Up from the Ashes: The Rideau Club Story

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of History at York University and author
of Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy.

The Rideau Club is one of the main power centres in Ottawa, its
membership including key figures in politics, the bureaucracy, and
business. And in 1990, this venerable institution celebrated its 125th
anniversary, comfortably ensconced in splendid new quarters. The 1979
fire that destroyed the historic club property adjacent to the U.S.
Embassy and across Wellington Street from the Parliament Buildings had
led to a phoenix-like rebirth.

This history of the Club by columnist Charles Lynch is affectionate and
casual, despite its publication by a university press. There is no
rigorous research here, no hard-edged analysis of membership. There is a
useful treatment of the Rideau Club’s 1960s decision to admit Jewish
members and some commentary on the later but quite similar arguments
over the admission of women. But in general, this book is, like the
Rideau Club itself, for members only.