For the full article, please contact Josh MacFadyen at jdmacfadyen@upei.ca

The GeoREACH Lab, along with the Applied Communications, Leadership, and Culture program at UPEI will be presenting three public lectures in October. Admission is free, and all are welcome. Click on any of the links below to see more details on the event.

October 3rd, 2019: Dr. Ed MacDonald from UPEI’s history department will present “Designing Change: A Semicentennial Review of the Comprehensive Development Plan on Prince Edward Island” at the Beaconsfield Carriage House (2 Kent Street, Charlottetown) at 7pm.

October 4th, 2019: Dr. Jim Clifford from the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan will present “Combining the Local and Global Scales: London’s Nineteenth Century ‘Ghost Acres’” in Lecture Theatre B, in the Atlantic Veterinary College at 8:30 am.

October 4th, 2019: Dr. Tina Loo from the University of British Columbia’s Department of History will present “Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and a ‘Good Life’ in Postwar Canada” at 4 pm in the McCain Learning Commons in the Atlantic Veterinary College.

Title: “Data and Policy Innovation”

Abstract: In his presentation, Deputy Minister (DM)  Ledwell will provide an overview of how Government understands data in the policy innovation process. This will include articulating a vision as to how data can support policy innovation as well as the challenges which Government encounters when working towards this vision.

Bio: DM Ledwell provides leadership to the public service in implementing key policies in the government’s mandate with a focus on people, prosperity and engagement. Working closely with the senior management team, DM Ledwell is taking a collaborative approach to moving forward the Government’s priorities, including job creation, growing the economy and the population, effective family and human services, stewardship of land and environment, and healthcare. DM Ledwell is a seasoned leader, with 25 years of senior-level experience in public policy, government affairs, strategic communications and research, including extensive work with partners in government, private and voluntary sectors, and the media.Throughout his career, DM Ledwell has established an extensive network of leaders in all sectors, with whom he collaborates regularly.

Title: “Moved by the State: Forced Relocation and ‘a Good Life’ in Postwar Canada”

Abstract: “Moved by the State” takes a seemingly arcane subject – forced relocation in peacetime Canada – and uses it to shed light on an institution of fundamental importance to Canadians: the welfare state. Canadians, especially English-speaking Canadians, consider it’s what distinguishes Canada from the United States. Rather than offer a close analysis of the welfare state’s programs, however, I take a step back and look at the social security it promised as a form of spatial justice. If the postwar state couldn’t deliver social services to people, it delivered people to services.

From the 1950s to the 1970s the Canadian state moved people, often against their wills, for what was believed to be their own good. But it didn’t just move them. In central Arctic, Newfoundland, and eastern Quebec, people were rarely left to their own devices after being relocated, nor did the places that received them escape attention. In the postwar period, the welfare state’s “will to improve” also manifested itself in attempts to alleviate poverty through regional and community development. These initiatives were aimed at building the capacity of the poor to determine their own futures, to make good lives for themselves – with mixed and unpredictable results.

Bio: Dr. Tina Loo’s work in environmental history, indigenous history, and legal history in Western and Northern Canada is prolific and widely known, and it has made her one of the most respected historians in Canada. In her newest project she has turned her attention eastward, where she examines (and maps) forced relocation policies and other forms of regional and community development in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and eastern Quebec. Her expertise in postwar development projects and how they fit into larger theories of “high modernism” will be critical for modern policy makers and academics alike. Although she does not directly address the 1969 PEI Comprehensive Development Plan in her new book Moved by the State, her expertise in these areas will be central to scholars attempting to understand this important chapter in the region’s history.

Title: Designing Change: A Semicentennial Review of the Comprehensive Development Plan on Prince Edward Island

Abstract: Two national trends converged in Prince Edward Island in 1969: a state-driven campaign to address regional disparity and a hubristic, postwar confidence in state-directed regional development planning. The 15-year Comprehensive Development Plan, the first of its kind in Canada at a province-wide level, partnered the federal and provincial governments in creating an ambitious blueprint for fundamental economic and social change meant to elevate the province from disparity and dependence to prosperity and self-reliance. This address offers an overview of the genesis of, and motivation behind, the $725 million dollar economic development agreement, and traces how its interlocking suite of programs fared amid political bickering and grassroots opposition to what critics perceived as too much change too quickly. It also offers some reflections on the nature of change, the limits of state intervention, and the enduring legacy of “The Plan.”

Bio: Edward MacDonald is the preeminent scholar of Prince Edward Island history, and he is also an excellent environmental historian with extensive research on fisheries, tourism, and landscapes in the greater Gulf of Saint Lawrence. MacDonald is well known in the local heritage communities, and it we expect that his keynote on PEI postwar history and the semicentennial of the PEI Comprehensive Development Plan will attract a large local audience