A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada [Paperback]

In this startlingly original vision of Canada, renowned thinker John Ralston Saul argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas: Egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn't believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future.SHORTLISTED FOR 2009 CBA LIBRIS AWARDS—NON-FICTION

“[A] brilliant and timely argument about Canada’s complex nature and our country’s best future course. What a relief it is to read something so observant about Canada. . . . we are a Métis nation, certainly, and it has never been so eloquently said.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Gutsy and exciting. . . . A Fair Country has the potential to change the way Canadians see themselves forever. It offers a romantic and heroic vision, and it’s a stirring and unpretentious read.”
—Winnipeg Free Press

“There’s something admirable, possibly even heroic, in the earnest anger of John Ralston Saul as he bangs away at the theme of his book A Fair Country.”
—National Post

“[A Fair Country is] that rare work of political thought that, by virtue of its daring, is both thrilling and sobering. One reads it with the even rarer sense that it had to be written.”
—The Gazette (Montreal)

“