National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Keystone XL pipeline was the most controversial North American energy infrastructure project of our time, and its history and demise serve as a cautionary tale for Canada, a country that will remain mired in regulatory dysfunction until it finds common ground between economic value and credible carbon policy. 2017.

For years, the prospect of parliamentary reform has been a hot-button issue in Canada. More and more Canadians find themselves frustrated with how Parliament works (or doesn't) and end up increasingly checked out from politics as a whole, feeling like their voices don't matter to those in power. When he introduced the "Reform Act" bill in 2013, Conservative MP Michael Chong brought the issue of parliamentary reform to the forefront, proposing changes that would empower MPs and hold party leadership accountable to their caucus--and therefore, to all Canadians.

Offers a first-hand view of the inner workings of the Canadian federal government, with a particular focus on the interplay between the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council Office, the federal cabinet, and the role of backbench MPs and parliamentary committees. Brodie argues that this interplay puts a lie to the proposition that the prime minister has evolved into the role of a dictator of sorts, with unchecked control over the levers of political power.

On a day-to-day basis, what does a newly elected Member of Parliament do? How does the House of Commons work? Drawing on his years of service to five majority and three minority parliaments, Rob Walsh shares first-hand insights into the inner workings of the House, beyond the political personalities that dominate its proceedings. Inside this unique public and political institution, laws are made, taxes are imposed, political issues are debated, and the government is held to account on behalf of all Canadians.

Democracy is becoming a toxic environment, rife with trolls, bots, fake news and computational propaganda. Why, and what can be done? In this highly informative, engaging and readable book, Canada's lead pollster and data expert Nik Nanos gives an insider's look into the surprise outcomes that favoured Trump, Trudeau, and Macron, along with the Brexit and UK election votes. Nanos asserts that it is more the tyranny of small numbers fuelled by economic anxiety than a massive populist wave.

Libby Davies is a Canadian activist and politician from British Columbia. She moved to Vancouver in 1968 and served as a city councillor from 1982 to 1993, then represented the federal riding of Vancouver East from 1997 to 2015 under the New Democratic Party banner. She was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2016 and is Canada's first openly lesbian MP. For more than four decades, Libby Davies has worked steadfastly for social justice.

The story of the rise and fall of the Energy East pipeline. The project was to be a monumental undertaking, beginning near Edmonton and stretching over four thousand kilometres, across two hundred First Nation reserves, through Montreal to the Irving Oil refineries in Saint John, NB. The crude oil flowing across six provinces would have found a much higher price shipped to world markets than south to the United States. Conceived as a back-up plan for two other pipelines stalled by political opposition, the project became the crucible for Canada's debate over its energy future.

On the eve of International Women's Day in 2015, the Chinese government arrested five feminist activists and jailed them for thirty-seven days. The Feminist Five became a global cause celebre, with Hillary Clinton speaking out on their behalf and activists inundating social media with #FreetheFive messages. But the Five are only symbols of a much larger feminist movement of civil rights lawyers, labor activists, performance artists, and online warriors prompting an unprecedented awakening among China's educated, urban women.

The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth's integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native. Weaving together American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed's On Juneteenth provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond.

A common sense blueprint for what the future of First Nations should look like as told through the fascinating life and legacy of a remarkable leader. In 1984, at the age of twenty-four, Clarence Louie was elected Chief of the Osoyoos Indian Band in the Okanagan Valley. Nineteen elections later, Chief Louie has led his community for nearly four decades. The story of how the Osoyoos Indian Band--"The Miracle in the Desert"--Transformed from a Rez that once struggled with poverty into an economically independent people is well-known.