Scrum Wars: The Prime Ministers and the MediaThe image of the scrum -- a beleaguered politican surrounded by jockeying reporters -- is central to our perception of Ottawa. The modern scrum began with the arrival of television, but even in Sir John A. Macdonald's day, a century earlier, reporters in the parliamentary press gallery had waited outside the prime minister's office, pen in hand, hoping for a quote for the next edition. The scrum represents the test of wills, the contest of wits, and the battle for control that have characterized the relationship between Canadian prime ministers and journalists for more than 125 years. Scrum Wars chronicles this relationship. It is an anecdotal as well as analytical account, showing how earlier prime ministers like Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were able to exercise control over what was written about their administrators, while more recent leaders like John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark, John Turner, and Brian Mulroney often found themselves at the mercy of intense media scrutiny and comment. |
From inside the book
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... English from French, Alberta Report from Maclean's, the Sun tabloids from the Globe and Mail, and the CBC from everyone. “The people who are lumped together as 'the gallery,”' journalist George Bain wrote in a 1985 Saturday Night ...
... English Conservative opponents, Macdonald and Cartier, had expanded the church's power in the schools of Canada West. From the day in 1844 when he founded the Globe in Toronto, Brown became a major player in the political life of the ...
... English papers in Quebec, and worried about the financial problems faced by the French Montreal daily La Minerve. He spent a decade assisting his Winnipeg supporters in their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to start a Conservative paper ...
... English-French partnership he had forged with GeorgeEtienne Cartier in the early 1850s. A key ingredient in their successful platform was the protection of Catholic rights in Quebec and throughout the Dominion. In Ontario, support from ...
... English-French relations since the union of the Canadas in 1841, adding, “Yet after all our efforts to establish amicable relations with them, even at the sacrifice of prosperity, the French-Canadians are now seeking to compel us to ...
Contents
No League of Gentlemen 19141956 | 83 |
Illustrations | 104 |
The Unofficial Opposition 19571992 | 207 |
Notes | 365 |
Bibliography | 380 |
Index | 383 |