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Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.
By Greg Donaghy
About the Book
"I am not afraid to be called a politician," declared Paul Martin Sr., defending his life’s work in politics. "Next to preaching the word of God, there is nothing nobler than to serve one’s fellow countrymen in government." First elected to the House of Commons in 1935, Martin would serve in the cabinets of four prime ministers and run for the Liberal Party leadership three times. This book examines his remarkable career not only as a politician but as a liberal reformer who relentlessly tackled the issues of his day with consummate political skill and gritty determination.
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The Call of the World: A Political Memoir
By Bill Graham
About the Book
The Call of the World takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes tour of defining moments in recent global history. Bill Graham – Canada’s minister of foreign affairs and then its minister of defence in the tumultuous years following 9/11 – is an insightful and wryly humorous guide, steering readers through an astonishing array of national and international events, explaining important geopolitical relationships, and revealing the human side of global affairs through his deft portraits of world leaders.
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Prime Ministerial Power in Canada: Its Origins under Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden
By Patrice Dutil
About the Book
Many Canadians lament that prime ministerial power has become too concentrated since the 1970s. Notions of “governments of one” abound, as if this is somehow a new phenomenon. This book contradicts this view by demonstrating how prime ministerial power was in fact centralized from the very beginning of Confederation and that the first three important prime ministers – Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden – channelled that centralizing impulse to adapt to the circumstances they faced.
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The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy
By Brendan Kelly
About the Book
Before official bilingualism was established in 1969, francophones were scarce in the Canadian public service. Marcel Cadieux was one of the few, becoming arguably the most important francophone diplomat and civil servant in Canadian history. Brendan Kelly’s insightful, entertaining biography reveals a complex figure.
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Challenge the Strong Wind: Canada and East Timor, 1975–99
By David Webster
About the Book
In 1975, Indonesian forces overran East Timor, just days after it had declared independence from Portugal. Canadian officials knew the invasion was coming and initially endorsed Indonesian rule. The ensuing occupation of the Southeast Asian country lasted twenty-four years. Challenge the Strong Wind recounts the evolution of Canadian government policy toward East Timor from 1975 to its 1999 independence vote.
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The Nuclear North: Histories of Canada in the Atomic Age
Edited by Susan Colbourn and Timothy Andrews Sayle
About the Book
By virtue of resources and technologies Canada is a nuclear nation. But the country does not have the ultimate symbol of nuclear power – a weapons program of its own. Since the first atomic weapon was detonated in 1945, Canadians have debated not only the role of nuclear power in their uranium-rich land but also their country’s role in a nuclear world. The Nuclear North investigates critical questions in these ongoing debates.
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The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent: Politics and Policies for a Modern Canada
Edited by Patrice Dutil
Much of Canada’s modern identity emerged from the innovative social policies and ambitious foreign policy of Louis St-Laurent’s Liberal government. His extraordinarily creative administration made decisions that still resonate today: on health care, pensions, and housing; on infrastructure and intergovernmental issues; and, further afield, in developing Canada’s global middle-power role in global affairs and resolving the Suez Crisis. Yet St-Laurent remains an enigmatic figure.
Contributors to The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent assess the degree to which he set the policy agenda. They explore the features of his personality that made him effective (or sometimes less so), the changes he wrought on the state apparatus and federal-provincial relations, and the substance of his government’s policies.
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Canadian Foreign Policy: Reflections on a Field in Transition
Edited by Brian Bow and Andrea Lane
About the Book
Canadian Foreign Policy, as an academic discipline, is in crisis. Despite its value, CFP is often seen as a “stale and pale” subfield of political science with an unfashionably state-centred focus. Canadian Foreign Policy asks why.
Academics from both inside and around the field were asked “Where do our ideas about CFP come from?” This starting point led to a nuanced exploration of the ways in which scholars come to think of themselves as participating in CFP as an academic project – or not – and what that has meant both for their intellectual trajectory and for the development of the field.
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The Rowell-Sirois Commission and the Remaking of Canadian Federalism
By Robert Wardhaugh and Barry Ferguson
About the Book
The Rowell-Sirois Commission and the Remaking of Canadian Federalism investigates the groundbreaking inquiry launched to reconstruct the federal system – revealing its impact on the high politics of federal-provincial relations and its legacy for Canadian federalism today.
Find a copy here.