This reference book is primarily a procedural work which examines the many forms, customs, and practices which have been developed and established for the House of Commons since Confederation in 1867. It provides a distinctive Canadian perspective in describing procedure in the House up to the end of the first session of the 36th Parliament in Sept. 1999. The material is presented with full commentary on the historical circumstances which have shaped the current approach to parliamentary business. Key Speaker's rulings and statements are also documented and the considerable body of practice, interpretation, and precedents unique to the Canadian House of Commons is amply illustrated. Chapters of the book cover the following: parliamentary institutions; parliaments and ministries; privileges and immunities; the House and its Members; parliamentary procedure; the physical & administrative setting; the Speaker & other presiding officers; the parliamentary cycle; sittings of the House; the daily program; oral & written questions; the process of debate; rules of order & decorum; the curtailment of debate; special debates; the legislative process; delegated legislation; financial procedures; committees of the whole House; committees; private Members' business; public petitions; private bills practice; and the parliamentary record. Includes index.

Getting It Right is the first "insider's" account of this period of regional development in Canada. Harley McGee draws on his experience with the government at senior regional and departmental levels, and on primary and secondary sources, to examine the evolution of federal regional development policies and the structures developed between 1970 and 1991 to implement them. He dispels some of the myths and challenges some of the perceptions about the manner in which regional development has been tackled by governments in Canada. He explores the federal-provincial dimensions of regional development, as well as the difficulty of reconciling the perceived dichotomy between national and regional policies. McGee argues that the 1982 move away from the DREE model of regional development was a mistake, and suggests that the predilection of governments for reorganising existing instruments of regional development policy and creating new ones has been detrimental to regional economies. Mindful of the new realities of the global economy within which Canada and its regions must compete, and of the promise/threat of rapidly changing technology, McGee identifies the need for a new order of priorities with which governments can meet these challenges and opportunities.

Published in 1984, How Ottawa Decides is an insider's view of how Ottawa tried throughout the 1970s to establish priorities and act on them. The book anatomizes the politics of the bureaucracy and the Cabinet, showing how power really operated in Ottawa during this period. It tracks the failure of many ambitious efforts to impose political control over government departments long used to operating without undue interference from elected officials. How Ottawa Decides is startling first-hand account of the forces that really ran the federal government in the 1970s.