The referendum papers : essays on secession and national unity /

This is an excellent collection of essays about Canada's most pressing ongoing problem--the potential breakup of the country as the result of Quebec's succession after a possible third referendum on the issue. The volume was generated in association with the C.D. Howe Institute, one of Canada's leading think tanks, and the editor and authors are all experienced and skilled political analysts. Emerging after the startlingly close referendum result of 1995, which saw the separatists come within 1.2 percentage points of victory, the book is divided in two parts: the first segment deals with how to improve the social, political, and economic union of Canada; the second considers the possibility of Quebec separation and the terms and processes of that province's leaving. In the context of the continuing concern about the maintenance of Canada this collection is essential to a library intent on the completeness and high quality of its Canadian collection as well as to students of comparative political institutions, historians, political scientists, constitutionalists, and general readers interested in the dissolution of political systems throughout the world. P. Regenstreif; University of Rochester