A few words of explanation are necessary in this special edition of a work which was originally published as Morang’s Annual Register of Canadian Affairs for 1901. Written by Mr. Castell Hopkins, it was practically the first of the Series now represented by The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs for 1902 and 1903. The Publishers of the latter work having acquired all the remaining copies of Morang’s Annual Register, have decided to re-bind and re-issue these volumes as the first of the Series. The Work as a whole will, therefore, commence with a new century of Canadian history and development, and the 1901 volume includes a record of such important events as Queen Victoria’s death and the King’s accession, together with Canada’s participation in the South African War and its reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales. It is felt that this arrangement will be appreciated by subscribers to the Series, and by that portion of the public which is interested in an adequate record of contemporaneous events or Canadian progress.

Published annually from 1901 to 1938 as The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, from 1960 to 1970 as The Canadian Annual Review, and from then until 1994 as The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs, each volume of this work provides an extremely useful collection of "year-in-review" essays, analyzing key developments in government and society at both the federal and provincial level. Although the format of this work changed over time, a typical volume also provides a chronology of events of note in the year under review and brief obituaries of prominent individuals who died in that year. Most volumes have both a name and a subject index. The publication schedule has experienced many delays in recent years: the most recent volume, covering the year 2008, was only published in 2015.