Podunk book club read of the year ( or is that read for a year?)

Faithful readers of Podunk will have made note that your respectful servant has been slogging through a political tome, timely in its content. A chorus of hallelujah’s as we can loudly proclaim, that we have finished reading Juggernaut by Susan Delacourt.

Our tardiness in finishing this excellent examination of Paul Martin’s quest for power has nothing to do with Ms. Delacourt’s writing style. Rather we commenced reading the book at the same time as we began our adventure in blogging, hence reading took a back seat to writing and Juggernaut gathered dust, occasionally picked up and digested slowly chapter by chapter.

But as the election campaign heated up, moved forward and now nears its completion, I vowed (see past Podunk entries) to finish the book before the prime subject was rendered historical.

And so with the final page turned, the acknowledgements perused and the references examined, we can relay some interesting notes on the state of the Martin campaign.

From chapter one through chapter eleven the ambition of Martin was laid bare, the backroom machinations, the feuds, the cut throat behaviour of the handlers. The book is a fascinating study in how the candidate reaches for the prize and how he gets there.

A fair and balanced look at the last ten years of Liberal history, Delacourt identifies the people behind the Martin machine that took on the Chrétien forces, played hardball and set up the final battles that eventually brought Martin to power. I’m sure the tone of the book is reflective of the access that Ms. Delacourt was given to the prime players of the Martin ascension and thus reflect their true beliefs and efforts on his behalf.

And that is what makes the complete disarray of this Liberal campaign so puzzling, the same cabal that managed to finesse their man into power have seemingly dropped the ball once they got him there.

David Herle, Terrie O’Leary, Brian Guest and the other members of “The Board”, must surely wear the blame for the state of their candidate’s downward spiral. For his campaign for Prime Minister has shown none of the passion that his quest for the leadership of his party did.

There are many spots in the book where you glimpse the potential of the long time Liberal and his vision for the country, yet nowhere in the current campaign did those messages get to the Canadian people. When you read through the book, you’ll find many points of relevance to the state of Canadian politics these days. But if you are to read just one chapter of this book the final one is a wonderful synopsis of potential possibly lost. Titled Fade to finish, there are three particularly fascinating passages that sum up all that has apparently gone wrong.

Pages 322-323 features a segment where O’Leary and Guest had put together a raw video program featuring Martin expressing his thoughts on all facets of Canadian politics, relations with the US, the nature of Canadian society. The video was transferred onto CD and distributed to Liberal partisans prior to the Liberal convention. Featuring black and white questions super imposed over the various images of Martin the final question summed up all Martin had worked for these years. “What does it take to become a great prime minister?” Martins answer: “Conviction and the ability to seize the moment”

As this campaign has progressed it would seem that they forgot that simple goal. Rather than waste a powerful performance like that on their own people should they not have repackaged it for the Canadian voter. Who knows how that may have altered the first two weeks of the struggling of the campaign?

Page 331 provides an excerpt from a speech that Martin gave in Toronto to members of the Canadian Newspaper Association when he launched his bid to become Liberal leader. The speech focused on the state of Canada in the world community. It presents a dynamic explanation of Canada’s values, interests and skills. He would go on to proclaim our love of democracy and pluralism, our past defence of those values in world wars and our work in the quest of a peaceful world. The speech would reflect a confident Martin speaking from his heart, hitting the notes that would resonate with most Canadian’s view of themselves in the world. We sadly never heard any of that during this campaign, yet another opportunity lost by those that crafted his leadership but seemed unable to transfer that energy to the campaign that really counts.

And from page 339 a final note from the book that seems very prescient considering how things have gone thus far. It examines the pattern of how Canadian Prime Ministers start out in the office and how they are perceived when they leave it.

“There is a pattern to how Canada’s most recent prime ministers started their mandate and how they left. Call it a curse, or the contrariness of fate, but all of the prime ministers over the previous forty years are remembered for the opposite of how they wanted to be seen. Trudeau came to office with a desire to push his ideas and alleged disavowal of public affections. He ended up a popular icon, his ideas secondary to his principles and panache. Brian Mulroney wanted to be liked; he ended up the most unpopular prime minister, but his ideas – free trade, more power to the provinces – endured. Chrétien came to office as the “straight from the heart” little guy from Shawinigan, only to be called a dictator in his later years in office. If the contrary continues, Martin would also be remembered for the opposite of his pre-prime ministerial reputation. In his case, competence was his trademark. Will he ultimately be thought of as incompetent?”

Perhaps that is harsh judgement thus far, but certainly it’s not without merit. However once you read Juggernaut you may think that the accusatory finger is pointing in the wrong place. Martin himself may not be incompetent, but his handlers have certainly shown a less than competent face in this campaign. They carried forth a long march to power over the last ten years and now when the goal was in sight they mis-managed his image, kept him from showing Canadians what Liberals had already seen, a fierce love of Canada, a dedication to Liberalism and a desire to do good work on behalf of all Canadians.

If the voter had a chance to read this book before going to the polls they would have an image of a confident Paul Martin, one who most likely would lead Canada onto to great works at home and around the world. It's not an image we've seen in the last three weeks of campaigning

But the lasting impression you get from reading Juggernaut is if the Martin ship ends up on the rocks, it will mostly be because his handlers have not served him well. They have less than two weeks to ensure that Juggernaut does not become a book that highlights an opportunity lost.