Canada Books

Oh the Stampede!! I may be a Goth at heart but I was raised in the Country and can appreicate a good rodeo!... Nothing get me hollaring then watching the bull riding events!!!

This book was a great reference to Calgary and believe me when my dh and I are able to get there we will be taking this guide along!!

This book is just the greatest! If you care for animals you need this book! It's talking about how HUMANS treat animals (and ultimately each other). And humans CAN think, reason, and have compassion. Let me quote Ghandi, "We err in copying the lower animal world - if we are superior to it." To paraphrase Charles Darwin, our differences are that of degree rather than kind. To this end, we must as a society grapple with unconscionably exploitative features of our relationship with the animal kingdom.

Within the contexts of feminism, racism, speciesism, classism, and vegetarianism, the author lucidly demonstrates how our culture and language (re)define and (re)inforce a great feeling of satisfaction at the sport of bull riding and some of the better known riders. It also includes some really great pictures!

Having been a bull rider for 5 years I found the book so good that everything he was writing about, I could see it clearly in my mind. I know the riders so well that it was amazing how easily he put the characters and their characteristics into words that were so descriptive and easy for any reader to get a clear picture of them in their own mind.

Best nonfiction book about cowboys and showgirls and all-night trips down dusty highways. But buy it, and many copies of it, because you will want your friends to experience its cinematic poignancy after the movie in your head ends. I encourage English teachers to consider this in a curricula on rodeo writing. It is lasting stuff.

Having similar background & experienced "emigrating" experiences to Canada & US, I connected easily to the experiences of the immigrant. So little has been written about Guyana, its people & its trials thus far. This is insightful,informative,descriptive, humourous,& moving,tinged with exotic Indian flavor & romance.

Having similar background & experienced "emigrating" experiences to Canada & US, I connected easily to the experiences of the immigrant. So little has been written about Guyana, its people & its trials thus far. This is insightful,informative,descriptive, humourous,& moving,tinged with exotic Indian flavor & romance.

This is an excellent, detailed, well-written book. However, a number of the stories are duplicated from Some Canadian Ghosts, by the same writer, which isn't really a problem, but is a bit odd. I'm not aware of any other titles by this author.

As a reader of at least a dozen or so collections of ghost stories, I would rate this book as one of the best. It is the only book of ghost stories I've read twice. My only regret is I can't seem to find Ms. Hervey's other work on Canadian ghosts.

A wonderful book and a delightful read. Not to be missed.

If you are interested in Canadian History and Children's Literature, then read this book. A truly charming and delightful read

Rene Chartreand's THE CANADIAN CORPS IN WORLD WAR I describes the organization, lists its units and achievements, and charts strategies and battles alike. While it's likely to prove a specialty acquisition for U.S. collections, any military library strong in world military forces needs this.

The Canadian Army has never really gotten the coverage that it is due them until now. From my limited experience with them, they struck me as some really 1st class Troops. The Good news is that Osprey has done them a good turn with this slim book and its excellent illustrations. Hopefully the interest in this fine outfit will continue. Perhaps even their time in the Korean War or their service as UN Peacekeepers will be covered?

Professor Swainger has written an excellent book on the Canadian department of justice.

"The federal Department of Justice was established by John A. Macdonald as part of the Conservative party's program for reform of the parliamentary system following Confederation. Among other things, it was charged with establishing national institutions such as the Supreme Court and the North West Mounted Police and with centralizing the penitentiary system. In the process, the department took on a position of primary importnace in the post-Confederation politics. This was particularly so up to 1878, when the Confederation was "completed".

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. An Apolitical Advisor: The fiction of the Attorney General

3. The Department of Justice and the Business of Governance

4. Advisors to the Crown and the Prerogative of Mercy

5. Canadian Penitentiaries and the Rhetoric of Nation, Centralization, and Reform

6. The Department of Justice and Judiciary

7. Conculsion

An valuable edition to one's library

Professor Swainger has written an excellent book on the creation of the Canadian department of Justice.

"The federal Department of Justice was established by John A. Macdonald as part of the Conservative party's program for reform of the parliamentary system following Confederation. Among other things, it was charged with establishing national institutions such as the Supreme Court and the North West Mounted Police and with centralizing the penitentiary system. In the process, the department took on a position of primary importance in post-Confederation politics. This was particulary so up to 1878, when Confederation was 'completed'".

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. A Apolitcal Advisor: The Fiction of the Attorney General

3. The Department of Justice and the Business of Governance

4. Advisors to the Crown and the Prerogative of Mercy

5. Canadian Penitentaries and the Rhetoric of Nation, Centralization, and Reform

6. The Canadian Department of Justice and the Judiciary

Dr. Swainger's book is of value to those interested in Canadian politics and the administration of justice.

W. J. Eccles did a phenomenal job in covering the history of New France. I was expecting a dry history. I didn't get one. What I got was a story of men and a few women.

This book is a facinating account of the settlement of Canada under the French. For a history book, it was hard to put down. Eccles brought the problems of starting and maintaining a colony to life. He presents historical figures like Frontenac and La Salle as real people who made real mistakes without excuses or whitewashing.

I would recommend this book to anyone doing any type of research into New France.

"The Canadian Frontier" is an excellent exposition of the story of the interface between Canadian and native civilizations from 1534-1760. As the Canadian frontier included much of the Midwest, this book is a good choice for both American and Canadian readers with an interest in the history of New France.

Prof. Eccles makes the point that the Canadian frontier is conceptionally different from the American frontier. The American frontier was a geographical concept, the line where settlement gave way to wilderness. The Canadian frontier, by contrast, was a series of settled islands in a sea of wilderness at which civilization "did business" with native cultures.

