The Chuck Davis History of Metro Vancouver

This book is many things – a wonderful coffee table read, a thoroughly indexed reference and the life work of one of our city’s finest historians, Chuck Davis. Unfortunately Davis passed before his book was published. His friends and colleagues were able to tie up any loose ends and deliver it to Harbour Publishing in 2011. This was a year after Davis’s death and 125 years after Vancouver became a city. It is a heartfelt retelling of the city’s history by a man who seems to have lived it all. 

The ambitious project begins in 1757 with the birth of a boy in Norfolk, England: George Vancouver. This lad would move on to become a Captain and eventually, with the help of Dionisio Galiano and Jose Maria Narvaez, chart much of the British Columbia coastline.

Each chronological entry is accompanied with a description of varying length – sometimes just a line and other entries receive half a page. Some listings are completely factual and others are rambling explanations containing quotes, dry wit and social commentary. 

One of my favourite, longer passages, is on the tendency for Vancouverites to show their displeasure through rioting. Titled “Riot City” (p.550), Davis documents the many cases where Vancouverites took to the streets. From racist unrest, to cancelled rock concerts, to unemployment, to the most recent brouhaha over a lost hockey game (a very important hockey game…), the causes vary but the reactions are all too similar. And who doesn’t like to flip the odd police cruiser..?  

There is no wrong way to enjoy this book. Dive in head first and discover a treasure of information on a City just getting started.  

• Fun Fact: You can find Chuck Davis on the Beatty Street Mural beside the rocker Bryan Adams.