Foreword

• Author: Peter Mansbridge
• Pages: 11-13

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FOEWORD

     hours of October , , Pierre Tru-

deau was feeling a bit low. He was still absorbing the harsh judgment

of Canadian voters who had just taken away forty-f‌ive seats from his

Liberal Party and left him clinging to a minority government with just

two more seats than the Progressive Conservatives.

I, on the other hand, was feeling higher than a kitten sning catnip.

Not because of the election results, but because I had just completed

coverage of my f‌irst federal election night as a television reporter. I was

part of the CBC News team in Manitoba that night, and I had reached

a level of professional achievement I never thought I could or would.

It turns out I caught the bug in . I was interested in politics

before then, but now I was possessed. I became a political junkie, end-

lessly fascinated with the inner workings of government and the people

who were part of it or wanted to be part of it.

Canada has been a democracy from the beginning. Very few coun-

tries on Earth can say that. Even sadder, many countries can’t say they

are democratic today. ere is no sense in those places that everyone

is rowing in the same direction and political leaders are taking their

marching orders from the average citizen. ose countries operate at the

expense of the many for the benef‌it of the few.