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Here is a well-documented study of the structure, historical development, and present condition of the government of Nova Scotia. It deals with one of the oldest constitutions in Canada, one which was not created by statute but by the prerogative of the Crown. Nova Scotia has two major claims to priority in the history of Canadian politics: she was the first province to be granted representative institutions and the first to win responsible government. Owing in large measure to Joseph Howe's inspired leadership, the latter was achieved through peaceful, constitutional means. It is obvious that a study of the government of Nova Scotia must dig deep into the past, and Dr. Beck has investigated...
Professor Beck shows how, in Churchillian fashion, the final resolution was preceded by a series of setbacks and disappointments in Howe's public life. These were the result of a bold colonization scheme encompassing an inter-colonial railway between Halifax and Quebec; a quixotic mission of recruitment in the United States for the British armies in the Crimea; the embattled leasdership of an unstable provincial administration in the early 1860s; and the hard-fought campaign to prevent passage of the British North America Act. Disillusioned by the indifference of British politician to his long-standing advocacy of a refurbished British Empire in whose government colonial leaders could share, Howe turned his energies to making the new Canadian federation work. A whole-hearted supporter of Confederation in his later years, Howe displayed an irrepressible vitality that Professor Beck sees as the trademark of the man.
When Newfoundland entered the Canadian Confederation in 1949, it was hoped it would promote greater unity between the Maritime provinces, as Term 29 of the Newfoundland Act explicitly linked the region's economic and political fortunes. On the surface, the union seemed like an unprecedented opportunity to resurrect the regional spirit of the Maritime Rights movement of the 1920s, which advocated a cooperative approach to addressing regional underdevelopment. However, Newfoundland's arrival did little at first to bring about a comprehensive Atlantic Canadian regionalism. Inventing Atlantic Canada is the first book to analyse the reaction of the Maritime provinces to Newfoundland's entry into Confederation. Drawing on editorials,government documents, and political papers, Corey Slumkoski examines how each Maritime province used the addition of a new provincial cousin to fight underdevelopment. Slumkoski also details the rise of regional cooperation characterized by the Atlantic Revolution of the mid-1950s, when Maritime leaders began to realize that by acting in isolation their situations would only worsen.
Following the American Revolution, more than 20,000 loyalists fled to Nova Scotia, doubling the population in a single year. Neil MacKinnon provides the first detailed account of this great wave of immigrants, their exodus and settlement, their adjustment to the new land, and their effect upon its people and institutions.
Roasting Chestnuts: The Mythology of Maritime Political Culture is a book about outdated political stereotypes. The Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia are often regarded as pre-modern hinterland in which corrupt practices and traditional loyalties continue to predominate. While this depiction of Maritime political life may, at one time, have been largely accurate, this is no longer the case. Employing a variety of indicators, this book argues that a new set of political images is needed to capture Maritime political reality today. What emerges from the analysis is a picture of Maritime politics which no longer differs markedly from that which exists in the rest of Canada. Maritimers no longer exhibit remarkably low levels of political trust and efficacy, nor is there a regional political culture which transcends provincial boundaries. In fact, Maritime political elites have been innovators, providing radical departures from Canadian political norms. A unique and innovative study, Roasting Chestnuts seeks to demystify Maritime politics and expose the flimsy basis for many of the region's lasting political stereotypes.
Chapter 13: "Manitoba civil service : a quiet tradition in transition", by Ken Rasmussen.
At the Ocean's Edge offers a vibrant account of Nova Scotia's colonial history, situating it in an early and dramatic chapter in the expansion of Europe. Between 1450 and 1850, various processes – sometimes violent, often judicial, rarely conclusive – transferred power first from Indigenous societies to the French and British empires, and then to European settlers and their descendants who claimed the land as their own. This book not only brings Nova Scotia's struggles into sharp focus but also unpacks the intellectual and social values that took root in the region. By the time that Nova Scotia became a province of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, its multicultural peoples, including Mi'kmaq, Acadian, African, and British, had come to a grudging, unequal, and often contested accommodation among themselves. Written in accessible and spirited prose, the narrative follows larger trends through the experiences of colourful individuals who grappled with expulsion, genocide, and war to establish the institutions, relationships, and values that still shape Nova Scotia's identity.
In this concluding volume of the biography of the great Nova Scotia tribune, Joseph Howe extends his horizon well beyond his native province and in the climactic period of a tumultuous political career accepts the union of the British North American colonies and "becomes a Canadian."
In an engaging, often elegant style, this first volume of a two-volume narrative history of Dalhousie University chronicles the years from the founding of the university in 1818 by the ninth Earl of Dalhousie to the movement for university federation in 1921-25.