Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500

Our uniquely Canadian concept of liberty and vice is documented by Professor Marcel Martel of York University’s Department of History. Canada the Good is a sweep through three centuries of gambling, drinking, and fornication. There emerges a kind of consensus that Canadians should be left alone to do what they want in the privacy of their homes, but for heaven’s sake don’t make a fuss about it. When Parliament held an 1898 plebiscite on prohibition a majority voted to ban booze, and MPs promptly ignored the result. In Catholic Quebec and New Brunswick, liquor was never much restricted. In Protestant Ontario and Alberta, dry laws were so successfully enforced the crime rate fell. It seemed everybody was happy.... Martel’s research is delightful. Who is not wiser on knowing Canada’s first lottery was licensed in 1732; or that Confederation-era Halifax had 600 working prostitutes; or that Parliament’s 1869 Act Respecting Vagrants targeted any ‘night walker wandering in the fields...not giving a satisfactory account of themselves.’ They just don’t write Acts like that anymore.... ‘The regulation of vice has changed over time,‘ notes Martel. ’This should give us pause for reflection. Holly Doan, Blacklock’s Reporter

Vice exerts a perennial interest, regardless of how and by whom it is defined. In Canada the Good: A Short History of Vice since 1500, an admirably condensed social history of Canadian vices over the past five centuries, York University historian Marcel Martel shows exactly how during this time the definition of vice in Canada has shifted from a discourse centred on sin to one that, when still applied, is viewed primarily in medical terms.... A well-researched and informative discussion of the trajectory of Canadian morality and the significant actors who have sought to define it.... Even when the particular causes taken on by present-day reform movements may diverge markedly from those in the past, there is a discernible continuity in the methods and tactics. By giving his readers a sense of the long-term trajectory of Canadian moral beliefs and their practical application, Martel allows us to see how the regulatory compromises of today are likely to be just as transitory and provisional as those of the past. James F. Cosgrave, Literary Review of Canada