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xii, [2], 326, [4] pages. Signed by the author on the title page. Includes Introduction, Epilogue, The Back of the Book, and The Name Index. Topics discussed include The Crusaders, The Honourable Gentlemen, The Next Generation, The Trailblazers, The Childhood Dream, The Accidental Candidates, The Backroom Boys, The Eighty Minutes, The Inspiration, and The Power. Steven Hillel Paikin OC OOnt (born June 9, 1960) is a Canadian journalist, author, and documentary producer. Paikin has primarily worked for TVOntario (TVO), Ontario's public broadcaster, and is anchor of TVO's flagship current affairs program The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Paikin was an anchor and Queen's Park correspondent for CBC Television's Toronto station CBLT-TV, and host of a daily news and current affairs program on CBC Newsworld. He also held reporting jobs in radio and print media, including the Hamilton Spectator and Toronto radio station CHFI, where he was Toronto City Hall reporter from 1982-85. In 1992, Paikin began work at TVO, hosting the political series Between the Lines until 1994. He also co-created the Queen's Park magazine Fourth Reading, which he hosted for 14 years. In 1994, Paikin began co-hosting duties (with Mary Hynes for two years, and then Paula Todd) on Studio 2 until 2006. In 1998, he co-created and began hosting Diplomatic Immunity, a weekly foreign affairs commentary show. Paikin frequently is selected to be the moderator of election debates. He acted as a moderator for federal leaders debates in 2006, 2008, and 2011. In 2013, he was appointed chancellor of Laurentian University. The author has spent a career covering politics. For this book, he interviewed nearly one hundred politicians who were attracted to politics for various reasons. Some feel politics is a crusade. Some see it as the family business. A few see themselves as pioneers blazing new trails. Other fall into The Life quite by accident. Among the politicians interviewed are Brian Mulroney, William Davis, Peter Lougheed, David Peterson, Lewis MacKenzie, Sharon Carstairs, David Smith, and many more. Derived from a Books in Canada review by Stephen Knight: The inescapable truth about life in politics, it seems, is that it's a lot like fame. At least, that's the distinct impression one gets reading Steve Paikin's The Life: The Seductive Call of Politics, a collection of reflections and anecdotes from current and former Canadian politicians about life before, during and after public life. When you're a politician, many of Paikin's interviewees suggest, you have power and access and, perhaps to a lesser extent, wealth and fame. Paikin, host of TVOntario's Studio 2 and Diplomatic Immunity and an unabashed political junkie, gets his subjects-everyone from Bill Davis to Lyn McLeod and from Audrey McLaughlin to Brian Mulroney-to concede that life in politics is a tremendous ego gratifyer and that there's no comparable high available in the private sector. And yet, most of the subjects imply that politics seems to be mostly about winning elections. After all, anyone can run for elected office. That doesn't mean anyone can win, but it does mean, theoretically at least, that the competition-and it is fierce-is open to anyone; male or female, jock or nerd, 10th-generation citizen or landed immigrant, rich or poor. And almost all of the politicians profiled admit that the thrill of an election campaign and the bonds forged among campaign workers make the experience invaluable. The reality seems to be that governments of all stripes spend taxpayer money, at best, arbitrarily and, at worst, negligently, in an effort to maximize their odds of re-election. The only thing to be decided is what "brand" we'd like to choose, and ad execs know a lot about brands. Would you like your government to have a red label, a blue label or an orange label? Having spoken to so many former politicians in the course of writing the book, it's a surprise that no flaws in the system or possible suggestions for. Seller Inventory # 79731
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