James B. Harkin (30 January 1875 – 27 January 1955), also known as the Father of National Parks, was a Canadian journalist turned bureaucrat with a passion for conservation but also widely renowned for his commodification of the Canadian landscape. Harkin began his career as a journalist under the umbrella of the Ottawa Journal and Montreal Herald, two conservative newspapers at the time, but soon through his persistence and prowess gained entry into civil service during his mid-twenties. Under the tutelage of some influential figures working for the Liberal Party of Canada, most notably Clifford Sifton and Frank Oliver, Harkin was able to acquire an appointment to be the first commissioner of the Dominion Parks Branch in 1911. During his career, Harkin oversaw the establishment of national parks that include Elk Island, Mount Revelstoke, Point Pelee, Kootenay, Wood Buffalo, Prince Albert, Riding Mountain, Georgian Bay Islands and Cape Breton Highlands.
On a fundamental level, Harkin's philosophy had two dominant components: the economic, which saw park lands in commercial terms, and the humanitarian which saw parks as being integral to the well-being of the human spirit on a physical, mental and moral level. In successfully bringing these two principles together in a symbiotic way, Harkin was able to facilitate the incredible growth of Canadian tourism and, at the same time, justify his conservationist goals.
With an economic philosophy on parks development, Harkin led the Parks Branch into the business of selling Canadian scenery to tourists. Harkin identified the emergence of the automobile as a key component in driving tourism to Canada's national parks. Some notable commercial achievements Harkin made included motor vehicle legislation that permitted vehicles to enter parks, improvements of existing roads through parks, and major highway projects that connected more visitors to parks. His parks promotion strategy, favourable motor vehicle regulations, and improvements in accessibility notably increased tourism to Canada's national parks from 100,000 in 1921 to 550,000 in 1928.
In 1935, following the rise of the Liberal Party, Parks Branch became consolidated with other departments and Harkin's career as commissioner came to an eventual end.
Starting in the 1970s, some years after Harkin's death, many critiques of Harkin that cast him in an unfavourable light started surfacing. In particular, Harkin's lack of knowledge of his duties as commissioner, his alleged over-dependence on his staff, and his desire to employ men under the market minimum wage were quite controversial. Moreover, the creation of the Wood Buffalo National Park sparked huge debate with local indigenous groups and the rippling effects of that debate are still being dealt with today.
Early life
James Bernard Harkin, nicknamed "Bunny", was born 30 January 1875, in the town of Vankleek Hill in eastern Ontario. His parents were Dr. William Harkin and Elizabeth (McDonnell). He was the fourth of five children born into a devout Catholic family but along with his brother William, Harkin was unconcerned with religious motivations. Their father, Dr. William Harkin, was a devout Catholic who was born to Irish Protestant immigrants in 1831 in Vanleek Hill where he became a schoolteacher and soon after went to study medicine at McGill University. Harkin's father died of a heart attack while speaking at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1881. His father was a staunch advocate for the Conservatives in which he held a seat in the Legislative Assembly for the district of Prescott.
After the death of his father, Harkin remained with his mother and sister until his high school years when he left to live with his brother who had become a doctor in Marquette, Michigan. Harkin was born into general affluence and a politically powerful family. Despite the passing of his father, Harkin's upbringing influenced his ability to forge the beginning of his career as a cub reporter with the Montreal Herald at age seventeen.
Political career
Harkin's route into a political career was generated mostly by his family, in which his father was a Conservative with a seat in the Legislative Assembly and his brother was a highly touted journalist for the Ottawa Journal. These early family influences would play a large role in the development of Harkin's political career and would shape his early affiliations. It was through the mentorship of his brother, William Harkin, that he gained employment with the Montreal Herald, but shortly afterwards with the Ottawa Journal under the guidance of P.D Ross. P.D Ross was the proprietor of the Ottawa Journal. He became an influential person in Harkin's career as he saw him develop his knack for clear, concise journalism. Ross recommended Harkin to the Liberal Party's Minister of Interior and Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Clifford Sifton. This recommendation allowed Harkin to enter the government service in 1896 at the age of twenty-six.
Harkin's acceptance of this appointment by Clifford Sifton surprised many Conservatives that saw their leader, Sir Charles Tupper, defeated by Wilfrid Laurier in the same year as Harkin's appointment. The rise of the Liberal Party and Harkin's employment under them dictated much of his later appointments in which he worked tirelessly for Sifton until 1905, at which point Sifton fell out of favour with Wilfrid Laurier over educational rights. Frank Oliver was appointed as the new Minister of the Interior, and sought to be a supporter of parks and wildlife. Despite Oliver's distaste for Sifton, Harkin retained his position with Oliver and worked a further 6 years as Oliver's secretary until receiving an appointment to be the first commissioner of the Dominion Parks Branch in 1911.
