[IntotheWest]

My grandmother gave me her Canadian geography school book when I was a young kid in the 70's...since I had (have) a fascination with geography, history, and of course Canada.

Well, I managed to keep it, and a few years ago my wife had put it "away" in a plastic bag...which, I found a couple months ago when we moved again.

I finally got around to taking photos of the book and its contents to share. It was missing a couple pages when I got it, and has lost a couple more since. Most of the provinces are covered though, but the territories are definitely missing.

Since the first couple pages are missing though, it's hard to nail down the exact year. I've figured its from the early 1930's - which, would fit with my grandma and her schooling.

Anyway - I've posting all the pages I have, and it appears to be mostly readable...so, I hope forumers on here read it, and enjoy seeing how Canada was 75 years ago.


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[Dmajackson]

Very Nice.

It is so strange to see an official atlas of Canada measuring things in miles. (It's apparently 1600 miles from Hali-Havana!) Also strange to see agriculture listed as the most important industry in Nova Scotia. That has defenitely changed (thanks in part to WWII)...

[1ajs]

kool txsw for sharing

[shreddog]

Hey, that was the same geography book I used! Hmmmm.

Thanks, definitely uber cool. While the the bird's eye of Cowtown and the view of Toronto's principal thoroughfare rocked, the classic is the view of "a country road in eastern ontario".

[IntotheWest]

My favourite are the guys in canoes on Lake Winnipeg all wearing shirts and ties. Hopefully it wasn't too warm!

[Boris2k7]

Cool. My parents mostly have books about Canada written in the mid-60's, and it seems a bit bizarre even back then. We've also got a pile of National Geographics dating back to the late 60's.

[trueviking]

awesome read.....when winnipeg was a playa....almost as big as calgary, edmonton, regina and saskatoon combined.

populations given:

montreal: 1 million (on the island)
toronto: 600 000
vancouver: N/A (research shows 230 000 in 1929)
winnipeg: 200 000
hamilton: 140 000
quebec: 130 000
ottawa: 125 000
calgary: 75 000
edmonton: 70 000
halifax: 60 000
regina: 40 000
saskatoon: 40 000


manitobas population: kind of explains why half the buildings in downtown winnipeg and half the housing stock in the city was built between 1890 and 1920.

1881: 52 000
1891: 152 000
1901: 255 000
1911: 461 000
1921: 613 000
2006: 1 150 000

[IntotheWest]

^Yep, when Winnipeg was the largest on the prairies.

BC's population is given though...590,000...which, is smaller than Sask's 860,000-ish they list.

I've always loved the comment "The growth of Manitoba and of the other provinces of Western Canada has been one of the great romances of modern times."

Boris, I have a few from the 50's as well (hmmm...or did have), and agreed, it still seems almost foreign. Heck, anything pre-internet age now seems a bit bizarre.

[francely57]

"Montreal is the largest inland port in the world."

I'm reading on different websites that this may still be true...?
(but it's nowhere near the busiest inland port)

[Calgarian]

Great post, it's really interesting to see how much Canada has changed, especially the west.

[IntotheWest]

"Montreal is the largest inland port in the world."

I'm reading on different websites that this may still be true...?
(but it's nowhere near the busiest inland port)

Hmmm, that could be true. What is considered the busiest then? Not sure I know my inland ports :)

[Nathan]

Yeah, Saskatchewan was a pretty big player in the late 20s early 30s... then the Depression hit, and the province never really ever fully recovered, although it's starting to chug along again now :).

[Tone]

Yes Montreal is still the largest inland port in the world. Probably one of the busiest as well.:)

[trueviking]

Hmmm, that could be true. What is considered the busiest then? Not sure I know my inland ports :)

houston and shanghai come to mind....not sure if shanghai is truly inland, but it is on a river, maybe 25kms from the sea...houston certainly is inland, and busier than montreal, i think.

[ummagumma66]

what about Calcutta? its an inland port, dunno how busy though.

[Ruckus]

Very interesting, what a difference between then and now.

The growth in the West was incredible back in the day, always a joy to read the history of it all.

Thanks for sharing!

http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/4937/p7230334ej8.jpg
Source (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?p=3701150#post3701150)

[artvandelay]

Awesome, thanks for posting.
I thought it was kinda written like a chamber of commerce brochure, and I love how they refer to Calgary at 75,000 as Alberta's commercial metropolis :haha:. It's also strange to see Trois-Rivières called Three Rivers.

[Acajack]

Notice the English signs on the main street in Sherbrooke...

That’s the one thing that always jumps out of old photos of cities in Quebec (not just Montreal, but Hull, Quebec City, Trois-Rivières and others too): English only signs.

[MolsonExport]

Note the zeppelin photo! (at St. Hubert [airfield, not the chicken joint])

[Wooster]

Very cool.

[DC83]

Neat stuff! Looks like an old geography book I have at home... I'll have to check when I get home.

[francely57]

Hmmm, that could be true. What is considered the busiest then? Not sure I know my inland ports :)

houston and shanghai come to mind....not sure if shanghai is truly inland, but it is on a river, maybe 25kms from the sea...houston certainly is inland, and busier than montreal, i think.

what about Calcutta? its an inland port, dunno how busy though.

Hum, according to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_busiest_port_by_cargo_tonnage

Looks like Guangzhou is the busiest.
(Shanghai has parts of its port on the sea, Singapore is on the sea, and Rotterdam is on the sea, Ningbo has parts of its port on the sea)

[Rico Rommheim]

Loved it! Thought they could of at least showed pics of downtown Montreal like they did with vancouver and TO but no. STill very enjoyable!

[IntotheWest]

^I like the bird's eye view though...what a big change!

[lubicon]

Very cool.

From an Alberta perspective I found a few noteworth items:

1. in the Mining section they say "there will be no shortage of fuel for ages to come".

How prophetic. This was written in the early-mid 1930's from what I piece together and at that time the big oil fields of Alberta had yet to be discovered. Only Turner Valley and a few other smaller gas fields had been found.

2. Calgary is listed as the "chief business centre of Alberta" even at that time, and slightly outnumbered Edmontonin population. There's a little more fuel for the Edmonton vs Calgary debate.:)

Strangely I did not see a population given for Alberta although we know it was roughly the same as Saskatchewan back then.

[IntotheWest]

^It is listed on page 65, at 646,000...roughly 200,000 less than Sask, and about the same as BC or MB (roughly).