Marland dissects modern political message control and comes up with a winner
Back on May 23, 2016, Alex Marland told The Hill Times he was cautiously optimistic about his book, Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control, which he described as “a twist” on Donald Savoie’s Governing from the Centre, along with “a dash” of Tom Flanagan’s book Harper’s Team and Susan Delacourt’s Shopping for […]
What it’s really like ‘down inside’ Canada’s prisons
In 1980, Robert Clark started working as a student volunteer in the gym at Kingston’s maximum-security Millhaven Institution, the most dangerous prison in Canada at the time. He was going to Queen’s University and needed his volunteer hours to become a high school gym teacher. But once he was “down inside” with the prisoners, he was hooked. […]
Time to fix Canada’s copyright mistake
Some weeks ago, scholars at Concordia University in Montreal were caught infringing copyright in what appeared to be acts of wholesale book piracy. This turned into public embarrassment for the university when Kate Taylor at The Globe and Mail published details of the infringements. Working with the Writers Union of Canada and various concerned publishers and […]
Parsing a brand-centric approach to power
We lack a focused study of how political communications work in Ottawa. We need a theory for why they create a contagion of pulling everything toward “the centre”—a term with so many different and sinister connotations that in this book it refers to a transcendental concept, usually encapsulating the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Privy […]
If it ain’t broke, Smith offers a clear-eyed look at how Canada’s electoral system really works
OTTAWA—Dale Smith is a bit of parliamentary political nerd. He’s the only journalist on the Hill who goes to Question Period every, single day and he’s that rare media bird who understands the finer details of the parliamentary system, Canada’s electoral system, and how political parties work. The 38-year-old Alberta native, who has been on the Hill since 2008 […]
Liberals ‘want Canada to be more of an honest broker in the world and that’s a term the Harper government didn’t really like,’ says Blanchfield
After reporting on Canadian foreign policy for about two decades, first for the Ottawa Citizen and now for The Canadian Press, Mike Blanchfield, who started writing Swingback: Getting Along in the World with Harper and Trudeau in 2014, decided he had a big story to tell about Canada’s place in the world after Prime Minister Justin […]
Dallaire’s on a mission and it’s not impossible
OTTAWA—At the end of his powerful and painfully honest memoir, Waiting For First Light: My Ongoing Battle With PTSD, Roméo Dallaire says he was surprised to discover how much he wants to live today. “As I approach the end of this book, I’m also approaching my 70th birthday. I am surprised to find that I am […]
‘I was less interested in the man than the mania,’ says Litt of new book on Pierre Trudeau
OTTAWA—It’s been more than 48 years since Pierre Elliott Trudeau was elected leader of the Liberal Party way back in April 1968 and swept the nation as prime minister two months later, but Paul Litt still wanted to find what made Trudeaumania tick. What was Trudeaumania all about? What was its source? What made it happen? […]
Off Script
Shilpi Somaya Gowda took publishing circles by storm, both in Canada and abroad, with her debut novel Secret Daughter, which sold more than a million copies and has been translated into 23 languages. Now, she discusses how her family’s own experiences with immigration—and the resulting struggles around cultural identity—became key ingredients in her storytelling successes. […]
Sharp Wits & Busy Pens takes a ‘sober-minded look’ at history of press gallery on Parliament Hill
OTTAWA—When Bloomberg Hill reporter Josh Wingrove volunteered to co-edit a coffee table book on the 150-year history of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, he had no idea what he’d signed up for. And he knows hard work. Probably best known when he was at The Globe and Mail as the only print reporter who video-recorded, with his cellphone, the […]
