December 15, 2014

READING LIST FOR PROGRESSIVES Winter 2014-2015  

By The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy

The Pearson Centre publishes a reading list for progressives periodically.  The views in the books and those of the reviewers and are those of the writers and not necessarily of the Centre.  This list will be updated from time to time on the Centre’s website: www.thepearsoncentre.ca

 

Denise Bombardier, Dictionnaire amoureux du Québec

Descendants des aventuriers français qui ont débarqué en Nouvelle-France au XVIe siècle, les Québécois ont dompté un pays de démesure, de froid et d’espace. Ni Français, ni américains, plus tout à fait Canadien, ils vivent au canada et ont un esprit nord-américain, tout en restant très attachés à leurs racines, en particulier grâce à leur langue, truffée de néologismes, d’anglicismes et d’ancien français. Défi permanent à l’uniformisation du continent nord-américain, ce peuple minoritaire a su faire preuve de modernité par ses réalisations politiques, économiques et culturelle. Denise Bombardier met dans ce Dictionnaire amoureux tout son énergie au service de notre découverte de cette terre de contrastes. Un cri d’amour au Québec et à ses habitants. (amazon.ca)

 

Mark Bourrie, Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper’s Assault on Your Right to Know.

Bourrie exposes how trends have conspired to simultaneously silence the Canadian media and elect an anti-intellectual government determined to conduct business in private. Drawing evidence from multiple cases and examples, Bourrie demonstrates how budget cuts have been used to suppress the collection of facts that embarrass the government’s position or undermine its ideologically based decision-making. Perhaps most importantly, Bourrie gives advice on how to take back your right to be informed and to be heard. To be published January 2015 (Amazon.ca)

 

J. Patrick Boyer, Our Scandalous Senate

Written by former Progressive Conservative MP, Patrick Boyer, he posits that he Parliament of Canada remains stuck with its redundant and irrelevant colonial relic, costly to maintain and out of step with the values of a modern democratic country. Today, the Senate of Canada is rocked by ongoing scandal. News of this far-reaching scandal rightly disturbs Canadians, but the real national scandal is the very existence of the Senate itself.

Review on Amazon.ca: Everyone should take the time to read this VERY INFORMATIVE book. A revelation into the true workings of the Senate.
I could not put the book down.

 

Derek Burney and Fen Hampson, Brave New Canada: Meeting the Challenge of a Changing World Hardcover

They identify key trends that are reshaping the world’s geopolitics and economics and discuss the challenges Canada confronts with the rise of China and other global centres of power. Their examination of a wide range of themes – including the place of pluralistic democratic values in diplomacy, economics, and trade, the ways that Canada should reset relations with the US, as well as how to manage new global security threats – suggests how Canada can become bold, assertive, and confident and easily adjust to a new global landscape. (amazon.ca)

Reviews on Amazon.ca:

1.  A crisp analysis of Canada’s future in a fast changing world. Well written and thoroughly researched, and pleasantly free of usual academic jargon.

2. Not worth it. There are plenty of other, better books that talk about the same issues. For those interested in Canadian political science or foreign policy, this book should be avoided. It is shallow and poorly researched.

 

Roch Carrier, Wolfe and Montcalme, The Dual Biography of Two Men Who Forever Changed the Course of Canadian History

In September 1759, a small band of British troops led by James Wolfe scaled the tall cliff overlooking a farmer’s field owned by Abraham Martin and overpowered the French garrison that protected the area, allowing the bulk of the British army to ascend the cliff behind and attack the French who, led by Louis-Joseph Montcalm, were largely unaware of Wolfe’s tactics. The battle that ensued on what would become known as the Plains of Abraham would forever shape the geography and politics of Canada.  Montcalm and Wolfe, written by one of the finest writers this country has ever produced, is the epic story of this battle told through the lives of the two generals, Wolfe and Montcalm. The book is a dual biography of the men and their most famous battle written by a master storyteller. What kind of life did they have before they took up arms? What were the two men really like? And, most importantly, what forces brought the two men to face each other in a battle that forged a nation? (chapters.indigo.ca)

 

Pierre Cayouette, Dans les coulisses d’Enquête

La plupart des témoins qui défilent devant la juge France Charbonneau ont été révélés au public dans les reportages d’Alain Gravel, Marie-Maude Denis, Christian Latreille et leurs collègues de l’émission Enquête. Ce livre nous entraîne dans les coulisses de la grande émission d’affaires publiques de Radio-Canada, et raconte les dessous d’une série de reportages qui a ébranlé le Québec. (amazon.ca)

 

Andrew Cohen, Two Days in June: John F. Kennedy and the 48 Hours that Made History

In Andrew Cohen’s seventh book and first to feature a prominent American figure, he unlocks long-held mysteries during these pivotal 48 hours where John F. Kennedy spoke to the world on issues still gripping today’s nations: arms control and civil rights.  Kennedy’s June 10 speech and his nationally televised address on June 11, 1963, signaled his evolution as a civil rights leader.

