Take an exciting ride over the Atlantic and west across the Rockies to Vancouver in 1958, courtesy this British newsreel highlighting our incredible city.
The Brits were quite taken with Vancouver in ’58, it seems. The newsreel calls Vancouver the “most fabulous and versatile” city “in all of the North American continent,” praising us in equal measure for our American-British way of life (supermarkets!) and sprawling rancher-style suburban homes where (white) babies chill in playpens on the front lawn with their pretty (white) moms.
It’s all about the contrasts here, says the narrator, as you go from the mountains to the “tropical” sands of Kitsilano Beach – a “resort” where young (white) people congregate.
While it’s nice to be appreciated, there’s an early cringe-worthy sequence where some First Nation members greet the plane at a very diminutive YVR – except that they are called the “red Indian tribes” who are part of Canada’s romantic history.
Needless to say, we’ve come a long way. But if you want to see how we were seen from across the pond just over 60 years ago, here we go.
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