The subjects inquired into by Canadian federal royal commissions have ranged over such a wide field that the reports and special studies prepared by the 400 commissions since Confederation have become an essential part of any research in Canadian studies. In many cases the special studies which are always prepared by the best experts available stand as the most important works ever to appear on a given subject. For example, the studies used by the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations (1937-1940) are still used as required reading in both graduate and undergraduate university courses almost thirty years later. In the author's work as Government Documents Librarian, he witnesses the daily use of royal commission material. The importance attached to royal commission documents and the considerable difficulty in locating many of the earlier reports let Henderson to undertake the compilation of this checklist four years ago.

Introduction : the evolution of government information services and stewardship in Canada / Amanda Wakaruk and Sam-chin Li -- Government publication deposit programs : the Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial landscapes / Graeme Campbell, Michelle Lake, and Catherine McGoveran -- Library and archives Canada : official publications and select digital library collections, 1923-2017 / Tom J. Smyth -- Parliamentary information in Canada : form and function / Talia Chung and Maureen Martyn -- Commissions and tribunals / Caron Rollins -- Alberta government publishing / Dani J. Pahulje -- Saskatchewan government publications deposit in the Legislative Library / Gregory Salmers -- Inside track : challenges of collecting, accessing, and preserving Ontario government publications / Sandra Craig and Martha Murphy -- Digitization of government publications : a review of the Ontario Digitization Initiative / Carol Perry, Brian Tobin, and Sam-chin Li -- GALLOP Portal : making government publications in legislative libraries findable / Peter Ellinger -- The Canadian Government Information Digital Preservation Network : a collective response to a national crisis / Amanda Wakaruk and Steve Marks -- Web harvesting and reporting fugitive government materials : collaborative stewardship of at-risk documents / Susan Paterson, Nicholas Worby, and Darlene Fichter.

The distinctive character of B.C., which is found not only in its spectacular environment, but also in its community, its politics and its past, is admirably captured in this collection of 16 essays.

Free trade has been a highly contentious issue since the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney negotiated the first deal with the United States in the 1980s. Tracing the roots of Canada's contemporary involvement in North American free trade back to the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada in 1985 - also known as the Macdonald Commission - Gregory J. Inwood offers a critical examination of the commission and how its findings affected Canada's political and economic landscape, including its present-day reverberations. Using original research - including content analysis, interviews, archival information, and surveys of relevant literature - Inwood argues that the Macdonald Commission created an atmosphere and political discourse that made the continentalization of Canada possible by way of free trade agreements with the U.S. and Mexico. Through the use of a suspect research program, and with the aid of a select oligarchy within the Commission and the government bureaucracy, opposition to continentalism from both the majority of the Canadian population and even several commissioners was ignored. Accessible to readers interested in Canadian politics, policy, or economy, Continentalizing Canada offers a thorough examination into the Macdonald Commission and the resulting discourse in the Canadian political economy.

In 1957 after a century of scathing debates and threats of provincial separation Ottawa finally tackled the dangerous fiscal inequalities among its richer and poorer provinces. Equalization grants allowed the poorer provinces to provide relatively equal services for relatively equal levels of taxation. The Art of Sharing tells the dramatic history of Canada's efforts to save itself. The introduction of federal equalization grants was controversial and wealthier provinces such as Alberta – wanting to keep more of their taxpayers' money for their own governments – continue to attack them today. Mary Janigan argues that the elusive ideal of fiscal equity in spite of dissent from richer provinces has helped preserve Canada as a united nation. Janigan goes back to Confederation to trace the escalating tensions among the provinces across decades as voters demanded more services to survive in a changing world. She also uncovers the continuing contacts between Canada and Australia as both dominions struggled to placate disgruntled member states and provinces that blamed the very act of federation for their woes. By the mid-twentieth century trapped between the demands of social activists and Quebec's insistence on its right to run its own social programs Ottawa adopted non-conditional grants in compromise. The history of equalization in Canada has never been fully explored. Introducing the idealistic Canadians who fought for equity along with their radically different proposals to achieve it The Art of Sharing makes the case that a willingness to share financial resources is the real tie that has bound the federation together into the twenty-first century.

This study of the Manitoba judiciary is not only the first biographical history to examine an entire provincial bench, it is also one of the first studies to offer an internal view of the political nature of the judicial appointment process. Dale Brawn has penned the biographies of the first thirty-three men appointed to Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench. The relative youth of Manitoba as a province and the small size of its legal profession makes possible an exceptionally detailed investigation of the background of those appointed to the province's highest trial court. The biographical data that Brawn has collected for this book highlights the extent to which judicial candidates underwent a socialization process designed to produce a legal elite whose members shared remarkably similar views and ways of thinking. In addition, these biographies suggest that until at least 1950, seats on provincial benches were rewards for political services rendered. Many lawyers became judges not because of their legal ability, but because they had made themselves known in the communities in which they practiced. This fascinating study offers an intimate look at personalities ranging from prime ministers to members of the bench and both senior levels of government.

The first Conference on the Study of the History of Canadian Science and Technology, held in Kingston, Ontario in November 1978, marks the emergence of a new Canadian discipline. This wide-ranging, bilingual collection of papers and workshops includes contributions by some of the historians, scientists, educators, students, archivists, and government representatives present at the conference. The papers discuss the nature of the new field, its objectives, and the problems of resources, funding, publishing, and practical uses which face historians of Canadian science and technology. Records of the workshops convey the flavour of excitement present at the conference. Included in the volume are an extensive bibliography and listings of museums and available collections, research in progress, and conference participants.