Power, Prime Ministers and the Press: The Battle for Truth on Parliament Hill [Paperback]

An intimate history of the journalists who covered Canadian history, and made some of their own.

The history of the press gallery is rich in anecdotes about the people on Parliament Hill who have covered 23 prime ministers and 42 elections in the past 150 years.

Mining the archives and his own interviews, Robert Lewis turns the spotlight on the watchers, including reporters who got too close to power and others who kept their distance.

The Riel Rebellion, the Pacific Scandal, two world wars, the Depression, women's liberation, Quebec separatism, and terrorism are all part of the sweeping background to this lively account of how the news gets made, manipulated, and, sometimes mangled. Since Watergate, press gallery coverage has become more confrontational  a fact, Lewis argues, that fails Canadian democracy.This is the riveting story of the men and women who wrote the first draft of Canadas 150 year history. Bob Lewis tells it with a verve and obvious affection for a craft that has been his lifes work. He also introduces us to the old, pre-Confederation firebrand, William Lyon Mackenzie's warning that (W)henever the press is not free, the people are poor, abject, degraded slaves ... and reminds us why this admonition is as relevant today as it was throughout the fascinating history he brings to life in these pages.Chapter One: In the Beginning

On Wednesday, November 6, 1867, official Ottawa was abuzz with excitement. A nineteen-gun salute from the Ottawa Field Battery greeted Viscount Charles Stanley Monck, the forty-eight-year-old governor general, as he arrived to preside over the first session of the new nations Parliament. After the formalities of swearing in MPs and the Cabinet ended, Sir John A. Macdonald, the fifty-three-year-old prime minister picked by Monck for the role, moved the appointment of the first speaker of the House. Seconding the motion was Macdonalds seatmate, Sir George-?tienne Cartier.lĂ3