Philosophy On the one hand, Harkin's success and longevity as Parks Commissioner can be measured in economic terms, namely in tourism profits. However, Harkin's philosophy of preserving Canada's landscape for the sake of patriotic pride and physical, moral, and mental well-being is also evident and well-documented in his writings and departmental reports. In fact, some historians argue that it is in great part his ability to have both his commercial and preservationist goals merge and play off each other that determines his success as commissioner. But whether Harkin used commercial reasons of building national parks to justify the humanitarian reasons or vice versa is an open-ended question that some Harkin biographers continue to debate.
Economic value of parks Harkin's success in securing appropriations to finance the building and expansion of national parks was largely due to his ability to convey the commercial value of dominion parks to Parliament. At the onset of his Parks Branch career, Harkin and his staff had sought to find out how much revenue was generated by tourism in both American states and European countries. His findings, which included tens of millions of dollars for just the American state of Maine, were astounding and he went on to publish a compiled report of tourist revenue figures for distribution to members of the House of Commons and Senate in 1913. It was in that context, Harkin believed, that the economic value of Canada's national parks was established and would come to later justify his many large expenditures for park development.
Humanitarian value of parks
In addition to Harkin's philosophy on the economic value of parks, Harkin also saw parks as being a way for Canadians to imbue the beauty of Canadian scenery in an accessible manner, be it by car or train to reach park grounds. But, as his annual reports as commissioner show, he also felt there was a higher purpose to exposing more individuals to Canada's scenic beauty beyond mere aesthetics. In Harkin's earlier years as Parks Commissioner, he expressed on many occasions that parks allowed for the fostering of what he coins the "play spirit", which is the rejuvenation of the human spirit from the daily stresses of life through outdoor recreation. This need not be physical recreational activity; however, breathing in fresh air and being within close proximity of nature is an important part of this rejuvenation process. This aspect of Harkin's philosophy in viewing parks as national recreational grounds for therapeutic and rejuvenating effects was in part due to the influence of American wilderness preservationists, John Muir and Henry David Thoreau, both of whom Harkin had quoted in his departmental reports.
With the onset of the First World War, Harkin's rejuvenation theory took on a more relevant form. In those years, Harkin wrote that parks were a medium through which Canadians could be in touch with their patriotic feelings, and that parks promoted the "virile and efficient manhood so noticeable in Canadian military training camps."
Also, in post-war years, Harkin's philosophy again adapted to the context in which he felt national parks were most needed. For many at the time, life consisted of long hours of laborious work in factories and living in big cities, which according to Harkin brought out the animal in man and deteriorated both the body and mind of the modern Canadian subject. But a feasible way to counteract these oppressive effects, Harkin wrote, was through the almost mystical rejuvenation that national park lands offered on a physical, mental, and even moral level. Despite appearing so though, Harkin's philosophy was not a critique of industrial life and urbanism. Rather, it was his belief that national parks were a way for civilization and economic growth in Canada to continue "with the worker escaping periodically to nature to be recharged" but with every intention of returning as a productive member of society.
Commercial achievements
Tourism Harkin recognized that Canadian scenery was a natural resource that could not be exported. He led the Parks Branch into what some critics call the business of selling scenery, where foreign tourists were to be imported to enjoy Canada's natural resource. Harkin often described parks in economic terms. In the Parks Branch's first Annual Report, he stated the value of Canadian scenery at $13.88/acre, while wheat land was worth $4.91/acre. He recognized that unlike most natural resources, large sales of scenery could be sold in perpetuity without any decline in value or capital stock.
The National Parks of Canada were established largely to stimulate traffic on the Canadian Pacific Railway. The railway attracted tourists to Rocky Mountain National Park. Harkin further developed national parks with the goal of economic prosperity. Parks would increase tourism and profitability for the government, railroads, and small businesses. In order to garner political support for parks development, Harkin communicated the profitable opportunities they could provide Canada.
Initially, the Parks Branch focused on enticing foreign visitors to Canada. Canadian national parks were largely accessible by wealthy American tourists who stayed at hotels and travelled by railway: 95% of people travelling to Canada were American. Thus, Harkin's initial goal was to extend this flow of American tourists into Canada.
By the 1920s, the Parks Branch shifted their focus and began targeting Canadians. Formerly, critics argued that the government was subsidizing parks for wealthy foreigners. Harkin suggested that the automobile now made it logistically and financially possible for more middle-class Canadian tourists to access the national parks. Parks located near cities were now widely accessible, allowing workers to spend weekends camping or fishing. The Parks Branch began promoting parks as attractive tourism that heals and invigorates the hardworking business man. Responding to the increased use of automobiles, Harkin redefined the Branch's goals from servicing a foreign and local "recreationist" to the broader "Canadian".