The book vividly chronicles Kennedy’s hour-by-hour deliberations over these two summer days where the President emerged from shadows to lead and, as Cohen writes…”to conduct ordinary business amid extraordinary circumstances”.  This must-read offers political pundits and history buffs a fresh take.  (Tobias Keogh)

 

Hillary Clinton, Hard Choices

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America’s 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future.  “All of us face hard choices in our lives,” Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the center of world events. “Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.” (chapters.indigo.ca)

 

Susan Delacourt, Shopping for votes: How politicians choose us and we choose them

Her fifth fascinating book tackles long held myths about Canadians and how their increasingly ravenous consumerism has helped shape nationalism over the past several decades.  Delacourt exposes how clever marketing and the media have conspired to dupe the apathetic and shrinking voting public and impacted the political landscape.  The author asks readers if the time has come to draw clearer lines between our civic life and our shopping pursuits. Has the voting (and buying) public been manipulated into choosing our political leaders?

A deserved finalist for several 2014 awards, buy this book to find out how campaigns are being run today and will be run in 2015.  (Tobias Keogh)

 

Yves Engler,The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy,

Englerforces readers to look in the mirror, warts and all, and face the blemished truth.  The book is a call to arms urging Canadians to wake up to the reality that our was once our world as providers of aid and enablers of peace, that have been replaced by profit-seeking and war-mongering.  A Montreal writer and political activist, with seven other books under his name, he details the metamorphosis of Canada’s foreign policy under Harper’s watch and warns us that the clock, and our reputation, are ticking to irrevocable change.According to the facts, the truth isn’t so nice to look at. (Tobias Keogh)

 

James Farney and David Rayside (editors), Conservatism in Canada

Conservatism in Canada published in 2013 explores the ideological character of contemporary Canadian conservatism, its support in the electorate, its impact on public policies such as immigration, foreign policy, citizenship, feminism and Evangelicals, and coves both federal and provincial levels. Contributors include academics Tom Flanigan, Nelson Wiseman Jonathan Malloy and the essays include comparisons with other countries such as the US the UK and Australia, as well as specific examinations of conservatism in Ontario, Alberta, and Quebec.

Conservatives and non-conservatives need to read this to understand the status of this movement in Canada. (Andrew Cardozo)

 

Tom Flanagan, Winning Power: Canadian Campaigning in the Twenty-First Century

“I wanted to get an inside look at the mentality that put Harper in power and the ruthlessness of that enabling. This book did that. It showed the tools and techniques of a party that uses methods I would be embarrassed to admit to, but they didn’t bother Steve. All he cares about is winning, and Flanagan helped him. If you want to know what the Alberta thing is all about, here you go.”  (Review by D Dolson on Amazon.ca)

 

Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy

This is Volume two to “Origins of Political Order”, completing the most important work of political thought in at least a generation. Taking up the essential question of how societies develop strong, impersonal, and accountable political institutions, Fukuyama follows the story from the French Revolution to the so-called Arab Spring and the deep dysfunctions of contemporary American politics. He examines the effects of corruption on governance, and why some societies have been successful at rooting it out. He explores the different legacies of colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, and offers a clear-eyed account of why some regions have thrived and developed more quickly than others. And he boldly reckons with the future of democracy in the face of a rising global middle class and entrenched political paralysis in the West. (Amazon.ca)

 

Guy Gendron, Brian Mulroney – L’homme des beaux risques

Tout jeune militant du Parti progressiste-conservateur, Brian Mulroney rêvait de devenir un jour premier ministre du Canada. Le « p’tit gars de Baie-Comeau » aura gagné son pari, lui qui fut élu en 1984 puis réélu en 1988 à la tête de gouvernements majoritaires. Le journaliste Guy Gendron dresse un portrait fascinant d’un homme politique malmené par l’histoire avec un petit « h », celle écrite par les journalistes, mais pour lequel l’Histoire, celle des historiens, pourrait bien être plus clémente. (amazon.ca)

 

Donald Gutstein, Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada

The essential elements of Harperism flow from neo-liberal economic theories propounded by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek and his U.S. disciples. They inspired Thatcherism and Reaganism. Stephen Harper has taken this neo-liberalism much further in many key areas. As Donald Gutstein shows, Harper has successfully used a strategy of incremental change coupled with denial of the underlying neo-liberal analysis that explains these hard-to-understand measures.

