The Missing Child in Liberal Theory opens public discourse on what it is Canadians hold in common through their provision of civic assurances to children and families at risk. John O'Neill presents a strongly-worded critique of the dominant discourse of the market society. He observes the link between 'duty free' capitalism and minimal civic obligations. This book calls for a covenant society where civility and reciprocity are underwritten by a second generation concept of the Canadian welfare state that will not abandon children to disastrous prospects in a market society.
Confronting the current call for a leaner and meaner response to global competitiveness, O'Neill challenges concepts of liberalism and communitarianism. In their place he proposes a covenant concept of state, community, and family assurances to derive from our common provision of a civic endowment that we undertake to sustain now and for future generations of Canadians.
O'Neill argues that if Canada is to survive as a national community capable of responding to the global market, we must reaffirm the civic foundations of the state. If we fail to do this, we will not have a leaner society, only a meaner one. This society will be hostile to capitalism and socialism alike. If we can rededicate the Canadian commons to the well-being of the civic person, Canada will contribute a model of survival and governance among the nations of the twenty-first century.

John O'Neill is the author of the novel Fatal Light Awareness and four poetry collections, Animal Walk, Love in Alaska, The Photographer of Wolves, and Criminal Mountains. He was raised in Scarborough, Ontario, where his parents worked for many years as building superintendents, an aspect of his history explored in The Photographer of Wolves. He was a winner in the Prairie Fire Long Poem Contest and Sheldon Currie Fiction Prize, and the recipient of a 'Maggie' - a Manitoba Magazine Award - for Best Story for his "The Book About The Bear." John was a finalist, with his manuscript Goth Girls of Banff (Newest Press 2020), for the HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction. He taught high-school English and Dramatic Arts for 29 years, and now lives and writes in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto. He and his artist wife Ann make frequent trips to Canada's Rocky Mountains, and this landscape continues to be a major influence on his writing.

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