One Family's Journey

One Family’s Journey: Canfor and the Transformation of B.C.’s Forest Industry (Vancouver/Toronto/Berkeley: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012) One Family’s Journey: Canfor and the Transformation of B.C.’s Forest Industry is a historical book by Peter Bently, as told by Robin Fowler. This book is written from Peter Bentley’s perspective, with the aim to express the evolution of Canfor, Canada’s forest products company. This book gives a historical account starting from the company’s inception and finishing with its potential future possibilities looking forward. While the book reinforces underlying themes in our course, I felt it lacked others such as the evolution of the labour movement which could have further strengthened the books connection with the course. Furthermore, certain sections of the book contained excess content which became cumbersome to read and although the author does try to maintain a neutral stance throughout the book, there does seem to be an apparent bias in certain sections of the book. As the story begins, Peter Bently describes his father, Poldi (Leopold) Bloch-Bauer’s instant fondness of the Canadian landscape and its people while on a visit. With the rising Nazi movement in Europe, Mr. Bloch-Bauer decided to immigrate with his family from his luxurious lifestyle in Austria to western Canada in 1938(1-2). Several months after their arrival to Vancouver, the Bloch-Bauer family changed its surname to Bentley. Their uncle’s family, which joined them in Vancouver as well, changed their last name to Prentice (10). Moving on to the next chapter, Leopold and his uncle, John, discussed ideas for a business venture in Canada after settling in. Luckily, with their connections to the Rogers family, they were introduced to Leslie Schaffer and John Bene. Mr. Bene, after immigrating to British Columbia, recognized there was no hardwood manufacturing business in the province (16-17). Thus the four men started a business venture called Pacific Veneer Ltd. in 1938...