Ipolitics

“I know you’re very busy, Mr. Harper. We’re all busy. But every person has a space next to where they sleep, whether a patch of pavement or a fine bedside table. In that space, at night, a book can glow. And in those moments of docile wakefulness, when we begin to let go of the day, then is the perfect time to pick up a book and be someone else, somewhere else, for a few minutes, a few pages, before we fall asleep.” From the author of Life of Pi comes a literary correspondence—recommendations to Canada’s Prime Minister of great short books that will inspire and delight book lovers and book club readers across our nation. Every two weeks since April 16th, 2007, Yann Martel has mailed Stephen Harper a book along with a letter. These insightful, provocative letters detailing what he hopes the Prime Minister may take from the books—by such writers as Jane Austen, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Stephen Galloway—are collected here together. The one-sided correspondence (Mr. Harper’s office has only replied once) becomes a meditation on reading and writing and the necessity to allow ourselves to expand stillness in our lives, even if we’re not head of government.

Everywhere you look, these days, Conservatives are winning elections. No matter where you look, the story is the same: white, angry men on the Right are winning power. The Left, meanwhile, is divided and dispirited, and rapidly losing ground. Fight the Right is a handbook on how to survive the nasty, brutish and short-sighted era in which we find ourselves and is designed to help progressives better understand their conservative adversary, and ultimately defeat conservatives wherever the battle is taking shape. It's a manual on how conservatives have appropriated language and values, and how progressives can take both back. Written in a fun, accessible, style, Fight the Right will appeal to those about to launch an advocacy effort, as well as those who are simply curious about how (and if) the Right thinks. It is chock full of war stories and not-so-tall tales about winning progressive campaigns, from everyone from Jean Chretien to Bobby Kennedy, Jr., and it will argue--forcefully--that a United Right can't be defeated until a United Left emerges. Wherever conservative power-brokers are hurting average citizens and hard-working families, Fight the Right will provide a tested road map on how to beat the bullies.

In 2005 Michael Ignatieff left Harvard to lead Canada's Liberal Party and by 2008 was poised to become Prime Minister. It never happened. He describes what he learned from his bruising defeat about compromise and the necessity of bridging differences in a pluralist society. A reflective, compelling account of modern politics as it really is.

In this expanded and updated edition of Claws of the Panda, Jonathan Manthorpe explores Canada's ongoing relationship with the Chinese Communist Party - and the collapse of this relationship in light of the CCP's attempts to infiltrate and influence Canadian and global politics.

The oil sands. Global warming. The National Energy Program. Though these seem like modern Canadian subjects, author Mary Janigan reveals them to be a legacy of longstanding regional rivalry. Something of a "Third Solitude" since entering Confederation, the West has long been overshadowed by Canada's other great national debate: but as the conflict over natural resources and their effect on climate change heats up, 150 years of antipathy are coming to a head. Janigan takes readers back to a pivotal moment in 1918, when Canada's western premiers descended on Ottawa determined to control their own future--and as Margaret MacMillan did in Paris 1919, she deftly illustrates how the results reverberate to this day.

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017 What if it is not our political system that is broken, but our understanding of it? Everybody thinks that it’s the system that’s broken in politics; but what if it’s not the system that’s broken but rather our understanding of it? What if everyone’s proposals to make the system “more democratic” only wind up making things worse, and weaken our systems of accountability so much as to make them meaningless? What if it’s our own ignorance that is killing democracy in this country? Dale Smith looks at the critical gaps in civic literacy that have become endemic within Canadian political culture, wading through buzzwords and meaningless proposals to suggest real solutions. Designed for the lay reader, The Unbroken Machine seeks to explore our lack of civic literacy and show how our system of democracy should work — if only we were to engage with it the way it was meant to be.

InParty of One,investigative journalist Michael Harris closely examines the majority government of a prime minister essentially unchecked by the opposition and empowered by the general election victory of May 2011. Harris looks at Harper’s policies, instincts, and the often breathtaking gap between his stated political principles and his practices. Harris argues that Harper is more than a master of controlling information: he is a profoundly anti-democratic figure. In the F-35 debacle, the government’s sin wasn’t only keeping the facts from Canadians, it was in inventing them. Harper himself provided the key confabulations, and they are irrefutably (and unapologetically) on the public record from the last election. This is no longer a matter of partisan debate, but a fact Canadians must interpret for what it may signify. Harris illustrates how Harper has made war on every independent source of information in Canada since coming to power.Party of Oneis about a man with a well-defined and growing enemies list of those not wanted on the voyage: union members, scientists, diplomats, environmentalists, First Nations peoples, and journalists. Against the backdrop of a Conservative commitment to transparency and accountability, Harris exposes the ultra-secrecy, non-compliance, and dismissiveness of this prime minister. And with the Conservative majority in Parliament, the law is simple: what one man, the PM, says, goes.

So Near Yet So Far provides in-depth look at the multiple dimensions of Canada–US relations, particularly since 9/11. Based on almost 200 interviews with government policy makers, opinion-shapers, and interest group leaders in both countries, this book considers the interaction of domestic and cross-border politics at several levels, including political-strategic, trade-commercial, cultural-psychological, and institutional-procedural. It will appeal to practitioners, scholars, and citizens of both countries who want a better understanding of how the Canada–US relationship works – and can be made to work more effectively. Balanced and fair, it gets to the core issues without distorting perspectives on either side of the border.