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In The Confederation Debates in the Province of Canada, 1865, John A. Macdonald presses for the advantages of a strong central power; Alexander Galt puts forward the economic arguments for union; and critics of confederation, Christopher Dunkin and A.A. Dorion, express their misgivings with prophetic insight.
Writing a life of Bennett, who reportedly destroyed his correspondence every seven years, presents challenges for the biographer. Yet, as P.B. Waite shows, Bennett's lasting contributions to Canada are beyond doubt. He describes Bennett's bold initiatives, including his attempt to introduce unemployment insurance and a minimum wage, as well as his founding of the Bank of Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - achieved in the teeth of opposition from banking and media magnates. Waite also contemplates Bennett's friendships, his relationships, and his lifelong bachelorhood, shedding new light on his life and personality. With warmth, wit, and a deep knowledge of its subject, In Search of R.B. Bennett brings Bennett the man - his penchants, prejudices, weaknesses, and strengths - before the reader.
First published in 1952 and 1955, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician, The Old Chieftain remains a classic in Canadian arts and letters. Described as the greatest biography ever written in Canada, it earned Donald Creighton two Governor General's Awards. In 2013, the Toronto Review of Books recommended it to anyone who wished to become a better Canadian. In this book, Creighton examines the public and private lives of Canada’s first prime minister, his victories and defeats as well as his joys and pains. A gifted writer, Creighton takes the reader back in time, to the nineteenth century, the road to Confederation, and the building of the railway. Along the way, he visits Kingston, Quebec, Charlottetown, Ottawa, and London, following his hero from a few rooms above his father’s shop in Kingston to the corridors of power in England, including the magnificent Highclere Castle where much of the British North America Act was written. This edition includes a new introduction by Creighton's biographer, Donald Wright, and by Peter Waite, Creighton's very first doctoral student.
James McGregor Stewart (1889-1955) was perhaps the foremost Canadian corporate lawyer of his day. He was also an appellate counsel, venture capitalist, Conservative Party fundraiser, bibliographer of Rudyard Kipling, and sometime university teacher of classics. A leader of the bar in the inter-war period, he was the first Maritimer to serve as president of the Canadian Bar Association. He distinguished himself mainly in constitutional cases before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. During his career, Stewart was also head of the leading law firm in eastern Canada (now Stewart McKelvey Stirling Scales), director and vice-president of the Royal Bank of Canada, and senior counsel to t...
The private and public lives of James David Edgar and Matilda Ridout Edgar symbolized the increasingly complex nature of Toronto society as older generations gradually gave way to a new generation of "outsiders" seeking fame and prominence. James David Edgar (1841-1899), a self-made man, born to proud though impoverished Scottish-immigrant parents in Quebec, became a lawyer, an author, a railway promoter, an M.P. and ultimately speaker of the House of Commons in Ottawa. Matilda Ridout Edgar (1845-1910) was one of Canada’s first widely respected female historians and ultimately president of the National Council of Women of Canada from 1906 until her death. This dual biography, revealed through the voices of James and Matilda, as expressed through correspondence, provides insights into 19th-century Canadian history, and presents a mutually supportive marital relationship, each encouraging professional fulfillment for the other – a stance surprising in this era of male dominance.
A new interpretation of confederation contends that the founding fathers were John Locke's disciples - champions of universal human rights and popular sovereignty. Winner - John T. Saywell Prize for Canadian Constitutional Legal History (2009)
The lives of professors and students, deans and presidents, their ideas and idiosyncrasies, their triumphs and failures, provide the driving force of Waite's narrative. Avoiding the details of financing, curriculum, and administration that sometimes dominate institutional histories, Waite focuses on the men and women who were the blood of the university and who established its traditions and ethos. Halifax in peace and war is basic to Dalhousie's history, as is its relations with other colleges and universities in Nova Scotia. Waite sets all this out, placing Dalhousie's development within the larger Nova Scotian context.
In For The People James Cameron charts the institutional development of St Francis Xavier University from 1853 to 1970 and illustrates how the college has become an integral part of the region's history and culture through its tradition of service to the people of eastern Nova Scotia on both the mainland and Cape Breton Island.