Podcast appearances and mentions of mel hurtig

Last year when John Duffy, a Canadian political strategist and writer, died at the age of 58, I noticed an outpouring of genuine love, and sadness, on Twitter, along with frequent references to his book Fights of our Lives. It was called one the best ever written on Canadian politics. So I picked up a copy. It's filled with dozens of old photographs, and images of period posters, and flyers, buttons, correspondence, and other fascinating bits and pieces of ephemera and memorabilia: the 'confetti of history' as Walter Benjamin liked to put it, plus it features these great 'diagrams' of game plans, 'playbooks,' that John came up with to explain the strategies and tactics used in what he considered to be the five most consequential elections in Canadian history. It was visually captivating, and a fun informative read, so I decided to feature it on The Biblio File Book Club. But who to engage with?   Several people suggested Justin Trudeau's close friend and advisor, Gerry Butts. After a bit of toing and froing, and my prematurely and, as it turns out, quite erroneously, dismissing him as a typical political bounder, it all came together. Gerry agreed to play ball. We met in person several days ago at the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa.    Gerry is currently Vice Chairman of The Eurasia Group, a risk management firm with offices around the world. We talk here about John Duffy's optimism, about whether or not elections matter; about cynicism, championship debating, Canada's business elite, the PBO's report on income inequality, the urban-rural divide, 1300 Dollarama stores, lifting children out of poverty, the King-Bing Affair, SNC Lavalin, the Manitoba School crisis, Wilfrid Laurier and Justin Trudeau's 'Sunny Ways,' kicking the can down the road; Lament for a Nation, and Mel Hurtig. There's a James Joyce quote. Gerry tells a joke about Franz Kafka on the way out the door, and I recommend that he reads Nora Krug's illustrated edition of On Tyranny.    Plus another thing: we're both convinced that John Duffy's Fights of our Lives (egregiously it's both out of print and published by an American multi-national) should be made into a TV Series as soon as possible.  

Why listen to James Marsh? Because he knows about love and encyclopedias.    He grew up in The Junction district of Toronto surviving a difficult childhood, and began his career in publishing at Holt Rinehart and Winston where he was editor of a Centennial history of Canada entitled Unity and Diversity. He later became executive editor of McClelland and Stewart's Carleton Library Series, after which he was hired by Mel Hurtig as editor-in-chief of The Canadian Encyclopedia - the biggest printing/publishing endeavour in Canadian history.    We talk about his memoir Know it All: Finding the Impossible Country and about what he found; about encyclopedias striving for ideals; about historian Ramsey Cook and limited identities; selection by community; post-Centennial enthusiasm for Canada; economic nationalism; selling 250,000 sets of The Canadian Encyclopedia and then putting it on-line and making it "engaging;" the importance of conversation to democracy; Alberta premier Peter Lougheed; the woman with the two colour eyes; and the gift of friendship. 

Leslie Hurtig was born into a house of books and has had a long, successful career in Canada's book industry. She has worked for some of Canada's best bookstores, acted as a sales representative and publicist for some of North America's great publishers, and worked as a foreign rights and contracts manager at Raincoast Books. Leslie sat on the Board of Directors for the Vancouver Writers Fest before taking on her "dream job" position as Artistic Director.  Jan Walter has spent her life around books: selling, editing, publishing, promoting. She began as a bookseller at Mel Hurtig's store in Edmonton, eventually running her own – Fifth Business Books. She has worked as an editor and in executive positions with several Canadian publishing companies. In 1988, with Gary Ross and John Macfarlane, she started Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, which became Canada's premier publisher of quality non-fiction, publishing titles including Boom, Bust & Echo by David Foot, The Danger Tree by David Macfarlane, and On the Take by Stevie Cameron  Jan has been involved in publishing education at institutions across Canada, teaching at Simon Fraser and Ryerson Universities. She moved to Kingston, Ontario in 2004. A few years later, teaming with Merilyn Simonds, she helped  professionalize the Kingston WritersFest. I met with Leslie and Jan in Kingston to talk about Mel Hurtig and his legacy as bookseller, publisher and patriot. 

