We received over
180 nominations for eligible books. We've divided them into categories
so you can search under subject matter for your next read.
These books are mainly writers' visions for Canada and many make important policy suggestions.
- A Fair Country: Telling Truths about Canada by John Ralston Saul
- Against Reform by John Pepall
- Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World by Doug Saunders
- At Home in the World: Canada's Global Vision for the 21st Century by Jennifer Welsh
- Aux pays des merveilles: Essai sur les mythes politiques québécois by André Pratte
- Becoming Canada: Our Story, Our Politics, Our Future by Ken Dryden
- Beyond the Bubble: Imagining a New Canadian Economy by James Laxer
- Blood and Belonging by Michael Ignatieff
- Canada: Is Anyone Listening? by Rafe Mair
- Citizens Plus: Aboriginal Peoples and the Canadian State by Alan Cairns
- Constitutional Odyssey: Can Canadians Become a Sovereign People? by Peter Russell
- Dances With Dependency: Out of Poverty Through Self-Reliance by Calvin Helin
- Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry: The Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation by Frances Widdowson and Sir Albert Howard
-
Doing the Continental: A New Canadian-American Relationship
by David Dyment
- Down the Road Never Travelled by Brigitte Pellerin
- Ethical Oil: The Case For Canada's Oil Sands by Ezra Levant
- Exporting Democracy: The Risks and Rewards of Pursuing a Good Idea by Bob Rae
- Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada's Founding Values by Brian Lee Crowley
- First Nations? Second Thoughts by Tom Flanagan
- Game Theory and Canadian Politics by Tom Flanagan
- Globalization and the Meaning of Canadian Life by William Watson
- Governing from the Centre: The Concentration of Power in Canadian Politics by Donald J. Savoie
- Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire by Linda McQuaig
- Journeying Forward: Dreaming First Nations' Independence by Patricia Monture-Angus
- Just Trust Us by Patrick Boyer
- Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History by Erna Paris
- Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy by Elizabeth May
- MacroWikinomics: Rebooting Business and the World by Don Tapscott
- Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian by Richard Gwyn
- One Hundred Monkeys: The Triumph of Popular Wisdom in Canadian Politics by Robert Mason Lee
- Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto by Taiaiake Alfred
- Policy and Politics in Canada: Institutionalized Ambivalence by Carolyn Tuohy
- Power Shift: From Party Elites to Informed Citizens by Vaughan Lyon
- Rants, Raves and Recollections by Rafe Mair
- Reconquering Canada: Quebec Federalists Speak Up for Change edited by André Pratte
- Scheming Virtuously: The Road to Collaborative Government by Gilles Paquet
- Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights by Ezra Levant
- Shooting the Hippo: Deaths by Deficit and other Canadian Myths by Linda McQuaig
- Solving Tough Problems by Adam Kahane
- Sorry, I Dont Speak French: Confronting the Canadian Crisis that Won't Go Away by Graham Fraser
- Spin Wars by Bill Fox
- Still Ranting: More Rants, Raves and Recollections by Rafe Mair
- Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent by Andrew Nikiforuk
- The Canadian Century: Out of America's Shadow by Brian Lee Crowley
- The Decline of Deference: Canadian Value Change in Cross National Perspective by Neil Nevitte
- The Efficient Society: Why Canada Is As Close To Utopia As It Gets by Joseph Heath
- The Lesser Evil by Michael Ignatieff
- The New Canada by Preston Manning
- The Once and Future Canadian Democracy: An Essay in Political Thought by Janet Ajzenstat
- The People's Mandate: Referendums and a More Democratic Canada by Patrick Boyer
- The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream by John Ibbitson
- The Return of the State: Protestors, Power-Brokers and the New Global Compromise by Adam Harmes
- The Rights Revolution by Michael Ignatieff
- The Three Questions: Prosperity and the Public Good by Bob Rae
- The Trouble With Canada by William D. Gairdner
- The Trouble With Canada...Still!: A Canadian Speaks Out by William D. Gairdner
- The
Truth About Canada: Some Important, Some Astonishing, And Some Truly
Appalling Things All Canadians Should Know About Our Country by Mel Hurtig
- The Unconcious Civilization by John Ralston Saul
- The Unfinished Canadian: The People We Are by Andrew Cohen
- Towards a Just Society: The Trudeau Years edited by Thomas S. Axworthy and Pierre Elliot Trudeau
- Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political by Judy Rebick
- Urban Nation: Why We Need to Give Power Back to the Cities to Make Canada Strong by Alan Broadbent
- Watchdogs and Gadflies: Activism from Marginal to Mainstream by Tim Falconer
- We Were Not the Savages: First Nations History: Collision Between European and Native American Civilizations by Daniel Paul
- What the Bleep is Going on Here? by Rafe Mair
- While Canada Slept: How We Lost Our Place in the World by Andrew Cohen
- Who Killed the Canadian Military? by J.L. Granatstein
This
category leans more heavily to biography than autobiography. Most of
the books on this list were penned by journalists and written about
prime ministers.
