew out of the Metis experience and that it was Western, that is, environmental, in origin. However, as Western society and culture were shaped to an astonishing degree by the Ontario immigrants of the 1870's and 1880's, any analysis of the roots of Western discontent must also take into account the white settlers' role in the protest movements of the time. This is especially true for the Rebellion of 1885 as large numbers of Ontario settlers were both present in the West and active in agitation against the government prior to the Rebellion. By placing the general characteristics of the Western white settlers' protest and agitation during the 1870's and 1880's in the context of protests and rebellions elsewhere in North America,, it becomes clear that the settlers' discontent was not the product of the Western identity they shared with the Metis, but rather grew out of the cultural heritage they had brought from Ontario. Although the frontier environment of the West provided reasons for their discontent, it was as "British subjects," not as Westerners, that the settlers protested against the Ottawa government and the "East." In fact, in the same way that the settlers' Ontario culture became that of the West, their protest tradition, derived from their British heritage, determined the characteristics and persistence of Western discontent. Far from imposing their protest tradition on the white settlers, the Metis revealed, by their use of petitions and their appeals to the "rights of British subjects," that it was they who adapted to the form of protest brought to the West by the Ontario immigrants. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

This dissertation examines the multifaceted and pervasive impact of globalisation on the Canadian public policy environment through a detailed analysis of the monopoly marketing of prairie wheat. The study argues that forces associated with globalisation, working through regionally differentiated configurations of farmer opinion and interest groups amidst varying partisan settings, are key to understanding the changing nature of policy-making processes, structures, and outcomes in the wheat marketing arena. The forces associated with globalisation include the increased presence of transnational corporations, the expansion of international trade regimes, increased interaction and cooperation between Canadian provincial governments and US state governments, the international harmonisation of regulations, advances in transportation technology, and heightened levels of education, knowledge, and information. In attempting to understand how globalisation influences the wheat policy arena, the examination uses a comparative analysis focusing on Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The inter-governmental harmony that had prevailed since the 1940s on the matter of Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB's) wheat monopoly was replaced by conflict by the 1990s as the forces of globalisation washed across the Canadian prairies. The dissertation shows that where the absence of these forces once reinforced the CWB's wheat monopoly, the presence of these forces now poses a formidable challenge to its continuation. Farmer opinion data indicates that a trend away from monopoly selling toward open marketing is present throughout the prairies. Like the presence of the forces of globalisation, anti-monopoly opinion is particularly strong in Alberta. The dissertation will also show how the conflict over monopoly wheat marketing was projected into the policy arena through differentiated sets of interest group configurations and partisan environments. In doing so, the examination points out that institutions, while often providing resistance to change, can also serve as conduits facilitating change. The analysis shows that the public policy network involved with the marketing of prairie wheat, as well as actors within this network, have become increasingly internationalised. The examination indicates that domestic governmental regulation and control have been severely undermined in the wheat marketing arena as north-south ties increasingly undermine and replace the east-west unity previously forged by the National Policy.

The present study analyzed the evolutionary history of Erigeron trifidus Hook. by addressing two main questions: 1) Is the current hypothesis of the origin of the species by hybridization between E.compositus and E.lanatus supported by molecular data? and 2)Is the species monophyletic? An analysis of uni-and-biparentally inherited molecular markers from three species throughout the range of E.trifidus yielded data that supports the hybridization hypothesis. First, a restriction site analysis of cpDNA revealed 4 haplotypes. In most cases, cpDNA haplotypes were the same as in E.lanatus, suggesting E.lanatus as the maternal parent. Sequencing and cloning the nuclear ETS region revealed the presence of multiple repeat types in most individuals sampled. This further supports the hybrid origin hypothesis in that E.trifidus contained only repeat types present in one or the other of the putative parents. In addition, E.trifidus displayed the highest percentage of intrainidividual repeat type polymorphism, a common trait of hybrid species. Erigeron trifidus populations collected in the northern region appear to be monophyletic as they all exhibited a particular pattern of repeat type variation, a pattern absent in Ram Mountain and Waterton Lakes National Park populations. As E.lanatus has never been recorded from Ram Mountain, it is likely that the populations identified as E.trifidus are instead a different agamospermous variant of E.compositus. In Waterton Lakes National Park, populations of E.trifidus are thought to be the product of local hybridization but the identity of the putative parents remains uncertain. Therefore, E.trifidus is concluded to be polyphyletic. / viii, 66 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm.

No description available.

No description available.

As the need to understand climate induced changes increases, so too does the need to understand the long-term spatial-temporal characteristics of snow cover and snow water equivalence (SWE). Snow cover and SWE are useful indicators of climate change. In this research, we combine methods from spatial statistics, geographic information systems (GIS), time-series analysis, ecosystems classification, cluster analysis, and remote sensing, to provide a unique perspective on the spatial-temporal interactions of SWE. We show that within the Canadian Prairies, extreme SWE are becoming more spatially constrained, and may cause some regions to be more prone to flooding. As well, we find that the temporal characteristics of SWE are not captured by current ecological management units, highlighting the need for Canadian ecological management units that consider winter conditions. We then address this need by developing methods designed to generate geographically distinct SWE regimes. These regimes are used to partition the landscape into winter-based management units, and compared with conventional summer based units. We find that regional variations in the ability of current ecological units to capture SWE characteristics exist, and suggest that SWE regimes generated as a result of this analysis should be used as guidelines for developing winter-based management units in conjunction with current ecological stratifications.

This dissertation examines the multifaceted and pervasive impact of globalisation on the Canadian public policy environment through a detailed analysis of the monopoly marketing of prairie wheat. The study argues that forces associated with globalisation, working through regionally differentiated configurations of farmer opinion and interest groups amidst varying partisan settings, are key to understanding the changing nature of policy-making processes, structures, and outcomes in the wheat marketing arena. The forces associated with globalisation include the increased presence of transnational corporations, the expansion of international trade regimes, increased interaction and cooperation between Canadian provincial governments and US state governments, the international harmonisation of regulations, advances in transportation technology, and heightened levels of education, knowledge, and information. In attempting to understand how globalisation influences the wheat policy arena, the examination uses a comparative analysis focusing on Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The inter-governmental harmony that had prevailed since the 1940s on the matter of Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB's) wheat monopoly was replaced by conflict by the 1990s as the forces of globalisation washed across the Canadian prairies. The dissertation shows that where the absence of these forces once reinforced the CWB's wheat monopoly, the presence of these forces now poses a formidable challenge to its continuation. Farmer opinion data indicates that a trend away from monopoly selling toward open marketing is present throughout the prairies. Like the presence of the forces of globalisation, anti-monopoly opinion is particularly strong in Alberta. The dissertation will also show how the conflict over monopoly wheat marketing was projected into the policy arena through differentiated sets of interest group configurations and partisan environments. In doing so, the examination points out that institutions, while often providing resistance to change, can also serve as conduits facilitating change. The analysis shows that the public policy network involved with the marketing of prairie wheat, as well as actors within this network, have become increasingly internationalised. The examination indicates that domestic governmental regulation and control have been severely undermined in the wheat marketing arena as north-south ties increasingly undermine and replace the east-west unity previously forged by the National Policy. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

No description available.