This book is dedicated to all of the people who bought memberships, raised money and fought elections, especially in the dark, lean opposition years, to maintain the Progressive Conservative Party as a viable option in Island politics.

Shocked by Canada's 1837 rebellions, John A. Macdonald sought to build alliances and avoid future conflicts. Thanks to financial worries and an alcohol problem, he almost quit politics in 1864. The challenge of building Confederation harnessed his skills, and in 1867 he became the country's first prime minister.As "Sir John A.," he drove the Dominion's westward expansion, rapidly incorporating the Prairies and British Columbia before a railway contract scandal unseated him in 1873....

In the late 1920s, Canada’s economy was showing all the signs of a full-fledged depression. Life savings were evaporating, unemployment was up, and exports were dramatically down. Riding on the popularity of his promise to “blast” Canada’s way into world markets — and thus stop the economy’s downward spiral — Richard Bedford Bennett defeated William Lyon Mackenzie King at the polls on July 28, 1930, and assumed the leadership of the country. Over the next five years, however, Bennett’s nam...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'There was nothing extraordinary about my childhood or background. And yet I looked in vain for any aspect of my family's story when I went to university to read history, and continued to search fruitlessly for it throughout the next decade. Eventually I realised I would have to write this history myself.'What was it really like to live through the twentieth century? In 1910 three-quarters of the populati...

Winner of the Political Book of the Year Award 2015The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is the most significant new party in British politics for a generation. In recent years UKIP and their charismatic leader Nigel Farage have captivated British politics, media and voters. Yet both the party and the roots of its support remain poorly understood. Where has this political revolt come from? Who is supporting them, and why? How are UKIP attempting to win over voters? And ...

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017What 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...

Becoming Zimbabwe is the first comprehensive history of Zimbabwe, spanning the years from 850 to 2008. In 1997, the then Secretary General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai, expressed the need for a 'more open and critical process of writing history in Zimbabwe. ...The history of a nation-in-the-making should not be reduced to a selective heroic tradition, but should be a tolerant and continuing process of questioning and re-examination.' Becoming Zimbabwe tracks ...

A refreshingly honest memoir about politics and private lifeFew Canadians have served their nation as well and as widely as the Honourable Darcy McKeough. He was elected Member of Provincial Parliament for Chatham–Kent, Ontario, five times between 1963 and 1977. In 1967 he was mockingly dubbed the Duke of Kent by an opposition MPP, a title he has worn as a badge of honour ever since. As Treasurer of Ontario, Minister of Municipal Affairs, and Minister of E...

Mississauga is Canada's sixth largest city and its largest suburban municipality. Toronto's upstart western neighbour, with its multicultural population of more than 700,000, is a place not only of endless subdivisions and monotonous industrial parks, wide thoroughfares, and even wider expressways, but also of some distinctive older communities, notable lakefront and riverside parks, and occasionally bold architecture. Hazel McCallion, Mississauga's octogenarian mayor, is a national celebr...

The Prime Ministers of Canada is a unique work that features original essays by Canada's leading historians and is illustrated with exceptional archival images. The first in a series of books on Canadian leaders, it was first published in 2002 and now has well over 10,000 copies in print form. The fourth edition was published in early 2016 and is now available for the first time in digital format. The short, incisive texts provide surprising insights into the lives and motivations of the c...

Written by former minister and Labor historian Rodney Cavalier, Power Crisis is an explosive account of the self-destruction of the New South Wales Labor government, which has seen a turnover of four premiers in five years, and is heading for rejection and even humiliation by voters at the next state election. While the catalyst was the thwarted attempt to privatise electricity, Cavalier reveals that the real issue is the takeover of Labor by a professional political class without connecti...

The UK Independence Party (Ukip) is the most significant new force in British politics for a generation. Under the leadership of Nigel Farage, the party has enjoyed a remarkable rise, winning the 2014 European Parliament elections as well as two parliamentary by-elections, and attracting mainstream defectors to achieve major party status. By the time of the 2015 general election, Farage and Ukip stood on the threshold of becoming a major force at Westminster. This account is a must-read fo...