Download or read book Extraordinary Canadians Lester B Pearson written by Andrew Cohen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his 2 terms as prime minister, from 1963–1968, Lester B. Pearson oversaw the revamping of Canada through the introduction of Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, the Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the Auto Pact, and the new Maple Leaf flag. Pearson came to power after an impressive career as a diplomat, where he played a vital role in the creation of NATO and the United Nations, later serving as president of its General Assembly. He put Canada on the world stage when he won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his handling of the Suez Crisis, during which he brokered the formation of a UN peacekeeping force. Author Andrew Cohen, whose books have focused on Canada’s place in the world, is the perfect author to assess Pearson’s legacy.
Download or read book Extraordinary Canadians Lester B Pearson written by Andrew Cohen and published by Penguin Canada. This book was released on 2008-12-02 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his 2 terms as prime minister, from 1963–1968, Lester B. Pearson oversaw the revamping of Canada through the introduction of Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, the Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, the Auto Pact, and the new Maple Leaf flag. Pearson came to power after an impressive career as a diplomat, where he played a vital role in the creation of NATO and the United Nations, later serving as president of its General Assembly. He put Canada on the world stage when he won the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for his handling of the Suez Crisis, during which he brokered the formation of a UN peacekeeping force. Author Andrew Cohen, whose books have focused on Canada’s place in the world, is the perfect author to assess Pearson’s legacy.
Download or read book Extraordinary Canadians Wilfrid Laurier written by Andre Pratte and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-09-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Trudeau s Shadow written by Andrew Cohen and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-12-28 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No other politician has ever had the impact on this country and its people that Pierre Elliott Trudeau did. This iconoclastic anti-politician emerged from nowhere in the mid-1960s, and from 1968-1984 governed Canada, sometimes well, sometimes poorly. Even after Trudeau left office, he remained a player, his infrequent speeches and public appearances sufficient still to alter the course of events. Now, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Trudeau's coming to power, Andrew Cohen and J.L. Granatstein have commissioned 23 new, never-before-published essays from a diverse group of Canadians, all of whom in some way or another have been influenced by this enigmatic leader. Among the esteemed essayists are Larry Zolf, Max Nemni, Michael Bliss, Richard Gwyn, Linda Griffiths, Mark Kingwell, Robert Mason Lee, Jim Coutts, Rick Salutin, Andrew Coyne, Linda McQuaig, Bob Rae, Donald Macdonald, James Raffan and B.W. Powe. As a whole, this is a stunning and important collection of work from an amazing scope of people -- controversial, hard-hitting, fascinating.
Download or read book Stephen Leacock written by Margaret MacMillan and published by Penguin Books Canada. This book was released on 2009 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canada's foremost historian examines the life of a great humorist. Stephen Leacock's satiric masterpiece Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town captures "the Empire forever"mentality that marked Anglo-Canadian life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Historian Margaret Macmillan--whose books Women of the Raj and Paris 1919 cast fresh light on the colonial legacy--has great affection for Leacock's gentle wit and sharp-eyed insight. The renowned historian examines Leacock's life as a poor but ambitious student who rose to become an economist, celebrated academic, and, most importantly, the beloved humorist who taught Canadians to laugh at themselves.
Download or read book Lost Beneath the Ice written by Andrew Cohen and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2013-11-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1850, HMS Investigator was sent to search for the lost Franklin ships. They failed, becoming trapped in the ice, but completed Franklin's quest for the Northwest Passage. This book recounts the voyage and Parks Canada's discovery of the wreck.
Download or read book The Worldly Years written by John English and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "His life changed that of his nation." John English illuminates the years of Lester Pearson's greatest eminence, and vividly explores his life and times. His period as prime minister was to prove one of the most decisive in our history, and his policies helped shape Canada’s foremost international statesman. The Lester Pearson who emerges from the account of these momentous years—from the Korean War, through the tumultuous sixties to his death in 1972—is a complex, paradoxical figure. A man uneasy with ambition, who shunned the flamboyance of his arch-rival Diefenbaker, Pearson nevertheless competed for the most glittering prize in Canadian political life. World recognition brought him the Nobel Peace Prize, yet in his battle to maintain independence for his country he deliberately incurred the wrath of its powerful traditional allies, particularly Lyndon Johnson whom he heartily disliked. He was oddly unprepared personally to take on Canada’s highest political office, and led the Liberal Party to the worst defeat in its history, yet went on to sponsor astonishing, far-reaching changes in Canadian society—bilingualism, biculturalism, medicare, modern Canadian nationalism, and co-operative federalism--all innovations of the Pearson years. And while he has been called our greatest prime minister, other see him as the leader of a government that created many of Canada’s discontents, and crises and scandals that swirled about him. Most paradoxically of all perhaps, this unassuming man became a national icon, winning a lasting place in the hearts and minds of a generation of Canadians. In this second volume of his award-winning biography, John English has had remarkable access to Pearson’s personal and political papers, drawing on the letters and diaries and private papers of a host of his contemporaries, and on personal interviews with his family and friends, rivals and foes alike. The result is a compellingly readable—a richly detailed portrait of Canada and of a remarkable Canadian whose impact was immense.
