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Breaking Point

The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk

Author Darrell Bricker, John Ibbitson
Hardcover
$30.00 US
McClelland & Stewart | Signal
On sale Oct 28, 2025 | 240 Pages | 9780771030345
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From the authors of The Big Shift and Empty Planet, a timely and provocative exploration of the seismic forces reshaping Canada’s political, cultural, and economic landscape.

Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s explosive new polemic, arrives in the midst of the greatest political crisis Canada has ever faced. The country stands at risk. Even before Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency, brandishing tariffs and threats of annexation, Canada had started to crack. Year after year of decisions deferred, problems ignored, and cans kicked carelessly down the road have created dangerous fissures. 

Stifling regulations drag down the economy. Younger people feel angry and alienated by dizzying housing prices and gig jobs. Regional tensions threaten unity in both Quebec and the Prairies. The immigration system is broken. And Canada stands alone, having failed to pay the cost of defending itself. 

Canadians elected a former bank governor to fix all this. But can the Liberals get us out of the mess they helped get us into? What future awaits the progressive and conservative coalitions? Will the Laurentian elites continue to misgovern, or are there alternatives? The country is at a breaking point. Canadians must act to save it before they lose it. 

Provocative, urgent, and unapologetically candid, Breaking Point will ignite debate, dominate political discourse, and become the definitive guide to understanding what is shaping up to be one of the most turbulent eras in Canadian history.
© Jenna Muirhead
DARRELL BRICKER is Global CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs.

Prior to joining Ipsos in 1990, Dr. Bricker was Director of Research in the office of Canada's Prime Minister. He was also a research consultant with firms in Ottawa and Toronto.

Dr. Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University, and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Wilfrid Laurier University, which named him one of their top 100 graduates in the last 100 years. Darrell is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. 

Darrell has written several national bestselling books. Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (with John Ibbitson) was a finalist for the Donner Prize. It has been published in multiple countries and translated into ten languages. His last book, Next (Harper Collins, March 2020) was nominated as Canada’s Business Book of the Year.

His other books are: Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset (with Ed Greenspon - Doubleday, 2002), What Canadians Think About Almost Everything (with John Wright – Doubleday, 2005), We Know What You’re Thinking (with John Wright - Harper Collins, 2009), Canuckology (with John Wright - Harper Collins, 2011), and The Big Shift (with John Ibbitson - Harper Collins, 2013).

Darrell’s next book (with John Ibbitson) Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk will be published by Random House in October 2025.

Dr. Bricker is a popular public speaker who regularly engages with audiences around the world. He's written articles for publications as diverse as Canada's Globe and Mail and France's Le Monde. He has also appeared on television and radio with all of Canada’s major national networks, and around the world with news broadcast organizations such as CNN, the BBC and NPR. Darrell is also the 2021 recipient of the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Hutton Award of Excellence for commitment to the betterment of journalism in Canada. View titles by Darrell Bricker
© Christian Lalonde - Photoluxstudio.com
JOHN IBBITSON is Writer at Large for the Globe and Mail, having also served as chief political writer, political affairs columnist and bureau chief in Washington and Ottawa. His previous political books include the national number-one bestselling The Big Shift (with Darrell Bricker), The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream and Open and Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama and Canada Has Stephen Harper. A winner of the Governor General's Award, Ibbitson has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize, the National Newspaper Award, the Trillium Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award. Stephen Harper was a finalist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction and won the 2015 Writer's Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. He lives in Ottawa. View titles by John Ibbitson

About

From the authors of The Big Shift and Empty Planet, a timely and provocative exploration of the seismic forces reshaping Canada’s political, cultural, and economic landscape.

Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson’s explosive new polemic, arrives in the midst of the greatest political crisis Canada has ever faced. The country stands at risk. Even before Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency, brandishing tariffs and threats of annexation, Canada had started to crack. Year after year of decisions deferred, problems ignored, and cans kicked carelessly down the road have created dangerous fissures. 

Stifling regulations drag down the economy. Younger people feel angry and alienated by dizzying housing prices and gig jobs. Regional tensions threaten unity in both Quebec and the Prairies. The immigration system is broken. And Canada stands alone, having failed to pay the cost of defending itself. 

Canadians elected a former bank governor to fix all this. But can the Liberals get us out of the mess they helped get us into? What future awaits the progressive and conservative coalitions? Will the Laurentian elites continue to misgovern, or are there alternatives? The country is at a breaking point. Canadians must act to save it before they lose it. 

Provocative, urgent, and unapologetically candid, Breaking Point will ignite debate, dominate political discourse, and become the definitive guide to understanding what is shaping up to be one of the most turbulent eras in Canadian history.

Author

© Jenna Muirhead
DARRELL BRICKER is Global CEO, Ipsos Public Affairs.

Prior to joining Ipsos in 1990, Dr. Bricker was Director of Research in the office of Canada's Prime Minister. He was also a research consultant with firms in Ottawa and Toronto.

Dr. Bricker holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Carleton University, and a BA and MA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree by Wilfrid Laurier University, which named him one of their top 100 graduates in the last 100 years. Darrell is also a Senior Research Fellow with the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, and at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. 

Darrell has written several national bestselling books. Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (with John Ibbitson) was a finalist for the Donner Prize. It has been published in multiple countries and translated into ten languages. His last book, Next (Harper Collins, March 2020) was nominated as Canada’s Business Book of the Year.

His other books are: Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset (with Ed Greenspon - Doubleday, 2002), What Canadians Think About Almost Everything (with John Wright – Doubleday, 2005), We Know What You’re Thinking (with John Wright - Harper Collins, 2009), Canuckology (with John Wright - Harper Collins, 2011), and The Big Shift (with John Ibbitson - Harper Collins, 2013).

Darrell’s next book (with John Ibbitson) Breaking Point: The New Big Shifts Putting Canada at Risk will be published by Random House in October 2025.

Dr. Bricker is a popular public speaker who regularly engages with audiences around the world. He's written articles for publications as diverse as Canada's Globe and Mail and France's Le Monde. He has also appeared on television and radio with all of Canada’s major national networks, and around the world with news broadcast organizations such as CNN, the BBC and NPR. Darrell is also the 2021 recipient of the Radio Television Digital News Association’s Hutton Award of Excellence for commitment to the betterment of journalism in Canada. View titles by Darrell Bricker
© Christian Lalonde - Photoluxstudio.com
JOHN IBBITSON is Writer at Large for the Globe and Mail, having also served as chief political writer, political affairs columnist and bureau chief in Washington and Ottawa. His previous political books include the national number-one bestselling The Big Shift (with Darrell Bricker), The Polite Revolution: Perfecting the Canadian Dream and Open and Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama and Canada Has Stephen Harper. A winner of the Governor General's Award, Ibbitson has been shortlisted for the Donner Prize, the National Newspaper Award, the Trillium Award, and the City of Toronto Book Award. Stephen Harper was a finalist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction and won the 2015 Writer's Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. He lives in Ottawa. View titles by John Ibbitson

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