The Secret Mulroney Tapes

The Secret Mulroney Tapes PDF Author: Peter C. Newman
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307370747
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
The Secret Mulroney Tapes is an outrageous and intimate portrait of a Canadian prime minister, as told in his own words. There has never been a political book like this, and there will almost certainly never be another. Peter C. Newman, the author of books about John Diefenbaker, Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as well as 2004’s number-one bestselling memoir, Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, has done it again. He has written twenty-two books that have sold two million copies, and earned him the title of Canada’s “most cussed and discussed” political commentator. Here, his no-holds-barred profile of Canada’s most controversial – and most reviled – prime minister breaks new ground. Compiled from years of candid, taped conversations with Mulroney and the people closest to him while he was in power, the sometimes uproarious and often disturbing interviews – 7,400 pages of transcripts totalling 1.8 million words – have been sealed until now. Stunningly indiscreet and savagely frank, Mulroney is the first prime minister to be so nakedly outspoken. Yet he is also revealed as a witty Irish charmer, ready with a quick line to raise a laugh, no matter how impudent or profane, a man as warm in private as he was defensive in the public eye. Mulroney names the names and spills the beans about what really goes on in Ottawa, which he describes as a “sick” city that runs on “goddamned incest”: “They’re all married to one another. They’re shacked up with one another. Their wives are on the payroll of the CBC. It’s just awful.” Lucien Bouchard, his one-time soulmate, he calls “bitter and profane” and “extraordinarily vain.” He writes off his constitutional foe, former Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells, as an “unprincipled son of a bitch.” His disgust for the press is as monumental as his sense of being misunderstood, and in his eyes the Ottawa press corps are “a phony bunch of bastards” who don’t give him credit even when the world applauds him for being “one of the three men who played the most important role in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.” Out of The Secret Mulroney Tapes emerges a startling picture of the politician whose reign shocked and appalled and yet also revolutionized this country. No other prime minister in Canadian history aroused a stronger emotional response than Brian Mulroney. This book provides Canadians with a unique insight into the bold politician who changed their country like no other.

The Secret Mulroney Tapes

The Secret Mulroney Tapes PDF Author: Peter C. Newman
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307370747
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 482

Get Book

Book Description
The Secret Mulroney Tapes is an outrageous and intimate portrait of a Canadian prime minister, as told in his own words. There has never been a political book like this, and there will almost certainly never be another. Peter C. Newman, the author of books about John Diefenbaker, Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, as well as 2004’s number-one bestselling memoir, Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, has done it again. He has written twenty-two books that have sold two million copies, and earned him the title of Canada’s “most cussed and discussed” political commentator. Here, his no-holds-barred profile of Canada’s most controversial – and most reviled – prime minister breaks new ground. Compiled from years of candid, taped conversations with Mulroney and the people closest to him while he was in power, the sometimes uproarious and often disturbing interviews – 7,400 pages of transcripts totalling 1.8 million words – have been sealed until now. Stunningly indiscreet and savagely frank, Mulroney is the first prime minister to be so nakedly outspoken. Yet he is also revealed as a witty Irish charmer, ready with a quick line to raise a laugh, no matter how impudent or profane, a man as warm in private as he was defensive in the public eye. Mulroney names the names and spills the beans about what really goes on in Ottawa, which he describes as a “sick” city that runs on “goddamned incest”: “They’re all married to one another. They’re shacked up with one another. Their wives are on the payroll of the CBC. It’s just awful.” Lucien Bouchard, his one-time soulmate, he calls “bitter and profane” and “extraordinarily vain.” He writes off his constitutional foe, former Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells, as an “unprincipled son of a bitch.” His disgust for the press is as monumental as his sense of being misunderstood, and in his eyes the Ottawa press corps are “a phony bunch of bastards” who don’t give him credit even when the world applauds him for being “one of the three men who played the most important role in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.” Out of The Secret Mulroney Tapes emerges a startling picture of the politician whose reign shocked and appalled and yet also revolutionized this country. No other prime minister in Canadian history aroused a stronger emotional response than Brian Mulroney. This book provides Canadians with a unique insight into the bold politician who changed their country like no other.

Defending a Contested Ideal

Defending a Contested Ideal PDF Author: Luc Juillet
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
ISBN: 077661777X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
In 1908, after decades of struggling with a public administration undermined by systemic patronage, the Canadian parliament decided that public servants would be selected on the basis of merit, through a system administered by an independent agency: the Public Service Commission of Canada. This history, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Commission, recounts its unique contribution to the development of an independent public service, which has become a pillar of Canadian parliamentary democracy.

