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In the early 20th century the Canadian North was a mystery, but the Canadian military stepped in, and this book explores its historic activities in Canada’s Arctic. Is the Canadian North a state of mind or simply the lands and waters above the 60th parallel? In searching for the ill-fated Franklin Expedition in the 19th century, Britain’s Royal Navy mapped and charted most of the Arctic Archipelago. In 1874 Canadian Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie agreed to take up sovereignty of all the Arctic, if only to keep the United States and Tsarist Russia out.

On October 8, 2013, Nova Scotia’s NDP government went down to a devastating election defeat. Premier Darrell Dexter lost his own seat, and the party held the dubious distinction of being the first one-term majority government in over 100 years.  In this new memoir, former NDP finance minister and MLA Graham Steele tries to make sense of the election result and shares what he’s learned from a fifteen-year career in provincial politics. In his trademark candid style, Steele pulls no punches in assessing what’s right—and what’s often wrong—with our current political system.

Effective citizens--engaged, knowledgeable, and persistent, and united in common cause--are the most powerful force that ever was, or ever will be. I hope this book will help citizens to be more effective.In his uniquely straightforward and accessible style, Political insider Graham Steele pulls back the curtain on our political system and gives readers a look inside. A lawyer, analyst, former Nova Scotia cabinet minister, and author of the Globe & Mail bestselling memoir What I Learned About Politics, Steele answers the burning questions of Canadians: Who really runs the parties?

When New Brunswick became its own colony in 1784, the government concluded several peace treaties with the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet in the territory that protected First Nations lands. But as settlers, loyalists, and disbanded soldiers moved into New Brunswick, they moved onto the reserves, often without official sanction. This squatter problem led the New Brunswick government to pass an act in 1844 that allowed them to sell reserve land.

This outspoken, timely book by former Mulroney Cabinet Minister Tom McMillan indicts Stephen Harper for destroying the historic Canadian Conservative Party while prime minister and party leader, accusing him of turning a force for progressive Canadian values into an American Republican-style vehicle for right-wing ideologues. Lamenting Harper’s hyper-partisan “cult of personality” politics, McMillan argues the Conservative Party is no longer the enlightened national institution founded by Sir John A.

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.

In this Anansi Digital Publication, James Laxer analyzes the descent of the United States into civil conflict. At a time when American society is roiled by deep divisions over immigration, guns, the role of the state, and the economic crisis, Laxer makes the case that serious conflict is likely to be generated from the right of the American political spectrum, from the forces he refers to as "Old America." Laxer poses the provocative question: Is the United States once again "A House Divided" to use Lincoln’s famous phrase on the eve of the American Civil War.

When Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King died in 1950, the public knew little about his eccentric private life. In his final will King ordered the destruction of his private diaries, seemingly securing his privacy for good. Yet twenty-five years after King’s death, the public was bombarded with stories about "Weird Willie," the prime minister who communed with ghosts and cavorted with prostitutes.

Forums such as commissions, courtroom trials, and tribunals that have been established through the second half of the twentieth century to address Aboriginal land claims have consequently created a particular way of presenting Aboriginal, colonial, and national histories. The history that emerges from these land-claims processes is often criticized for being “presentist” – inaccurately interpreting historical actions and actors through the lens of present-day values, practices, and concerns.

In Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune Roderick and Sharon Stewart provide the intriguing details of Bethune's controversial career as a surgeon, his turbulent personal life, his passionate crusade to eradicate tuberculosis, and his pioneering commitment to the establishment of medicare in Canada.