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Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna
Almost four years after stepping down as Premier of New Brunswick, Frank McKenna is as much on the minds of political watchers across Canada as ever. The question today is whether he will get back into the political ring. This biography provides fress insight into the man and his politics. FRANK takes readers on a journey into political backrooms and corporate boardrooms. It examines McKenna's unique brand of entrepreneurial politics and his staunch determination to transform New Brunswick into a vibrant, self-reliant partner in Canada.
318 pages, Hardcover
Published September 14, 2001
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About the author
Philip Lee
4 books8 followersA journalist, lecturer, and bestselling writer, Philip Lee began his career as an investigative reporter on Canada’s east coast. Restigouche emerged from his long-standing interest in rivers and the people who love them. His first book, Home Pool: The Fight to Save the Atlantic Salmon, grew out of his award-winning reporting on the decline of the Atlantic salmon. Lee is also the author of Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna, a national bestseller, and Bittersweet: Confessions of a Twice-Married Man, which was long-listed for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.
A professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, Lee developed the Dalton Camp lecture series, broadcast annually by CBC Radio’s Ideas and edited The Next Big Thing (a published collection from the lectures). When he is not writing and teaching, Lee spends as much time as he can following the currents of rivers.
A professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, Lee developed the Dalton Camp lecture series, broadcast annually by CBC Radio’s Ideas and edited The Next Big Thing (a published collection from the lectures). When he is not writing and teaching, Lee spends as much time as he can following the currents of rivers.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 19, 2021
Journalist Phillip Lee has written an interesting biography of Frank McKenna, the man who was the head of the Liberal party and the Premiere of New Brunswick from 1987 to 1997. During his tenure he made tremendous social and economic changes in the province, determined to drag it kicking and screaming into a more modern world away from the provinces commonly known as the “have-nots”. It is the story of a local boy, intelligent, raised in poverty who had no advantages but worked hard, paid his way through university and became a successful lawyer in the seventies. His defense of boxing legend Yvon Durelle from a murder charge, brought him to public attention and by 1985, he was leader of the provincial Liberal party.
In 1987 the Liberals made a clean sweep in the provincial election, gaining every seat after the scandal-filled tenure of Richard Hatfield’s Tory government. It left the party in an envious position, unopposed in the legislature. McKenna began a whirlwind of changes, including passing historic legislation making the province officially bilingual and preserving both languages in law. That was a stunning accomplishment, given the fact at one point in its history, the province had an anti-francophone party as its official opposition.
Phillip draws his portrait of McKenna in three chapters, the first charting his opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, with McKenna’s criticizing the document because it did not protect the rights of francophones outside of Quebec. McKenna eventually folded to Brian Mulroney’s charm and tough negotiating tactics but McKenna’s opposition made him a champion of bilingualism. In crafting this chapter, Lee had access to McKenna’s personal diaries which add important personal details to some of Mulroney’s strong-armed pressure, absent from other accounts of the story.
In the chapter focused on the Liberal’s economic strategy, Lee describes how MKenna focused his efforts on the emerging technology sector as the center of his plans to make the province more prosperous. In the early nineties he offered the province’s recently completed fiber optic network and generous financial incentives to corporations in an effort to recruit them to invest in New Brunswick rather than some of the other larger, more prosperous provinces. McKenna was featured in recruitment ads as the face of a new and different New Brunswick, on the path to becoming a more self-reliant and prosperous place to do business. The strategy had mixed results, with the gains created by the thousands of call center jobs he created, offset by cuts to the public sector.
The final piece shows McKenna as a provincial executive, a man who took a very business-like approach to government. He cut back the civil service, reworked the welfare system and kept an open mind to the possibilities presented by the creation of public-private partnerships.
McKenna was a driven man with a no-holds-barred approach which often brought him controversy, but he knew exactly where he wanted to take the province and was determined to get there. He had promised to step down after ten years, which is what he did, retiring from politics after his very successful run. Several politicians tried to convince him to consider the role of Prime Minister, including Paul Martin who tried to entice him with a possible cabinet position and Jean Chretien who openly encouraged him. But McKenna turned them down, never having, as he said, a burning desire to be Prime Minister of Canada. He thought others could do just as good a job as he could, so he retired and returned to corporate life.
Phillip Lee is a journalist, lecturer and investigative reporter who has chosen to focus this book more on the private man rather than the public figure, going back to McKenna’s childhood, his marriage and family life. He leaves much of his commentary on McKenna’s family to the last few chapters in the book which is disappointing, leaving out any real details of how his political career affected his wife Julie or their children.
