Best Political Writing

Until now, there was no known list of the great books about politics in Canada. Reading books about politics is a great way to get engaged in civic life, so it seemed unusual that there was no catalogue of the best political writing in this country.

Thanks to help of Samara readers, who sent over 100 submissions, we've sought to rectify that oversight.  Below is an initial list of the best of Canada's political writing, which we hope will become a resource for citizens who want to learn about the contours of our politics.  You can scroll down to see it in its entirety or browe by category. We will continue to refresh the list with your suggestions, so please add them in the comment section at the bottom of this page.

We hope this will inspire you to pick up a book on Canadian politics. To help you along, we'll provide you with a chance to win one. Every other Monday, starting on July 19 2010, we will supply a quote from one of our MP exit interviewees and ask you to guess who said it. We'll choose one winner from the correct guesses and send you a book of your choosing from this list, gratis. Follow our blog or our our Guess Who? contest page for more information.

1. Political Biographies
2. The Culture and Practice of Politics
3. Inside Political Parties
4. Political Fiction
5. Provincial Politics

Political Biographies

This category leans more heavily to biography than autobiography. Most of the books on this list were penned by journalists and written about prime ministers.

1. Bliss, Michael, “Right Honourable Men: The Descent of Canadian Politics from MacDonald to Chrétien”
2. Brown, Chester, "Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography"
3. Campbell, Barry, "Politics as Unusual," from the Walrus (not a book, but well worth reading)
4. Careless, J.M.S., "Brown of the Globe" (volumes 1 and 2)
5. Chrétien, Jean with Ron Graham, “Straight From the Heart”
6. Clarkson, Stephen and Christina McCall, "Trudeau and Our Times"
7. Cohen, Andrew, "Lester B Pearson"
8. Cook, Ramsay, "The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau”
9. Creighton, Donald, "The Young Politician" / "The Old Chieftain"
10. Davey, Keith, “The Rainmaker”
11. English, John, “Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Volume One: 1961-1968”
12. English, John, "Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Volume Two: 1968-2000"
13. Fournier, Claude, "Réné Levesque: Portrait d'un homme seul"
14. Graham, Ron, “One-Eyed Kings”
15. Gwn, Richard, "John A.: The Man Who Made Us"
16. Gwyn, Richard, “The Northern Magus”
17. Kyba, Patrick, “Alvin: A Biography of the Honourable Alvin Hamilton, P.C.”
18. Lewis, David, “The Good Fight: Political Memoirs 1909–1958”
19. Lisée, Jean-François, "Le Tricheur"/"Le Naufrageur"
20. Martin, Lawrence, "Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien"
21. Martin, Lawrence, "Chrétien: The Will to Win"
22. McKenna, Brian and Susan Purcell, “Drapeau”
23. McLeod, Thomas and Ian McLeod, “The Road to Jerusalem”
24. Mulroney, Brian, "Brian Mulroney”
25. Newman, Peter C., "Renegade in Power”
26. Newman, Peter C., "The Secret Mulroney Tapes”
27. Orchard, David, "The Fight for Canada”
28. Rae, Bob, "From Protest to Power”
29. Ritchie, Charles, "Storm Signals”
30. Ritchie, Charles, "The Siren Years: A Canadian Diplomat Abroad 1937-1945”
31. Stevens, Geoffrey, "The Player: The Life and Times of Dalton Camp"
32. Poliquin, Daniel, "Réné Levesque"
33. Sawarzky, John, "Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition"
34. The Telegram News Staff, "Balloons and Ballots: The inside story of Robert Stanfield's Victory”
35. Weston, Greg "Reign of Error”
36. Wilson, David, "Thomas D'Arcy McGee, volume 1: Passion, Reason and Politics, 1825-1857"

The Culture and Practice of Politics

This category yielded the most suggestions. A special prize should go to anyone who's read them all. 

