Rivals for Power: Ottawa and the Provinces: The contentious history of the Canadian federation

by Ed Whitcomb

Overview

Rivals for Power: Ottawa and the Provinces tells the story of the politicians who continually contend over the division of power (and money) between Ottawa and the provinces. The heroes and villains of this story include many of the leading lights of Canadian history, from John A. Macdonald, Wilfred Laurier, and Maurice Duplessis to Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, Bill Davis, Peter Lougheed and Jean Chretien. The unique feature of this book is its focus: no matter what their policies, Canadian politicians over the years have engaged in an ongoing push and pull over power, with both successes and failures. As Whitcomb sees it, the success of the provinces at preventing Ottawa from becoming the overwhelming power in Canadian life has been the key to the country's stability and its cultural cohesion. But the failure of the provinces to achieve an equal measure of power and the growing gap between the have and have-not provinces stands as an ongoing challenge — and threat — to the country's unity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459412392
Publisher:	James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2017
Sold by:	De Marque
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ed Whitcomb graduated with a Ph.D. in History from the University of London. After a short university teaching career he joined the Canadian Foreign Service specializing in political, economic, strategic, and intelligence analysis. He has lived in four regions of Canada as well as in four other countries with federal constitutions. He has published numerous articles on Canadian history, and is the author of a series of ten brief histories of the Canadian provinces.

Table of Contents

Contents Preface Introduction Part I: Adopting Federalism

• Chapter 1: British North America to 1864
• Chapter 2: Towards Confederation, 1864–1867
• Chapter 3: The Constitution of 1867

Part II: The First Seventy Years

• Chapter 4: Implementing Federalism, 1867–1878
• Chapter 5: Macdonald’s Centralism, 1878–1896
• Chapter 6: Laurier and the Golden Age of Federalism, 1896–1911
• Chapter 7: The First World War and the Twenties, 1911–1929
• Chapter 8: The Depression, 1929–1939

Part III: Post-War Federalism

• Chapter 9: The Second World War and After, 1939–1948
• Chapter 10: St. Laurent and Diefenbaker, 1948–1963
• Chapter 11: The Pearson Years, 1963–1968

Part IV: The Modern Era

• Chapter 12: The First Trudeau Regime, 1968–1979
• Chapter 13: The Second Trudeau Regime, 1980–1984
• Chapter 14: Mulroney, Meech, and Charlottetown, 1984–1993
• Chapter 15: The Chrétien Regime, 1993–2003
• Chapter 16: Federalism in the Twenty-First Century, 2003–2017

Conclusion Bibliography Books by Ed Whitcomb Index