Paper Trails

Paper Trails PDF Author: Roy MacGregor
Publisher: Random House Canada
ISBN: 1039000738
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
One of Canada's greatest journalists shares a half century of the stories behind the stories. From his vantage point harnessed to a tree overlooking the town of Huntsville (he tended to wander), a very young Roy MacGregor got in the habit of watching people—what they did, who they talked to, where they went. He has been getting to know his fellow Canadians and telling us all about them ever since. From his early days in the pages of Maclean's, to stints at the Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, National Post and most famously from his perch on page two of the Globe and Mail, MacGregor was one of the country's must-read journalists. While news media were leaning increasingly right or left, he always leaned north, his curiosity trained by the deep woods and cold lakes of Algonquin Park to share stories from Canada's farthest reaches, even as he worked in the newsrooms of its southern capitols. From Parliament to the backyard rink, subarctic shores to prairie expanses, MacGregor shaped the way Canadians saw and thought about themselves—never entirely untethered from the land and its history. When MacGregor was still a young editor at Maclean's, the 21-year-old chief of the Waskaganish (aka Rupert's House) Crees, Billy Diamond, found in Roy a willing listener as the chief was appealing desperately to newsrooms across Ottawa, trying to bring attention to the tainted-water emergency in his community. Where other journalists had shrugged off Diamond's appeals, MacGregor got on a tiny plane into northern Quebec. From there began a long friendship that would one day lead MacGregor to a Winnipeg secret location with Elijah Harper and his advisors, a host of the most influential Indigenous leaders in Canada, as the Manitoba MPP contemplated the Charlottetown Accord and a vote that could shatter what seemed at the time the country's last chance to save Confederation. This was the sort of exclusive access to vital Canadian stories that Roy MacGregor always seemed to secure. And as his ardent fans will discover, the observant small-town boy turned pre-eminent journalist put his rare vantage point to exceptional use. Filled with reminiscences of an age when Canadian newsrooms were populated by outsized characters, outright rogues and passionate practitioners, the unputdownable Paper Trails is a must-read account of a life lived in stories.

Lions or Jellyfish

Lions or Jellyfish PDF Author: Raymond B. Blake
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1442622660
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
Asked in 2010 about his pugnacious approach to federal-provincial relations, Newfoundland premier Danny Williams declared “I would rather live one more day as a lion than ten years a jellyfish.” He was only the latest in a long line of Newfoundland premiers who have fought for that province’s interests on the national stage. From Joey Smallwood and the conflict over Term 29 of the Act of Union to Williams and his much-publicized clashes with Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, Newfoundland and Labrador’s politicians have often expressed a determination to move beyond a legacy of colonialism and assert greater control over the province’s own affairs. Lions or Jellyfish? examines the history of these federal-provincial clashes with both clarity and wit. Written by a noted expert on Newfoundland politics and intergovernmental affairs in Canada, this book studies a vital but frequently overlooked aspect of modern Canadian federalism.

Dynasties and Interludes

Dynasties and Interludes PDF Author:
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 1554887968
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
A comprehensive and unique overview of elections and voting in Canada from Confederation to the recent spate of minority governments, this book examines changes in the composition of the electorate, as well as the technology and professionalization of election campaigns.

“Here Is Hell”

“Here Is Hell” PDF Author: Grant Dawson
Publisher: UBC Press
ISBN: 0774840161
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Grant Dawson's analysis of political, diplomatic, and military decision making avoids a narrow focus on the shocking offences of a few Canadian soldiers, deftly investigating the broader context of the deployment in Somalia. He shows how media pressure, government optimism about the United Nations, and the Canadian traditions of multilateralism and peacekeeping all helped to determine the level, length, and tenor of the country's operations. His findings will undoubtedly play a seminal role in informing scholarly debate about this important period in Canadian diplomacy and military engagement.

The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chrétien Defied the Elites and Reshaped Canada

