The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent

The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent
Author: Patrice Dutil
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2020-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774864052

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. The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent fills a great void in Canadian political history, bringing together well-established and new scholars to investigate the far-reaching influence of a politician whose astute policies and bold resolve moved Canada into the modern era.

Revival and Change

Revival and Change
Author: John C. Courtney
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2022-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774866748

Revival and Change is a compelling account of the elections, accomplishments, challenges, failures, and ultimate end of the Diefenbaker era. The Liberals had been in office for two decades when the 1957 election was called and were widely expected to win another majority government. But new Conservative leader John Diefenbaker completely overshadowed his opponents. Highlighting Liberal arrogance, Diefenbaker seized the opportunity that television and boisterous, supportive rallies offered to present his vision of a new Canada. He was ultimately victorious. A second election in 1958 resulted in a landslide victory, with the Liberals reduced to their smallest number of seats since Confederation, the CCF reduced to eight seats and losing its leader, and Social Credit wiped out completely. It was a rout never before seen in Canadian history. Revival and Change is the story of those elections, the government and opposition they produced, the issues that defined the government, and the era’s legacy in Canadian politics and society.

Canada and the Korean War

Canada and the Korean War
Author: Andrew Burtch
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2024-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0774870532

Korea was the first hot war of the Cold War. It was also Canada’s most significant military engagement of the twentieth century following the two world wars. Canada and the Korean War gathers leading scholars to explore the key themes and battles of a seminal yet understudied conflict. Canada had little stake and less interest in Korea before 1950, but the risk the conflict posed to the fragile postwar order was deemed too great for the country to stand on the sidelines. Alongside their allies, more than 30,000 Canadian service personnel fought a determined and skilled enemy. The armistice that ended the war left Korea devastated and divided, and it remains a dangerous hotspot today. This timely collection synthesizes Canadian and international perspectives on a conflict that shaped not only the Canadian armed forces but also the evolving Canada-Korea relationship. In the process, Canada and the Korean War sheds light on how the war has been framed and reframed in public memory.

Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity

Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity
Author: Raymond B. Blake
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2024-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774869666

Since Confederation, Canadian prime ministers have consciously constructed the national story. Each created shared narratives, formulating and reformulating a series of unifying national ideas that served to keep this geographically large, ethnically diverse, and regionalized nation together. This book is about those narratives and stories. Focusing on the post–Second World War period, Raymond B. Blake shows how, regardless of political stripe, prime ministers worked to build national unity, forged a citizenship based on inclusion, and defined a place for Canada in the world. They created for citizens an ideal image of what the nation stood for and the path it should follow. They told a national story of Canada as a modern, progressive, liberal state with a strong commitment to inclusion, a deep respect for diversity and difference, and a fundamental belief in universal rights and freedoms. Ultimately, this innovative history provides readers with a new way to see and understand what Canada is, and what holds us together as a nation.

The Formal and Informal Politics of British Rule In Post-Conquest Quebec, 1760-1837

The Formal and Informal Politics of British Rule In Post-Conquest Quebec, 1760-1837
Author: Nancy Christie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2020-02-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0192592742

Nancy Christie innovatively and significantly transforms the writing of Quebec history between 1763 and 1837 by locating Quebec within new British practices of imperial governance asserted in the wake of the Seven Years War. Breaking with the conventional master-narrative of the era as one of gradual integration between French- and English-speaking communities, accompanied by incremental political and social liberalization, Nancy Christie presents the six decades following the Conquest as a period of assertive British strategies for assimilating Quebec's French and Catholic majority, and refurbished authoritarianism deployed to arrest the spread of revolution in the Atlantic world. Brilliantly advanced, this new narrative of post-Conquest Quebec builds upon entirely new research meticulously gleaned from over 20,000 cases from the criminal and civil judicial archives and a sustained examination of both official and unofficial political and social discourses. This study charts both the British practices of colonial rule, which sought the assimilation of non-British 'others' through both formal modes of law and governance, and the consumption of British manufactured goods, and the contestation of these through the daily resistance of ordinary men and women. In so doing, Christie identifies Quebec as a case study with which to open a new trajectory in the wider study of the British Empire. Her striking conclusion urges a shift in historical focus from the interaction between European colonizers and racialized others, to the centrality of practices of rule designed to govern European subaltern peoples.

Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats

Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats
Author: Patrice Dutil
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2023-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774868589

Foreign policy is a tricky business. Typically, challenges and proposed solutions are perceived as disparate unless a leader can amass enough support for an idea that creates alignment. And because the prime minister is typically the one proposing that idea, Canadian foreign policy can be analyzed through the actions of these leaders. Statesmen, Strategists, and Diplomats explores how prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau have shaped foreign policy by manipulating government structures, adopting and rejecting options, and imprinting their personalities on the process. Contributors consider the impact of a wide range of policy decisions – increasing or decreasing department budgets, forming or ending alliances, and pursuing trade relationships – particularly as these choices affected the bureaucracies that deliver foreign policy diplomatically and militarily. This innovative focus is destined to trigger a new appreciation for the formidable personal attention and acuity involved in a successful approach to external affairs.

Building a Special Relationship

Building a Special Relationship
Author: Asa McKercher
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2024-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0774870575

Building a Special Relationship offers thoughtful insight into Canadian and American foreign relations during the 1950s, when Canada and the United States found new diplomatic footing as allies in the shadow of the Cold War. This book shows how the Eisenhower years were crucial in forming the bilateral relationship that currently exists between Canada and the United States. Under President Eisenhower and Prime Ministers St. Laurent and Diefenbaker, policy makers on both sides of the border collaborated with an air of “tolerant accommodation” on significant issues of the day. Despite frequent differences, they established frameworks for defence, foreign policy, economic growth, and resource management, many of which endure today. For scholars and readers of political history, international relations, and diplomacy, Building a Special Relationship makes a compelling case that the Eisenhower era is key to understanding the ongoing bond between these two nations.

Emily Carr As I Knew Her

Emily Carr As I Knew Her
Author: Carol Pearson
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2016
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1771511745

An intimate and heartwarming collection of memories that puts one of Canada's most beloved and iconic artists into a whole new light. In 1916, Emily Carr wasn't famous. She was poor, and she taught art classes to children. One of her students was seven-year-old Carol Pearson. Pearson spent hours every day with Carr: they painted together at the water's edge, and she helped care for the dogs, birds, monkey and other animals that Carr kept as pets. They grew very close, and at the age of 14, Carol moved in with Carr. Emily nicknamed Carol "Baboo," and Carol called her "Mom." The two were "mother-and-daughter" for twenty-five years, up until Carr passed away. This touching tribute to Carr illustrates a gentleness and sensitivity not seen in other biographies. Originally published in 1954, this very unique biography reveals Carr's personality more fully than any other.

Heenan Blaikie

Heenan Blaikie
Author: Adam Dodek
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2024-10-15
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0774870761

In 1973, three young lawyers established Heenan Blaikie. It would become one of Canada’s highest-profile law firms, counting former prime ministers, premiers, and Supreme Court justices in its ranks. It was like a family, according to many who worked there. But it was a dysfunctional family. In 2014, the firm’s dramatic collapse became front-page news. Based on extensive interviews with firm lawyers and legal industry insiders, Heenan Blaikie is the story of a respected law firm that ultimately buckled under weak governance and management. Heenan Blaikie seemed to punch above its weight: bilingual, humane, national with international aspirations. But beneath its unique culture as a kinder, gentler law firm lay workplace bullying, challenges for women and visible minority lawyers, and sexual harassment. Adam Dodek, an unbiased outsider, situates the firm’s evolution within the context of a changing legal profession and society, producing an account that is gripping from beginning to end.

Prime Ministerial Power in Canada

Prime Ministerial Power in Canada
Author: Patrice A. Dutil
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Cabinet system
ISBN: 9780774834735

Many Canadians lament that prime ministerial power has become too concentrated since the 1970s. This book contradicts this view by demonstrating how prime ministerial power was 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. Using a variety of innovative approaches, Patrice Dutil focuses on the managerial philosophies of each of the prime ministers. He shows that by securing a firm grip on the instruments of governance these early first ministers inevitably shaped the administrations they headed, as well as those that followed.