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If Canadians were all as reasonable, open-minded,
and conciliatory as we think we are, and as wise as we would like to be, we would probably all sound a lot
more like Alan Cairns. If candour and realism have any role in twenty-first-century relations between
post-1600 immigrants to Canada and their Aboriginal neighbours, Citizens Plus is a better guide to a
self-respecting future for all the people of this land than any currently on offer. Desmond Morton, Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada Cairns takes the next giant step in the debate on the future of relations between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada. A first class analysis of the key issues ... [and] an essential companion to the Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples ... Incisive and insightful. Allan E. Blakeney, former Premier of Saskatchewan, former member of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples A stimulating piece of work, all the more so because its argument for the middle ground in the great debate between Aboriginal self-government and the demands of Canadian federalism is so well presented ... As Cairns points out, we are all citizens together in the Canadian federation, differences and all. Oddly, this fits in very well with what the Elders have to say, as it puts into human and political terms what the Elders teach about the interconnectedness of the natural world. |
| Olive Patricia Dickason, professor emerita of history at the University
of Alberta, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Aboriginal Achievement
Foundation Citizens Plus is a beautifully written long essay, which considers from several perspectives ... the conflict between Aboriginal persons' status as citizens and their membership in collectivities. This very important book will make a new and useful intervention in public policy. Francis Abele, Director of the School of Public Administration, Carleton University, and former Deputy Director of Research for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |
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