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The Summer Trade: A History of Tourism on Prince Edward Island (Volume 1)
Tourism has been a central part of Prince Edward Island’s identity for more than a century. What began as a seasonal sideline in the nineteenth century evolved into an economic powerhouse that now attracts over 1.5 million visitors each year, employs one in ten Islanders, and is the province’s second leading industry.Spanning from the Victorian era to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Summer Trade presents the first comprehensive history of tourism in any Canadian province. Over time the Island has marketed a remarkably durable set of tourism tropes – seaside refuge from urban industrial angst, return to innocence, literary shrine to L.M. Montgomery, cradle of Confederation, garden of the Gulf. As private enterprise and the state sought to manage the industry, the Island’s own identity became caught up in the wish fulfillment of its summer visitors. The result has been a complicated, sometimes conflicted relationship between Islanders and tourism, between a warm welcome to visitors and resistance to the industry’s adverse effects on local culture.Lavishly illustrated with postcards, tourist guides, and memorabilia, The Summer Trade also presents a history of Prince Edward Island in cameo that tracks cultural, economic, political, and environmental developments and tensions. Across the strait, the Island beckons.
360 pages, Hardcover
Published April 15, 2022
5 people want to read
About the author
Alan MacEachern
11 books2 followersAlan MacEachern is an Associate Professor at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada and Director of Network in Canadian History & Environment (NiCHE).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 20, 2022
A well-researched (and readable!) account of tourism to Canada's smallest province.
Tourism to the "Garden of the Gulf" had a massive impact on the lifestyle of Prince Edward Islanders during the twentieth century. It turned the town of Cavendish a tourist trap, it helped propel the province into modernity, and it turned farmer Rudolph ("Dolph") Fleming into a law-breaker.
Well, okay, maybe that's a little melodramatic. But Dolph was certainly not happy when the provincial government expropriated a profitable chunk of his waterfront property for the new PEI National Park in 1937. After protesting futilely to the provincial government, Dolph took the law into his own hands. Knocking down the Park's new boarder fence, he continued to farm "his" plot of land for a little while longer. In the end, the "Farming Bandit" was never brought to justice, but he and his wife Bertha did learn -- eventually -- to stop worrying and love tourism.
This is just one of the many amusing anecdotes that peppers MacEachern and MacDonald's new book. Indeed, while thoroughly academic in style, with proper footnotes and a grounding in the literature, the book is written in a breezy style with a certain deadpan wit about it. The section on the tug-of-war between the PEI government and the L.M. Montgomery literary estate for the "soul" of the Island's Pollyannaish (Anne Shirley-ish?) red-headed orphan was downright hilarious. Indeed, the description of the halfhearted Anne Shirley on the province's new license plates of the 1990s as looking "suspiciously like Alfred E. Newman in a red wig" literally had me cackling (p. 239).
"What, me worry?"
Well actually, that could be as good a through-line to book as any. For Islanders, tourism always contained an element of controversy. When did merely accommodating tourists end and engaging in crass commercialism and fawning begin? Indeed, as the authors note, the fact that PEI deliberately sold itself as a place to get away from it all made such fears of "over-tourism" a real concern for many. What would happen to the Island's farmers and fishermen when the "summer trade" was the new economic golden boy on the block? Whether it the "centennial-itis" of PEI joining Canada in 1973, which birthed the protest movement of the Brothers and Sisters of Cornelius Howatt, the testy debate over the "fixed link" of the Confederation Bridge in the 1990s, or simply Dolph Fleming and his anger at expropriation, there was always an undercurrent of discontent to PEI's new tourist trade. A discontent that continues to the present day.
Overall, I found this an incredibly enjoyable read. Printed on glossy paper, the book also contain a wide range of photographs, postcards, and souvenirs that help tell the story in visual form. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of tourism or of PEI. 4.5/5 stars.
Tourism to the "Garden of the Gulf" had a massive impact on the lifestyle of Prince Edward Islanders during the twentieth century. It turned the town of Cavendish a tourist trap, it helped propel the province into modernity, and it turned farmer Rudolph ("Dolph") Fleming into a law-breaker.
Well, okay, maybe that's a little melodramatic. But Dolph was certainly not happy when the provincial government expropriated a profitable chunk of his waterfront property for the new PEI National Park in 1937. After protesting futilely to the provincial government, Dolph took the law into his own hands. Knocking down the Park's new boarder fence, he continued to farm "his" plot of land for a little while longer. In the end, the "Farming Bandit" was never brought to justice, but he and his wife Bertha did learn -- eventually -- to stop worrying and love tourism.
This is just one of the many amusing anecdotes that peppers MacEachern and MacDonald's new book. Indeed, while thoroughly academic in style, with proper footnotes and a grounding in the literature, the book is written in a breezy style with a certain deadpan wit about it. The section on the tug-of-war between the PEI government and the L.M. Montgomery literary estate for the "soul" of the Island's Pollyannaish (Anne Shirley-ish?) red-headed orphan was downright hilarious. Indeed, the description of the halfhearted Anne Shirley on the province's new license plates of the 1990s as looking "suspiciously like Alfred E. Newman in a red wig" literally had me cackling (p. 239).
"What, me worry?"
Well actually, that could be as good a through-line to book as any. For Islanders, tourism always contained an element of controversy. When did merely accommodating tourists end and engaging in crass commercialism and fawning begin? Indeed, as the authors note, the fact that PEI deliberately sold itself as a place to get away from it all made such fears of "over-tourism" a real concern for many. What would happen to the Island's farmers and fishermen when the "summer trade" was the new economic golden boy on the block? Whether it the "centennial-itis" of PEI joining Canada in 1973, which birthed the protest movement of the Brothers and Sisters of Cornelius Howatt, the testy debate over the "fixed link" of the Confederation Bridge in the 1990s, or simply Dolph Fleming and his anger at expropriation, there was always an undercurrent of discontent to PEI's new tourist trade. A discontent that continues to the present day.
Overall, I found this an incredibly enjoyable read. Printed on glossy paper, the book also contain a wide range of photographs, postcards, and souvenirs that help tell the story in visual form. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of tourism or of PEI. 4.5/5 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review