The success of Harperism is no accident. Donald Gutstein documents the links between the politicians, think tanks, journalists, academics, and researchers who nurture and promote each other’s neo-liberal ideas. They do so using funds provided by ultra-rich U.S. donors, by Canadian billionaires like Peter Munk, and by many big corporations–all of whom stand to gain from the ideas and policies the Harperites develop and push. This book casts new light on the last ten years of Canadian politics. It documents the challenges that Harperism–with or without Stephen Harper–will continue to offer to the many Canadians who do not share this pro-market world view. (Lorimer.ca)

 

Michael Harris, Party of One, Stephen Harper and Canada’s radical makeover

(This) is a devastating critique of Canada’s present government and it is fair to say that author Michael Harris believes the prime minister to be a clear and present danger — an existential threat — to Canada’s democracy.

First things first: I’d personally encourage every Canadian before they exercise their democratic franchise on October 19, 2015, the fixed date of the next federal election, to read Harris’s new book on the consequences of eight years of Stephen Harper’s leadership of this country. Party of One, is bracing reading. But let me also say this is not a balanced recounting of the Harper record, so anyone looking for a more positive spin on the Harper legacy would be well-advised to look elsewhere. (Robert Collison, Oct 25 2014)

 

Chantal Hébert, The Morning After: The 1995 Quebec Referendum and the Day that Almost Was

This bookturns the clock back and revisits the hopes, fears, dreams and challenges culled from interviews with 17 leaders from both sides of the divide. Hébert, the well known national affairs writer and political panel member on CBC, and Jean Lapierre, one of Quebec’s top political broadcasters (and former Liberal and BQ MP) are “at issue” with what would have happened had the Yes side won the referendum.

Bandages are pulled off old wounds as we learn of the leaders’ plans, or lack thereof, had the referendum’s results been reversed. Some wounds don’t heal but need to be revisited. Twenty years on, the authors clear the smoke from the day that almost was to the country that almost wasn’t.  (Tobias Keogh)

 

Chantal Hébert, Confessions post-référendaires: Les acteurs politiques de 1995 et le scénario d’un oui

Les généraux politiques qui ont mené la bataille référendaire de 1995 ont aujourd’hui tous quitté la scène politique. Certains sont plus ou moins oubliés; d’autres sont entrés de plain-pied dans l’histoire du Canada. Pour plusieurs d’entre eux, il restait encore à raconter comment ils avaient imaginé les lendemains d’un Oui québécois. Dans cet ouvrage surprenant, Chantal Hébert et Jean Lapierre vont au-delà des stratégies convenues et de la campagne au quotidien pour jeter un nouvel éclairage sur un moment révélateur de la vie du Québec et du Canada. (amazon.ca)

 

Stephen Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World

Most books that I’ve read about past inventions and developing technologies pertain to the history of these devices and their direct impact on society. In this fascinating book, the author does discuss the historical developments and the direct impacts, but he also shows how these new innovations influenced other fields often in unexpected ways – some positive and some negative. The book is well illustrated with a great many useful figures and photographs that help make each story come to life. (Review by G. Poirier on Amazon.ca)

 

Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

Readers are faced with an equal part, modern-day, ecological and economic horror (but true!) story: is the earth beyond repair?  According to Klein, 2014 winner of the prestigious Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, our lust for greed, and not our thirst for minerals, is to blame. The cold truth about global warming is exposed and we are scared silly with the inconvenient truth. If we continue our journey at the same speed following the same economic paths then our final destination is inevitable destruction. Is it too late to wake up to a better world? Things better change or everything will, says Klein.  (Tobias Keogh)

 

