The historian and writer J.D.M. Stewart discusses his new book The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders and the Nation They Shaped (Sutherland House, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
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The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders and the Nation They Shaped by J.D.M. Stewart (Sutherland House, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Prime Ministers |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
The new book from J.D.M. Stewart, The Prime Ministers: Canada’s Leaders and the Nation They Shaped, is a very fine overview of the men and one woman who have served as Prime Minister of Canada. It’s a book that looks back, but it’s very much of today in that we can look back at the time and tenure of each of the twenty-four prime ministers through how decisions turned out or how we might have evolved as a country. The book doesn’t cancel out certain prime ministers, in fact it contextualises each as to their achievements and errors. The book follows in the great tradition of assessments of prime ministers, books written by historians like Jack Granatstein, Norman Hillmer, Michael Bliss, or Robert Bothwell, and in Mr. Stewart’s hands the history is far from boring. J.D.M. Stewart is a writer, historian, and one of the country’s foremost experts on Canadian prime ministers. He taught high school history over a thirty-year teaching career. His previous book Being Prime Minister is one of my favourite books, and one that makes for engaging, even fun reading about politics. He is also a commentator that appears regularly at The Hub, The Literary Review of Canada, and The Globe and Mail, where a lot of us first got to know his name from the letters to the editor page; I think other than the late Eugene Forsey, James is one of its most frequent correspondents. This book is published by Sutherland House. We spoke last Wednesday, with James joining me from Toronto. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, J.D.M. Stewart; Mr. Stewart, good morning.
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