Paul Curley, Tom Kierans, Michael Meighen, Paul Little, Phil Lind, and L. “Red” Storey, understanding the value of appraising Canada’s legendary but misunderstood big blue machine, suggested that I chronicle this contentious saga of political history. I am grateful for their faith that I could pull it off.
They supported the telling by giving time and sharing information, as did so many others who were either insiders of the blue machine or who had it under close personal observation. Individuals who helpfully provided insights and accounts through formal interviews, telephone interviews, and correspondence through letter and email, between 2006 and today, included: Michael Allen, Brian Armstrong, Dr. Stephen Ash, Anna Ruth Atkins, Geoffrey Atkins, Dianne Axmith, Chad Bark, Derek Burney, Bob Byron, John Carter, Art Collins, Christine Corrigan, Paul Curley, Michael Daniher, Dorothy Davey, William G. Davis, Fred Dawkins, Ross DeGeer, Fred Dickson, Arthur Dollery, Bob Donaldson, Nancy Donaldson, Patricia Dumas, Rob Flack, Pierre Fortier, Ian Fraser, Jane Frost, Michael Gee, Mort Glanville, Allan Gregg, Don Guthrie, Win Hackett, Peter Harder, Bruce Hatfield, Hal Jackman, Bill Jarvis, Bill Kelly, Ike Kelneck, Tom Kierans, Jerry Lampert, John Laschinger, Allan Lawrence, Richard LeLay, Phil Lind, Joe Martin, Jack MacKay, Hugh Macaulay, Jim Macaulay, Tom MacMillan, Karen MacMillan-Aver, John MacNaughton, Bill McAleer, John McIntyre, Ross McKean, R. Roy McMurtry, David Meynell, Percy Mockler, Janet Mulvagh, Harry Near, Nate Nurgitz, Dr. Kelvin Ogilvie, Bill Parker, Marilyn Pfaff, Jean Peloquin, Jean-Carol Pelletier, Joan Peters, Jim Ramsey, Jim Ross, John Rowsome, Bill Saunderson, Tom Scott, Hugh Segal, John Slade, George Stratton, John Thompson, John Tory, Tom Trbovich, Fred Watson, Clare Westcott, Jodi White, and Russ Wunker.
While their interviews underpin this story, it is a saga I know also from direct personal experience as both participant and observer. In the writing I have also drawn on my extensive archives of Conservative Party history, which include a number of original documents dating from the 1930s, hundreds of party publications, personal files for party events, and correspondence with individuals over six decades within the Progressive Conservative Party. Over those years I have as well diarized notes of events and conversations with most individuals mentioned in The Big Blue Machine, including Dalton Camp, Norman Atkins, Earl Rowe, Les Frost, John Robarts, Charles MacNaughton, Bill Davis, Frank Miller, John Diefenbaker, George Hees, Duff Roblin, Bob Stanfield, Joe Clark, Roy McMurtry, and Brian Mulroney, but extending also to hundreds more with whom I’ve shared political highlights and heartaches, both within PC ranks and across party lines.
Many other writers have researched and chronicled aspects of this story, and in acknowledging their work I thank them for it. The former trickle of books about Canadian politics became a flood during the period covered by this book, roughly the 1940s to 1990s, and our country is enriched by this preservation of a written record. Geoffrey Stevens has been a notable contributor to the big blue machine’s heritage with books about the lives and times of such individuals as Dalton Camp, Norman Atkins, Robert Stanfield, Flora MacDonald, and individuals connected with them. Claire Hoy has written richly detailed accounts of the Ontario and Ottawa versions of political campaigns in which Camp and Atkins were central. Historian Bob Plamondon has added cohesiveness to accounts of the Conservative Party’s history and personalities. Many more provided accounts of political history through memoirs — among them Dalton Camp, John Diefenbaker, Eddie Goodman, Hal Jackman, Bob Coates, Brian Mulroney, Roy McMurtry, Duff Roblin, John Laschinger, Heward Grafftey, and Hugh Segal — valuable for information not previously available and perspectives not otherwise possible. Joe Martin, whom I first met working together in Duff Roblin’s leadership campaign in 1967, historian of the Albany Club of Toronto, was most helpful in providing a great deal of information about “the unofficial head office of the Tory Party.”
Even if a clear and dispassionate view is hard to achieve, this book’s effort to present a balanced portrait is my tribute to the exceptional men and women of the big blue machine, most of whom I know or knew during their lifetimes, many as good friends, a number of whom helped make my own lifetime in politics and decade in the House of Commons possible. For all of that, I give full acknowledgement and respectful thanks.
Bringing this book to print has been the handiwork, which I am also keen to acknowledge, of my friends at Dundurn, today Canada’s largest independent publishing house. For more than forty years Dundurn’s founder, Kirk Howard, has carried out his mission to “define Canada for Canadians” through publication of thousands of books, some eight of them mine. Carrie Gleason, Dundurn’s editorial director, combines professionalism and a pleasant nature to make her a pillar of stability in the hectic universe of book publishing. Kathryn Lane, Dundurn’s managing editor, has supervised the production of this book and lent her valuable advice on ways to strengthen it. Dominic Farrell, who has edited this book, is a key member of the Dundurn team with whom I’ve worked often before, each time valuing anew his ability to help me tell the story in the best way possible and using fewer words to do so. Courtney Horner, senior designer at Dundurn, has overseen layout and design. Gary Long of Fox Meadow Creations in Sault Ste. Marie designed the front cover. Edmonton lawyer Johnson Billingsley proofread the manuscript and, as with prior books, helped improve what you find here. To all I am most grateful.