Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark by Mary Janigan

This book is called "Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark, The West versus the Rest since Confederation". Mary Janigan has her own web site. The site hosts a time line that is covered by the book.

When I was young, I like the history that Pierre Berton wrote. I grew out of him, but there has not been much in the way of good history books for Canadian History. This is the first Canadian History book I have read for a while that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The book provides an interested perspective on how people in different parts of our country viewed the west and what it meant to them. It is well written and easy and enjoyable to read. It gives a western perspective that being in central Canada, I had not realized before.

This book is largely about the west (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan) fighting to control their own resources. It took forever as the Federal government wanted to use western resources to fund settlement and railways. It was not until 1930 when King was Prime Minister that western resources as finally turned over to the western provinces.

The book also goes into the rage that was felt in the Maritimes. They felt that they had bought and paid for the west and that they should be compensated for the loss of western resources. Quebec and Ontario got huge amount of land carved out of the land purchases from the Hudson Bay Company, but the Maritimes got nothing.

There are good reviews at Toronto Star, at National Post, at Winnipeg Free Press and at The Chronicle Herald (of Nova Scotia).

On my website is how to find this book on Amazon if you care to purchase it. See Janigan. Also, this book review and other books I have reviewed are on my website at Book Reviews.