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One Canada: Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, Volume 1; The Crusading Years 1895-1956
- GenresCanada
320 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1976
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May 5, 2022
What? I haven't reviewed this yet? Hmm...pardon my procrastination. Not a book that most people will pick up, but a worthwhile read for Canadians - the early life of the Right Honourable John Diefenbaker, one of our few prime minister - perhaps the only one - deserving of that title. Certainly the current one (Justin) and the previous one (Harper) wouldn't know honour if they tripped over it.
Mostly just interesting stories of growing up on the Prairies, starting a law practice, and getting into politics. His summaries of different legal cases were interesting, especially his defense of a railway telegrapher who was expected to take all the blame for a train wreck.
In his intro he says that his mother's family emigrated from Scotland to Canada in about 1809 - probably due to the highland clearances. What I didn't realize is that some emigrants of that time landed in Hudson Bay. His mother's ancestors were offloaded at Churchill where they spent the winter - that must have been amazing - and then in the spring travelled overland to York Factory in order to travel up the Nelson River by York boat to get to Winnipeg. There were arctic explorers who couldn't have made that trip, and yet it was then a not abnormal way to get here. Or maybe it was the cheap route, hitching a ride on a ship bound to pick up furs.
As with all people writing an autobiography, Dief paints himself in a favourable light, but overall this book, and the two which followed it, are valuable references for anyone looking to understand some of the political machinations that go on in this, or any other country.
Dief has a particular disdain for Saskatchewan Premier Jimmy Gardiner: interesting, since one of our megaprojects was the building of a dam on the South Saskatchewan River in the 1960s to form a huge reservoir. The dam is the Gardiner Dam, and the reservoir is Lake Diefenbaker.
Mostly just interesting stories of growing up on the Prairies, starting a law practice, and getting into politics. His summaries of different legal cases were interesting, especially his defense of a railway telegrapher who was expected to take all the blame for a train wreck.
In his intro he says that his mother's family emigrated from Scotland to Canada in about 1809 - probably due to the highland clearances. What I didn't realize is that some emigrants of that time landed in Hudson Bay. His mother's ancestors were offloaded at Churchill where they spent the winter - that must have been amazing - and then in the spring travelled overland to York Factory in order to travel up the Nelson River by York boat to get to Winnipeg. There were arctic explorers who couldn't have made that trip, and yet it was then a not abnormal way to get here. Or maybe it was the cheap route, hitching a ride on a ship bound to pick up furs.
As with all people writing an autobiography, Dief paints himself in a favourable light, but overall this book, and the two which followed it, are valuable references for anyone looking to understand some of the political machinations that go on in this, or any other country.
Dief has a particular disdain for Saskatchewan Premier Jimmy Gardiner: interesting, since one of our megaprojects was the building of a dam on the South Saskatchewan River in the 1960s to form a huge reservoir. The dam is the Gardiner Dam, and the reservoir is Lake Diefenbaker.
Displaying 1 of 1 review