Statecraft delves into the intricate relationships between Canadian prime ministers and their cabinets since Confederation. Through twenty critical essays, leading scholars systematically analyse the challenges and decisions faced by individual prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau. The essays explore essential questions: What influenced cabinet appointments? How and why were ministers shuffled or dismissed? How did the drive for re-election shape the leader...

Canada has become a leader among the modern nations of the world. It has emerged as a modern industrial nation, and as a key player in the resource, commodities, and financial institutions that make up today’s world. This third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Canada contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. It includes over 700 cross-referenced entries on a wide range of topics, covering the broad sweep of Canadian history from long before European cont...

This magnificent second volume, written with exclusive access to Trudeau’s private papers and letters, completes what the Globe and Mail called “the most illuminating Trudeau portrait yet written” — sweeping us from sixties’ Trudeaumania to his final days when he debated his faith.His life is one of Canada’s most engrossing stories. John English reveals how for Trudeau style was as important as substance, and how the controversial public figure intertwined with the charism...

**INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of Canada’s foremost authors and journalists, offers a gripping account of the contest between John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, two prime ministers who fought each other relentlessly, but who between them created today’s Canada.**John Diefenbaker has been unfairly treated by history. Although he wrestled with personal demons, his governments launched major reforms in public health care, law reform and immigration. On his watch, First Nat...

After a surprising conversation with young Canadians who didn't recognize the name Lester B. Pearson - Nobel Peace Prize winner and Canada's fourteenth prime minister, author J.D.M. Stewart set out to bring the country's history to a new generation. The result is Canada's Prime Ministers, a lively, accessible chronicle of Canada's leaders, from Sir John A. Macdonald in 1867 to Mark Carney in 2025.With engaging prose and fresh insights, Stewart captures the defining moments of each ...

“Going my way?” asked John Turner’s campaign brochure in 1962, “my way is the Liberal way.” It was, that is, until Pierre Trudeau came to power. Turner was his party’s star apprentice in the Liberal art of managing a heterogeneous nation through brokerage politics, but in the 1968 election Canadians opted instead for a newly minted celebrity leader for a re-imagined nation.A political biography extraordinaire, Elusive Destiny reveals the inner workings of the Liberal Party...

"Canada's prime minister is a dictator." "The Sun King of Canadian government." "More powerful than any other chief executive of any other democratic country." These kinds of claims are frequently made about Canada's leader – especially when the prime minister's party holds a majority government in Parliament. But is there any truth to these arguments? At the Centre of Government not only presents a comprehensively researched work on the structure of political power in Canada but also offe...

Updated with an insightful and controversial assessment of Jean ChrétienSince first published in 1994, Right Honourable Men has remained the definitive source for Canadians wanting to know more about the quality of our leaders and the personalities behind the policies. Now, in this timely new edition, Bliss evaluates Jean Chrétien's record and asserts that he was actually a conservative prime minister -- as conservative as Mulroney himself. And Chrétien's legacy? ...

One hundred years ago, Canadians went to the polls to decide the fate of their country in an election that raised issues vital to Canada's national independence and its place in the world. Canadians faced a clear choice between free trade with the United States and fidelity to the British Empire, and the decisions they made in September 1911 helped shape Canada's political and economic history for the rest of the century. Canada 1911 revisits and re-examines this momentous turn in...

Winner of the Dafoe Book PrizeWinner of the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography1995 marked the 100th anniversary of that most charismatic and enigmatic public figure, the thirteenth prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker. Beloved and reviled with equal passion, he was a politician possessed of a flamboyant, self-fabulizing nature that is the essential ingredient of spellbinding biography.After several runs at politi...

Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History traces the history of social policy in Canada from the period of First Nations’ control to the present day, exploring the various ways in which residents of the area known today as Canada have organized themselves to deal with (or to ignore) the needs of the ill, the poor, the elderly, and the young.This book is the first synthesis on social policy in Canada to provide a critical perspective on the evolution of social policy ...

Jean Chr̩tien's critics have said he was a man with no vision and a short attention span Рa small-town hick who stumbled his way to become Canada's 20th prime minister. Whatever credit the Chr̩tien government deserved was often given to Paul Martin, the heir apparent who was touted to be the brains behind the operation.But while Chretien was the subject of ridicule, he was quietly giving his competitors Рboth inside and outside of the Liberal party Рa master class in politics,...