A Road for Canada: The Illustrated Story of the Trans-Canada Highway.

A Road for Canada: The Illustrated Story of the Trans-Canada Highway By Daniel Francis Stanton Atkins & Dosil, North Vancouver, 2006 192 pp., illus., $39.95 hardcover

A Road for Canada tells the long and complex story of the Trans-Canada Highway and how it came to be. It has been lavishly illustrated

with historical black-and-white photographs, modern colour photographs, and a plethora of reproductions of licence plates, political cartoons, newspaper clippings, postage stamps, and road maps that help tell the epic tale of Canada's "other national dream." The book strives to show how the Trans-Canada Highway--after all the political and geographical hurdles that were overcome to build it--has become not so much a symbol as a metaphor. Writes author Daniel Francis: "Like the highway, Canada is in a constant state of becoming."

The book offers a vivid historical sketch by Francis, whose style is that of a popular historian. The sources section is only two pages long, but one can assume A Road for Canada was never intended to be a scholarly work. Francis is a storyteller, and his talent is bringing alive the many characters and interesting events that are inextricably linked to the highway; juicy details add depth and are reminiscent of Pierre Berton's writing style.

For example, Francis quips at one point about the very first made-in-Canada motor vehicle--built in 1867 by Henry Seth Taylor of Quebec--that crashed because its maker didn't think brakes were essential. There's the story about the original talking goose in Wawa, Ontario, and the UFO landing pad that was constructed in St. Paul, Alberta, so that aliens would feel welcome during Canada's centennial celebrations. There are also many revealing tidbits about political posturing over the Trans-Canada Highway, including one incident where then-British Columbia premier Bill Bennett (who felt perpetually snubbed by the federal government) removed all identifying road signs. At a cost of $20,000, Bennett had the highway re-signed as British Columbia No. 1.