One test of a good historical book is whether it changes the reader's view of history. This one passes that test. I had always viewed the competition between the French, British and Indians in North America as being based on basic nationalistic and tribal rivalries. Prof. Eccles explains the rivalry in terms of an economic competition over the fur trade. The roles of the Indians was to supply the furs. The locations of the trade shifted over time between the eastern settlements, western trading posts and in Indian villages at which traders visited. Traders competed in goods offered, while tribes competed, at times by war, to control access to traders and their goods. Middleman profits were often at stake.

The economy of New France is contrasted with that of the British colonies. The economy of the British colonies was largely based on farming while the economy of New France was, primarily, extractive, based on the fur trade and, to a lesser extent, fishing. Farming in New France was, initially, merely to supply the settlers. As population increased and the fur trade declined, New France evolved from a trading to an agricultural colony.

The trading pattern of New France determined land use practices as well as relations with the Indian tribes. I had always thought of low populations of New France as a reflection of the unwillingness of the French to migrate to North America. From this book I learned that low population density was indispensable to a fur trade based economy.

Like the Spanish to the West, and unlike the English to the south, evangelization was a major part of the interaction on the Canadian Frontier. Much of the exploration and development was instituted or accompanied by missionaries.

Over time, the Canadian Frontier was changed by tribal wars which determined the access of each tribe to western traders and their wares. Although Indians are often portrayed as victims of white aggression, the truth is that they acquired a dependency on European goods which contributed to their own downfall.

The military aspects of the North American wars are interesting in that they relate the relative contributions of the Regular forces, the militia and the Indians. Another of my conceptions which was changed by this book was that the outcome of the French and Indian war was dictated by the colonial population imbalance. Prof. Eccles makes the case that the fighting qualities of the French militia made them dominant over the English militias and that it was only the skills of the British regulars against the bungling of the French regulars which won the war for Britain.

Ultimately, the world in which the Canadian Frontier arose and prospered changed and the Frontier disappeared. The French and Indian War restricted the numbers of voyagers to a handful. The vision of the French habitants changed from that of an open continent in which to trade for furs, to a river valley in which to farm and sell their produce. The leadership of the fur trade changed from French entrepreneurs to British businessmen. The British, who fought to wrest the Ohio Valley from the French, tried to close it to their own colonists. Ultimately, the colonials who fought to take the Ohio Valley from the French took it from the British with French aid. The Indians who had tried to play one power against the other, found that, in contributing to the downfall of the French regime, they had traded a benevolent, cooperative colonial power for one which would take their land and destroy their culture.

Professor Eccles has told the early history of much of our continent with insight and a skilled writing style. The supporting notes and bibliography guide the reader to sources for further research and reading. "The Canadian Frontier" is a must for anyone with an interest in the history of New France.
.

i have long searched for canadian landscape coffee table book!
I got it! Each of the 5 star is worth to be given.

The Canadian Landscape by J A Kraulis is an extraordinary example of the beauty that can be found in this part of the world. The images in this book are magnificent and have the ability to soothe, excite and inspire. I found that many of Kraulis' photographs have a powerful quality to them. In the same way that actually witnessing a brilliant sunset can make you pause and feel better about life, these photographs and the descriptions that accompany them provide you with that experience over and over again. This is a book that would be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates the amazing power and beauty of nature.

The book was sealed and packed with an air pillow to prevent damage to the book. It arrived in perfect condition. All Canadian Pacific fans would love the dramatic photos in this book.

Another Excellent Book from a Great Canadian Author!

Tony Hill's Canadian Politics: Riding by Riding is a travel book, a demographic study and a recent political history of Canada all in one. After extensive travels through Canada, the result is a unique perspective explaining not only broad cultural, historical, and social changes but specifics- car factory locations in Quebec, apple valleys in Nova Scotia, deserts in British Columbia, the Tomato Capital of Canada, and the Polar Bear Capital of the World, etc. Often he provides personal ancedotes or very wry observations which spice up the prose.

The demographic information is important as possibly no other democratic country has been more affected by immigration over the past generation as has Canada. Riding by Riding identifies Chinese, South Asian (Indian and Pakistani), Chinese, French, British,Scandinavian, and other enclaves within country.

An up-to-date political history of each province is in the book's front and the introduction contains a more comprehensive 25-year history of the five federal political parties. Most helpful is the What Is Politics? section: a readible primer of Canadian political terms and fundemental political differences between Canada and the United States.

But the real political history is contained with each riding description. For example, the Mount Royal riding contains a brief description of its longtime MP, Pierre Trudeau. However, sometimes the history is in an unexpected place. A discussion of the 1983 Progressive Conservative leadership review convention which ultimately led to the Prime Ministership of Brian Mulroney is in the Winnipeg Centre section as this was the actual location of the convention.

By going through the country, riding by riding, we learn about the country's movers and shakers as well as the backbenchers and we learn about how national electorial sweeps in 1984 and 1993 went through the political landscape like a tsunami. Mr. Hill's conclusion: Canadians tend to vote governments out, rather than vote governments in. As a result, he is very cautious in predicting future elections or events.

In all, Canadian Politics: Riding by Riding takes its subject and peels away its many layers. Mr. Hill appreciates Canada's complexities and writes about them with affection and understanding. He is one American too knowledgable to be interviewed on "Talking to Americans".

As someone who is active in politics and has lived or visited all parts of Canada, I can honestly say that Tony Hill gives a fair, well balanced, and complete analysis of Canada's 301 electoral districts. This analysis does not only include historical information, but also social and economic demographic information in a very qualitative fashion. This is a must read for anyone interested in Canadian politics!