The Oxford Book Of Canadian Political Anecdotes

Funny, touching, ironic, and sometimes alarming, this lively volume draws on a wealth of sources, including a number of previously unpublished anecdotes, to create a new image of Canadian politics. A collection that stretches from the earliest records of New France to the latest backroom gossip on Parliament Hill, it includes representations of politicians who reflect Canada's regional and multicultural diversity, including Francophones and Anglophones, prime ministers and back-benchers, practitioners and commentators, historians and political journalists.

A survey of Canada's leading writers features forty-seven stories, with new pieces by writers in the original Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories. Included are short stories by W. P. Kinsella, Morley Callaghan, Timothy Findlay, Matt Cohen, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

Arranged chronologically with forty stories in all, the book provides an excellent survey of Canada's leading writers, including a story by Atwood herself ("The Sin Eater"), as well as stories by Morley Callaghan ("Last Spring They Came Over"), Mordecai Richler ("The Summer My Grandmother Was Supposed to Die"), and Stephen Leacock ("The Marine Excursion of the Knights of Pythias"). The book features biographical notes and an index of authors.

Concise and insightful, Canada: A Political Biography uses interconnected biographies of historical figures to tell the story of Canadian political history from 1791 to the present. Lively in both pace and style, this text offers students a unique lens through which to discover the majorplayers and unsung heroes of Canada's past in one comprehensive survey.

Women's participation in politics matters very much. Yet in Canada, women MPs have been stuck at a level of roughly one-fifth since 1993, and Stephen Harper has fewer women in his government than did Brian Mulroney. Although we may believe women are making progress, their representation in politics seems decidedly stalled. So it comes as no surprise that we hear little about issues of particular interest to women--breast cancer, violence against women, or the poverty of single mothers. In this engaging, no-nonsense, and witty book, Sylvia Bashevkin argues that Canadians have a profound unease with women in positions of political authority--what she calls the "women plus power equals discomfort" equation. She explores the specific reasons why this discomfort is particularly severe in Canada. Bashevkin also evaluates a range of barriers faced by women who enter politics, including the media's role in assessing the leadership styles, personal appearances, and private lives of female politicians. In clear, accessible terms, Bashevkin explains concepts such as "gender schemas" and "media framing" in terms of key examples, such as Belinda Stronach and Hillary Clinton. Finally, Bashevkin outlines some compelling solutions to address the stalemate facing women in Canadian politics.

Janet Ajzenstat is one of Canada's most respected thinkers on the moral and philosophical foundations of responsible government and Confederation. Discovering Confederation is a study of political science over the last forty years through the intellectual lens of her career. Ajzenstat details her academic journey, from her early years as a hopeful, radical activist in the 1960s, through her graduate studies at McMaster University and the University of Toronto, her commitment to the importance of primary source documents, and to her decades-long teaching career. Learning from prominent political thinker Allan Bloom and philosopher and political commentator George Grant, Ajzenstat began to form her own opinions about parliamentary democracy and constitutional debate. She presents her discovery of the argument for parliamentary democracy, explaining how and why parliamentary democracy is sufficient security for individual rights. Though sometimes referred to as a conservative, Ajzenstat shows that her work is a defence of the political constitution, which ensures unconstrained and continuing deliberation amongst parties, interests, and philosophies of all political stripes. A candid and engaging showcase of a great mind at work, Discovering Confederation is a revealing account of Canada's political history and recent academic life.

A collection of fascinating stories, entertainingly told, revealing the human face of science. Eurekas and Euphorias encompasses some 200 anecdotes brilliantly illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and the intolerant, recluses and arrivistes. Told with wit and relish by Walter Gratzer, here are stories to delight, astonish, instruct, and most especially, entertain the general reader, scientist and non-scientist alike.