Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/John Brownlee as Attorney-General of Alberta/archive1

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 19:31, 3 August 2010 [1].

John Brownlee as Attorney-General of Alberta[edit]

John Brownlee as Attorney-General of Alberta (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

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Nominator(s): Steve Smith (talk) 19:12, 6 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, FAC! Long time no see! Anyway, I'm taking some time off from my busy routine of pleasing all of the people none of the time to bring you this article, part of my ongoing attempt to bring to featured status everything related to John Edward Brownlee, itself part of my ongoing attempt to bring to featured status everything related to Premiers of Alberta; I'm really such an interesting person, you'd think that I'd have at least one friend outside of Wikipedia. I digress.

The article has gone a good article review from User:Arsenikk, and a peer review from User:Finetooth. One concern I anticipate surrounds sourcing, and I would like to address it pre-emptively:

A fairly lengthy defense of this article's sources

1. "This article relies extensively on a single source; doesn't that fail featured article criterion 1(c)?

No. 1(c) requires "a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature on the topic". John Brownlee has been the subject of a single book-length biography, Franklin Foster's catchily named "John E. Brownlee: A Biography". He has been the subject of two chapter-length biographies. One of these is in "Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century", and is also written by Foster; it is in many respects a condensed version of the book-length biography. The other is in Tim Byrne's "Alberta's Revolutionary Leaders", and is quite short. I have thoroughly reviewed both of these, and have incorporated material from them in the article. Besides material about Brownlee directly, the aforementioned "Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century" includes a chapter on Herbert Greenfield, the Premier under whom Brownlee served as Attorney-General. That chapter too is used where possible, though it is also probably the weakest chapter in the book (see, for example, Finkel, Alvin (September 2005). "Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century (review)". The Canadian Historical Review. 86 (3): 557–559.).

I would rather have more diversity of sources here, but any article using "a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature" on John Brownlee is going to lean very heavily on Franklin Foster's work.

2. Your major source is self-published. Doesn't that fail featured article criterion 1(c)?

No. While Foster's biography is indeed self-published, WP:SELFPUBLISH states that self-published material may "be acceptable when produced by an established expert on the topic of the article whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable third-party publications". Foster is a history instructor at the post-secondary level. His expertise on this subject matter is testified to by the decision to have him write the chapter on Brownlee in "Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century", which is published by a major university press and edited by a university historian. Moreover, the biography has been reviewed in scholarly journals ("John E. Brownlee, a biography." Alberta History 45.1 (1996): 27.), cited in scholarly papers ([2]), and is itself a distillation of Foster's doctoral thesis for which he earned a PhD in history from Queen's University. In view of these facts, I believe that Foster's biography is acceptable for use as a major source in this article.

With that dispensed with, I look forward to reviewers' comments. Steve Smith (talk) 19:12, 6 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment—no dab links, no dead external links. Ucucha 19:34, 6 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Sources comments: The above explanation is satisfactory; relatively obscure subjects have relatively few scholarly sources. I tried hard to find the odd format glitch but couldn't. All sources OK, no outstanding issues. Brianboulton (talk) 18:41, 7 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support - I do have some comments/concerns/nitpicks which (IMHO) would make this article even better, but they certainly would not stand in the way of my support.

