Writing into the Sunset

Few distinctions between Canada and the United States seem as profound as those that differentiate the paths taken in settling the western frontier. Our side of the border saw centralized control, early imposition of law and order, and the state’s monopoly of violence; their side witnessed land rushes, gold rushes, vigilantes, range wars, desperadoes, gunmen, outlaws, and decades of total war. That side pioneered a genre of film and television that, at times, has dominated Hollywood; this side produced actors who learned to hide their accents so they could play their neighbours’ heroes.

Canadian writers looking to corral some of the western action have taken several different approaches, but nearly all of them have engaged, in one way or another, with a nearly 130-year-old essay written by the historian Frederick Jackson Turner; even those who have sought to debunk its central argument have ended up reinforcing its power. In “The Significance of the Frontier in...