"[Wilson] demonstrates persuasively that D'Arcy McGee, erratic but often brilliant, was the poet, the orator and the most profound thinker of Canadian colonial politics. While Macdonald was a supreme practitioner of politics as the art of the possible, Mc

“As in his impressive first volume, David A. Wilson’s task has been to understand a personality who seemed ‘congenitally incapable of walking a straight line’ (p. 11)…. He was 42 when he died: how might he have responded to the Pacific Scandal and Louis Ri

"The skilful blend of McGee's own words and Wilson's analysis will surely make even the most disinterested student of history feel at least a tiny bit prouder to be Canadian. " Quill & Quire

"A magnificent achievement. The narrative has tension and momentum, even though we know the final tragic scene. This is the triumphant finale of years of scholarship and must rank as one of the great historical biographies of our time. " Liam Kennedy, Queen's University, Belfast