Brennan presents an intriguing perspective in these plays. She has a wonderful ability to capture the nuance of speech, a command of metaphor that is arresting, and a darkly comic view that is entertaining and somewhat disturbing.

I had the opportunity to see one of these play (Having) in performance. Brennan's words and images are a banquet.

I noticed that one of her plays - Tiger's Heart - is out of print. I find this fact distressing as this work is her most fascinating. I have a copy, but I'm not letting go of it!

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and poems. If you have any interest in the Chinese culture, then I highly recommend this story. I liked it because it gave be a new perspective of a different life style.

If you are looking for a well-crafted script the hasn't been done to death, this compilation will fill the bill. A collection os 23 scripts by Manitoba playwrights, it includes an early Ian Ross script (Ross was a hit at the 2001 Fringe with fareWel) plus gems by Rick Chafe, Bruce McManus, and others. Definitely something for everyone. Discover why Manitoba playwrights are soon to be the hottest item on world stages.

This book was extremely helpful for another perspective on the Atwood novels. It is especially good for research if you happen to be writing a thematic paper on Atwood, like I was.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone with Polish ancestry who would like to grasp a phase in the history of their nationality, as well as anyone who liked the storyline of Angela's Ashes. Part I is an amazing and shocking account of a family's endurance of dreadful hardships in the early 1900s in Poland and their eventual migration to Canada. Were the story embellished with more prose, it would be a Polish counterpart of Angela's Ashes! (and easily go on as a box office hit). I was constantly in awe of the determination and comradery of the women in overcoming astonishing obstacles in order to simply survive.

Medicine Maid, by Elizabeth L. Hoople, tells the life story of Mary Whitmore, one of the children captured in Jerseytown, Pa., by Delaware Indians, along with three brothers and a sister, during the Whitmore Massacre of 1779. During her nine years with an Indian family, Mary was taught healing skills which she used for the rest of her life to help her pioneer-settler community get through trials of everyday survival and of famine and war in the Thousand Islands region of Canada. This fast-moving biography, written by Mary's great-great-grand-daughter, is full of unexpected turns of event and meaning.

One of the best books available on the subject of
immigration between Canada and the United States
is Marcus Lee Hansen's The Mingling of the Canadian and American Peoples.
In this text Hansen gives a narrative of the history of
immigration between these two countries. Unfortunately,
this book has a rather old publication date and it shows not only in
Hansen's style but also in his interpretation.
I would love to see a new text published on this subject, but until
that happens I feel that more people should read this work so
that they can become familiar with this issue
of transnational history.

An excellent sampler of modern (and not-so-modern) mystery writers, this book is a bit uneven in quality but generally lives up to its pedigree. The stories by Muller and Asimov shine. This collection is perfect if your Christmas is not complete without a little bloodshed.

Got this book when it first came out, expecting it to be 90% filler and 10% interesting. I was pleasantly suprised.

Pevere and Dymond did their homework... either that, or they've overdosed on Candian pop culture since they were knee-high to grasshoppers.

I found myself chuckling lots as I flipped through the pages of the book, and occassionally laughed out loud, long and hard. With chapter titles such as "Space Oddity: How William Shatner Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Future" and "Porky's (the movie): Canada Pigs Out," the reader can be dazzled - and baffled - by the trivia, humour, and obscure facts'n'fallacies of the Canadian contribution to our present culture and entertainment intake.

I recommend this read, if you've a slightly skewered perception of the world, are a massive pop-culture trivia fan (there's lots in this book you'll be interested in learning!), and want a fresh view of what Canada and Canadians are about.

Too bad it's out of print, but maybe if there's enough interest, the publisher will do a new print-run of the book, and Pevere and Dymond will add some new tid-bits of fascinating info (geee...... Celine's FINALLY pregnant!) in a post-script chapter of Canada coming into the new millennium.

Entertaining read.

Samuel LaSelva's probing examination of the Canadian federalism debate, published just after the failed Quebec sovereignty referendum in 1995, is a timely examination of the roots, circumstances, key players, and future of this debate. He frames the founding concepts of Canadian government as moral foundations rather than political theories, asserting that the goal of Canadian federalism is a sort of cooperative fraternity. This book is an engaging, historically rich, well-evidenced examination of Canada's nationhood and its future.

