Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper's New Conservatism

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

How did Paul Martin, an extraordinarily gifted finance minister who
became prime minister, manage to lose that job to Stephen Harper, who
only five years earlier had been a private citizen known primarily for
wanting to build a firewall around Alberta?

Wells, a Maclean’s national columnist since 2003, begins his
well-written, anecdote-filled first book with Harper analyzing his
successful run against Stockwell Day for the leadership of the Canadian
Alliance in 2002. Next he examines Martin’s schemes to supplant
Chrétien. Then it’s back to Harper, now Alliance leader working out a
plan to merge with the Progressive Conservative Party, an alliance that
finally occurred in late 2003 after Joe Clark had been replaced by Peter
MacKay as leader. Wells shows how Harper emerged as the head of the new
Conservative Party of Canada in 2004. By November 2003, Martin had
replaced his former boss as prime minister and—backed by an
overwhelming majority in his party—appeared headed for a bright
future.

According to Wells, Martin began his leadership controlled by a small
group of partisans who felt that in order to succeed he needed to
distance himself from his predecessor. When the sponsorship scandal
broke, Martin’s fortunes took a decisive turn for the worst. Consuming
three of his book’s 14 chapters, Wells’s in-depth coverage of the
campaign leading up to the election that took place in January 2006 is
based on a review piece he wrote for Maclean’s. The chapters that
follow are less successful because they deal with subjects—such as the
Liberal leadership contest and the Harper government’s battles with
the press gallery—that divert attention from the book’s main focus.