The Innisian Core-Periphery Revisited: Vancouver's Changing Relationships with British Columbia's Staple Economy

S IXTY YEARS AGO Harold Innis presented the staple theory as a singularly powerful and evocative explanation of Canada's economic history and, more particularly, of the crucial role of resource extraction in the development of the nat ion and its constituent regions. A recurrent feature of Canadian economic deve lopmen t over several cen tur ies was the ex t rac t ion and transportation of staples from hinterland regions to distant markets. As Innis observed, the result was that the Canadian economic structure had the peculiar characteristics of areas dependent on staples — especially weakness in other lines of development, dependence on highly industr ial ized areas for markets and for supplies of manufactured goods, and the dangers of fluctuations in the staple commodity (Innis 1933, 6). The dominant staple within the Canadian economy has followed a progression — from fish, to furs, to minerals, to forest products , to grains, and so on — and t ransporta t ion technology has evolved over time, but this classic portrayal of Canada as a staple economy is still appealing. A cardinal feature of the Innisian staple model is the notion of a core-periphery structure of inter-regional relationships. A t the broadest level, this implies a highly asymmetrical and dichotomous spatial framework, characterized by a dominant, industrialized, and metropolitan core and a vast underdeveloped periphery almost