Farewell the Peaceful Kingdom: The Seduction and Rape of Canada, 1963 to 1994

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of history at York University, the
co-author of the Dictionary of Canadian Military History and Empire to
Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s, and the author of The Good
Fight.

Armstrong dislikes almost everything that has happened in Canada since
1963, and he is clearly an avid collector of newspaper clippings. The
result is this 746-page compendium of rage, with strung-together
clippings presented in lieu of text, all setting out the author’s
burning dislike with full chapter and verse and with unbridled
invective. Armstrong hates Pearson, Trudeau, and Mulroney; detests
Quebec, bilingualism, and biculturalism; scorns the CBC and all who
appear on it; and bemoans Canada’s slide toward disintegration. Many
will agree with the last, but we must hope that there can be only a few
readers of this book who will share all of its author’s biases.
Farewell the Peaceful Kingdom demonstrates better than any study
hitherto available how civility in Canada has broken down under the
stress of political and economic decay. Armstrong blames everyone else
for killing the “peaceful kingdom” that was Canada; others might
point their fingers at this book, which most certainly applies the coup
de grвce.