A United Empire Loyalist family flees from Boston to New Brunswick during the American Revolution. In late October, 1785, they host a reunion, and are joined by two veterans and a stranger whom they assume also to have been a former soldier on the Loyalist side. But the stranger reveals himself to be a Rebel seeking to avenge the death of his brother; at gunpoint he demands that the others choose one among them to be executed at first light. First performed by the Stratford Festival in 1993, Fair Liberty’s Call has since been frequently produced across North America.

This collection of essays is the first book on Sharon Pollock's work, a career which spans over thirty years and several cities. Essays by Anne F. Nothof, Malcolm Page, Robert Nunn, Diane Bessai, Susan Stratton, Heidi Holder, Craig Stewart Walker, and Kathy Chung. Sharon Pollock became the most controversial playwright in Canada with her plays.

With aggravating global realignments, the dynamics and contradictions of a world (risk) society are looming ahead in the unfolding Third Millennium while globalization is gaining further steam. To this bears witness a potpourri of often frightening geopolitical, social, cultural, economic, demographic, ecological and other changes and challenges that gives substantial cause for concern about getting lost in a 'trans-whatever' sea of turmoil, uncertainty and indeterminateness. The resultant current backlash or rather renewed interest in the nation as a collective identity-establishing category is an effort to gain some anchorage in ever more disintegrating times and proves especially those theoreticians wrong for whom the whole concept of the nation has worn off since long. In 16 resourceful essays internationally distinguished Canadian and European experts from a variety of fields take a fresh look at these developments by focussing on one of the most fascinating multicultural and multifaceted nation(-state)s in the world, Canada in the Third Millennium. The topics they discuss include, among others, Canada's difficult dissociation from Europe and the USA; the reframing and reclaiming of the Canadian story; the role of nations within the nation; the efforts to transcend the nation; pending geopolitical and (geo)ecological crises; glocal issues and new wars. Collectively, the entries prove that Canada is a very progressive nation and opens up new perspectives for other collectives currently reassessing their national identities in a global environment. Thus, the book reaches well beyond the study of 'Canada' and will be valuable to academics, professionals, teachers and students of various disciplines coping with the issue at stake as well as the general reader.