Photo gallery: Politics and the Pen

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:34 PM - 2 Comments

The Writers’ Trust of Canada handed out their annual $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing to John English for Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 at the annual Politics and the Pen gala dinner in the Fairmont Château Laurier ballroom. Politics and the Pen is one of Ottawa’s A-list events and and brings out top politicians and authors like Margaret Atwood and Russell Smith.

Pierre & Maggie: The untold story

By John Geddes - Monday, October 26, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 34 Comments

There’s something dark, almost to the point of the occult, in the way Pierre Trudeau is often remembered. Scan across the shelf of books about him: titles refer to his “shadow,” the notion he remains “hidden,” and one even calls him a “magus.” The most famous biographical quote about him claims “he haunts us still.”

Perhaps it’s all this gloom that makes the story of his courtship and marriage such welcome leavening in the tale. The dancing entrance of Margaret Sinclair, quintessential flower child, brings to the story a tie-dyed splash of contrast, occasionally sheer silliness—not to mention doomed romance, rare beauty and rock-star celebrity. No wage and price controls or constitutional amendments in this chapter. Continue…