In today's moralistic politics, to differ is to sin. But Stephen McNeil actually was different; he willingly committed the political sin of valuing principle over popularity. Premier of Nova Scotia for seven years, through elections, unrest, danger, and even tragedy, McNeil was determined to govern by putting principle first. Not everyone agreed with him or his priorities, but he accepted that because he was in politics for reasons other than the quest for power and the need to keep it. In...

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. This pape...

Rob Ford - The inside story of the weirdest mayoralty in Torontopublished in Toronto Life magazine as:The Incredible Shrinking Mayorby Marci McDonald

Throughout her ground-breaking career in business and politics, Hurricane Hazel McCallion has seen it all. In 1978, she defeated a popular incumbent to win election as mayor of Mississauga, a rising city near Toronto that was, until then, a collection of towns, villages and farms. No one would have foreseen that the indomitable Hurricane Hazel would become so wildly popular she would remain mayor until 2014, retiring at age 93.Within months of taking office, Mayor McCallion orchest...

The authoritative biography of Stephen Harper, to be published on the eve of the next election.As one of the important prime ministers in the life of our nation, Stephen Harper has reshaped Canada into a more conservative country, a transformation that his opponents tacitly admit will never be reversed. He has made government smaller, justice tougher, and provinces more independent, whether they want to be or not. Under its 22nd prime minister, Canada show...

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 pu...

A sly, insightful and wonderfully original book from one of Canada's most popular political analysts, Chantal Hébert, and one of Quebec's top political broadcasters, Jean Lapierre.Only the most fearless of political journalists would dare to open the old wounds of the 1995 Quebec referendum, a still-murky episode in Canadian history that continues to defy our understanding. The referendum brought one of the world's most successful democracies to the brink of the unk...

From an acclaimed professor and former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a passionate and edgy defense of free speech in Canada, and the role the internet plays in the issue.In February 2013, Tom Flanagan, acclaimed academic, University of Calgary professor, and former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, made comments surrounding the issue of viewing child pornography that were tweeted from the event he was speaking at and broadcast worldwide. In the t...

An in-depth breakdown of the recent wave of Canadian Senate scandals, highlighting the need for abolition.The Senate of Canada was created as a temporary expedient at the time of Confederation, offered as part of the negotiations to bring Canada’s original colonial provinces into the new political union in the mid-1860s. Since then, the original provinces with upper houses abolished them. New provinces were created without second chambers to their legislatures. Only the Parliament ...

Globe & Mail Non-Fiction BestsellerToronto Star Non-Fiction BestsellerThe inside story of Tom Mulcair’s rise from modest, middle-class beginnings to the threshold of power.He has been called the strongest Opposition leader in the television era; he was also known in Québec as the provincial Opposition’s “pit bull.” Here, in his own words, and for the first time, is the inside story of Tom Mulcair’s rise from modest, middle-class beginnings to the t...

WINNER 2014 – Ottawa Book Award for Non-FictionThe definitive portrait of Stephen Harper in power by this country’s most trenchant, influential and surprising political commentator.Oh, he won, but he won’t last. Oh, he may win again but he won’t get a majority. Oh, his trick bag is emptying fast, the ads are backfiring, the people are onto him, and soon his own party will turn on him. And let me tell you, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy . . ....

In Tragedy in the Commons, Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan, founders of the non-partisan think tank Samara, draw on an astonishing eighty exit interviews with former Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum to unearth surprising observations about the practice of politics in Canada.Though Canada is at the top of international rankings of democracies, Canadians themselves increasingly don’t see politics as a way to solve society’s problems. Small wonder. I...