What I Learned About Politics by Steele, Graham -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Copyright Epigraph Table of Contents Foreword Preface 1. The Election of 2013: “The Arse is Right Out Of ’Er” 2. Learning to be a Politician

Getting to Know Nova Scotia Learning the Ropes at Province House Helen MacDonald and the By-election of 2001

3. What Does an MLA Actually Do?

Legislative Work MLAs’ Background and Experience Do Not Equip Them for Legislative Work All Substantial Decisions on Bills and Budgets are Made Elsewhere Party Discipline Drives All Real Debate Behind Closed Doors Summing Up the Legislative work Constituency Work Losing My Secret Strength Endnotes

4. Eight Years in Opposition

Building Darrell’s Image Finding My Stage: The Public Accounts Committee The Big Blow-Up: MLA Expenses The Rules of the Game

5. Election 2009: The Honeymoon Begins

Election Night: Victory Enjoyed and Defeat Foretold The Aftermath of the Election Becoming a Cabinet Minister The Worries Of A New Finance Minister

6. Inside The Dexter Government

The Cabinet The Premier’s Office Treasury Board Policy and Priorities The First Eight Months: Wasting The Honeymoon

7. The MLA Expense Scandal: The Honeymoon Ends

The Auditor General’s Report Conclusion

8. So You Want To Be Finance Minister?

The Laws of Finance Back to Balance Politics

9. The Choices We Made: Balance, Spending, Taxes

Balancing The Budget Reducing Expenditure Raising More Revenue Could We Lower The HST?

10. Resigning as The Minister of Finance

Same Old, Same Old When I Decided to Resign How and When I Resigned

11. Returning to Cabinet

Why I Came Back What I Saw When I Got There

12. The End

What Went Wrong? What Comes Next? Where is Politics Going? Political Parties Better Politicians? Engaged Citizens The End

Appendix: The News Conference I Never Held Acknowledgements and Further Reading Photos