The Road Back : : By a Liberal in Opposition / / J.W. Pickersgill.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Pickersgill, J.W.,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1986
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (272 p.)

The irrepressible Jack Pickersgill – sometime Liberal cabinet minister and party strategist, ever the bane of the Diefenbaker Tories – is back. This latest volume in his memoirs brims with an insider’s special understandings of the workings of government and the personalities that drive it. It cover Pickersgill’s years in opposition, from St Laurent’s defeat at the hands of Diefenbaker in 1957 through to the election of a Liberal government under Lester Pearson six years later and Pickersgill’s session as House Leader.With typical candour Pickersgill recalls the Liberals’ scramble to establish themselves as an effective opposition. He freely admits their mistakes, including his own, and gleefully recounts their successes in embarrassing the government at every opportunity. He discusses the issues that preoccupied him, generally as a member of the opposition and specifically as the member for Bonavista-Twillingate, Newfoundland; among them were the bitter Newfoundland logging striker of 1959, the extension of the Trans-Canada highway eastward beyond Quebec, the Coyne affair, (when the governor of the Bank of Canada refused to resign), the Hal Banks affair, and the bitter debate over Canada’s role in an age of nuclear weapons.A zest for political battle runs infectiously through this volume. Pickersgill’s pen is as sharp as ever, skillfully pricking balloons (usually Tory-blue balloons) of pomposity and pretension, and vividly evoking the travails of campaigning in Newfoundland, through snow and fog, in boats, planes, and cars, and on foot. Once again he has opened the doors of Ottawa back rooms and given us an entertaining and instructive look at how political battles are lost and won.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- June 1957: Shock! -- A new prime minister -- The switch to opposition -- St Laurent resigns as party leader -- Pearson takes over -- Parliament is dissolved February 1958 -- Fighting for my political life -- Election results -- Organizing my life -- Pearson as leader -- Parliament opens -- The Broadcasting Act -- The BC ferry crisis -- Atlantic affairs -- The tide begins to ebb: 1959 -- The RCMP in Newfoundland -- How Newfoundland Liberal MPs reacted to Pearson -- Newfoundland and term 29 -- Federal-provincial relations -- The Trans-Canada highway -- The National Gallery -- 'Heads will roll' -- Immigration and citizenship -- Diefenbaker and the Speaker -- To the end of 1959 -- 1960: Unemployment -- The Opposition supports reforms -- The Bill of Rights -- The Kingston conference -- Away from Parliament -- The session of 1960-61 -- The Coyne affair -- A bill to remove Coyne -- Rights to hearings -- The Senate and the Coyne affair -- The treatment of Donald Gordon -- Diefenbaker's problems with his ministers -- Serious moments -- Frivolous moments -- Outside Parliament -- The session of 1962 -- Argue quits the NOP -- Ariwna Charlie's -- Redistribution -- The election of 1962 -- The new Parliament -- The first vote of confidence -- Speaker Lambert and the House -- The second vote of confidence -- Breaches of responsible government -- The Atlantic Development Board -- Bilingualism and Biculturalism -- The nuclear crisis -- The government falls -- The election of 1963 -- A Liberal government agam -- The Gordon budget -- Adjusting the Atlantic Development Board -- Diefenbaker repudiates his party -- Divorces settled -- The Social Credit schism -- Crisis over Hal Banks -- The Social Credit dispute settled -- Further tribulations of a House leader -- Redistribution under way -- Ministerial duties -- Winding up the session of 1963 -- Reflections -- Index