Jean-François Lépine, Sur la ligne de feu

Pendant quarante-deux ans à la télévision et à la radio, j’ai toujours eu à portée de main un de mes carnets de notes. À l’écran, ils faisaient partie de l’image. Quand Marc Laurendeau m’a invité à participer à sa magnifique série radiophonique Nos témoins sur la ligne de feu, consacrée aux correspondants de Radio-Canada à l’étranger, j’ai eu envie de redécouvrir et de raconter, à travers les anecdotes tirées de ces carnets, les grands moments de mes expéditions sur la planète, quitte à en être bouleversé. (amazon.ca)

 

Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan, Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out About Canada’s Failing Democracy

Anyone interested in Canadian politics, and many who are not, should read this book. It tells us much about what is wrong with how we are governed, though not everything.  The authors interviewed 80 former members of parliament to find out their experiences with the nomination process, getting elected, being introduced to the job, and what they sought to accomplish. It is pretty depressing. Can a typical MP accomplish anything? Only rarely. They are becoming, like the record store, disintermediated, unnecessary except for their votes, as everything is determined in the leaders’ offices, whether government or opposition.(David Huntley on Amazon.ca)

 

Donald S. Macdonald and Rod McQueen,Thumper: the Memoirs of the Honourable Donald S. Macdonald

Don Macdonald was an influential minister in the cabinet of Pierre Trudeau, and readers will discover how a staunch defender of Canadian interests served in Parliament and cabinet and as Minister of Finance introduced wage and price controls in 1975 and later as a Royal Commisisoner recommended one of Canada’s most enduring and controversial economic legacies, the first Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.  This deeply personal memoir shares details of his close friendship with Trudeau, fascinating encounters with world leaders, and revelations about the October Crisis.  In 1994, he was bestowed the Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest level of the Order of Canada, for demonstrating the highest degree of merit to Canada on the national scene. (Tobias Keogh)

 

Elizabeth May, Who we are: Reflections on My Life and Canada

The environmentalist, who was born in Connecticut but came of age in Nova Scotia, weaves her own life’s experience into a vision for her adopted country and the planet. At most a year out from a federal election, Who We Are is undoubtedly timely. May says she never intended to write an autobiography, and that the personal details were simply part of the book deal. That compromise allowed her to espouse the kinds of policy she’s advocated most of her adult life—and which, starting yesterday, she hopes Canadians embrace. (Nick Taylor-Vaissey, Macleans, Oct. 9, 2014)

 

Hazel McCallion, Hurricane Hazel, A life with purpose

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. (Amazon.ca)

 

Loretta Napoleoni, The Islamist Phoenix

What distinguishes the Islamic State from all other armed groups that predate it, including those active during the Cold War, and what accounts for its enormous successes, is itsmodernity and pragmatism. So far its leadership has understood the limitations that contemporary powers face in a globalized and multipolar world – for example, the inability to reach an agreement for foreign intervention in Syria, as happened in Libya and Iraq. (sevenstories.com)

 

Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century

This is one of the most talked about books internationally this year on the problems with capital markets and the growing inequality across most countries.

Reviews from Amazon.ca:

–      Excellent review of capitalism in the 21st century and the resulting erosion of democracy.

–      A highly detailed but readable review of the historical background to today’s economic disparities, with recommendations for correcting imbalances.

–      I recommend this book to those who want to get a comprehensive picture of how we have arrived at these extraordinary times because of our incapacity to work together for the greater good of society.

 

Brent Rathgeber, Irresponsible government, the decline of Parliamentary democracy in Canada

Rathgeber traces the state, or lack thereof, in his examined opinion of the federal government’s current governance back to the first steps of our Confederation’s founding Fathers from 1867.

The ex-Tory, now independent MP, critiques today’s state and yesteryear’s failures and offers balancing solutions to our maladroit political missteps. If modern democracy has let us down recently, its stewardship can be righted (a little more to the left perhaps?) and Parliament can be reset on its corrected course to serve the people.  Make the “responsible” decision and pick up this book!  (Tobias Keogh)

 

John Ralston Saul, The Comeback

The result is his new book The Comeback, the story of a movement that has been building from a low point a little more than a century ago to where it’s now poised, he says, to reclaim a central place in Canadian affairs.

The author begins by dismissing sympathy, the lens through with which many Canadians view aboriginal issues. That’s just soft racism, he argues. Sympathy is fine as a point of entry, but it obscures why things are the way they are. (Joe Friesen, Globe and Mail, Oct. 30, 2014)

 

Arundathi Roy, Capitalism: A Ghost Story

The book examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India, and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism has subjugated billions of people to the highest and most intense forms of racism and exploitation.