The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chrétien Defied the Elites and Reshaped Canada PDF Author: Bob Plamondon
Publisher: eBookIt.com
ISBN: 1456629085
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
Jean Chrétien's critics have said he was a man with no vision and a short attention span – a small-town hick who stumbled his way to become Canada's 20th prime minister. Whatever credit the Chrétien government deserved was often given to Paul Martin, the heir apparent who was touted to be the brains behind the operation. But while Chretien was the subject of ridicule, he was quietly giving his competitors – both inside and outside of the Liberal party – a master class in politics, leadership and nation-building. His decisions, which often ran counter to elite opinion, fundamentally reshaped and strengthened Canada as it entered the 21st century. Chrétien restored sanity to government finances, kept Canada out of the Iraq war, turned a brain drain into a brain gain, and established clarity over national unity. Relying on new evidence, detailed analysis and exclusive interviews with former cabinet ministers, provincial premiers, political staff, strategists, and high-ranking bureaucrats – many of them speaking publicly for the first time – bestselling author and historian Bob Plamondon tells the surprising inside story of the Chretien years, including: what Chretien would have done if the 1995 referendum had ended in a vote for separation; why Paul Martin secretly threatened to resign in 1995, seven years before he actually quit; who tried to convince Chretien to join the Iraq war and why he could not be intimidated into joining the US-led coalition; why a lifelong Liberal was the most conservative prime minister in Canadian history; the shocking details of the Chretien-Martin feud and the only time an elected Canadian prime minister has been overthrown Until now, the story of Chretien's time as prime minister has been largely misunderstood. Plamondon sets the record straight and provides compelling lessons about political leadership and problem-solving from a critical chapter in Canadian history.

Stories About Storytellers

Stories About Storytellers PDF Author: Douglas Gibson
Publisher: ECW/ORIM
ISBN: 1770900497
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
The legendary Canadian book editor presents this “remarkable, four-decade romp through the back rooms of publishing” (Toronto Sun). Scottish-born Douglas Gibson was drawn to Canada by the writing of Stephen Leacock—and eventually made his way across the Atlantic to find a job in book publishing, where he edited a biography of none other than Leacock. But over the decades, his stellar career would lead him to work with many more of the country’s leading literary lights. This memoir shares stories of working—and playing—alongside writers including Robertson Davies, Mavis Gallant, Brian Mulroney, Val Ross, W. O. Mitchell, and many more. Gibson reveals the projects he brainstormed for Barry Broadfoot; how he convinced future Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro to keep writing short stories; his early-morning phone call from a former prime minister; and his recollection of yanking a manuscript right out of Alistair MacLeod’s reluctant hands—which ultimately garnered the author one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for fiction. Insightful and entertaining, this collection of tales goes behind the scenes and between the covers to divulge a treasure trove of literary adventures. “He makes his life in publishing sound like great fun.” —The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Rescuing Canada's Right

Rescuing Canada's Right PDF Author: Tasha Kheiriddin
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 047073972X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A provocative and timely call to action for civic-minded Canadians yearning for a more competitive political system ane better government. Canadians everywhere are asking: what's wrong with the Conservative Party? The Liberal Party of Canada has held power for 70 of the past 100 years--a feat unrivaled by any other political party in the Western hemisphere. This dominance has caused a great deal of frustration on all political fronts, especially on the right. In the past two years, the long-awaited merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives has not achieved the results many were expecting. Despite the explosive revelations of the sponsorship scandal, and attempts to improve his party's image, Stephen Harper's Conservatives still trail in the polls. In Rescuing Canada's Right, the authors examine the problems facing the Conservative Party and the broader conservative movement, and offer concrete solutions on how to fix them. Some of the issues the book will address: Why the Conservative Party and its predecessor parties have such a poor electoral record; Why today's Conservative Party is not really conservative. Why a new political vision is necessary to inspire Canadians--and what it should be. How the Liberals use public money to entrench an unhealthy reliance on the state--and how the right has failed to challenge it What Canadian conservatives can learn from the American and British experiences How to build a Canadian Conservative counter-culture in the media, academia, and the law How the right can break through to the young, and to immigrants in Quebec An action plan to end Canada's democratic deficit and level the political playing field. Rescuing Canada's Right will be a hard-hitting and groundbreaking work that will introduce new ideas and a passionate call for change for 21st century Canada.

Just Watch Me

Just Watch Me PDF Author: John English
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0676975240
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 834

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Book Description
This magnificent second volume, written with exclusive access to Trudeau’s private papers and letters, completes what the Globe and Mail called “the most illuminating Trudeau portrait yet written” — sweeping us from sixties’ Trudeaumania to his final days when he debated his faith. His life is one of Canada’s most engrossing stories. John English reveals how for Trudeau style was as important as substance, and how the controversial public figure intertwined with the charismatic private man and committed father. He traces Trudeau’s deep friendships (with women especially, many of them talented artists, like Barbra Streisand) and bitter enmities; his marriage and family tragedy. He illuminates his strengths and weaknesses — from Trudeaumania to political disenchantment, from his electrifying response to the kidnappings during the October Crisis, to his all-important patriation of the Canadian Constitution, and his evolution to influential elder statesman.