DCHP-2

back concession DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• 1

  a concession (def. 2), some distance removed from urban and heavily settled areas, especially one set some distance back from the St. Lawrence River and the Lower Lakes.

  See also: back range  concession (def. 2)  

  • 1791  (1905)  Such as have applied for Land . . . will not go back into the back concessions to settle while there is so much waste and unoccupied land in front.
  • 1885  The home we now inhabited was altogether different from the one we had left in the back concession. . . .
  • 1958  . . . Mr. Stoliker states that back-concession farmers need to be told and advised what farmers should do and when

• 2a — (often plural)

  any rural region.

  See also: back-block  concessions  

  • 1929  He had been absent for over a fortnight, plying his trade in the back Concessions.
  • 1963  [Calgary dateline] No one had considered . . . the mood of farmers on back concessions [in Alberta]. . . .

• 2b — Derog.

  in attributive uses connoting lack of sophistication, education, etc.

  • 1960  Before I am accused of asking fellow socialists to drop their socialism in favour of a nebulous united front with petty nationalists and back-concession statesmen, let me say emphatically that is not my intention.
  • 1963  "Here's Harkness, the only guy probably who could win a clear majority for the Conservatives in this election, if he was the leader, and he's talking like some back-concession reeve, or something."