Download or read book Two Days in June written by Andrew Cohen and published by Signal. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On two consecutive days in June 1963, in two lyrical speeches, John F. Kennedy pivots dramatically and boldly on the two greatest issues of his time: nuclear arms and civil rights. In language unheard in lily white, Cold War America, he appeals to Americans to see both the Russians and the "Negroes" as human beings. His speech on June 10 leads to the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963; his speech on June 11 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Based on new material—hours of recently uncovered documentary film shot in the White House and the Justice Department, fresh interviews, and a rediscovered draft speech—Two Days in June captures Kennedy at the high noon of his presidency in startling, granular detail which biographer Sally Bedell Smith calls "a seamless and riveting narrative, beautifully written, weaving together the consequential and the quotidian, with verve and authority." Moment by moment, JFK's feverish forty-eight hours unspools in cinematic clarity as he addresses "peace and freedom." In the tick-tock of the American presidency, we see Kennedy facing down George Wallace over the integration of the University of Alabama, talking obsessively about sex and politics at a dinner party in Georgetown, recoiling at a newspaper photograph of a burning monk in Saigon, planning a secret diplomatic mission to Indonesia, and reeling from the midnight murder of Medgar Evers. There were 1,036 days in the presidency of John F. Kennedy. This is the story of two of them.
Download or read book Who Killed the Canadian Military written by J. L. Granatstein and published by HarperFlamingo. This book was released on 2004 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Jack Granatstein’s Who Killed the Canadian Military? is more than a history of the decline and rustout of a military that as late as 1966 boasted 3,826 aircraft (including cutting-edge Sea King helicopters) as opposed to today’s 328 aircraft-including those same Sea Kings and CF-18 fighters whose avionics are a generation out of date; the same can be said of the army and navy. Granatstein’s book is a convincing analysis of Canada’s embrace of a delusional foreign policy that equates knee jerk anti-Americanism with sovereignty and forgets that in a Hobbesian world of international relations, “power still comes primarily from the barrel of a gun” and not from Steven Lewis’s speeches about Canadian goodwill, tolerance or humanitarianism."--from amazon.com product desc.
Download or read book Lester B Pearson ELL written by and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Extraordinary Canadians Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert written by John Ralston Saul and published by Penguin Canada. This book was released on 2010-10-05 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Marshall McLuhan written by Douglas Coupland and published by Atlas and Company. This book was released on 2010-11-30 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Diplomat written by Antony Anderson and published by . This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Lester Pearson, Canada's foreign minister (and future prime minister) stands before the United Nations General Assembly. His speech, shaped by caution and hope, is a last-ditch attempt to prevent a conflict in Egypt from igniting a conflagration throughout the Middle East. Pearson, is about to carve out a razor's edge of common ground to bring together angry allies and bitter enemies by suggesting and making possible the creation of the first UN peacekeeping force. Pearson's diplomacy throughout the Suez Crisis launched a bold experiment in international security and cemented Canada's reputation as "a moderate, mediatory, middle power." And yet, until now, no one has told the full story of how this Canadian diplomat led the world back from the brink of war. In a unique blending of biography and political history, The Diplomat creates not only a compelling portrait of Pearson but also a nuanced analysis of the political maze navigated by Pearson to avert a bloody war."--
Download or read book While Canada Slept written by Andrew Cohen and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For how much longer can Canada expect to get a free ride? With 9/11 and the international “war on terrorism,” the time has come to ask some hard questions. Should we continue to starve our military, reduce our humanitarian assistance, dilute our diplomacy, and absent ourselves from global intelligence-gathering? Can we expect to sit at the global table by virtue of our economic power without pursuing a foreign policy worthy of our history, geography, and diversity? Canada has been getting by on the cheap, writes Andrew Cohen in this timely, forceful, and insightful new book. Our reluctance to pay our own way has had a cost: it has eroded the pillars of our international stature. We are still trading on the reputation this country built two generations ago, but it is a reputation we no longer deserve. We claim to be engaged abroad, but for too long we have been a freeloader, trying to do the same for less, practising pinch-penny diplomacy and foreign policy on the cheap. Our capacity in these key areas has become glaringly inadequate, and now that weakness is compromising our ability to honour our traditional commitments overseas. The time is ripe for a thorough re-examination of our foreign policy, to affirm our values, to win the respect of our allies, to carry our weight.
