Patrice Dutil

Statecraft delves into the intricate relationships between Canadian prime ministers and their cabinets since Confederation. Through twenty critical essays, leading scholars systematically analyse the challenges and decisions faced by individual prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau. The essays explore essential questions: What influenced cabinet appointments? How and why were ministers shuffled or dismissed? How did the drive for re-election shape the leadership styles employed by prime ministers?At its core, the book examines statecraft – the art of decisive leadership in the face of shifting social, economic, and cultural realities. Statecraft involves the balancing act of maintaining government cohesion, prioritizing urgent issues, and navigating the relentless pursuit of political survival. Even the most seasoned leaders can master statecraft one day and falter the next.Drawing on extensive research, Statecraft bridges history and political science, offering fresh perspectives on the strategies, decisions, and leadership techniques that have defined twenty prime ministers. This comprehensive volume sheds light on the evolving art of governance and its enduring challenges.

Statecraft delves into the intricate relationships between Canadian prime ministers and their cabinets since Confederation. Through twenty critical essays, leading scholars systematically analyse the challenges and decisions faced by individual prime ministers from Sir John A. Macdonald to Justin Trudeau. The essays explore essential questions: What influenced cabinet appointments? How and why were ministers shuffled or dismissed? How did the drive for re-election shape the leadership styles employed by prime ministers?At its core, the book examines statecraft – the art of decisive leadership in the face of shifting social, economic, and cultural realities. Statecraft involves the balancing act of maintaining government cohesion, prioritizing urgent issues, and navigating the relentless pursuit of political survival. Even the most seasoned leaders can master statecraft one day and falter the next.Drawing on extensive research, Statecraft bridges history and political science, offering fresh perspectives on the strategies, decisions, and leadership techniques that have defined twenty prime ministers. This comprehensive volume sheds light on the evolving art of governance and its enduring challenges.

Embattled Nation explores Canada’s tumultuous wartime election of 1917 and the people and issues that made it a pivotal moment in Canadian history.Embattled Nation explores the drama of Canada’s tumultuous election of 1917. In the context of the bloody battles of Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, and of the Halifax explosion, Sir Robert Borden’s Conservative government introduced conscription and called for a wartime election. Most Liberals, led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, opposed compulsory military service, while in Quebec a new movement emerged to contest the Canadian government’s attitude and policy. To survive and win the election, Prime Minister Borden resorted to unprecedented measures that tested the fabric of Canadian democracy.

In September 1867, a few short months after the formation of the Dominion of Canada, voters went to the polls for the inaugural election to affirm that the new government was answerable to the people. The outcome was chaotic, sometimes violent, and left no doubt that the new democracy was going to be a noisy one. In Ballots and Brawls, the first book dedicated solely to the 1867 election, Patrice Dutil offers readers a region-by-region look at the summer of that year, concluding with a close examination of the election results.Citizens battled over issues of economic progress, taxation, and defence, while fights at the local level pitted English against French, Protestants against Catholics, and regionalists against nationalists. Dutil's account captures the drama and outright violence at the polls, and provides an engrossing introduction to the shared ideals, disparate interests, and big personalities involved. Drawing together archival research, newspaper accounts, and a thorough review of the results at the polls, Dutil delivers an engaging and detailed look at the election that started the country.

Sir John A. Macdonald had been in politics for four decades and prime minister of Canada for three terms, but he'd never seen anything like the apocalyptic year of 1885.The issues cascaded relentlessly: threats to the sovereignty of Canada from London and Washington; armed resistance in the North-West; the spectre of starvation among Indigenous peoples; financial crises that endangered the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR); protests over Chinese immigration to British Columbia; nationalist dissent in Quebec; a smallpox epidemic that would claim over 5,000 victims in Montreal; and fierce opposition to Macdonald's drive to expand the right to vote. It was a year like no other in Canadian history.In this fascinating and authoritative study of a skilled politician at the peak of his powers, political historian Patrice Dutil shows how Macdonald navigated persistent threats to public order, anchored the stability of his government, and ensured the future of his still fragile nation.What emerges is a compelling portrait of a man who, notwithstanding his personal failings and the sins of his times, was the most enlightened and constructive public figure of early Canadian history.

Many Canadians lament that prime ministerial power has become too concentrated since the 1970s. This book contradicts this view by demonstrating how prime ministerial power was centralized from the very beginning of Confederation and that the first three important prime ministers – Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden – channelled that centralizing impulse to adapt to the circumstances they faced.Using a variety of innovative approaches, Patrice Dutil focuses on the managerial philosophies of each of the prime ministers as well as their rapport with senior public servants, resistance to genuine public sector reform, and use of orders-in-council to further their aims. He then compares their managerial habits during times of crisis to those during ordinary times.This is the first book to examine the administrative habits of these three prime ministers. In it Dutil offers revealing insights into the evolution of prime ministerial power. He also shows how this centralizing grip of these early first ministers inevitably shaped the administrations they headed, as well as those that followed.

Many Canadians lament that prime ministerial power has become too concentrated since the 1970s. This book contradicts this view by demonstrating how prime ministerial power was centralized from the very beginning of Confederation and that the first three important prime ministers – Macdonald, Laurier, and Borden – channelled that centralizing impulse to adapt to the circumstances they faced.Using a variety of innovative approaches, Patrice Dutil focuses on the managerial philosophies of each of the prime ministers as well as their rapport with senior public servants, resistance to genuine public sector reform, and use of orders-in-council to further their aims. He then compares their managerial habits during times of crisis to those during ordinary times.This is the first book to examine the administrative habits of these three prime ministers. In it Dutil offers revealing insights into the evolution of prime ministerial power. He also shows how this centralizing grip of these early first ministers inevitably shaped the administrations they headed, as well as those that followed.

One hundred years ago, Canadians went to the polls to decide the fate of their country in an election that raised issues vital to Canada's national independence and its place in the world. Canadians faced a clear choice between free trade with the United States and fidelity to the British Empire, and the decisions they made in September 1911 helped shape Canada's political and economic history for the rest of the century. Canada 1911 revisits and re-examines this momentous turn in Canadian history, when Canadians truly found themselves at a parting of the ways. It was Canada's first great modern election and one of the first expressions of the birth of modern Canada. The poet Rudyard Kipling famously wrote at the time that this election was nothing less than a fight for Canada's soul. This book will explain why.