Sir John's Echo: The Voice for a Stronger Canada

By John Boyko

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017

As Sir John A. Macdonald intended, the federal government must be recognized as the nation’s voice.

Power. It is the capacity to inspire while encouraging and enabling change, and it matters. When handled in a positive way, power is the key to the state’s ability to strengthen the nation and improve lives. But state power, John Boyko argues forcefully, works best when concentrated on a federal level, as Sir John A. Macdonald and Canada’s other founders intended.

Provincial governments are essential, tending to local matters, administering and helping to fund national programs, and sometimes acting as incubators for ideas that grow to become national programs. But in fighting for scraps of power, premiers have often distracted from and occasionally hindered national progress. It is the federal government, as Boyko explains, that has been the primary force in nation building and emergency response, and is the only entity with the authority to speak for all Canadians. Canada has been at its best, and its strength will continue to grow, if we are true to Macdonald’s vision, with the federal government speaking for us in one voice, a voice that will remain Sir John’s echo.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Apr 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781459738164

John Boyko

John Boyko has earned degrees from McMaster, Queen’s, and Trent universities. Bennett is his fourth book addressing Canadian history and politics. Reviews of this biography of Bennett, praise him for his "encyclopaedic knowledge of Canadian history," his "engaging style," and his ability to "make the most arid political debate interesting." He has written a bi-weekly newspaper column and a number of op-ed articles, has spoken throughout the country, and appeared on regional and national radio and television programs. He has been elected to municipal council and served on a number of boards. John Boyko is also an educator. He is the director of Entrepreneurial Programs and Northcote Campus at Lakefield College School. He lives in Lakefield, Ontario.

Book preview