John Ivison - Trudeau: The Education of a Prime Minister

This book is the product of the brasserie rather than the library (many thanks to Michael Hannas and Sarah Chown at Metropolitain in that regard). That is, it is the output of a working journalist, ferreting for information from sources in the salons of Ottawa rather than from the dusty shelves of the Library of Parliament. This was an act of necessitythe primary sources needed to write the definitive account of Justin Trudeaus rise to power and his first mandate do not yet existor if they do, they are not public.

During my research, I noted with awe and envy the wealth of memoirs and internal documents, including cabinet conclusions, that time had made available to author John English for his epic two-part biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. This is not that book. Instead, it is an attempt at a first draft of history (if you dont include Twitter), developed in the course of filing three or four political columns a week for the National Post.

Many thanks to my editors at the Post, former editor-in-chief Anne-Marie Owens and executive producer, news, Jordan Timm, for their patience and encouragement while I attempted to juggle both duties. I confess to them now that I was jittery about being able to pull it off. But in hindsight, I think the columns benefitted from the book research, and the book was enhanced by me talking to contacts every day. Thanks, too, to my colleagues in the Postmedia parliamentary bureau for their serenity and professionalism in the face of their frequently absent bureau chief.

This project would not have happened without Doug Pepper, vice-president and publisher of Signal/McClelland & Stewart at Penguin Random House Canada. Doug has been my guiding star on an unfamiliar path, combining infectious enthusiasm with wise counsel. Journalistic colleagues who have become authors lament the transition during the writing period from the book to the damn book to, finally, the effing book. Doug made the process relatively painless. Id also like to thank the excellent team at Penguin Random House Canadamanaging editor Kimberlee Hesas, cover designer David Gee, copy editor extraordinaire Tara Tovell, and my publicist, Shona Cook.

The manuscript was read by my Liberal-leaning friend Andrew Balfour, whose frequent contribution was that I was being too hard on the government. Meanwhile, Christian Paas-Lang provided outstanding help with fact-checking and endnotes. Christian is an aspiring but already accomplished journalist, and I hired him in the hope that he will return the favour ten years from now, when he is running one of Canadas major media organizations. Thanks to both. Any errors are mine.

A line at the bottom of a list of acknowledgements is a poor return for the love and support provided by my extraordinary wife, Dana Cryderman, during the writing and editing process. She is a career diplomat, a job that requires the right quantities of oil and vinegar. She read the manuscript and made several suggestions to make the narrative a little less caustic.

For most of that time, Dana was pregnant with our son, William Alfred, who was born just as I was finalizing the manuscript in January 2019. He was welcomed home by his captivated elder brother, James, and sister, Fiona. He is snoozing on my chest, aged three weeks and five days, as I type this.

As the singer, bon vivant, and sometimes philosopher Rod Stewart once observed, You go through life wondering what its all about but at the end of the day, its all about family. My only regret is that my father, Jim, is not around to read this book. But to Dana, James, Fiona and William, and my mother, Anne, I love you. Thank you for teaching me how to be content.

John Ivison

Chelsea, Quebec

February 2019