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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... speeches, the job had prestige — at least the Ottawa journalists thought it did. It was, and is, the plague of the profession. “When I first came to mingle among newspaper men as a working associate,” recalled Toronto writer and ...
... speeches at Sunday picnics, helped raise capital if necessary, and if their particular paper had a correspondent in Ottawa, they channelled information his way. Then there was the “pap,” or government patronage, to be doled out in the ...
... speech entirely in Greek. In attendance were John A. Macdonald and his French Canadian colleague Hector Langevin. On the train trip back to Ottawa, Langevin read a news report of the event which noted that Dufferin had spoken “the ...
... ratification. Macdonald finally spoke on the issue in a two and a half hour speech on May 3, 1872. He played up his role in assisting both Anglo-American peace and the interests of the Empire.11 Thanks in. 6 Scrum Wars.
... speech, civil liberties, and the separation of church and state.12 Moreover, he was willing to fight for these ideas, no matter what the cost. He feared the power of the Catholic Church and resented how his French and English ...
Contents
No League of Gentlemen 19141956 | 83 |
Illustrations | 104 |
The Unofficial Opposition 19571992 | 207 |
Notes | 365 |
Bibliography | 380 |
Index | 383 |