LaSelva begins with an overview of Canadian history, framing in terms of tragedy, justice, and community. The great tragedy of Canadian society stems from its multiculturalism, since both Anglophone and Francophone Canadians have legitimate claims to their own culture and sovereignty, but in a unified nation it is difficult to satisfy both sufficiently. Creating a just society for all the cultures and nationalities that make up Canada is the central challenge faced by the founders of over a century ago and the modern leaders. The most recent attempt to guarantee justice, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is contested as well in terms of its fairness to all groups and its compatibility with the Canadian brand of federalism.

LaSelva describes Canada as "a country of solitudes, such that the Aboriginal solitude joins the French and English solitudes" (11). The paradox of Canadian government is to find unity within this diversity and develop a national identity without sacrificing the multiculturalism that makes Canada different from the United States. Unfortunately for the success of that task, maintaining multiculturalism has often been accomplished through demands of self-government by the French and Aboriginal populations. However, through the confusion and conflict over Canadian federalism, LaSelva sees opportunity for intellectual development and a rethinking of Canadian government as it exists today.

He goes on to examine the origins of modern Canada, beginning with Confederation, where he asserts that their problems began: "Confederation has failed Canadians in a crucial respect: it has not provided them either with a foundation myth or with a moral ideal that can sustain them during their times of trouble" (21). LaSelva argues that this is because Confederation was born out of internal conflict and not successful revolution like that of the United States. Founder John MacDonald never intended Confederation to turn into a Federalist government, but rather a more unitary nation focused on material wealth and commercial growth. LaSelva credits George-Étienne Cartier with pushing federalism and arguing that because of the multiple loyalties within Canada to both one's province and the nation, there must be a strong moral unifying bond between citizens themselves for Federalism to work. Hence flows LaSelva's examination of the moral foundations of Federalism in Canada and his argument that federalism requires a sense of fraternity to succeed.

LaSelva's deeper examination of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms concludes that it rests on a destructive premise of conflict which is antithetical to Canadian communitarian ideals, meaning that it is just a little too "American" for many Canadian's tastes. However, the reasonable limits clause effectively give judges all the power to enforce the charter or ignore it completely. The Charter does answer one problem with federalism though, which is that "Federalism simply fails to provide a satisfactory answer to the most basic question of freedom: it shows how to protect freedom, but not whose freedom should be protected" (68). The unique problem with Canada is that its heterogeneity means democratic ideals are not always fair, hence the need for the Charter, as contested as it is. Canadian communitarians fear that the Charter will turn Canada into the litigious, rights-driven society of the United States, and they would rather see a more unified nation.

LaSelva argues that the Charter is not only valuable for its justice-increasing potential, but "by providing individuals and minorities with explicit standing in the constitutional order, the Charter not only gives greater prominence to their rights, but also remedies a failure of federalism" (80). He recognizes that Trudeau's intention in forming the Charter was to help Canada evolve toward a more just society, which would therefore be more unified under a federalist system. However, Trudeau's vision for Canada is inadequate in that it does not encompass the multiple cultures that thrive within Canada.

LaSelva goes on to re-examine the conflict between democracy and federalism in Canada through the lens of French and Aboriginal self-government. Since these different groups all have a desire for their own form of government, there is disagreement about the meaning and practice of democracy within and between them as well. There is conflict as well between different Aboriginal tribes about what form of government they want for themselves, which makes it hard for a national government to hear them as a united voice.

Finally, LaSelva places Cartier at the center of the debate. His vision of federalism of federalism as a way for different cultures to live together while maintaining and re-creating a solid national identity appeals to LaSelva. He seems o suggest that this is the "right" way to approach Canadian reconferderation projects because of its congruence with the original intent of the founders. The moral foundations he advocates are those of the founders, because the constitution began on those same moral foundations of federalism. Of course LaSelva realizes that if it was politically legitimate, a rethinking of this constitution could be undertaken, but as long as the public initiative is lacking there, it is important to honor the moral view of the Canadian founding fathers.

The most important purpose of LaSelva's book is to suggest that the solution to Quebec's call for sovereignty and the Aboriginal people's claim to self-government is simply to accept a sort of lopsided federalism. This vision, Cartier's vision, would allow the French and Aboriginals to keep their own culture and maintain their own government, but stay focused on a single, overarching Canadian identity. If Canada is going to survive as a nation, this is a critical proposition that should be taken very seriously. Additionally, it is important, as LaSelva advocates, to observe, but not be a slave to, the moral foundations that the fathers laid for Canada. Though their views of confederation were highly informed at the time by the American Civil war, which the United States obviously overcame with its democratic structure intact, it is still valuable to consider original intent. This book is an important and valuable historical contribution to the debates over reconfederation and Quebec sovereignty that still rage in Canada today.