About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Grassroots Politicians is the first systematic account of party activists at the provincial level in Canada. To understand the pattern of political polarization in British Columbia, the authors examine the values and beliefs of those at the party cores -- the people behind the party images who elect leaders, nominate candidates, and work in electoral campaigns. In the New Democratic Party they play a crucial role in determining policy, in the Social Credit they help to shape party direction and governing style by their choice of leader, and, among the Liberals, they form the small band that keeps the party alive in the province.
Contributor Notes
Donald E. Blake is a professor and head of the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and the author of Two Political Worlds: Parties and Voting in British Columbia (1985). R.K. Carty is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is the co-editor of National Politics and Community in Canada (1986). Lynda Erickson is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University.
Editorial Reviews
Grassroots Politicians is highly readable. And it is a book that provides terrific background for anyone who salivates at the prospect of following the intricate power plays so integral to the pageantry of a British Columbia election.
This timely book convincingly demonstrates that party activists have shaped the contours of BC's distinctively oddball politics. And Grassroots Politicians provides a unique perspective from which to view the political battle lines that have so decisively shaped the province and that will help determine the outcome of the electoral warfare on the near horizon.
— The Vancouver Sun
A first-class scholarly study, by three accomplished political scientists, of party activists and activism in British Columbia. The first effort of its kind, this work is based on surveys, personal interviews with the politicians themselves, direct observation, and soundly rooted background analysis.
— Choice
