author
John George Bourinot
1837–1902
A leading Canadian authority on parliamentary procedure, he helped explain how the country’s government worked at a time when its institutions were still taking shape. His books on constitutional history and public life made him an influential voice in late 19th-century Canada.
5 Audiobooks
Canada
by John George Bourinot
The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical Review
by John George Bourinot
Canada under British Rule 1760-1900
by John George Bourinot
Lord Elgin
by John George Bourinot
About the author
Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in 1837, he studied at Trinity University in Toronto before working as a journalist in Halifax, where he founded and edited the Herald. He later moved into public service and became closely associated with Canada’s Parliament.
Bourinot served on the parliamentary staff in Ottawa and, from 1880 until his death in 1902, was Clerk of the House of Commons. He became widely respected as an expert on parliamentary procedure and constitutional law, and his Parliamentary Procedure and Practice in the Dominion of Canada helped set the standard for Canadian legislative practice.
Alongside his government work, he wrote extensively on Canadian history, politics, and institutions. Knighted in 1898, he is remembered as a careful historian and one of the key interpreters of how Canada’s system of government developed in its early decades.