- A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen by Faith Johnston
- A Measure of Defiance by Mike Harcourt
- A Soldier First: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War by Rick Hillier
- An Honourable Calling: Political Memoirs by Allan Blakeney
- Attendez que je me rappelle by René Lévesque
- Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation by John Boyko
- Chrétien: The Will to Win by Lawrence Martin
- Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume I: 1919-1968 by John English
- Dream No Little Dreams: A Biography of the Douglas Government of Saskatchewan, 1944-1961 by A.W. Johnson
- Extraordinary Canadians: Lester B. Pearson by Andrew Cohen
- Extraordinary Canadians: Lord Beaverbrook by David Adams Richards
- Extraordinary Canadians: Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin by John Ralston Saul
- Extraordinary Canadians: Wilfrid Laurier by André Pratte
- French Kiss: Stephen Harper's Blind Date with Quebec by Chantal Hébert
- Gouverner le Québec by Robert Bourassa
- Jean Chrétien: A Legacy of Scandal by Paul Tuns
- Juggernaut: Paul Martin's Campaign for Chrétien's Crown by Susan Delacourt
- Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume II: 1968–2000 by John English
- Le naufrageur: Robert Bourassa et les Québécois by Jean-François Lisée
- Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography by Chester Brown
- Memoirs by René Lévesque's translated by Philip Stratford
- Memoirs: 1939-1993 by Brian Mulroney
- No Holds Barred: My Life in Politics by John Crosbie with Geoffrey Stevens
- Not Without Cause: David Peterson's Fall from Grace by Georgette Gagnon and Dan Rath
- On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years by Stevie Cameron
- Public Triumph, Private Tragedy: The Double Life of John P. Robarts by Steve Paikin
- René Lévesque and the Parti Québecois in Power by Graham Fraser
- Riel: A Life of Revolution by Maggie Siggins
- Rogue in Power: Why Stephen Harper is Remaking Canada by Stealth by Christian Nadeau
- Sheeple: Caucus Confidential in Stephen Harper's Ottawa by Garth Turner
- Speaking For Myself: Politics and other Pursuits by Duff Roblin
- Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada by William Johnson
- Straight from the Heart: From Shawinigan to Sussex Drive-The Classic Story of How it All Began by Jean Chrétien with Ron Graham
- The Player: The Life & Times of Dalton Camp by Geoffrey Stevens
- The Prime Ministers of Canada by Gordon Donaldson
- The Rainmaker: A Passion for Politics by Keith Davey
- The Right Fight: Bernard Lord and the Conservative Dilemma by Jacques Poitras
- The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister by Peter C. Newman
- The Truth Shows Up: A Reporter's Fifteen-Year Odyssey Tracking Down the Truth About Mulroney, Schreiber and the Airbus Scandal by Harvey Cashore
- The Washington Diaries: 1981-1989 by Allan Gotlieb
- The Worldly Years: Life of Lester Pearson 1949-1972 by John English
- Think Big: My Life in Politics by Preston Manning
- To Make a Difference: A Memoir by Ian Scott
- Trudeau and Our Times: Volume I: The Magnificent Obsession by Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall
- Trudeau and Our Times: Volume II: The Heroic Delusion by Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall
- Trudeau's Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau co-edited by Andrew Cohen and Jack Granatstein
- Yankee Doodle Dandy: Brian Mulroney and the American Agenda by Marci McDonald
- Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada by Max and Monique Nemni
- Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power by Peter C. Newman
These
are largely about political parties or the dynamics of a political
party and its leader's ascent to (or descent from) power.
