A puff for Newman's "Dragons"
As is customary, the
latest blockbuster by
Peter C. Newman, "Here
Be Dragons", has
become required reading
for people interested
in the evolution of
politics as played on
Parliament Hill over
a span of four decades.
Newman first burst on
Canadian consciousness
with his "Renegade
in Power", an unflattering
description of the Right
Hon. John George Diefenbaker,
the populist Prime Minister
from the Prairies. Diefenbaker
claimed not to have
read it, but his wife
certainly did. Mention
of it in her presence
brought a blistering
reaction.
"Here Be Dragons"
will draw praise, and
criticism, from all
wavelengths in the political
spectrum, but there
can be no quibble with
one particular section,
the physical description
of the Press Gallery
as it existed in the
early 1960s. His is
a perfect word picture.
Housed on the third
floor of the main block,
it shared the same corridor
in the Centre Block
as the Hansard
offices.
There was much interaction
between both offices.
Some members of the
Press Gallery were almost
daily visitors, seeking
an advance copy of the
"blues", the
unedited and unrevised
reports of speeches
and exchanges in the
Chamber, usually but
not always of happenings
during the daily Question
Period. Indeed, one
member of the Gallery
was a pain in the neck,
constantly wheedling
and whingeing, trying
to gain preference ahead
of his peers.
The traffic in the opposite
direction was normally
confined to after-sitting
hours. As recounted
elsewhere in earlier
works on this web site,
the oasis over which
presided the affable
George Gagnon drew many
a parched Hansard reporter
at the end of their
working shifts.
All have their memories.
Newman's book has stirred
those memories.
If there is one that
runs counter to Newman's
personal musings it
is of the members of
the Press Gallery as
a body. It had its stars,
and Newman rekindles
their light. But a collective
comparison of its members
in those years with
latter-day political
scribes suggests there
was more investigative
reporting done then
than is the case with
their present-day "gotcha"
successors.
Despite this minor reservation,
"Here Be Dragons"
deserves full credit
for its masterful limning
of many who were once
outstanding members
of their respective
professions, reporters
and politicians alike.
J.W.
--30--
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