Utopian books and literature in Canadian history [work in progress]
- Tom Monto
- Apr 24, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 26, 2025
[work in progress]
As mentioned in passing in the Montopedia "Intentional settlement" blog, books have been used to express aspirations towards gentler, better way of living, towards utopia.
Utopian books written by Canadians or those with connection to Canada
Annie Dent Cridge Man's Rights and how to get them. Comprising Dreams. 1870
Annie Denton Cridge was author of this groundbreaking feminist utopian story.
It was published in Woodhull's and Claflin's Weekly, a magazine co-founded by Victoria Woodhull.
said to be the first, or at least one of the first, works of science fiction written by a woman.
see Montopedia blog https://montopedia.wixsite.com/montopedia/post/pantheon-of-reformers-alfred-cridge-annie-denton-cridge-alfred-jr-and-william-denton
Alfred Cridge (son of Annie Cridge and Alfred (Sr.) Cridge)
Utopia; Or, the History of an Extinct Planet, Psychometrically Explained (1884).
One of the earliest science fiction novels written in the U.S.
John Galbraith In the New Capital, or the City of Ottawa in 1999 (1896)
1999 has come and gone but unfortunately, Galbraith's vision did not come true --
He wrote that by 1999, in Ottawa -- and by extension in other Canadian cities --
unemployment and resulting poverty would be addressed by the benefits of technology being shared among workers as well as captured by capitalist and businessman.
Poverty would also be addressed by government assistance programs financed by new and imaginative forms of revenue for the government.
Increased value of land would be captured through the Henry George Single Tax.
Holding land idle hoping for speculation profits would be penalized by the Single Tax.
see Montopedia blog
War on Poverty by E.A. Partridge
mentioned "co-operative commonwealth" which he portrayed as a militaristic social commonwealth. (p. 373)
Partridge's idea was described by Carl Berger in Visions 2020 (1970) (editor Stephen Carlson)
see also W.A. Mackintosh's Agricultural Co-operation in Western Canada (1924), p. 18-21.
The term "co-operative commonwealth" was publicized in Laurence Gronlund's 1884 book Co-operative Commonwealth, An Exposition of Socialism.
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2022
Heidi Sopinka author of 1970s-era novel Utopia. shines a light on gender, agency and empowerment. resident of Toronto. author of The Dictionary of Animal Languages...
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see also
Montopedia: "Intentional settlements..."
Wiki "List of utopian literature"
Wiki: "Utopian and Dystopian fiction"
see also online:
Lyman Tower Sargent "Themes in Utopian Fiction in English Before Wells"
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