An in-depth breakdown of the recent wave of Canadian Senate scandals, highlighting the need for abolition.The Senate of Canada was created as a temporary expedient at the time of Confederation, offered as part of the negotiations to bring Canada’s original colonial provinces into the new political union in the mid-1860s. Since then, the original provinces with upper houses abolished them. New provinces were created without second chambers to their legislatures. Only the Parliament ...

Direct Democracy in Canada: The History and Future of Referendums surveys Canada’s century-long record of plebiscites and referendums. J. Patrick Boyer analyzes the effects of the three national referendums and the development of a consensus. This companion volume to The People’s Mandate studies some of the major provincial and municipal referendums, examines existing legal frameworks and speculates on the future of direct democracy in Canada.

A mood of anger with the political system has been stirring across Canada; yet rather than turning away from the system, many Canadians are actually seeking a greater say in matters that affect them. they want to become more effective participants in the political process.In this timely book, Patrick Boyer examines the important role that direct democracy — through the occasional use of referendums, plebiscites, and initiatives — can play in concert with our existing institutions o...

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017What happens when crucial public issues are decided the people themselves?Canadians answered “Yes” or “No” to prohibiting alcohol, conscripting soldiers, and revamping our constitution. Forcing such crucial choices at the ballot box is high-stakes democracy, both here and overseas — as witnessed with Britain’s transformative 2016 “Brexit” referendum.Forcing Choice dissects Canada’s extensive use of...

Quiet Isaac Jelfs led many lives: a scapegoated law clerk in England; a soldier in the mad Crimean War; a lawyer on swirling Broadway Avenue in New York. His escape from each was wrapped in deep secrecy. He eventually reached Canada, in 1869, with a new wife and a changed name. In his new home — the remote wilderness of Muskoka — he crafted yet another persona for himself. In Another Country, Another Life, his great-grandson traces that long-hidden journey, exposing Isaac Jelfs' c...

The world as we know it has been turned upside down by recent events but it’s still a place where leadership is needed more than ever.Fifteen Canadians with highly diverse perspectives and richly different experience explore this timely question in Leading in an Upside-Down World.Chapter by chapter, stories of Canada unfold and future prospects for leadership grow clearer as these eminent Canadians explain how to "recognize leadership" in an age where old instituti...

An inside account of the Progressive Conservative’s campaign organization.The Progressive Conservative Party’s “big blue machine” pioneered electoral techniques of centralized control, communications, campaign advertising, polling, policy-presentation, and fund-raising. Inspired by Dalton Camp and Norman Atkins, its widespread yet close-knit network of organizers and specialists changed how Canadian campaigns were fought, even as their “political machine” transform...

When the Free Grants and Homestead Act was first introduced in 1868, fierce debates erupted in Ontario's Legislature over whether land in the Muskoka region should be opened to settlement or reserved for the Aboriginal population. From the beginning, many people vented serious doubts about the free grant scheme, citing the district's poor agricultural prospects. In the end, such caution was ignored by overeager boosters.The story in Hardscrabble also takes readers to Brita...

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017Unique views from John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Indira Gandhi, and dozens of other world leaders reveal Canada and Canadians through their eyes.During the First World War, foreign leaders began addressing Canadians in our House of Commons and, ever since, have continued influencing how we think about our role in global affairs. For a century now, this parade of world figures has brought urgent messages about Can...

Rare views of human lives in turmoil are revealed in several hundred trials conducted in 1890s Muskoka by Magistrate James Boyer of Bracebridge. The charges and evidence show how raw life really was in Canada's frontier towns, with cases ranging from nostalgic and humorous to pitiable and deeply disturbing.While dispensing speedy justice, Boyer, who was also town clerk and editor of the Northern Advocate, the first newspaper in Ontario's northern districts, kept a careful ...

This book is part of the Towards the New Millennium Series, featuring the works of thoughtful Canadians who are profoundly interested in the future of Canada and the world.Most democracies do not use Canada’s "first past the post" voting system. To give a party more seats than its share of the popular vote warrants is deemed undemocratic by most. Such democracies use proportional representation to ensure a party’s seat-share does not exceed its vote-share.Former MLA, Nick L...

Solitary Courage is the story of a mother’s tough-love determination, her severely disabled daughter’s astonishing triumphs, and a documentary record of the political battles, organizational conflicts, and human struggles that citizens with disabilities face and fight every day of their lives.Mona Winberg became a pioneer of independent living, and emerged a leading advocate for citizens with mental and physical disabilities. Her courageous causes erupted from her deep res...