That Old Song

Canadians have traditionally based much of their identity on an idealized and romanticized vision of unspoiled northern wilderness — despite relying on an economy that profits from cutting the trees, digging up the rocks and soil, and damming the rivers of the world’s second-largest country. Politicians love to invoke the challenges of living at northern latitudes, extolling shared ordeals related to the cold, snow, and remoteness that have fostered uniquely healthy and caring communities. But a glance at any number of indicators makes clear that these communities are more troubled economically and socially, and more affected by violence and addiction, than their southern counterparts.

Two memoirs by women who grew up in the “Near North”— the Lake Nipissing and Abitibi regions of Ontario and Alberta’s Peace River Country — examine the costs of remote rural life. These include the tolls paid both by the residents and by the creatures that are symbolic of the...