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Turning Points: The Campaigns that Changed Canada, 2004 and Before
by Ray Argyle Turning Points, ISBN: 09734118664
General description: In this in-depth study of Canadian political campaigns, Ray Argyle draws on his years as a journalist and political consultant to put the dramatic events of 2004 into context with the pivotal campaigns that have shaped Canada since Confederation.
His in-depth insider's analysis of the 2004 campaign puts it in context with the other key elections and referendums that have changed the course of Canadian history. This fascinating and factual account of Canada's leaders and their struggles to win and hold power will fill a wide gap in Canadians' understanding of our history:
Paul Martin and the Liberal quest for a new majority
How two Conservative prime ministers - Brian Mulroney and John Diefenbaker - won huge majorities but failed in their missions to stamp their personalities on Canada
Pierre Trudeau's use of charisma and conviction to create the Charter of Rights that's given Canadians new freedoms
Mackenzie King's masterminding of the "Gentle Revolution" that created the Canadian welfare state - but only after Prairie preacher Tommy Douglas formed North America's first socialist government
The revolt of the West - and how W.A.C. Bennett's Social Credit victory in British Columbia helped entrench Western alienation
The saga of Wilfrid Laurier - he gave Canada a century, then lost the country over free trade and the blood-letting of World War I
The untold story of the Confederation conspiracy - how Sir John A. Macdonald fixed the election that brought Canada into being, and how his campaign for a "National Policy" rescued him from oblivion
The two referendums that fixed the geography of Canada - the 1948 Newfoundland referendum that completed the work of Confederation and the 1995 Quebec referendum that nearly destroyed it.
Ray Argyle concludes Turning Points, ISBN: 09734118664 with a dramatic proposal to strengthen national unity and overcome Western alienation - his call for the creation of a second national capital in the West.
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