Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 0143178741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Canada has no better interpreter than prolific writer and thinker John Ralston Saul. Here he argues that Canada did not begin in 1867; indeed, its foundation was laid by two visionary men, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, worked together after the 1841 Union to lead a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. But it was during the "Great Ministry" of 1848—51 that the two politicians implemented laws that created a more equitable country. They revamped judicial institutions, created a public education system, made bilingualism official, designed a network of public roads, began a public postal system, and reformed municipal governance. Faced with opposition, and even violence, the two men— polar opposites in temperament—united behind a set of principles and programs that formed modern Canada. Writing with verve and deep conviction, Saul restores these two extraordinary Canadians to rightful prominence.

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 0143178741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book Here

Book Description
Canada has no better interpreter than prolific writer and thinker John Ralston Saul. Here he argues that Canada did not begin in 1867; indeed, its foundation was laid by two visionary men, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, worked together after the 1841 Union to lead a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. But it was during the "Great Ministry" of 1848—51 that the two politicians implemented laws that created a more equitable country. They revamped judicial institutions, created a public education system, made bilingualism official, designed a network of public roads, began a public postal system, and reformed municipal governance. Faced with opposition, and even violence, the two men— polar opposites in temperament—united behind a set of principles and programs that formed modern Canada. Writing with verve and deep conviction, Saul restores these two extraordinary Canadians to rightful prominence.

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0143055895
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Canada has no better interpreter than brilliant writer and thinker John Ralston Saul. Here he argues that modern Canada did not begin in 1867; rather its foundation was laid years earlier by two visionary men, Louis-Hipplyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. Opposites in temperament and driven by intense experiences of love and tragedy, together they developed principles and programs that would help unite the country. After the 1841 union the two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada worked to create a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. During the “Great Ministry” of 1848-51, despite violent opposition, they set about creating a more equitable nation. They revamped judicial institutions, established a public education system, made bilingualism official, and designed a network of public roads. Writing with verve and deep convictions, Saul restores these two extraordinary Canadians to rightful prominence.

Marshall McLuhan

Marshall McLuhan PDF Author: Douglas Coupland
Publisher: Atlas and Company
ISBN: 1935633163
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Surveys the life and career of the social theorist best known for the quotation, "The medium is the message, " who helped shape the culture of the 1960s and predicted the future of television and the rise of the Internet.

Extraordinary Canadians Wilfrid Laurier

Extraordinary Canadians Wilfrid Laurier PDF Author: Andre Pratte
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143170813
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Wilfrid Laurier is acknowledged as a great prime minister, a superb orator, and a survivor. But he has become more myth than man. André Pratte, chief editorial writer of Quebec’s La Presse, uncovers Laurier’s complexity amid the charged political circumstances of the early 20th century. Laurier tried to unite a newborn country that found itself grappling with the thorny questions of minority rights, regional tensions, and its role in the world. Pratte skilfully reveals a Laurier who did not have to create a special political strategy in order to deal with the realities of Canada. Growing up in French- and English-Canadian cultures, he himself was a mirror of that complexity. Pratte’s Laurier affirms our long and stable history, while recognizing that events are never predictable, and that dialogue, tolerance, and compromise are always necessary.

A Fair Country

A Fair Country PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 0143175335
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

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Book Description
In this startlingly original vision of Canada, renowned thinker John Ralston Saul argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas: Egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn't believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future.

The Unconscious Civilization

The Unconscious Civilization PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439118604
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
From the author of Voltaire's Bastards comes a philosophical examination of how corporatism has become so deeply ingrained into our society, how it's destroying democracy, and how we can fight against it. In this intellectual tour de force John Ralston Saul argues that our society is only superficially based on the individual and democracy, and the West now toils unconsciously in the grip of a stifling “corporatist” structure that serves the needs of business managers and technocrats as it promotes the segmentation of society into competing interest groups and ethnic blocks.