Download or read book Citizen of the World written by John English and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most important, exciting biographies of our time: the definitive, major two-volume biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau—written with unprecedented, complete access to Trudeau’s enormous cache of private letters and papers. Bestselling biographer John English gets behind the public record and existing glancing portraits of Trudeau to reveal the real man and the multiple influences that shaped his life, providing the full context lacking in all previous biographies to-date. As prime minister between 1968 and 1984, Trudeau, the brilliant, controversial figure, intrigued Canadians and attracted international attention as no other Canadian leader has ever done. Volume One takes us from his birth in 1919 to his election as leader in 1968. Born into a wealthy family in Montreal, Trudeau excelled at the best schools, graduating as a lawyer with conservative, nationalist and traditional Catholic views. But always conscious of his French-English heritage, desperate to know the outside world, and an adventurer to boot, he embarked on a pilgrimage of discovery—first to Harvard and the Sorbonne, then to the London School of Economics and, finally, on a trip through Europe, the Middle East, India and China. He was a changed man when he returned—socialist in his politics, sympathetic to labour, a friend to activists and writers in radical causes. Suddenly and surprisingly, he went to Ottawa for two mostly unhappy years as a public servant in the Privy Council Office. He frequently shocked his colleagues when, on the brink of a Quebec election, for example, he departed for New York or Europe on an extended tour. Yet in the 1950s and 60s, he wrote the most important articles outlining his political philosophy. And there were the remarkable relationships with friends, women and especially his mother (whom he lived with until he was middle-aged). He wrote to them always, exchanging ideas with the men, intimacies with the women, especially in these early years, and lively descriptions of his life. He even recorded his in-depth psychoanalysis in Paris. This personal side of Trudeau has never been revealed before—and it sheds light on the politician and statesman he became. Volume One ends with his entry into politics, his appointment as Minister of Justice, his meeting Margaret and his election as leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of Canada. There, his genius and charisma, his ambition and intellectual prowess, his ruthlessness and emotional character and his deliberate shaping of himself for leadership played out on the national stage and, when Lester B. Pearson announced his retirement as prime minister in 1968, there was but one obvious man for the job: Pierre Trudeau. In 1938 Trudeau began a diary, which he continued for over two years. It is detailed, frank, and extraordinarily revealing. It is the only diary in Trudeau’ s papers, apart from less personal travel diaries and an agenda for 1937 that contains some commentary. His diary expresses Trudeau’s own need to chronicle the moments of late adolescence as he tried to find his identity. It begins on New Year’s Day 1938 with the intriguing advice: “If you want to know my thoughts, read between the lines!” —from Citizen of the World
Download or read book The Strange Demise of British Canada written by C.P. Champion and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining cases such as the introduction of the Maple Leaf to replace the Canadian Red Ensign and Union Jack as the national flag, Champion shows that, despite what he calls Canada's "crisis of Britishness," Pearson and his supporters unwittingly perpetuated a continuing Britishness because they - and their ideals - were the product of a British world. Using a fascinating array of personal papers, memoirs, and contemporary sources, this ground-breaking study demonstrates the ongoing influence of Britishness in Canada and showcases the personalities and views of some of the country's most important political and cultural figures. An important study that provides a better understanding of Canada, The Strange Demise of British Canada also shows the lasting influence Britain has had on its former colonies across the globe.
Download or read book Extraordinary Canadians Tommy Douglas written by Vincent Lam and published by Penguin Canada. This book was released on 2011-03-08 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once voted the greatest Canadian of all time, Tommy Douglas was a prairie politician who believed in democratic socialism, the crucial role of civil rights, and the great potential of cooperation for the common good. He is best known as the “Father of Medicare.” Born in 1904, Douglas was a championship boxer and a Baptist minister who later exchanged his pulpit for a political platform. A powerful orator and tireless activist, he sat first as a federal MP and then served for 17 years as premier of Saskatchewan, where he introduced the universal health-insurance system that would eventually be adopted across Canada. As leader of the national NDP, he was a staunch advocate of programs such as the Canada Pension Plan and was often the conscience of Parliament on matters of civil liberties. In the process, he made democratic socialism a part of mainstream Canadian political life. Giller Prize–winning author Vincent Lam, an emergency physician who works on the front lines of the health-care system, brings a novelist's eye to the life of one of Canada's greats.
