Book Search
- Topic: Canadian Politics
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The David Levine Affair
Separatist Betrayal or McCarthyism North?
When the novice Board of Trustees of the newly-amalgamated Ottawa Hospital appointed David Levine as the new CEO at a salary of $330,000, it expected some controversy, but nothing like the huge outcry that followed. From the initial healine in the Ottawa Citizen on May 1, 1998, “PQ Envoy to Head Hospital,” to the lynch-mob mentality at a public meeting on May 19th, to picketing and calls for boycotts of the Board members’ businesses, Levine became a scapegoat for many problems, resentments, and frustrations felt by the Ottawa-area population. Sections of the media did little to allay these fears and resentments, and at times strongly incited them. Randall Marlin’s fascinating analysis of the David Levine affair shows not just what happened, but also the far worse things that might have happened. It signals the fragility of Canada as long as basic ideas of fairness, tolerance, and respect for truth are given second place to flag-waving nationalism, sensationalism, and rumour.
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Shrinking the State
Globalization and Public Administration
This book provides a political economy perspective on recent changes within Canadian public administrative practice and structure, revealing the theoretical and practical underpinnings of neo-liberal public administration. It also addresses itself to the search for more democratic alternatives. This work is intended to serve as a text for courses in public administration and Canadian government and politics. The role of globalization, state fiscal crisis, economic restructuring and the ideological shift to the political right are viewed as central explanatory factors in public administrative and public policy change.
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Beyond Two Solitudes
Beyond Two Solitudes offers a fresh approach in the present constitutional and political debate based on mutual respect and a desire to live together in harmony. The French edition has been hailed as a “lively and passionate account” (Voir) and as an “explosive book, a vibrant plea for a renewed country” (Radio-Canada) Donald Smith speaks from within, as an English Canadian who has learned French, moved to Quebec and successfully integrated into Francophone society. Beyond Two Solitudes answers the anti-Quebec rhetoric of Diane Francis, Barbara Amiel, William Johnson and others. Smith interviews other English Canadians who have chosen French as their language of creation: singer and songwriter Jim Corcoran, novelist Nancy Huston, horticulturist Larry Hodgson, and American-born singer Nanette Workman, who has made her career in Quebec and France. He also interviews novelist Neil Bissoondath, now a Quebec City resident, who gives a compelling account of what French Quebec and so-called multiculturalism are really about.
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Remaking Canadian Social Policy
Social Security in the Late 1990’s
This book critically examines the changing landscape of Canadian social policy that is taking place as a result of the Liberal government’s Social Security Review (SSR) and recent budgets. The objective is to provide an alternative venue to the “official” consultation process of the SSR, while at the same time providing input into the rebuilding of Canadian social programs. Major factors that led to the SSR are examined: the role of the Minister of Finance, the fiscal power and moral authority of the federal state in a decentralized nation, globalization and labour market restructuring, the concept of workfare, the impact on women, the role of “popular sector” groups and the future of the welfare state.
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Open for Business/Closed to People
Mike Harris’s Ontario
For anyone concerned about Mike Harris’s neo-conservative “Common Sense Revolution,” this book is a must. It chronicles Harris’s first year as premier and the emerging resistance movement. Part 1 puts the Harris “revolution” in context, exposing its underlying transnational corporate agenda and the previous right-wing U.S. and British governments on which it draws. It demonstrates how the smoke screen of populism and fiscal responsibility hides a fundamental attack on concepts of democracy and social citizenship. Part 2 spells out the profound toll which Harris’s policies are taking on the people of Ontario, especially on its most vulnerable members: low-income people, women, children, workers, and ethno-cultural and francophone communities. Part 3 describes a broad range of strategies to survive and win against this neo-conservative assault.
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Dismantling A Nation (Second Edition)
The Transition to Corporate Rule in Canada (second edition)
This new edition is reorganized to make it a more usable text and updated to include the Liberal government’s pursuit of neo-liberal policies. William K. Carroll, Sociology, University of Victoria, said of the first edition: “All the aspects of the neo-conservative policy matrix-privatization, deregulation, NAFTA, the obsession with deficits, attacks on collective bargaining, the cutbacks to social programs, the weakening of federal powers-are carefully analyzed as elements of a political project that will have disastrous consequences for most Canadians and for Canada as a nation. This book is truly essential reading for those who care about Canada’s future.”
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Banking on Deception
The Discourse of the Fiscal Crisis
Through the discourse of the fiscal crisis the proponents of the neo-liberal agenda deceive Canadians by presenting this agenda as the only rational alternative. Workman discusses the success of this appeal to common sense, analyzing how it resonates positively within the Canadian cultural context.
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Strategies for the Year 2000
A Women’s Handbook
How well has Canada measured up to its obligations under the two agreements it signed during the UN Decade of Women? The authors of this book detail the terms of the conventions (the Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women by the Year 2000) and have painstakingly chronicled the progress the provincial, territorial, and federal governments have made towards fulfilling their legal obligations in areas such as women’s participation in decision-making, childcare, violence against women and so on. All levels of governments are found wanting. As an assessment of progress on women’s equality in Canada, it is fascinating reading and a thorough resource.
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Undressing the Canadian State
The Politics of Pornography from Hicklin to Butler
Through a detailed historical analysis of Canada’s obscenity legislation, Johnson argues that the state implicitly supports the ideology of pornography.
