Jan 30, 2023
Last year when John
Duffy, a Canadian political strategist and writer, died at
the age of 58, I noticed an outpouring of genuine love, and
sadness, on Twitter, along with frequent references to his book
Fights of our Lives. It was called one the best ever
written on Canadian politics. So I picked up a copy. It's filled
with dozens of old photographs, and images of period posters, and
flyers, buttons, correspondence, and other fascinating bits and
pieces of ephemera and memorabilia: the 'confetti of history' as
Walter Benjamin liked to put it, plus it features these great
'diagrams' of game plans, 'playbooks,' that John came up with to
explain the strategies and tactics used in what he considered to be
the five most consequential elections in Canadian history. It was
visually captivating, and a fun informative read, so I decided to
feature it on The Biblio File Book Club. But who
to engage with?
Several people suggested Justin
Trudeau's close friend and advisor, Gerry Butts.
After a bit of toing and froing, and my prematurely and, as it
turns out, quite erroneously, dismissing him as a typical political
bounder, it all came together. Gerry agreed to play ball. We met in
person several days ago at the Chateau Laurier hotel in
Ottawa.
Gerry is currently Vice Chairman of
The Eurasia
Group, a risk management firm with offices around the
world. We talk here about John Duffy's optimism, about whether or
not elections matter; about cynicism, championship debating,
Canada's business elite, the PBO's report on income inequality, the
urban-rural divide, 1300 Dollarama stores, lifting children out of
poverty, the King-Bing Affair, SNC Lavalin, the Manitoba School
crisis, Wilfrid Laurier and Justin Trudeau's 'Sunny Ways,' kicking
the can down the road; Lament for a Nation, and Mel
Hurtig. There's a James Joyce quote. Gerry tells a joke about Franz
Kafka on the way out the door, and I recommend that he reads Nora
Krug's illustrated edition of On Tyranny.
Plus another thing: we're both convinced
that John Duffy's Fights of our Lives (egregiously it's
both out of print and published by an American multi-national)
should be made into a TV Series as soon as
possible.