 

Graham Steele, What I Learned About Politics: Inside the Rise-and Collapse-of Nova Scotia’s NDP Government

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.

 

Alain Saulnier, Ici était Radio-Canada

Quand, l’un après l’autre, d’année en année, les gouvernements canadiens ont amenuisé l’allocation parlementaire de l’entreprise publique, poussant Radio-Canada à commercialiser son antenne pour survivre, les politiques ont en fait choisi d’étouffer à petit feu la liberté de création des artistes et celle des journalistes d’informer adéquatement le public. Alain Saulnier raconte, dans Ici ÉTAIT Radio-Canada, l’histoire de la construction et de la déconstruction de notre radiotélévision publique. Est-il trop tard pour sauver cette institution essentielle à notre démocratie?  (amazon.ca)

 

Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

Xat’sull Chief Bev Sellars spent her childhood in a church-run residential school whose aim it was to “civilize” Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and discipline. In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Turberculosis Hospital in Sardis, British Columbia, nearly six hours’ drive from home. The trauma of these experiences has reverberated throughout her life. (talonbooks.com)

 

Leanne Simpson,The Gift is in the Making: Anishinaabeg Stories

The Gift Is in the Making retells previously published Anishinaabeg stories, bringing to life Anishinaabeg values and teachings to a new generation. Readers are immersed in a world where all genders are respected, the tiniest being has influence in the world, and unconditional love binds families and communities to each other and to their homeland. Sprinkled with gentle humour and the Anishinaabe language, this collection of stories speaks to children and adults alike, and reminds us of the timelessness of stories that touch the heart. (Amazon.ca)

 

Greg Sorbara, The Battlefield of Ontario Politics, An Autobiography

Sorbara is a key Ontario Liberal who played a senior role through the Peterson government and then more so through the McGuinty years, as an MPP, minister, party president and campaign chair.  As Finance Minister he also had to grapple with bringing the deficit under control, keeping Ontario competitive for business while attending to the social needs of Ontarians.  Sorbara asks readers to make sure to read his chapter entitled “The truth about gas plants”, which interestingly is Chapter 11.  Like the author the book is a scrapper, is passionate and articulate. (Andrew Cardozo)

 

Justin Trudeau, Common Ground

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s new book, Common Ground, will be considered Trudeau-light by most readers of The Hill Times who are inside the bubble of Ottawa. But they will be wrong. It’s a forthright self-analysis of the many strands of influence that make up the man who would be our Prime Minister. It is both revealing and predictive of the shape both of the future federal election campaign and a potential Liberal government…..But unlike his dad, Justin found he was a natural street campaigner when he chose the working class riding of Papineau to finally test his political chops. “Hard work” (a definite strength of his father) became his watchword in his hard-won triumph over the Bloc incumbent, and became the watchword for the revival of the much-reduced Liberal Party after he became leader. It seems to be working. (Patrick Gossage, The Hill Times, 11/10/2014)

 

Paul Wells, The longer I am prime minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006-

There’s a chance you didn’t pull for Harper in 2006, nor to repeat in 2008 nor power to his majority 2011 win. That doesn’t mean that Paul Wells’ new book shouldn’t get your vote.

He sheds light on how Harper planted the seeds of power and how he harvested them to future consecutive conservative wins. Wells traces Harper’s path to victory, giving equal voice to supporters and dissenters. Love him or hate him, we voted him in. The PM may have, “a superior understanding of Canada”, as Wells writes just as he reveals that he has a superior understanding of Harper. Read this compelling chronicle to find out how the West was really won. (Tobias Keogh)

 

Robert Wright, The Night Canada Stood Still: How the 1995 Quebec referendum almost cost us our country

The Quebec-sovereignist juggernaut began with the creation of the Parti Québécois in 1968 and climaxed in the provincial referendum on sovereignty, held on October 30, 1995. On that extraordinary evening, Canadians from all walks of life, in every region of the country, sat glued to their television screens as polling results trickled in from across Quebec. Unlike the first referendum, in 1980, when the victory of the federalist No vote led by Pierre Trudeau was a foregone conclusion, the race in October 1995 was a dead heat. All evening, the returns pitched and rolled, and anxious Canadians pitched and rolled along with them. In the end, the No vote won by the narrowest of margins, 50.56% to 49.44%. This was no euphoric victory, no easy vindication of Sir John A.’s federalist dream. Never before had the country come face to face with its own imminent extinction. (Amazon.ca)

 

 

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