Palliser's Prophesy
The History, Politics and Future of Canada's Prairie Waters
by Allen G. Good

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When John Palliser explored Western Canada in the mid-nineteenth century, he identified a region where water would always pose a challenge. Canada, which has an abundant supply of fresh water, does not have this in the areas that need it most, specifically the Prairies—yet we have chosen to manage the water much as we manage many of our resources, assuming that we can do so in perpetuity. Palliser’s Prophecy explores the history, politics, and future of the waters and rivers that flow through Canada’s Prairies. Using moments in the management of single rivers as case studies, the book examines the unforeseen consequences of dams, the philosophical rifts between different schools of thought about nature, and how Indigenous wisdom and the burgeoning environmental movement altered legal perspectives on protecting the natural world. What emerges is a timely and urgent argument for a more holistic viewpoint where not only the rights of humanity, but the rights of a river itself, factor in to how we preserve our most precious resource.

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Allen G. Good holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Ottawa and has over 150 scientific publications to his name. He spent thirty years teaching at the University of Alberta and travelling the Prairie rivers, including the North Saskatchewan, next to which he lived for decades. The editor of two books, Dr. Good now lives on a farm in southeastern Ontario, where he enjoys rafting, camping, travelling and hockey.

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Allen G. Good