  • Second sentence seems quite long, and as that paragraph has only the two sentences I would suggest making the semi-colon a period (this also applies to some similarly lengthy sentences and some similarly short paragraphs later in the article)
  • Mention in-text that UGG is a grain distributor?
  • Not sure that's necessary; the specific nature of the UGG's operations doesn't seem important for the understanding of this article, and individual readers can click on the wikilink if they're curious.
  • Did the UFA MLAs initially reject Brownlee because of his legal background, or did he just believe they would? Inconsistent between sections
  • "often, Greenfield signed" -> "Greenfield often signed"
  • Done.
  • Use C$ on first occurrence
  • Done
  • "Brownlee cooled enthusiasm", "struck a commission" - wording
  • Be consistent in using Henry Wise Wood vs H. W. Wood
  • Done
  • Link short tons?
  • Unfortunately, I don't think I can do so, since the word appears as a result of the {{convert}} template.
  • It is technically possible, you just need to add a parameter
  • Thanks; done.
  • Author link for JohnEBrownlee.jpg has expired
  • Fixed
  • You explain early that Boyle was the Liberal leader, so you need not re-explain in the natural resources section
  • Fixed
  • "is obtaining from the natural resources" - is that the wording in the source? Might want to double-check
  • Fixed - the crucial word "obtaining from you the natural resources" was missing.
  • Check that you don't link the same term more than once in article text (I noticed BNA Act, Reid and CPR, but there may be others)
  • Fixed those ones, and will keep an eye out for others.
  • Crerar, King, UGG...
Got those. Will still keep an eye out for others.
  • CPR was not known as CP until the 1960s
  • Fixed
  • "the government passed the Drought Relief Act.[48] The Act" - either lowercase or italicize Act, as here it represents the same proper noun (also occurs with another Act later)
  • Lowercased
  • "Brownlee brainchild", "cooled expectations" - wording
  • "their willingness to make loans would not disappear all together" - should be "altogether"
  • Fixed
  • "Angry over the federal government's decision to allow the first incarnation of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) to lapse, many Albertan farmers began to advocate the "pooling" of their wheat, which would render individual farmers less susceptible to the machinations of grain speculators by introducing collective marketing, with each farmer receiving an averaged, identical price." - very long sentence
  • "Sapiro proclaimed that a wheat pool could be organized in a few weeks, though both Brownlee and Reid disagreed and returned to Canada committed to caution.[54] However, in their absence the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald had invited Sapiro to tour Alberta, and his speeches stirred up extravagant expectations among UFA members for immediate action, in time for the new organization to market the 1923 crop" - bit confused by the sequence here. Did Sapiro come before Brownlee returned? Also, given the (apparently) small audience for Sapiro's initial claim, "proclaimed" seems like the wrong word
  • "since the beginning of 1922" - why not just "in 1922"?
  • Done
  • Ref 73: not the title and publisher listed on the page itself, and it has a "last updated" date
  • Fixed title and publisher. Couldn't find a field in {{cite web}} for "last updated" but it could be that I'm blind.
  • I believe you can use the "date" parameter for that...somehow
  • Right, duh. Done now.
  • Byrne: publisher should be Detselig Enterprises Ltd
  • Done
  • In References, why is University of Regina only linked once while Regina, Saskatchewan is linked both times?
  • Fixed
  • Were only spirits legalized for purchase and home consumption, and was only beer allowed to be sold in taverns? Nikkimaria (talk) 04:31, 9 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • That wording reflects my source. Apparently, according to Alberta prohibition plebiscite, 1923 (whose existence I just discovered), everything was legalized for home consumption, but only beer was licensed for sale by taverns. Since my source doesn't make that clear, I've just truncated things to "...the end of prohibition" and inserted a wikilink to the referendum article (which is sourced to contemporary newspaper accounts, which I'd rather avoid using in this article, since they're essentially primary sources). Steve Smith (talk) 16:30, 9 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your support and review; I've responded to your concerns above as I've addressed them (and will continue to do so as I address the others). Steve Smith (talk) 14:53, 9 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support. Is there any chance of getting an outside view of Brownlee's role through the biographies of others (particularly others of a different political party), such as Boyle? Other than that, very carefully crafted work. hamiltonstone (talk) 03:09, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]
  • Thanks for your review and support. Unfortunately, there is no book-length biography of Boyle, and I'm not even aware of any chapter-length biographies; indeed, I'm working on his article sporadically, and I expect that my major source for his post-1921 career will be...Foster's biography of Brownlee. Really, the only contemporary of Brownlee's (in provincial affairs, at least) who is the subject of a book-length biography is Henry Wise Wood, and i. I've used that biography already, and ii. the intersection between Brownlee's life and Wood's was not primarily in the political domain, which makes the Wood biography somewhat less useful in an article about Brownlee's political career. Steve Smith (talk) 13:42, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

WP:FA Criteria 3 met Fasach Nua (talk) 18:03, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Support

  • so Brownlee was acclaimed as Ponoka's MLA December 9, 1921 - This seems like an interesting and unusual detail; could you give a brief explanation of why he was acclaimed, rather than having to run for a seat?
  • C$100, $5 million, etc. It would be helpful if you could estimate what these values would be in Canadian dollars today.
  • In 1924, unsatisfied with Greenfield's response, he made an example of his own department, cutting staff and taking a strict approach to spending. In 1923, he found an ally - these events would make more sense to me if given in chronological order.
  • three cents per acre - should probably provide a conversion here.
  • Emil Picariello, Florence Lassandra - should probably avoid the two redirects here.

Well-written, well-sourced, interesting read. The issues I've raised are small, and I'm sure easily dealt with. Jayjg (talk) 05:18, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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