Water, an increasingly valuable multiple-use resource, is the source of continuing conflict in Canada and abroad. Its use and control presents significant challenges to governments, stakeholders, and citizens.

Canadian Water Politics explores the nature of water use conflicts and the need for institutional designs and reforms to meet the governance challenges now and in the future. The editors present an overview of the properties of water, the nature of water uses, and the institutions that underpin water politics. Contributors highlight specific water policy concerns and conflicts in various parts of Canada and cover issues ranging from the Walkerton drinking water tragedy, water export policy, Great Lakes pollution, St Lawrence River shipping, Alberta irrigation and oil production, and fisheries management on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Canada - with its Great Lakes, three oceans, and border with the US - provides an ideal reference point for studying water use rivalries, conflicts, and governance. By exploring the controversies surrounding water management in Canada, Canadian Water Politics is an essential source for citizens, officials, academics and students, and contributes to our understanding of natural resource management and environmental policy at home and globally.

The editors take a critical look at the now almost mainstream "declinist" thesis and at the continued relevance of Canada's relationships with its principal allies - the United Kingdom, France, and the United States. Contributors discuss a broad range of themes, including the weight of a changing identity in the evolution of the country's foreign policy, the fate of Canadian diplomacy as a profession, the often complicated relationship between foreign and trade policies, the impact of immigration and refugee procedures on foreign policy, and the evolving understanding of development and defence as components of Canada's foreign policy.

Contributors include Robert Bothwell (University of Toronto), Duane Bratt (Mount Royal College), Daryl Copeland (DFAIT), Jean Daudelin (Carleton University), Greg Donaghy (DFAIT), Fred Edwards (Toronto Star), Julie Gilmour (University of Toronto), David Haglund (Queen's University), Justin Massie (Queen's University), John Meehan (University of Toronto), Kathleen Rasmussen (US State Dept.), Roger Sarty (Wilfrid Laurier University), William Schabas (William National University of Ireland), Ian Smillie (Partnership Africa Canada), Cara Spittal (University of Toronto), and Gerald Wright.