Lee shows McKenna to be a political addict who expected much of himself and those who worked for him, a self-confessed political junkie. An early riser, those living in Fredericton at the time would often see him on his early morning jaunt, walking to work. He was known to often work far into the night.
This is a very readable book, clearly sympathetic to its subject, as it is clear Lee admires McKenna as a self-made, hard-working man. As a fellow New Brunswicker, it is clear he supported McKenna’s mission to transform their home province from its culture of dependency to one of self-sufficiency and some may criticize Lee for his more subjective approach to his subject.
Those interested in Canadian politics, especially those from its Maritime provinces, will find this a fascinating read, the story of a small-town boy who “made good”.
In 1987 the Liberals made a clean sweep in the provincial election, gaining every seat after the scandal-filled tenure of Richard Hatfield’s Tory government. It left the party in an envious position, unopposed in the legislature. McKenna began a whirlwind of changes, including passing historic legislation making the province officially bilingual and preserving both languages in law. That was a stunning accomplishment, given the fact at one point in its history, the province had an anti-francophone party as its official opposition.
Phillip draws his portrait of McKenna in three chapters, the first charting his opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, with McKenna’s criticizing the document because it did not protect the rights of francophones outside of Quebec. McKenna eventually folded to Brian Mulroney’s charm and tough negotiating tactics but McKenna’s opposition made him a champion of bilingualism. In crafting this chapter, Lee had access to McKenna’s personal diaries which add important personal details to some of Mulroney’s strong-armed pressure, absent from other accounts of the story.
In the chapter focused on the Liberal’s economic strategy, Lee describes how MKenna focused his efforts on the emerging technology sector as the center of his plans to make the province more prosperous. In the early nineties he offered the province’s recently completed fiber optic network and generous financial incentives to corporations in an effort to recruit them to invest in New Brunswick rather than some of the other larger, more prosperous provinces. McKenna was featured in recruitment ads as the face of a new and different New Brunswick, on the path to becoming a more self-reliant and prosperous place to do business. The strategy had mixed results, with the gains created by the thousands of call center jobs he created, offset by cuts to the public sector.
The final piece shows McKenna as a provincial executive, a man who took a very business-like approach to government. He cut back the civil service, reworked the welfare system and kept an open mind to the possibilities presented by the creation of public-private partnerships.
McKenna was a driven man with a no-holds-barred approach which often brought him controversy, but he knew exactly where he wanted to take the province and was determined to get there. He had promised to step down after ten years, which is what he did, retiring from politics after his very successful run. Several politicians tried to convince him to consider the role of Prime Minister, including Paul Martin who tried to entice him with a possible cabinet position and Jean Chretien who openly encouraged him. But McKenna turned them down, never having, as he said, a burning desire to be Prime Minister of Canada. He thought others could do just as good a job as he could, so he retired and returned to corporate life.
Phillip Lee is a journalist, lecturer and investigative reporter who has chosen to focus this book more on the private man rather than the public figure, going back to McKenna’s childhood, his marriage and family life. He leaves much of his commentary on McKenna’s family to the last few chapters in the book which is disappointing, leaving out any real details of how his political career affected his wife Julie or their children.
Lee shows McKenna to be a political addict who expected much of himself and those who worked for him, a self-confessed political junkie. An early riser, those living in Fredericton at the time would often see him on his early morning jaunt, walking to work. He was known to often work far into the night.
This is a very readable book, clearly sympathetic to its subject, as it is clear Lee admires McKenna as a self-made, hard-working man. As a fellow New Brunswicker, it is clear he supported McKenna’s mission to transform their home province from its culture of dependency to one of self-sufficiency and some may criticize Lee for his more subjective approach to his subject.
Those interested in Canadian politics, especially those from its Maritime provinces, will find this a fascinating read, the story of a small-town boy who “made good”.
May 17, 2023
An indepth recreation of Frank McKenna's ten years as Premier of New Brunswick. Typical of Philip Lee's writing, each conversation is recreated through endless research of notes and material and interviews with participants. While Frank McKenna was a driven man, forsaking his family life in order to undertake and complete the best possible job for the residents of New Brunswick, and much was achieved, it did not quite achieve everything he had set out to do. Never the less, the province was fortunate to have a leader who insisted on doing the right thing for the people and did achieve a merging of English and French residents and solidified New Brunswick as the only bilingual province in Canada.
October 1, 2024
Excellent book if you are from NB and remember that time period in our province's history
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews