Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance examines Canada's mixed record since 1950 in transferring over $50 billion in capital and expertise to developing countries through ODA. It focuses in particular on the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the organization chiefly responsible for delivering Canada's development assistance.

Aid and Ebb Tide calls for a renewed and reformed Canadian commitment to development cooperation at a time when the gap between the world's richest and poorest has been widening alarmingly and millions are still being born into poverty and human insecurity.