The Doctrine of Usefulness: Development in Canadian National Parks

Robert Craig Brown. "The Doctrine of Usefulness: Natural Resource and National Park Policy in Canada, 1887-1914." In The Canadian National Parks: Today and Tomorrow, edited by J.G. Nelson and R.C. Scace. Calgary: University of Calgary Duplicating Services, 1968.

Canada's national parks are safe havens -- vestiges of wilderness carefully protected from the rush and bustle of civilization outside. This myth has been propagated in various forms by the Parks Branch (now Parks Canada) and its supporters in civil society for nearly a century now. And, of course, it is not the whole truth, as William Cronon argued in "The Trouble with Wilderness."

In Canada, the critical history of national parks began with Robert Craig Brown in the 1960s:

In essence, then, the origins of the Canadian parks boil down to what Brown, borrowing a word from Macdonald, calls a doctrine of "usefulness": the intention, according to the Minister of the Interior in 1887, was to "frame such regulations as will make the springs a respectable resort" (p. 98), but largely because they were what Brown calls "the most easily exploitable asset in the reservation."

Although Brown does acknowledge (98-99) that the process of "parkmaking," as understood in the 19th century, would certainly have involved "the construction of roads and bridges, the establishment of a townsite and the provision of tourist facilities from baths to elaborate hotels," the principal caveat of "usefulness," to him, is that usefulness could take a variety of forms -- only one of which was tourist resorts. He uses this insight to explain the Canadian government's willingness to permit various forms of industrial activity in the park in the early 20th century, including the coal mining operations at Bankhead and Anthracite.

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