Remembering

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.

Eric Kierans was born in Montreal, attended Loyola College, went into
business, headed up McGill’s School of Commerce, became president of
the Montreal Stock Exchange, and was a member of Jean Lesage’s
cabinet, and later, Pierre Trudeau’s. After resigning, he moved to
Halifax for 15 years and became a well-known commentator on Morningside.

This book is must-read for several reasons, one being the color and
clarity of the writing (the exception being the last chapter, “Cain
Culture,” which reads almost like an appendix). Beyond its engaging
style, Remembering serves as an essential insider’s look at some of
the major personalities and events of 20th-century Canadian history. As
a member of Jean Lesage’s cabinet, Kierans worked closely with René
Lévesque before he became a separatist, and later with Pierre Trudeau.
Throughout his career, Kierans was a strong federalist, “not in the
sense that the word seems now to command—one who believes in the
domination of Ottawa over the provinces—but in the old sense of one
who supports the union of disparate provinces in a wider federation.”

Rather than take a day-to-day diary approach, Remembering pinpoints
major issues that crossed Kierans desk and then discusses his
relationship to them. A good example is the October Crisis of 1970;
Kierans reviews events and then concludes that he probably should have
resigned over the War Measures Act rather than over Trudeau’s economic
policy, as he did shortly thereafter. The book is also full of great
anecdotes—many of them personal—and lots of juicy quotes.

Today, well into his 80s, Kierans is officially retired and back in
Montreal, although anyone who produces a book of this calibre can hardly
be described as retired.