1. Bashevkin, Sylvia, "Women, Power, Politics: The Hidden Story of Canada's Unfinished Democracy"
2. Carty, R Kenneth, William Cross and Lisa Young, “Rebuilding Canadian Party Politics"
3. Courtney, John, "Do Conventions Matter: Choosing National Party Leaders in Canada"
4. Crowley, Brian Lee, "Fearful Symmetry: The Fall and Rise of Canada's Founding Values"
5. Duffy, John, "Fights of Our Lives"
6. Ferguson, Will, "Bastards and Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders, Past and Present"
7. Flanagan, Thomas, "Game Theory and Canadian Politics"
8. Fox, Bill, "Spin Wars"
9. Fraser, Graham, "Playing for Keeps"
10. Frye, Northrop, "The Modern Century" (although not directly about politics, a beautiful and persuasive arguement for its inclusion can be found here)
11. Goldenberg, Eddie, "The Way it Works"
12. Gotlieb, Alan, "The Washington Diaries"
13. Gruending, Dennis, ed."Great Canadian Speeches"
14. Ibbitson, John "Open and Shut: Why the US has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper"
15. Ibbitson, John, "The Polite Revolution"
16. Johnston, Richard, Henry E. Brady, André Blais, and Jean Crête, "Letting the People Decide"
17. Kent, Tom, "A Public Purpose"
18. Kinsella, Warren, "Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics"
19. Laschinger, John and Geoffrey Stevens "Leaders and Lesser Mortals"
20. Lee, Robert Mason, "One Hundred Monkeys"
21. May, Elizabeth "Losing Confidence"
22. McKenzie, Judith, "Pauline Jewett: A Passion for Canada"
23. McLeod, Jack, "The Oxford Book of Canadian Political Anecdotes"
24. Newman, Peter C., "Distemper of Our Times"
25. Nichols, Marjorie and Jane O'Hara, "Mark My Word"
26. Paikin, Steve, "The Life"
27. Paikin, Steve, "The Dark Side"
28. Richler, Mordecai, "Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!"
29. Russell, Peter, "Two Cheers for Minority Government"
30. Saul, John Ralston, "A Fair Country"
31. Saul, John Ralston, "Reflections of a Siamese Twin"
32. Sheppard, Robert and Michael Valpy, "The National Deal"
33. Simpson, Jeffrey, "The Discipline of Power"
34. Simpson, Jeffrey, "The Friendly Dictatorship"

Inside Political Parties

These are largely about political parties or the dynamics of a political party and its leader's ascent to (or descent from) power.

1. Aster, Howard and Thomas Axworthy (eds), "Searching for the New Liberalism"
2. Cameron, Stevie, "On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years"
3. Camp, Dalton, "Gentlemen, Players and Politicians"
4. Clarkson, Stephen, "Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party dominates Canadian politics"
5. Delacourt, Susan, "Juggernaut: Paul Martin's campaign for Chrétien's crown"
6. Flanagan, Tom, "Harper's Team: Behind the scenes in the Conservative rise to power"
7. Flanagan, Tom, "Waiting for the Wave: The Reform Party and the Conservative Movement"
8. Fotheringham, Allan, "Look Ma...No Hands: An Affectionate Look at Our Wonderful Tories"
9. Fotheringham, Allan, "Malice in Blunderland, Or How the Grits Stole Christmas"
10. Greenspon, Edward and Anthony Wilson-Smith, "Double Vision: The Inside Story of the Liberals in Power"
11. Hébert, Chantal, "French Kiss"
12. Kinsella, Warren, "The War Room"
13. McCall, Christina, "Grits"
14. McDonald, Marci, "The Armageddon Factor"
15. Plamondon, Bob, "Blue Thunder"
16. Taylor, Charles, "Radical Tories"
17. Topp , Brian, "How We Nearly Gave the Tories the Boot"
18. Wells, Paul, "Right Side Up"

Political Fiction

As few have written fictional accounts of Canadian political life, several suggested works that include aspects of Canadian politics and some of the suggestions were creative, like Michael Ondaatje's classic "In the Skin of a Lion," a book "clearly about power." In that spirit, we hope others will add to this list.

1. CBC Radio, "Backbencher"
2. Fallis, Terry, "The Best Laid Plans"
3. Fallis, Terry, "The High Road"
4. Gardiner, Scott, "King John of Canada"
5. Healy, Michael, "Plan B" (a play)
6. Johnston, Wayne, "The Colony of Unrequited Dreams"
7. Lill, Wendy, "Chimera" (a play)
8. Leacock, Stephen, "Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town"
9. MacLennan, Hugh, "Two Solitudes"
10. MacSkimming, Roy, "Macdonald"
11. Ondaatje, Michael, "In The Skin of a Lion"
12. Rohmer, Richard, "John A.'s Crusade" (here is the full list of his thrillers, many with Canadian political content)
13. Salutin, Rick, "Les Canadiens"

Provincial Politics

We added this category after receiving suggestions of books from four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. Can anyone suggest others to round out the picture?  And any suggestions on the territories?

1. Cameron, David and Graham White, "Cycling into Saigon: Conservative Transition in Ontario"
2. Epp, Roger, "We Are All Treaty People: Prairie Essays"
3. Gagnon, Georgette, and Dan Rath,"“Not Without Cause: David Peterson's Fall From Grace" (Ontario)
4. Ibbitson, John, "Loyal No More: Ontario's Struggle for a Separate Destiny"
5. Ibbitson, John, "Promised Land: Inside the Mike Harris Revolution" (Ontario)
6. Johnson, A.W., "Dream No Little Dreams: A Biography of the Douglas Government of Saskatchewan"
7. Moreira, Peter, "Backwater, Nova Scotia's Economic Decline"
8. Monière, Denis, "Les Ideologies du Québec"
9. Stewart, Ian, "Just One Vote" (Manitoba)
10. Young, Robert A. "The Struggle for Quebec"