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Blue Thunder: The Truth About conservatives From MacDonald to Harper
504 pages of excellent text. A lively, often humorous, and always pertinent look at the Tories at their best and at their worst - a must read for anyone who follows Canadian politics. First Edition.
504 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 22, 2013
As a trained historian who won a MA in Canadian history, I highly recommend this book as well-documented history by an excellent writer.
Mr. Plamondon recounts the stories of many of Canada's greatest Prime Ministers from as balanced a perspective as most human beings could do.
Canadians and those who would like to learn more about our great country and the approaches of proven great leaders in complex and difficult situations will find this book fact-filled, and fun!
Enjoy!
GaryFPatton
(2013-09-22)
Mr. Plamondon recounts the stories of many of Canada's greatest Prime Ministers from as balanced a perspective as most human beings could do.
Canadians and those who would like to learn more about our great country and the approaches of proven great leaders in complex and difficult situations will find this book fact-filled, and fun!
Enjoy!
GaryFPatton
(2013-09-22)
May 2, 2021
Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working my way through Bob Plamondon’s iconic tome Blue Thunder, an encompassing overview of the history of conservative parties in Canada (up until about 2008). With the current state of the CPC at the federal level, mired in a schism of its own doing, and the growing issues facing the provincial leaders of both Alberta and Ontario, I thought that it would be interesting to look to the historical context, testing the theme of “history being known to repeat itself”. Spoiler alert: concerning this party and movement, it generally does.
I really must say that Plamondon does an excellent job transforming political history into a page-turner type narrative. Filled with political quips and stories from inside the House of Commons, we get an insider’s glimpse of sorts into some of the greatest Canadian political events of the past 160 years such as the Double Shuffle, The Greatest Prime Minister Who Never Was, and the 90s Conservative Meltdown of epic proportions.
Looking particularly at the relevance of this book to today’s political outline, we find ourselves in the same cycle, still post-defeat where the party seeks to reinvent itself. However, the question remains whether we’ll be entering another decade of futility similar to post-Campbell, or if the party is a leader away from a Diefenbaker, a Mulroney, or a Harper. To steal a section from Plamondon’s text: “Arthurh Meighen once observed that “there are times when no prime minister can be true to his trust to the nation he was sworn to serve, save the temporary sacrifice of the party he is appointed to lead”. (…) As Bob Stanfield further emphasized, some Conservatives would rather fight each other than win.” On too many occasions, this has been the case: from Bennett and Stevens, to Diefenbaker and his entire cabinet, Charest and Manning, and even Bouchard’s overt betrayal of Mulroney that saw likely one of the strongest Conservative governments finally fall.
Ultimately, this is personified and confirmed, especially today, as candidates must posture between fiscal and social conservatism to achieve party leadership, then only to find themselves requiring reversal on the national stage that consequently underlines their partisanship, weakness, and irrelevance. Such as Stanfield originally attempted (before ultimately coming to the party helm), so too did MacKay attempt to become the leader as a centre-right candidate, who likely would’ve prospered on the national stage (as he has before), only to be thwarted by a small part of the party to the detriment of the federal level of success. Ironically, it was Stephen Harper who declared that half a loaf of bread would ultimately be better than no loaf at all.
At the end of all things, this party therefore continues to wait for a nation builder, a visionary, or even a coalition crafter - someone who will be capable of leading based on what it is Canadians want while somehow continuing to manoeuvre a social conservative minefield. Simply waiting for the LPC to trip up isn’t possible like it once was, particularly in times of crisis, and the lessons of arrogance from P.E.T. and Paul Martin have (seemingly) been learned across the aisle. This is already true when the leader of the CPC is a solid candidate, and becomes even more so true when the Blue Party is in shambles itself.
There is therefore a price to pay for commitment to winning, and not all policies developed at the party level are meant to be enacted. Such is the nature of competition and a balanced idea of confederation. However, it is the will to win, the party discipline, and the theory of coalition that Sir John A originally proposed that led to six victories in seven elections for his government, and has generally worked at keeping the CPC off the opposition benches when it can pull itself together. Consequently, the CPC would benefit from learning from its past, as Plamondon underlines, in order to guarantee its future.
I really must say that Plamondon does an excellent job transforming political history into a page-turner type narrative. Filled with political quips and stories from inside the House of Commons, we get an insider’s glimpse of sorts into some of the greatest Canadian political events of the past 160 years such as the Double Shuffle, The Greatest Prime Minister Who Never Was, and the 90s Conservative Meltdown of epic proportions.
Looking particularly at the relevance of this book to today’s political outline, we find ourselves in the same cycle, still post-defeat where the party seeks to reinvent itself. However, the question remains whether we’ll be entering another decade of futility similar to post-Campbell, or if the party is a leader away from a Diefenbaker, a Mulroney, or a Harper. To steal a section from Plamondon’s text: “Arthurh Meighen once observed that “there are times when no prime minister can be true to his trust to the nation he was sworn to serve, save the temporary sacrifice of the party he is appointed to lead”. (…) As Bob Stanfield further emphasized, some Conservatives would rather fight each other than win.” On too many occasions, this has been the case: from Bennett and Stevens, to Diefenbaker and his entire cabinet, Charest and Manning, and even Bouchard’s overt betrayal of Mulroney that saw likely one of the strongest Conservative governments finally fall.
Ultimately, this is personified and confirmed, especially today, as candidates must posture between fiscal and social conservatism to achieve party leadership, then only to find themselves requiring reversal on the national stage that consequently underlines their partisanship, weakness, and irrelevance. Such as Stanfield originally attempted (before ultimately coming to the party helm), so too did MacKay attempt to become the leader as a centre-right candidate, who likely would’ve prospered on the national stage (as he has before), only to be thwarted by a small part of the party to the detriment of the federal level of success. Ironically, it was Stephen Harper who declared that half a loaf of bread would ultimately be better than no loaf at all.
At the end of all things, this party therefore continues to wait for a nation builder, a visionary, or even a coalition crafter - someone who will be capable of leading based on what it is Canadians want while somehow continuing to manoeuvre a social conservative minefield. Simply waiting for the LPC to trip up isn’t possible like it once was, particularly in times of crisis, and the lessons of arrogance from P.E.T. and Paul Martin have (seemingly) been learned across the aisle. This is already true when the leader of the CPC is a solid candidate, and becomes even more so true when the Blue Party is in shambles itself.
There is therefore a price to pay for commitment to winning, and not all policies developed at the party level are meant to be enacted. Such is the nature of competition and a balanced idea of confederation. However, it is the will to win, the party discipline, and the theory of coalition that Sir John A originally proposed that led to six victories in seven elections for his government, and has generally worked at keeping the CPC off the opposition benches when it can pull itself together. Consequently, the CPC would benefit from learning from its past, as Plamondon underlines, in order to guarantee its future.
July 20, 2010
Excellent history of a political party and a mixed lot of Canadian prime ministers. The first one--John A. Macdonald--turns out to have been the best.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews