All the King's Horses: Politics Among the Ruins

J.L. Granatstein is a professor of history at York University, the
co-author of the Dictionary of Canadian Military History and Empire to
Umpire: Canada and the World to the 1990s, and the author of The Good
Fight.

Toronto writer Ron Graham is one of the country’s most astute
political commentators. His books One-Eyed Kings and The French Quarter
were splendid works on national politics and issues, and this study of
politics from the end of the Mulroney government to the establishment of
Jean Chrétien’s government is a worthy successor. The focus of
Graham’s book is the rise and fall of Kim Campbell, the faun from
British Columbia who burst on the scene, meteorlike, and then crashed
and burned in the election wipe-out of 1993. Campbell’s own flaws
played their part in the debacle, but so too did the dreadful legacy she
was left by her predecessor and the coverage she received from the
media. As Graham puts it, Campbell at one point asked the press if they
were going to play “the ‘getcha, gotcha’ game” or if they would
let “a politician be a person.” The media, Graham notes, answered
her question by citing her rhetorical question as evidence of a
belligerent personality. “Gotcha!” he concludes.

For his election coverage, Graham sensibly ties himself to a single
suburban Toronto riding, following the party candidates around and
watching the sitting Tory see his support slide away in an unstoppable
avalanche. This is one of the very best constituency studies in the
literature, a marvelous example of what it takes to run and how little
difference local candidates now make. And not just in elections. The
winner in Graham’s riding, Liberal Carolyn Parrish, soon discovers how
little clout an MP has in parliament and in caucus.

This is a cautionary tale—in truth, a study of how disaffected
Canadians now are and how viciously (and suddenly) they can turn on
those who seek their favor. Mulroney and Campbell learned this; the odds
are that Chrétien will too.