TAR SANDS: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent
By Andrew Nikiforuk, GreyStone Books, 214 pages, $20
Andrew Nikiforuk lays bare the idiocy of the malignant neglect that is the Alberta oil sands. The book is a blush-making case for Canada to develop integrated energy and environmental regulations suitable for the post-carbon age. And swiftly enforce them. As Nikiforuk shows all too clearly, the massive and growing project gulps fresh water, destroys valuable boreal forest, poisons air, water and soil and uses up a substantial portion of the energy it produces. Alanna Mitchell
A SOLDIER FIRST: Bullets, Bureaucrats and the Politics of War
By Rick Hillier, Harper Collins, 509 pages, $34.99
What is most important about Gen. Rick Hillier’s book is what he writes about the world context in which Canada lives. Soft power – peacekeeping and values – is well and good. But without the capacity to deploy effective, well-trained, well-led hard power when needed, no one will pay attention to Canada. Hillier superbly makes the case that we cannot allow the Canadian Forces to go down that road again. J.L. Granatstein
JUST WATCH ME: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1968–2000
By John English, Knopf Canada, 789 pages, $39.95
In the second and last volume of his life of the most provocative, controversial, flamboyant and intellectually profound prime minister in Canada’s history, John English devotes nearly as much scrutiny to Trudeau’s personal life as to his political one. He examines Trudeau’s relationship to his mother, Grace Elliott, and his tempestuous marriage to Margaret Sinclair. This becomes the standard biography of Trudeau for the sheer scope and thoroughness of the research. And it’s a good read. William Johnson
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WHO WE ARE: A Citizen's Manifesto
By Rudyard Griffiths, Douglas & McIntyre, 232 pages, $29.95
Rudyard Griffiths shines a spotlight on the most cherished stories Canadians like to tell about themselves, and asks us to rewrite them. The central myth he sets out to challenge is the one that describes Canada’s essence as its diversity and lack of a single “national” story. Taking on myths might seem very un-Canadian but in writing this book Griffiths distinguishes himself as one of the very best Canadians of his generation. Jennifer Welsh
A HISTORY OF CANADIAN CULTURE
By Jonathan Vance, Oxford University Press, 500 pages, $39.95
This book by historian Jonathan Vance is full of stories that will have you muttering, “I didn’t know that.” With pleasure too, because the guy really is a storyteller. Beginning with a survey of what is known of the aboriginal cultures, Vance’s narrative path carries us through the long transformation of the arts in Canada, from an establishment tool for controlling public behaviour to an instrument of self- and national expression. Patrick Watson
L.M. MONTGOMERY
By Jane Urquhart, Penguin Canada, 161 pages, $26
Given the sheer volume of source material, including Lucy Maud Montgomery’s journals and letters, the challenge to compress into 150 pages so voluminous a life might daunt a lesser writer. Urquhart, however, gracefully advances chronology by focusing each chapter on a relevant theme. Her fierce admiration of Montgomery ultimately carries the day. Irene Gammel
NORMAN BETHUNE
By Adrienne Clarkson, Penguin Canada, 200 pages, $26
Adrienne Clarkson’s strength is her knowledge of Canadian social, cultural and political history, into which she inserts Bethune. The Chinese have claimed him as their own, though he spent only 20 months in their country. Clarkson reclaims him, showing how thoroughly a Canadian product this original médecin sans frontières was. Perhaps the most inspired pairing of author and subject in Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series to date. Judy Stoffman
