Tug of War offers an analytical look at power struggles between provincial and federal governments during the 1980s. With one provincial government urging secession, another attacking Ottawa's energy policies by deliberately limiting the flow of oil to the rest of the country, and the national government intent on ratifying a new Constitution with or without provincial assent, Canadian governments faced the 1980s in fighting form. A witty, relentless but fair-minded analyst, Milne strips away partisan rhetoric, and offers a close examination of the ebb and flow of Canadian politics in the first half of the 1980s.