Voltaire's Bastards

Voltaire's Bastards PDF Author: John Ralston Saul
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476718938
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
With a new Introduction by the author, this “erudite and brilliantly readable book” (The Observer, London) expertly dissects the political, economic, and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. With a new introduction by the author, this “erudite and brilliantly readable book” (The Observer, London) astutely dissects the political, economic and social origins of Western civilization to reveal a culture cripplingly enslaved to crude notions of rationality and expertise. The Western world is full of paradoxes. We talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet we’ve never been under more pressure to conform. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about invasive government, yet our legal, educational, financial, social, cultural and legislative systems are deteriorating. All these problems, John Ralston Saul argues, are largely the result of our blind faith in the value of reason. Over the past 400 years, our “rational elites” have turned the modern West into a vast, incomprehensible, directionless machine, run by process-minded experts—“Voltaire’s bastards”—whose cult of scientific management is empty of both sense and morality. Whether in politics, art, business, the military, entertain­ment, science, finance, academia or journalism, these experts share the same outlook and methods. The result, Saul maintains, is a civilization of immense technological power whose ordinary citizens are increasingly excluded from the decision-making process. In this wide-ranging anatomy of modern society and its origins—whose “pages explode with insight, style and intellectual rigor” (Camille Paglia, The Washington Post)—Saul presents a shattering critique of the political, economic and cultural estab­lishments of the West.

Extraordinary Canadians: Big Bear

Extraordinary Canadians: Big Bear PDF Author: Rudy Wiebe
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 0143172700
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Big Bear (1825–1888) was a Plains Cree chief in Saskatchewan at a time when aboriginals were confronted with the disappearance of the buffalo and waves of European settlers that seemed destined to destroy the Indian way of life. In 1876 he refused to sign Treaty No. 6, until 1882, when his people were starving. Big Bear advocated negotiation over violence, but when the federal government refused to negotiate with aboriginal leaders, some of his followers killed 9 people at Frog Lake in 1885. Big Bear himself was arrested and imprisoned. Rudy Wiebe, author of a Governor General’s Award–winning novel about Big Bear, revisits the life of the eloquent statesman, one of Canada’s most important aboriginal leaders.

The Good Fight

The Good Fight PDF Author: Ted Staunton
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781443163835
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
A fast-paced story set amidst Toronto's turbulent summer of 1933, this graphic novel sheds light on prejudice and social injustice. It's Toronto in the 1930s. The city is small, often xenophobic, and the summer is stiflingly hot. Everyone flocks to the lakeshore. In one area of the beach, a neighbourhood protective association has formed to keep out "undesirables," and members patrol wearing silver swastika pins. Meanwhile, the police chief believes the immigrant Jewish community is at the root of a communist threat, as the world witnesses an alarming rise of anti-Semitism overseas. Sid and his Pop live at the edge of the Ward, Toronto's immigrant slum, where they have rented a room from the Vendetellis since Sid's mom and baby sister died from influenza. Times are tough, and Sid faces impossible choices as he wrestles with honesty, bigotry, poverty, and expectations as a member of a "whiz mob," slang for a gang of pickpockets. But when Sid and his friends get coerced into working for the police after they're caught lifting a wallet at a baseball game, they become caught up in something much bigger than themselves, and must decide how far they will go to do what's right and to protect those they love. The story climaxes at the infamous Christie Pits Riot, Canada's largest race riot and a historic event that was a symbolic victory for Jewish and immigrant citizens With extraordinarily cinematic artwork that immediately transports readers to the Toronto of 1933, this incredible graphic novel shines a striking lens on many contemporary issues: the immigrant experience, the roots of prejudice, and taking a stand against injustice.

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont

Extraordinary Canadians: Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont PDF Author: Joseph Boyden
Publisher: Penguin Canada
ISBN: 014317875X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
Louis Riel is regarded by some as a hero and visionary, by others as a madman and misguided religious zealot. The Métis leader who fought for the rights of his people against an encroaching tide of white settlers helped establish the province of Manitoba before escaping to the United States. Gabriel Dumont was a successful hunter and Métis chief, a man tested by warfare, a pragmatist who differed from the devout Riel. Giller Prize—winning novelist Joseph Boyden argues that Dumont, part of a delegation that had sought out Riel in exile, may not have foreseen the impact on the Métis cause of bringing Riel home. While making rational demands of Sir John A. Macdonald's government, Riel seemed increasingly overtaken by a messianic mission. His execution in 1885 by the Canadian government still reverberates today. Boyden provides fresh, controversial insight into these two seminal Canadian figures and how they shaped the country.