I have incurred many debts these last number of years while exploring the life and public words of Sir Wilfrid Laurier. Firstly, I wish to extend my profound gratitude to Canada’s seven living past prime ministers for each sharing with me many hours of discussion about Laurier, Sir John A. Macdonald, and other facets of Canadian history. While I owe all of them, I want to recognize in particular the Rt Hon. Stephen J. Harper. For much of the period during which I was working on this volume, he was Canada’s sitting prime minister. Despite his onerous duties, he gave me the one thing a prime minister has little of – personal time – to discuss Laurier (and Macdonald) with me.
While I owe an additional debt to all those who submitted essays to this volume, Thomas Axworthy, Bob Rae, Thomas Harrison, and Patrice Dutil have spent many, many hours with me over many years and passed onto me their own infectious enthusiasm for Laurier and Canadian history. I also owe much to fellow political speechwriters like Scott Anderson, Rebecca Staley, Scott Reid, and David Lockhart for all they have done to improve our craft and, along the way, encourage my interests in Canadian history. They are joined by my other friends and mentors Jeremy Hunt, Kathy Brock, Peter O’Malley, Kate Malloy, Ben Harper, Claude Scilley, Steve Serviss, Jan Murphy, Robert P. Tchegus and Dr. Deborah Berry, Clyde Smith, Gavin Cosgrove, Myles Atwood, the Ransom family, George F. Henderson, Mike Fraser, Jonathan Rose, Derek and Joan Burney, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Brian and Mila Mulroney, Paul E. Martin, Joe and Catherine Clark, John N. Turner and family, Kim Campbell, Steve Paikin, Cynthia Beach, Bryan Paterson, Anthony Wilson-Smith, Brad Duguid, Lawrence Martin, Andrew Cohen, Sandy Berg, Kerry Sammon, Christina Spencer, Mel Wiebe, Julie Burch, and so many others.
John Honderich of the Toronto Star, joined by Marilyn Hertz of the Globe and Mail, helped me greatly with arranging permissions from their newspapers. At the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Anthony Measures facilitated the essay contributed by the Rt Hon. Tony Blair, while Alberta MLA Craig Coolahan (from my hometown of Scarborough, Ontario) and Carissa Halton assisted in arranging for Alberta premier Rachel Notley’s essay. Mrs. Therese Horvath, William Pristanski, Bruce Hartley, Michele Cadario, Maclean Kay, Sheila Graves, Tracey Sobers, and Steve Dyck helped me with other contributions. Ann Prince Stevens assisted greatly with inputting and early edits, and Michel W. Pharand performed incredible service as copy editor and as advisor on all matters technical.
My thanks to Kimberlee Hesas, Joe Lee, Aoife Walsh, and everyone at McClelland & Stewart, and in particular to Doug Pepper, who has been in my corner for many years.
Finally, I owe my wife, Alison, the greatest debt of all, as she too has spent countless hours with me and Sir Wilfrid.
Arthur Milnes