Acknowledgements and
Further Reading

A politician writing about a political career has plenty of people to acknowledge, but there were a few people who went above and beyond.

Parker Donham gave me great advice about writing in general and was kind enough to devote many hours to a meticulous edit. The book is immeasurably better because of his contribution. I didn’t take all of his advice, though, and that probably explains the flaws that remain.

Stephen Kimber shared his insights about the publishing industry and the emotional arc of a book-length project. He forecast correctly how I would be feeling at different stages of the writing project, making those emotions easier to deal with when they came.

Three people — Parker, Barbara Emodi, and my wife, Tilly — read and commented on the first complete draft of the manuscript. They reassured me that I had something worth saying, and their comments were invaluable in finding the holes in the flow and the chronology.

Patrick Murphy contacted me out of the blue to see if I’d be interested in publishing with Nimbus. Patrick’s interest — and the deadlines he cheerfully imposed and enforced — is why this book ever got finished. It was wonderful to have a publishing house like Nimbus behind me, and I want to thank everyone there.

The staff at the Legislative Library at Province House, led by Margaret Murphy, have been unceasingly helpful throughout my time in the legislature. Margaret, along with Anne Van Iderstine, Heather Ludlow, and David McDonald, kindly assisted with fact-checking for this book. If there are any errors of fact in this book, it’s not their fault.

There aren’t many books written by Nova Scotia politicians about their time in politics. There is Jeremy Akerman’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately?”: A Politician Explains (Lancelot Press, 1977) and Walter John (Jack) Hawkins’s Recollections of the Regan Years (Lancelot Press, 1990). They’re both worth reading, even many years later, for their insight about political life in Nova Scotia. Every incoming finance minister should read Janice MacKinnon’s Minding the Public Purse (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003). Although she was finance minister in Saskatchewan, the lessons are easily transferable. And a fine recent book that echoes many of the themes of this book, because it is based on interviews with ex-politicians, is Tragedy in the Commons: Former Members of Parliament Speak Out About Canada’s Failing Democracy (Random House Canada, 2014). If you’re thinking of getting into politics, read it.