Between the morning of Wednesday, November 4, and the morning of Thursday, November 5, 1981, a fateful drama unfolded that changed Canada forever. In one last attempt to renew the constitution with the consent of the provinces, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau met behind closed doors in Ottawa with the ten premiers. It was the culmination of more than five decades of constitutional wrangling, and has been called the most important conference since the Fathers of Confederation got together in Quebec City in 1864. Faced with the threat of Quebec independence, the ambitions of Western Canada, and the provinces’ demands for more power, Trudeau was embattled. But he was fiercely determined to make Canadians fully independent and to entrench a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What happened that day still reverberates. It severed the last important link to Canada’s colonial past. It guaranteed individual liberty and minority rights in the future. It weakened the grip of the elites and gave ownership of the constitution to Canadians. But it came at a price. Quebec alone refused to sign the final deal. René Lévesque, its separatist premier, claimed he had been betrayed by his allies in the Gang of Eight. The legend of the "Night of the Long Knives" took hold, precipitating a series of events that came close to destroying the country. Thirty years later, author Ron Graham delivers a gripping account of the fractious debates and secret negotiations. He uses newly uncovered documents and the candid recollections of many of the key participants to create a vivid record of that momentous twenty-four hours. Authoritative and engaging, The Last Act is a remarkable combination of scholarly research and historical narrative.

In November 1981, in what has been called the most important conference since the Fathers of Confederation got together in Quebec City in 1864, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau met behind closed doors in Ottawa with the ten premiers. It was the culmination of more than five decades of political wrangling, one last attempt to renew the constitution with the consent of the provinces. Given the threat of Quebec independence, the ambitions of Western Canada, and the provinces’ demands for more power, failure seemed the most likely result. But Trudeau was determined to make Canadians fully independent and to entrench a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What happened that day still reverberates. It severed the last important link to Canada’s colonial past. It guaranteed individual liberty and minority rights in the future. It gave ownership of the constitution to Canadians. But it came at a price. In The Last Act, Ron Graham delivers a vivid account of the fractious debates and secret negotiations, based on newly uncovered documents and the candid recollections of many of the key participants.

A play-by-play account of November 3, 1981, the fateful night that led to the repatriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights, a decision that continues to dominate Quebec politics.

It was Sir John A. Macdonald's last campaign. His Conservatives had dominated Canadian politics since Confederation. Their National Policy, which protected Canadian manufacturers from foreign competition, was well established and affection for the "Old Man" was deep and widespread. The Liberal leader, Wilfrid Laurier, was new in the job and uncertain that a Roman Catholic from Quebec had any chance of winning votes outside his home province. But Macdonald's decision to hang Louis Riel had split the country, the economy was in the doldrums, and a movement in support of free trade with the United States gave the Liberals hope. In this richly textured narrative, Christopher Pennington spins a colourful tale of a country poised to make a momentous choice and of nineteenth century politics both at its most principled and at its most corrupt.

A pivotal event in Canada’s history For six months in 1967, from late April until the end of October, Canada and its world's fair, Expo 67, became the focus of national and international attention in a way the country and its people had rarely experienced. Expo 67 crystallized the buoyant mood and newfound sense of confidence many felt during Canada's centennial. It becomes clearer, though, as its forty-fifth anniversary approaches in spring 2012, that Expo was something more than just a great world's fair. For many Canadians, it became a touchstone, a popular event that penetrated the collective psyche. The Best Place to Be takes a look at Expo and at the social and political contexts in which it occurred. It is above all a story of people: the young men and women who worked at Expo, the visitors, and the cameo appearances from the titled and celebrated, such as Elizabeth II, President Lyndon Johnson, President Charles de Gaulle (whose visit to Expo and Montreal became infamous), U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco, Princess Margaret, Marshall McLuhan, Sidney Poitier, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant, Twiggy, and Pierre Trudeau.

In 1864, thirty-three delegates from five provincial legislatures came to Quebec City to pursue the idea of uniting all the provinces of British North America. The American Civil War, not yet over, encouraged the small and barely defended provinces to consider uniting for mutual protection. But there were other factors: the rapid expansion of railways and steamships spurred visions of a continent-spanning new nation. Federation, in principle, had been agreed on at the Charlottetown conference, but now it was time to debate the difficult issues of how a new nation would be formed. The delegates included John A. Macdonald, George Etienne-Cartier, and George Brown. Historian Christopher Moore demonstrates that Macdonald, the future prime minister, surprisingly was not the most significant player here, and Canada could have become a very different place. The significance of this conference is played out in Canadian news each day. The main point of contention at the time was the issue of power—a strong federal body versus stronger provincial rights. Because of this conference, we have an elected House of Commons, an appointed Senate, a federal Parliament, and provincial legislatures. We have what amounts to a Canadian system of checks and balances. Did it work then, and does it work now?