The LaFontaine Baldwin Lectures Volume One: The Intersection of History and Ideas - Softcover

Saul, John Ralston

9780143012184: The LaFontaine Baldwin Lectures Volume One: The Intersection of History and Ideas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143012185 ISBN 13: 9780143012184

Publisher: Penguin Group (Canada), 2002

11 March 1848. With a pact between francophones and anglophones, democracy is established in Canada. Behind this pact and these incomplete democratic institutions, behind the image of LaFontaine and Baldwin, there was something more important - an idea of the kind of society we would need to become in order to survive and grow. An idea of the public good.

LaFontaine and Baldwin injected into public debate the imagination and initiative needed to make sense of their reality. The LaFontaine-Baldwin Lectures aim to encourage our imaginations by continuing the public debate around the future shape of Canada's civic culture. John Ralston Saul's essay traces LaFontaine and Baldwin's idea of "responsible government" and shows how relevant it is to today's societal challenges. Alain Dubuc argues in his essay that Canada has its own brand of nationalism that is as entrenched and ingrained as Quebec nationalism. Georges Erasmus's essay explores whether Aboriginal values are compatible with non-Aboriginal issues, and suggests what might be done to foster more effective communication among all Canadians.

A continuing discussion among Saul, Dubuc, Erasmus and Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute, about Canada's founding cultures and the future they are forging together connects the essays and extends the debate. Provocative and enlightening, The LaFontaine-Baldwin Lectures is an important addition to the dialogue about Canada's past and future.

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