In November 2008 the opposition came very close to replacing Stephen Harper with a new government. It was an astonishing few days for Canadian politics; opposition party leaders came together, announcing a formal coalition of the Liberals and the NDP, while the Bloc offered guaranteed support for the new government in the House of Commons.This came at a time of crisis. Many of the world's large financial institutions were tottering, leading to unprecedented government intervention i...

In 2011 the Harper Conservatives won a majority government with a minority of votes. If the opposition parties were willing to work together, they would have an excellent chance of defeating the Conservatives in the next election. Yet a merger doesn't seem to be in the cards any time soon.In Power Trap, veteran journalist Paul Adams draws on many hours of interviews with politicians and insiders as he explores the issues that are keeping the opposition parties apart. What ...

Peter C. Newman, Canada's most "cussed and discussed" political journalist, on the death spiral of the Liberal Party.The May 2, 2011 federal election turned Canadian governance upside down and inside out. In his newest and possibly most controversial book, bestselling author Peter C. Newman argues that the Harper majority will alter Canada so much that we may have to change the country's name. But the most lasting impact of the Tory win will be the demise of the Liberal Party, whic...

After four years in power, Stephen Harper's governance comes under the microscope of prominent Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin. Focusing on the growth of executive power under Harper and drawing on interviews with prominent insiders, Martin probes the smearing of opponents, the silencing of the public and diplomatic service, the secrecy, the prorogations, the unprecedented centralizing of power, and the attempted muzzling of the media. He examines controversies such as th...

Margaret Thatcher transformed British political life forever. So did Ronald Reagan in the United States. Now Canada has experienced a similar, dramatic shift to a new kind of politics, which author Donald Gustein terms Harperism. Among its key tenets:A weakened labour movement--and preferably the disappearance of unions--will contribute to Canada's economic prosperityCutting back government scientific research and data collection will improve public policy-making

Everywhere you look, these days, Conservatives are winning elections. No matter where you look, the story is the same: white, angry men on the Right are winning power. The Left, meanwhile, is divided and dispirited, and rapidly losing ground. Fight the Right is a handbook on how to survive the nasty, brutish and short-sighted era in which we find ourselves and is designed to help progressives better understand their conservative adversary, and ultimately defeat conservatives where...

He cast himself as the ultimate insider, Parliament Hill’s man in the know. It made him a household name and one of the Canada’s bestpaid journalists. But Duffy wanted to get even closer and lobbied his way into the Canadian Senate, with dire results. Veteran journalist Dan Leger tells the story of Duffy’s rise to the top in Canadian media, his entanglement with the Harper Conservatives, and the scandal that made him one of the most controversial figures in contemporary politics. This pape...

From an acclaimed professor and former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a passionate and edgy defense of free speech in Canada, and the role the internet plays in the issue.In February 2013, Tom Flanagan, acclaimed academic, University of Calgary professor, and former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, made comments surrounding the issue of viewing child pornography that were tweeted from the event he was speaking at and broadcast worldwide. In the t...

Renowned as a passionate Canadian, bestselling author Mel Hurtig has combed through world statistics to see how Canada really measures up — and the results are astonishing, and often shocking.This book is about how Canada has changed, very much for the worse, in the last twenty years. As a result of these profound (often hidden) changes, we are no longer the people we think we are. To take one example, the Canadian media usually leaves us with the impression that Canadians are real...

2015 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize — Shortlisted, Non-FictionIn Irresponsible Government, former MP Brent Rathgeber takes Parliament to task for its failure to hold the government to account.Irresponsible Government examines the current state of Canadian democracy in contrast to the founding principles of responsible government established by the Fathers of Confederation in 1867. The book examines the failure of modern elected repres...

Ottawa has become a place where the nation’s business is done in secret, and access to information?the lifeblood of democracy in Canada?is under attak.It’s being lost to an army of lobbyists and public-relations flacks who help set the political agenda and decide what you get to know. It’s losing its struggle against a prime minister and a government that continue to delegitimize the media’s role in the political system. The public’s right to know has been undermined by a governmen...

Globe & Mail Non-Fiction BestsellerToronto Star Non-Fiction BestsellerThe inside story of Tom Mulcair’s rise from modest, middle-class beginnings to the threshold of power.He has been called the strongest Opposition leader in the television era; he was also known in Québec as the provincial Opposition’s “pit bull.” Here, in his own words, and for the first time, is the inside story of Tom Mulcair’s rise from modest, middle-class beginnings to the t...