In September 1867, a few short months after the formation of the Dominion of Canada, eligible voters in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec went to the polls for the inaugural election. It would affirm that the new government was answerable to the people. The outcome was chaotic, sometimes violent, and left no doubt that the new democracy was going to be a noisy one. In Ballots and Brawls, the first book dedicated solely to the 1867 election, Patrice Dutil offers readers a vivid description of the idealistic 1864 meetings in Charlottetown and Quebec City, as well as a region-by-region look at the summer of 1867, concluding with a close examination of the election results. Citizens battled over issues of economic progress, taxation, and defence, while fights at the local level pitted English against French, Protestants against Catholics, and regionalists against nationalists. Dutil’s account captures the drama and outright violence at the polls, and provides an engrossing introduction to the shared ideals, disparate interests, and big personalities of the names on the ballots and those behind the scenes, including John A. Macdonald, George Brown, Leonard Tilley, George-Étienne Cartier, Charles Tupper, and Joseph Howe.