Small liberal arts institutions that focus on the undergraduate student have received little attention in the literature on higher education in Canada. In this collection of essays contributors set out to redress the situation. Focusing on Mount Allison University in New Brunswick they question, among other things, whether the values and integrity of liberal arts teaching are being preserved and make a case for the important role liberal education at the small university plays in higher education in Canada.

Mount Allison University has consistently been ranked among the leading undergraduate universities in Canada over the last two decades. How does a small-town university with a population of just 2,500 students achieve such outstanding successes year after year? According to Dr. Louise Wasylkiw and Dr. Jennifer L. Tomes, it is the exceptional quality of teaching that makes 'Mount A' truly stand out from the crowd. In this volume, Wasylkiw and Tomes have assembled essays from across disciplines that examine the diversity of pedagogical methods and philosophies that instructors currently employ to give Mount A students a modern, critical, and conscientious education experience. Arranged around the themes of course conceptualization, targeted teaching techniques, and going beyond performance assessments to measure students' outcomes, the contributors' essays range widely in scope. Their collective theme, however, is the depth and breadth of the high quality of teaching offered at Mount A.

From our former Governor General, The Idea of a Nation is a series of fifty—of several thousand—carefully chosen letters he has written to people he has admired and befriended over his seventy-plus years, that sets out David Johnston's frank, informed, and novel thoughts about Canada. Touching on a wide range of topics ranging from learning, the law, kindness and courage, to the monarchy, Aboriginal education, justice, bilingualism, mental health, and hockey, David Johnston has always used the letter writing form to tackle the passions, challenges, and goals of his incredibly accomplished and varied life. From his earliest years at Harvard, he has written several letters each day, starting with those to his large family, and broadening out to an ever-widening circle of friends that includes ministers and monarchs, educators and entrepreneurs, and many extraordinary Canadians who have deepened his perspective and touched his heart. The letters included in this beautiful volume are all about Canada—a project to help him understand and share his views on this great country, past, present, and future. Presented in three parts—What Shapes Me, What Consumes Me, and What Comforts Me—The Right Honourable David Johnston reaches out to his grandchildren, Kevin Vickers, Clara Hughes, Chris Hadfield, the Aga Khan, Tina Fontaine, Mike Lazaridis, the teachers of our country, a grade five class in Winnipeg, an unknown Inuit boy he met at Rideau Hall, and many others. The perfect gift for graduates, this unique and lovely book should find its home in every Canadian's library.

A study of the man and his work.