The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs is an acclaimed series that offers informed commentary on important national events and considers their significance in local and international contexts. This latest instalment reviews one of the most dramatic years in recent Canadian political history.

While the country seemed solid both politically and economically at the beginning of 2008, by late summer trouble in the financial markets left banks and other financial institutions around the world on the brink of collapse. As the situation unfolded, Prime Minister Harper violated the spirit of his fixed election law and called a snap election, sensing the prospect of a Conservative majority. When the election returned another minority, Canada was plunged into a constitutional crisis that rivalled, if not surpassed, the King-Byng affair of 1926. The 2008 volume of the Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs covers both these crises, as well as foreign, provincial, First Nations, and municipal affairs.

David Mutimer is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and deputy director of the Centre for International and Security Studies at York University.

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