Uplift
In 1933, the Banff School opened in the stunning surroundings of Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. From its beginnings offering a single drama course, it has since grown into the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a renowned cultural destination. Uplift traces its first four decades as it generated ideals of culture and liberal democr …
A Complex Exile
Over 235,000 people couch-surf, stay in emergency shelters, or live on the street in Canada every year. But lack of housing security is just one barrier faced by people who are homeless. As A Complex Exile shows, the homelessness sector inadvertently reinforces social exclusion as well. The very policies, practices, and funding models that exist to …
Canadian Foreign Policy
Canadian Foreign Policy, as an academic discipline, is in crisis. Despite its value, CFP is often considered a “stale and pale” subfield of political science with an unfashionably state-centred focus. This book asks why. Contributors from both inside and around the field investigate how they came to view themselves as participating in CFP as an …
The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent
Much of Canada’s modern identity emerged from the innovative social policies and ambitious foreign policy of Louis St-Laurent’s Liberal government. His extraordinarily creative administration made decisions that still resonate today: on health care, pensions, and housing; on infrastructure and intergovernmental issues; and, further afield, in d …
Fossilized
Thanks to increasingly extreme forms of oil extraction, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador underwent exceptional economic growth from 2005 to 2015. Fossilized investigates the environmental policy trends that supported this development trajectory, such as institutional restructuring that prioritizes extraction over environmental p …
No Place for the State
“There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” Pierre Elliott Trudeau told reporters. He was making the case for the most controversial of his proposed reforms to the Criminal Code, those concerning homosexuality, birth control, and abortion. In No Place for the State, contributors offer complex and often contrasting perspect …
Changing Neighbourhoods
In recent decades growing inequality and polarization have been reshaping the social landscape of Canada’s metropolitan areas, changing neighbourhoods and negatively affecting the lived realities of increasingly diverse urban populations. This book examines the dimensions and impacts of increased economic inequality and urban socio-spatial polari …
At the Pleasure of the Crown
Unlike most public servants, top administrators – those who manage thousands of personnel and oversee millions of dollars in public spending – are appointed by the head of government. At the Pleasure of the Crown is a detailed exploration of this central but overlooked aspect of governing. Christopher A. Cooper analyzes the appointment of deput …
The Nuclear North
Since the first atomic weapon was detonated in 1945, Canadians have debated not only the role of nuclear power in their uranium-rich land but also their country’s role in a nuclear world. Should Canada belong to international alliances that depend on the threat of nuclear weapons for their own security? Should Canadian-produced nuclear technologi …
North of El Norte
North of El Norte provides an important counterpoint to the attention given to Mexican migration to the United States by examining a lesser-known migration route: that taken by contemporary Mexican migrants to Canada.
Paloma Villegas considers changing Canadian immigration policy and practice, and the implications of these changes for Mexican migra …
Big Promises, Small Government
When Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government won a massive majority in British Columbia in 2001, the premier immediately fulfilled his pledge to cut personal income taxes. Big Promises, Small Government reveals the consequences of dramatic tax policy changes on social programs. Campbell expected lower taxes to spur investment and growth. Instead, cu …
Fixing Niagara Falls
Since the late nineteenth century, Niagara Falls has been heavily engineered to generate energy behind a flowing façade designed to appeal to tourists. Fixing Niagara Falls reveals the technological feats and cross-border politics that facilitated the transformation of one of the most important natural sites in North America. Daniel Macfarlane det …
Challenge the Strong Wind
In 1975, Indonesian forces overran East Timor, which had just declared independence from Portugal. The occupation lasted twenty-four years. Challenge the Strong Wind recounts the evolution of Canadian government policy toward East Timor during that period. Canada initially followed key allies in endorsing Indonesian rule, but Canadian civil society …
Refugee Law after 9/11
Common wisdom suggests that the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed everything about the character of refugee law in the United States and in neighbouring Canada. But did they? If so, how do the responses of the two countries compare in terms of their negative impacts on refugee rights? Refugee Law after 9/11 undertakes a systematic examination of avail …
Indigenous Empowerment through Co-management
Co-management boards, established under comprehensive land claims agreements, have become key players in land-use planning, wildlife management, and environmental regulation across Canada’s North. This book provides a detailed account of the operation and effectiveness of these boards while addressing a central question: Have they been successful …
Planning on the Edge
Vancouver is heralded around the world as a model for sustainable development. In Planning on the Edge, nationally and internationally renowned planning scholars, activists, and Indigenous leaders assess whether the city’s reputation is warranted.
While recognizing the many successes of the “Vancouverism” model, the contributors acknowledge t …
Out of Milk
“Did you ever go to bed and wonder if your child was getting enough to eat?” For food insecure mothers, the worry is constant, and babies are at risk of going hungry. Through compelling interviews, Lesley Frank answers the breastfeeding paradox: why women who can least afford to buy infant formula are less likely to breastfeed. She exposes the …
Law and Neurodiversity
Law and Neurodiversity offers invaluable guidance on how autism research can inform juvenile justice policies in Canada and the United States. In Canada, the diversion of youth away from formal processing has fostered community-based strategies for serving those with autism. US policies rely more heavily on formal responses, often employing juvenil …
Bootstraps Need Boots
For more than four decades, Hugh Segal has been one of the leading voices of progressive conservatism in Canada. A self-described Red Tory warrior who disdains “bootstrap” approaches to poverty, he has always promoted policies, especially a basic annual income, to help the most economically vulnerable. Why would a life-long Tory support somethi …
Crossing Law’s Border
Resettlement – the selection and transfer of refugees from the state where they seek asylum to another state – is considered a tool of refugee protection. In this nuanced account of Canada’s resettlement program from the Indochinese crisis of the 1970s to the Syrian crisis of the 2010s, Shauna Labman examines the role that law plays in resett …
Governing the Social in Neoliberal Times
Neoliberalism is most commonly associated with free trade, the minimal state, and competitive individualism. But in this latest stage of capitalism, it is not simply national economies that are being neoliberalized – it is us. Inspired by Michel Foucault and other governmentality theorists, the contributors to this volume reveal how neoliberalism …
Culture and the Soldier
Countries have instituted policies to make their armed forces more inclusive, and soldiers now undergo cultural awareness training before seeing active duty. Policy makers and military organizations agree that culture is important. But what does “culture” mean in practice, and how is it important? Culture and the Soldier answers these questions …
Thinking Differently about HIV/AIDS
Almost four decades after the discovery of HIV/AIDS, the world continues to grapple with this public health challenge. Thinking Differently about HIV/AIDS explores the limits of mainstream approaches to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and challenges readers to develop alternate solutions, emphasizing the value of critical social science perspectives. The con …
Identities and Interests
Identities and Interests offers an entirely new perspective on the role of racial and ethnic identities in Canadian elections. Using a series of experiments, as well as candidate and census data, Randy Besco demonstrates that self-identification matters far more than self-interest, ideology, or policy. The largest minority groups – Chinese and So …
Political Ideology in Parties, Policy, and Civil Society
Ideology is a ubiquitous, continuously innovating dimension of human experience, but its character and impact are notoriously difficult to pinpoint within political and social life. Political Ideology in Parties, Policy, and Civil Society demonstrates that the reach and significance of political ideology can be most effectively understood by employ …
A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India
Over the last twenty years, India has enacted legislation to turn crucial goals such as food security, primary education, and employment into legal rights for its citizens. But enacting laws is one thing and implementing them through an imperfect institutional structure is another. A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India examines a di …