Much of Canada’s modern identity emerged from the innovative social policies and ambitious foreign policy of Louis St-Laurent’s Liberal government. His extraordinarily creative administration made decisions that still resonate today: on health care, pensions, and housing; on infrastructure and intergovernmental issues; and, further afield, in developing Canada’s global middle-power role in global affairs and resolving the Suez Crisis. Yet St-Laurent remains an enigmatic figure.

Contributors to The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent assess the degree to which he set the policy agenda. They explore the features of his personality that made him effective (or sometimes less so), the changes he wrought on the state apparatus and federal-provincial relations, and the substance of his government’s policies.

This wide-ranging collection fills a great void in Canadian political history, bringing together seasoned professionals and new scholars to investigate the far-reaching influence of a politician whose astute policies and bold resolve moved Canada into the modern era.

Patrice Dutil is professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University. His publications include Canada 1911 and Devilâ??s Advocate. A frequent media commentator on Canadian affairs, he is the president of the Champlain Society and the founder of The Literary Review of Canada. He lives in Toronto.

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The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent is a fine volume, one of the few recent edited collections held together by more than the binding.

Literary Review of Canada

With this superbly-executed, comprehensive book, [St-Laurent] now gets the tribute he would not have asked for — but nonetheless deserves.

Policy Magazine

The Unexpected Louis St-Laurent span[s] a wide range of issues surrounding St-Laurent’s time as prime minister, making clear his importance as well as that of this oft overlooked period.

British Journal of Canadian Studies