- Blue Thunder: The Truth About Conservatives From Macdonald to Harper by Bob Plamondon
- Canadian Politics Unplugged by Eric Nichol and Peter Whalley
- Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power by Edward Greenspon and Anthony Wilson-Smith
- Full Circle: Death and Resurection in Canadian Conservative Politics by Bob Plamondon
- Harperland: The Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin
- Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power by Tom Flanagan
- How We Almost Gave the Tories the Boot: The Inside Story Behind the Coalition by Brian Topp
- Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics by Warren Kinsella
- Left Out: Saskatchewan's NDP and the Relentless Pursuit of Mediocrity by John Gormley
- Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto by Dave Meslin
- Losing Control: Canada's Social Conservatives in the Age of Rights by Tom Warner
- One Big Party: To Keep Canada Independent by Paul Hellyer
- Out of the Blue: The Fall of the Tory Dynasty in Ontario by Rosemary Speirs
- Rebuilding Canadian Party Politics by R. Kenneth Carty, William Cross and Lisa Young
- Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution by Tasha Kheiriddin and Adam Daifallah
- Tales From the Back Room: Memories of a Political Insider by Michael Decter
- The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada by Marci McDonald
- The Dark Side: The Personal Price of a Political Life by Steve Paikin
- The Discipline of Power: The Conservative Interlude and the Liberal Restoration by Jeffrey Simpson
- The Government and Politics of Ontario by Graham White
- The Life: The Seductive Call of Politics by Steve Paikin
- The Long Road Back: The Conservative Jouney: 1993-2007 by Hugh Segal
- The Newsmakers: The Media's Influence on Canadian Politics by David Taras
- The Right Balance: Canada’s Conservative Tradition by Hugh Segal
- The Way it Works: Inside Ottawa by Eddie Goldenberg
- Turning Points: The Campaigns that Changed Canada by Ray Argyle
- Two Cheers for Minority Government: The Evolution of Canadian Parliamentary Democracy by Peter Russell
- Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada's Unfinished Democracy by Sylvia Bashevkin
As
few have written fictional accounts of Canadian political life, this
list is short, but it includes some great reads nonetheless.
- King John of Canada by Scott Gardiner
- The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
- The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
- The High Road by Terry Fallis
These books bring Canada's political history vividly to life.
- 1867: How the Fathers Made A Deal by Christopher Moore
- A Deal Undone: The Making and Breaking of the Meech Lake Accord by Andrew Cohen
- A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System by John S. Milloy
- All the King's Horses: Politics Among the Ruins by Ron Graham
- Bastards and Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present by Will Ferguson
- Canada: A Portrait in Letters: 1800-2000 by Charlotte Gray
- Canada's Founding Debates edited by Janet Ajzenstat, Paul Romney, Ian Gentles, and William D. Gairdner
- Canadian Politics, 5th Edition by James Bickerton and Alain G. Gagnon
- Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches by Rand Dyck
- Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada by David Hackett Fischer
- Conventional Choices: Maritime Leadership Politics by Ian Stewart and David Stewart
- Court Government and the Collapse of Accountability in Canada and the United Kingdom by Donald J. Savoie
- Deadlock in Korea: Canadians at War, 1950-1953 by Ted Barris
- Dynasties
and Interludes: Past and Present in Canadian Electoral Politics by
Lawrence LeDuc, Jon H. Pammett, Judith I. McKenzie and André Turcotte
- Empire to Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s by J. L. Granatstein and Norman Hillmer
- Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership and the Making of Canada by John Duffy
- From Bourassa to Bourassa: Wilderness to Restoration by L.Ian MacDonald
- Gatekeepers: Reshaping Immigrant Lives in Cold War Canada by Franca Iacovetta
- Gendered
States: Women, Unemployment Insurance, and the Political Economy of the
Welfare State in Canada, 1945-1997 by Ann Porter
- Imperialist Canada by Todd Gordon
- John A.: The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume I by Richard Gwyn
- Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta by Aritha van Herk
- Misconceiving Canada: The Struggle for National Unity by Kenneth McRoberts
- Mr. Smith goes to Ottawa: Life in the House of Commons by David Docherty
- My Union, My Life by Jean-Claude Parrot and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers
- One-Eyed Kings: Promise & Illusion in Canadian Politics by Ron Graham
- Out
of the Depths: The Experiences of Mi'kmaw Children at the Indian
Residential School in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia by Isabelle Knockwood
- Parliamentary Democracy in Crisis edited by Peter H. Russell and Lorne Sossin
- Patriot Game: Canada and the Canadian Question Revisited by Peter Brimelow
- Pearson's Prize: Canada and the Suez Crisis by John Melady
- Perceptions of Cuba: Canadian and American Policies in Comparative Perspective by Lana Wylie
- Reasoning Otherwise Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920 by Ian McKay
- Rebels, Reds, Radicals: Rethinking Canada's Left History by Ian McKay
- Reflections of a Siamese Twin: Canada at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century by John Ralston Saul
- Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from Macdonald to Chrétien by Micheal Bliss
- Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper's New Conservatism by Paul Wells
- Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec by Taras Grescoe
- Scrum Wars: The Prime Ministers and the Media by Allan Levine
- "Search Out the Land: The Jews and the Growth of Equality in
- British Colonial America, 1740-1867 by Sheldon Godfrey and Judith Godfrey"
- Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda by Romeo Dallaire
- Slumming It at the Rodeo: The Cultural Roots of Canada's Right-Wing Revolution by Gordon Laird
- The Canadian Federalist Experiment: From Defiant Monarchy to Reluctant Republic by Frederick Vaughan
- The Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament by Janet Ajzenstat
- The Fight for Canada: 400 Years of Resistance to American Expansion by David Orchard
- The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885 by Pierre Berton
- The Parliament of Canada by C.E.S. Franks