National Network for Equitable Library Service

Soon after Allan Pinkerton established his legendary detective agency in the United States, Canadians began seeking their services. Call in Pinkerton’s is the history of the agency’s work on behalf of Canadian governments and police forces. During the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Pinkerton’s operatives hunted legendary train robber Bill Miner in the woods of British Columbia, infiltrated German spy rings during World War I, and helped future prime minister John A. Macdonald to fend off the Fenian raids.

Before becoming the oil capital of the nation, Calgary was a nineteenth-century boomtown in the heart of Alberta. The roots of great prosperity were growing, despite the fact that politicians and the general public believed the West was best left to the trapper and trader. Nurtured by a sense of vision and the sweat of good old-fashioned hard work, Calgary grew, and has now blossomed into a world-class cosmopolitan city noted for its burgeoning oil and gas industry, its famed Calgary Zoo, and of course, the Stampede.

This is the story of a “no military risk” campaign that slowly turned into a nightmare. The book provides new answers to a number of difficult questions beginning with a discussion of why Canadian troops were sent to Hong Kong at the request of the British War Office. Were the British duplicitous in making this request? Was Canadian Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar, guilty of putting his own interests above those of his men in telling the minister of National Defence that there was “no military risk” in sending the “C” Force?

In the fifth year of the War of Independence, while the Americans focused on the British thrust against the Carolinas, the Canadian Department waged a decisive campaign against the northern frontier of New York. Their primary target was the Mohawk River region, known to be the "grainbowl" that fed Washington’s armies. The Burning of the Valleys details the actions of both sides in this exciting and incredibly effective British campaign.

George Brown (1818-1880) was the influential editor of the Toronto Globe, the most powerful newspaper in British North America. He was also leader of the Liberal Party, arch-rival of John A. Macdonald, and the statesman who held the key to Confederation at its most critical stage. This second volume traces the sectional conflict that brought political deadlock by 1864 and makes clear Brown’s vital function in finding a way out. It also sets out in meticulous detail his career after leaving party membership in 1867.

June 1997 marked the opening of the Confederation Bridge which spans the Northumberland Strait and connects Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick. The bridge, designed and built by the international consortium Strait Crossing, is one of the most innovative engineering projects undertaken in Canada. It is the longest bridge ever constructed over ice covered water and one of the longest continuous multi-span bridges in the world. Bridging the Strait describes the arduous trips taken by ice boats, ferries, steamers and ice breakers which have been the link to PEI.

Winner of the 2002 North American Guild of Beer Writers’ Quill & Tankard Annual Writing Award The Canadian brewing industry predates Confederation by two hundred years; Canada boasts the oldest, continuously operating brewery in North America. Canadian brewers have survived the persecution of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition, the Great Depression, two World Wars and the challenge of Free Trade. Today, brewing in Canada is a 10 billion dollar business whose one constant is change.

Boom Town Blues: Collapse and Revival in a Single-Industry Community tells of the Northern Ontario city of Elliot Lake, once the uranium capital of the world, which was devastated by the closing of the uranium mines operated by Denison and Rio Algom. The closures and mass layoffs were first announced in 1990 with the layoffs occurring from then until June 1996. Throughout the period after the layoffs were announced, several major research projects were undertaken.

Celebrated as the saviour of Upper Canada, Major General Sir Isaac Brock was a charismatic leader who won the respect not only of his own troops, but also of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh and even men among his enemy. His motto could well have been ’speak loud and look big.’ Although this attitude earned him a reputation for brashness, it also enabled his success and propelled him into the significant role he would play in the War of 1812.

Captain Ernest Hartling, born in Spanish Ship Bay, Nova Scotia, in 1906, takes us on a voyage through a life crammed with adventure, colour, and excitement.