It's public policy rather than history, but the shortlist for the Donner Prize in Public Policy draws attention to some substantial books by Canadian journalists and scholars. The shortlist is:
Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson (Signal/McClelland & Stewart)Judging by media, the controversial entry is Flanagan's cleverly-title Wealth of First Nations. CP reports "the book makes the case that Indigenous communities need to focus on "making" wealth rather than "taking" government transfers to improve their standard of living." Sure, appropriate all their resources, make self-government unworkable for lack of a revenue basis, isolate most of the people on isolated postage-stamp reserves. Then urge them to "make wealth."
Living with China: A Middle Power Finds Its Way by Wendy Dobson (University of Toronto Press)
The Wealth of First Nations by Tom Flanagan (Fraser Institute)
Breakdown: The Pipeline Debate and the Threat to Canada’s Future by Dennis McConaghy (Dundurn Press)
The Tangled Garden: A Canadian Cultural Manifesto for the Digital Age by Richard Stursberg with Stephen Armstrong (James Lorimer & Co.)
I didn't read Ibbitson and Bricker on the coming global population decline, but it seemed and seems spectacularly "in the long run. " Some future population decline might threaten an economy rooted in endless uncontrolled growth, but most of the other consequences seem manageable, particularly if it is not achieved by pandemic or nuclear holocaust.
