Orangeism has been seen in the past as a divisive force in Canadian society. More often than not Orangemen have been depicted as unbensing Protestants who sought to limit the growth, or the operation, of the Catholic Church in Canada, or as staunch Loyalists who protected Canadian soil against the erosion of republicanism.Doctor Senior has attempted to correct these assumptions by using previously neglected evidence drawn from orginal sources.

While the role of the laity in the nationalist awakening is commonly recognized, their part in the movement for religious renewal is usually minimized. Initiative on the part of the laity has been thought to have existed only outside the church, where it remained a troubling and at times insurgent force. Clarke revises this picture of the role of the laity in church and community. He examines the rich associational life of the laity, which ranged from nationalist and fraternal associations independent of the church to devotional and philanthropic associations affiliated with the church. Associations both inside and outside the church fostered ethnic consciousness in different but complementary ways that resulted in a cultural consensus based on denominational loyalty. Through these associations, lay men and women developed an institutional base for the activism and initiative that shaped both their church and their community. Clarke demonstrates that lay activists played a pivotal role in transforming the religious life of the community.

"In these two volumes, which replace the Reader's Guide to Canadian History, experts provide a select and critical guide to historical writing about pre- and post-Confederation Canada, with an emphasis on the most recent scholarship" -- Cover.

Ogle Gowan - the Irish upstart who turned Ontario Orange - was a self-seeking, treacherous scoundrel who brought his tattered reputation to the raw frontier of Upper Canada, and built the powerful Protestant machine that shaped Canadian history for more than one hundred years. Ogle Gowan was a bastard, a bigot and a brawler, yet his silver-tongued oratory and ruthless political skills made him more than a match for his enemies. Whether crossing swords with the fiery William Lyon Mackenzie or pub-crawling with the young John A. Macdonald he remained, always, slightly larger than life. Don Akenson draws on his talents as both an historian and a novelist to bring the brutal politics of nineteenth-century Ireland and Canada to unforgettable life. In The Orangeman he gives us an extraordinary portrait of a political parvenu whose behaviour was a scandal in his own time, and who left an indelible mark on Canadian history.

Here is the story of the rise, spread, and fall of the Orange Order in Canada. Beginning in 1800, the Order grew steadily in many parts of the country during the nineteenth century, reaching its peak in the early part of the twentieth century. Since then, with the changes in Canadian society, the Order has declined in popularity and since 1945 has almost disappeared. The Saha Canada Wore explains how this immigrant, ethnic ideology, widely known for its Protestant Irishness, opposition to Roman Catholics, and loyalty to the British royal family, managed to become so dominant, especially in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland. The role of the Orange Lodge as a local centre for good times, social interaction, and mutual aid in the various frontier, farm, and urban communities of colonial Canada sustained its development. This role also allowed the Order to move beyond the boundaries of its Irish identity to include the English fishermen of Newfoundland, the Scottish miners of Nova Scotia, the German farmers of the Pontiac region of Quebec, the Scots and Mohawks of Ontario, and settlers of the Canadian prairies. The study is based on historical documents of the national Order, the manuscript records of more than fifty lodges, and the results of extensive field studies in Orange communities in every province. This significant contribution to Canadian social history will appeal not only to historians and geographers, but to members 'King Billy' on his white horse at the head of the parade.

This book corrects an imbalance in Canadian political literature through offering a conservative account of Canadian political thought. Across 15 chronologically organized chapters, and with a mixture of established and rising scholars, the book offers an investigation of the defining features and characteristics of Canadian conservative political thought, asking what have Canadian conservative political thinkers and practitioners learned from other traditions and, in turn, what have they contributed to our understanding of conservative political thought today? Rather than its culmination, Canadian Conservative Political Thought will be the beginning of conservative political thought’s recovery and will spark debates and future research. The book will be a great resource for courses on Canadian politics, history, political philosophy and conservatism, Canadian Studies, and political theory.

Elections in Oxford County, 1837-75 is a unique exploration of the forms, practices, and issues of democracy in a mid-nineteenth-century colonial setting. In this case study of thirty-eight elections in Oxford County — first as part of the United Province of Canada, then in early Ontario — George Emery delves into the advances, setbacks, and flaws of a partially democratic system. Emery demonstrates that while its forms and issues evolved, the net amount of democracy remained stable over time. Elections in Oxford County, 1837-75 breaks new ground with its detailed treatment of the county's voice-vote method of election, which ended with the adoption of the secret ballot in 1874. Employing an idealized parliamentary democracy as an explanatory model, Emery captures both geographically specific details and general features of this era's electoral process to enrich current understandings of nineteenth-century Canadian democracy.