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The first section of this two-part paper describes my historical geographical career, particularly the topics and issues I have pursued and the changing intellectual environment in which they have been situated. The second section offers a summary interpretation of the emerging human geography of early-modern Canada followed by some reflections on its contemporary implications. This interpretation stresses the extent to which boundaries and discontinuities marked early Canada, and contrasts a pinched Canadian experience with the land with a far more expansive American one. It shows how deeply difference was constructed and ingrained in the Canadian past, and suggests some challenges and opportunities that follow from this inheritance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the historical-geographical construction of Canada. Issues on multiculturalism; Discussion on confederation; Elaboration on patriotism.

Examines the intricacies of the equation of power resistance that surrounded the land-based fur trade in the Cordillera of British Columbia. Relocation of the fur trade capital from Europe to the North American interior; Set of assumptions and practices; Closely related strategies of Native management.

Analyzes the population geography of British Columbia in 1881. Provincial distribution of whites, Chinese and native peoples; Population geographies of the Lower Skeena/Nass, the Southwestern Plateau and the lands around the Strait of Georgia; Social categories employed in the nominal census; Relations of society and space in late-19th-century British Columbia.

Focuses on Canadian social scientist Harold Innis and his works on 19th century Canada. Production of primary resources for distant markets and the problems of transportation as characteristics of Canadian spatial economy; Emphasis on environment, technology and distance; Assessment of the fur trade; French beginnings in Canada; Innis' insistence on contextualized theory.