Roasting Chestnuts: The Mythology of Maritime Political Culture is a book about outdated political stereotypes. The Maritime provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia are often regarded as pre-modern hinterland in which corrupt practices and traditional loyalties continue to predominate. While this depiction of Maritime political life may, at one time, have been largely accurate, this is no longer the case. Employing a variety of indicators, this book argues that a new set of political images is needed to capture Maritime political reality today. What emerges from the analysis is a picture of Maritime politics which no longer differs markedly from that which exists in the rest of Canada.

Ian Stewart PhD, taught at both Queen's and UBC before joining the department of political science at Acadia University for 32 years. He is now retired after authoring 30 articles on Canadian politics. He also wrote or co-wrote Roasting Chestnuts: The Mythology of Maritime Political Culture (UBC Press, 1995), The Savage Years: The Perils of Reinventing Politics in Nova Scotia (with Peter Clancy, James Bickerton and Rodney Haddow, Lorimer, 2000), Conventional Choices: Maritime Leadership Politics (UBC Press, 2007) and Just One Vote: From Jim Walding's Nomination to Constitutional Defeat (University of Manitoba Press, 2009). Conventional Choices was short-listed for the Donald Smiley Prize for the best book on Canadian politics in 2008, and Just One Vote was short-listed for the Margaret McWilliams for best book on Manitoba history and for the Donald Smiley Prize for the best book in Canadian politics in 2010. Ian Stewart and his wife Audrey live in Greenwich, Nova Scotia.

Ian Stewart's profile page

Studies devoted to regional politics in Canada are still scarce, and the Maritimes has often been treated summarily. With this volume, Ian Stewart takes a major remedial step. Many of the chapters have appeared in print already, but their collection under a new theme will be extremely helpful to students of regional politics and comparitive political culture.

Canadian Journal of Political Science