"Newman, Peter C. - Renegade of Power" - читать интересную книгу автора (Newman Peter C)

19 The Eclipse of Prestige Abroad 335
 IV Twilight of Power
20 Les Epaulettes Perdues 369
21 The Carnage of the Coyne Affair 391
22The Agonies of the 1962 Campaign 424
23The Nuclear Virgin Who Never Was 437
24 The Coup d'Etat 464
25 The Dikes of Power Burst 499
Acknowledgements 521
Index 522
 New Introduction to the 1989 Edition

IT WAS EASY ENOUGH to satirize his rages and caricature his crusades, but
it was the stride and stance of the man -his sheer guts, the brew of his
laughter and the dint of his compassion - that made John George
Diefenbaker a politician apart. Like PG. Wodehouse's fictional butler,
Jeeves, he entered any room "as a procession of one."
Although he seldom stopped talking about himself, Diefenbaker remained
a mysterious mixture of vanity and charm, vulnerability and brass,
outrage and mischief. He single-handedly transformed Canadian politics
into the country's leading spectator sport.
The dilemma of most Canadian politicians is how to stress the marginal
differences between themselves and their rivals so that they can conceal
their basic similarities. Diefenbaker's problem was exactly the opposite:
how to place enough restraints on his combativeness so that he would
sound more like his electable and less individualistic contemporaries.
Even in his declining years he remained a political giant on his knees,
ambling in a land of midgets.
Most leaders find themselves in conflict with their times because they
become either reactionaries trying to resurrect the past or visionaries
whose aim exceeds their grasp; Diefenbaker suffered the rare distinction
of being both. His intellect was firmly frozen in another time-, his
heart was an open city.

9
 10 Renegade in Power

Born only four years after Sir John A. Macdonald's death, he spanned most
of Canada's modern history. He could draw on memories of times when the
Red River carts still creaked along the Carlton Trail and buffalo bones
littered the prairies. During a 1962 campaign stop at Melville,
Saskatchewan, I happened to be standing behind him as he asked a group
of oldtimers in what year they had come west. When the eldest replied,
"April of 1903," a delighted Diefenbaker shot back, "We came in August!"
No Canadian politician ever rose so steadily through a succession of
defeats. He was soundly beaten in five election campaigns (including an
abortive attempt in 1933 to become mayor of Prince Albert) before finally
squeaking into the House of Commons as a member of the Conservative
Opposition in 1940. Always the outsider, he seemed to thrive on
rejection. After being trounced in a token run for the Pc party