Radio Free Thinkers - What Good is the News EditionThis week more web wisdom...A 2008 interview with the very nationalist Mel Hurtig about his book "Truths about Canada"...about how Canada has changed, very much for the worse, in the last twenty years. As a result of these profound (often hidden) changes, we are no longer the people we think we are.Mel states that he wrote the book because we can’t do anything to fix the direction we’re drifting in unless we recognize it — and recognize The Truth About Canada.Now this book was published in 2008 and he makes some predictions about Canada…now, 8 years on, it is surprising how these predictions fared.also,Alain de Botton asks: “What is it that we’re really looking for when we watch or read the news – and is it doing us any good?”Listen as de Botton turns his philosophical lens on The News, to examines the peculiar position it holds in our lives – and offers counsel on the precautions we should take before venturing anywhere near it and the “noise” it generates.Lastly, how many of you have gone out and spent too much money to watch X-Men: days of future past?I bet a number of you wish you were mutants with special powers…well it may surprise you that many of you ARE mutants and that power may have help your kind rule the world.Check us out online at www.radiofreethinker.com and email us at info@radiofreethinker.com and follow us on twitter at @citrrft

Mel Hurtig delivers a lecture based on the findings in his book, The Truth about Canada, which illuminates some of the truths and myths about Canada.

Bestselling author, Mel Hurtig, combs through the world of statistics to see how Canada measures up - and the results are astonishing.

What is the legitimacy and status of a political coalition assuming power from a government that has lost the confidence of the House of Commons? Senator Tommy Banks says that this is not a new invention and is perfectly in order in our Parliamentary system. It has, in fact, twice been suggested over the past five years by political coalitions, he argues. Senator Banks also questions the role of Parliament in the governance of Canada, with a particular emphasis on matters of public spending and of framework legislation. Speaker: Senator Tommy Banks Tommy Banks was appointed for two consecutive terms to the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and to a further term as policy adviser to the Board, during the administration of the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney. Under the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark he served as Alberta spokesman in the campaign for the national referendum on constitutional amendment and, with Professor Kathleen Mahoney, argued the “yes” side, opposing Stephen Harper and Mel Hurtig on the referendum's televised debate. During the administration of the Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, and following a fifty-year international career as a musician, Tommy Banks was summoned to the Senate of Canada on 7 April 2000. He is a member of the Liberal Parliamentary Caucus. The multi-talented (Senator) Tommy Banks (jazz musician, conductor and host) is the recipient of the Juno Award, the Gemini Award, the Grand Prix du Disques-Canada, several ARIA Awards, and is a member of the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.

What is the legitimacy and status of a political coalition assuming power from a government that has lost the confidence of the House of Commons? Senator Tommy Banks says that this is not a new invention and is perfectly in order in our Parliamentary system. It has, in fact, twice been suggested over the past five years by political coalitions, he argues. Senator Banks also questions the role of Parliament in the governance of Canada, with a particular emphasis on matters of public spending and of framework legislation. Speaker: Senator Tommy Banks Tommy Banks was appointed for two consecutive terms to the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and to a further term as policy adviser to the Board, during the administration of the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney. Under the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark he served as Alberta spokesman in the campaign for the national referendum on constitutional amendment and, with Professor Kathleen Mahoney, argued the “yes” side, opposing Stephen Harper and Mel Hurtig on the referendum's televised debate. During the administration of the Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, and following a fifty-year international career as a musician, Tommy Banks was summoned to the Senate of Canada on 7 April 2000. He is a member of the Liberal Parliamentary Caucus. The multi-talented (Senator) Tommy Banks (jazz musician, conductor and host) is the recipient of the Juno Award, the Gemini Award, the Grand Prix du Disques-Canada, several ARIA Awards, and is a member of the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.

What is the legitimacy and status of a political coalition assuming power from a government that has lost the confidence of the House of Commons? Senator Tommy Banks says that this is not a new invention and is perfectly in order in our Parliamentary system. It has, in fact, twice been suggested over the past five years by political coalitions, he argues. Senator Banks also questions the role of Parliament in the governance of Canada, with a particular emphasis on matters of public spending and of framework legislation. Speaker: Senator Tommy Banks Tommy Banks was appointed for two consecutive terms to the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts, and to a further term as policy adviser to the Board, during the administration of the Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney. Under the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark he served as Alberta spokesman in the campaign for the national referendum on constitutional amendment and, with Professor Kathleen Mahoney, argued the “yes” side, opposing Stephen Harper and Mel Hurtig on the referendum's televised debate. During the administration of the Rt. Hon. Jean Chrétien, and following a fifty-year international career as a musician, Tommy Banks was summoned to the Senate of Canada on 7 April 2000. He is a member of the Liberal Parliamentary Caucus. The multi-talented (Senator) Tommy Banks (jazz musician, conductor and host) is the recipient of the Juno Award, the Gemini Award, the Grand Prix du Disques-Canada, several ARIA Awards, and is a member of the Edmonton Cultural Hall of Fame.

The publisher, political activist and author argues we are no longer the people we think we are. He has combed world statistics to see how Canada really measures up and has published his important, astonishing, and truly appalling findings in The Truth about Canada.

Listen in as Mel Hurtig chats about his latest book The Truth About Canada with Douglas Gibson, Publisher of Douglas Gibson Books at McClelland and Stewart.