Concluding Comments

Abstract

Collectively, the commentaries included in this special issue, along with Basecamp discussions and Zoom meetings, have produced a rich and varied portrait of urban history in Canada. In my survey, I focused narrowly on the work of those historical researchers who saw themselves as having primarily “urban” interests. Framed that way, the assessment and prognosis was gloomy. Most of the other contributors threw away the blinkers and reached a more optimistic conclusion. The exception was Phil Mackintosh, who, speaking about the state of historical geography in Canada, could find little comfort, within or beyond city limits. Out of the divergent views and debates, two important points of agreement emerged. The first was that, even narrowly defined, the state of urban historical research is better than I suggested. It may be true that it has always lacked an institutional base and that a national conference has not been held for many years, but the rise of the internet and social media supports connections, networks, and forums in ways once unthinkable. Similarly, as Jennifer Bonnell, Sean Kheraj, and Michèle Dagenais made clear in conversation, if the subfield has a limited presence at the University of Toronto, McGill, and the University of British Columbia, there are centres of activity elsewhere, notably York University and the Université de Québec à Montréal. Dagenais, and the Urban History Review’s co-editor, Harold Bérubé, also indicated that the general state of urban history in Québec is rather good, albeit heavily centred on Montreal. In conversation, Bérubé also suggested that the Review is doing better than merely surviving. Its editors receive a small but steady stream of sound, scholarly papers. And, the day before finalizing this essay, I finished reading Daniel Ross’s fine case study set in Toronto, which exemplifies an urban way of thinking.1 There is life in our subfield yet. The second conclusion is that, when a wider view is taken, a good deal of significant research is indeed being undertaken, and published, on the history of Canadian cities. Social historians, including those interested in gender issues, continue to play a role, while, as Mathieu Caron pointed out, they have expanded the scope of their enquiries to include previously neglected topics, including the gay community and sex workers. Caron also notes the growing interest in the history of Indigenous peoples. Many, of course, were displaced when white colonizers first established urban settlements, and in that sense made peripheral to urban life. Because their movements were constrained, only a few remained in, or moved to, urban places before World War II. In recent decades, however, they have become a significant urban presence, notably in the western provinces. Here, too, Concluding Comments