Some interviews are like university lectures, others are like storytelling, and a few are like conversations with a friend. Then, there are those that are more like chess. Brian Mulroney, Herb Gray and Olivia Chow were all very gracious interviewees, and were certainly willing to provide their points of view. However, they are all master politicians, and if I wanted to get at anything more controversial, I was going to have to dig a bit...
1. Brian Mulroney:
He told me a lot, but usually in generalities. He did share some specifics (a private conversation with Ronald Reagan, for example), but I'm pretty sure anything he shared with me, he'd planned to in advance.
2. Herb Gray:
As Jean Chretien's deputy Prime Minister, Gray was known to opposition MPs as "The Gray Fog" because of how difficult it was to trap him into saying anything controversial. Let's just say I can relate.
3. Olivia Chow:
Of the three, Chow was the only sitting politician, which put her in a very different position. She and Jack Layton were among Robinson's closest friends, and she was quite willing to share stories of their friendship. But when it came to political matters, she had to be a lot more careful.
I'm grateful to all three for taking the time to be interviewed. In each case, I came away with some great stuff that eventually made its way into the book.
There are some surprising revelations in this book, and some involve prime ministers. But they definitely weren't gift-wrapped and handed to me; they had to be gleaned from interviews with others. If I had any dreams of interviewing, say, a former prime minister and having a major, headline-making Frost/Nixon moment...well, it'll have to wait until the next book.
1. Brian Mulroney:
He told me a lot, but usually in generalities. He did share some specifics (a private conversation with Ronald Reagan, for example), but I'm pretty sure anything he shared with me, he'd planned to in advance.
2. Herb Gray:
As Jean Chretien's deputy Prime Minister, Gray was known to opposition MPs as "The Gray Fog" because of how difficult it was to trap him into saying anything controversial. Let's just say I can relate.
3. Olivia Chow:
Of the three, Chow was the only sitting politician, which put her in a very different position. She and Jack Layton were among Robinson's closest friends, and she was quite willing to share stories of their friendship. But when it came to political matters, she had to be a lot more careful.
I'm grateful to all three for taking the time to be interviewed. In each case, I came away with some great stuff that eventually made its way into the book.
There are some surprising revelations in this book, and some involve prime ministers. But they definitely weren't gift-wrapped and handed to me; they had to be gleaned from interviews with others. If I had any dreams of interviewing, say, a former prime minister and having a major, headline-making Frost/Nixon moment...well, it'll have to wait until the next book.
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