_as- “North Shore, Hews - - Friday, | December 10, 1999 ,

‘Expect more on pol jowering

itics from

From Page 15

school at age sixteen for hold-
ing an “ana-British demonstra-
tion”? The 63-year-old author
laughs as he remembers this
was rather embarrassing since
his father caught at that school.
“The Brits sold us our on
Alaska; they sold us out on
fish. Whenever it became a Lit-
dec too difficult for them they
would say ‘Ah, the Americans
can have whatever they want’.”
When he wasn’t fuming
over the British, Bowering
played baseball and seemed to
“absorb some Wild West sensi-
bilities greaving up in the
Okanagan Valley,
His sense of adventure
. would not be impeded by a
fw rules. He wanted to”
~ become an aerial phi
| in the Royal | Cant dian
Force.:“I- took the salou ssid
“test five times then I finally’ got
; officer to lie.”
__ (Fortunately he was never
called upon to distinguish...
between multicoloured runway
ighies as dun his three years of.
“T graduated at t the ;

"Mae

squadron whic
would have meant spendin
the su ndward

pher :

_—- from ne;

“crucial time in the. Cold War.

hard to tell the difference.”

He spent a year at the
University of Western Ontario
working on his PhD in Engiish
and later received an honorary
doctorate at UBC. He began
teaching at SFU in 1972 and
has written over 40 books of
poetry and short stories and
several novels since 1964. He is
somewhat more erudite than
his mother’s family that came
from the Lake of the Ozarks
region in Missouri as part of
the influx of imraigrants in the
early 1900s. He calls them
“hillbillies.” “They saw an ad
for tand (from the Canadian
government) then they got
somebody to read it for them,”
he laughs.

Any love he may have for
Americans seers to have
encompassed only those rela-

“tives. & recurring theme in this

book is American efforts to ;
nead on Canadian sovereignty
tiations on the

size of , to the demand.

: that Canada store missiles with
“nuclear warheads. -

The section on

:Diefenbaker’s handling of = -
“NORAD and the Cuban mis-

sile cxisis is particularly i interest-

"Jing and offers o rare insight

into political morivations at a

‘American economics were.
more closely knit than at any
other tirne in history and.

‘Second World War was not °
. such a distant memory,

Diefenbaker took 2 sand on’

: nuclear weapons: Canad2 had a

reputation as a peacrkeepes® to
Ke had ap

«NORAD, the joint mee
Canadian air defence o

along with must Canatas
didn’t like nuclear w

, £0

USAniercian rule that only
USAmericans could tend
them.” When Boeing of Seattle
delivered their Bomarcs  ~
(winged missiies) Dicfenbaker
said no to atomic warheads.
When asked what to put in the
nose cones he replied sand! As
the Russians ships rushed
toward Cuba with missiles,
President Kennedy put pres-
sure or: Diefenbaker to join the
defensive. (John Kennedy
doesn’t get the usual glam-
orous gloss here—he is
described! as a “testosterenic
cold warrior” who “wanted to
High Noon the Soviets.”)
Diefenbaker finally offered
Canadian support and Nikita
Knrushchev and Kennedy
reached a compromise but
Canadians wouldn't hear the
entire story until 1998.

“Pearson and Dictenbaker
were having a huge campaign
about whether there should be
American nuclear weapons in
Canada. Alli us kids in the air-
force knew the nuclear missiles
were already here. Why didn’t
the rest of the country know
that? Recently the lid was

_ blown off that when someone

on the inside at the

Department of Defence

revealed that there were nuclear

+ Weapons in Quebec (at Val
d'Or) and in'B.C. (at Comox) *

and thaz they were here’ all this“
‘tine (since 1963).”

Bowering could happily talk

the whole interview about
American criminals getting
executed so that governors
won't look soft on crime, or
‘the U.S.’s zealous allegiance to
ies that answer only to
ders, or soldiers haul-

: ing free Canadian blacks back,"

_ across the border into slavery.

in the war of 1812... but i it. ;
‘was time to turn that acerbic
wit on ‘Canada, (And he points
out the grey nuns in Montreal
had black slaves. You can still

sce their 17th century build-
ings in dovmtown Montreal.)

“There’s one story that I
didsi’t put in the book about
when Bennett was giving a
speech during the Depression.
There was a crowd, not his
supporters, and he yells ‘Am I
responsible for every guy who
can’t make a go of tv” The
whole crowd respurided angrily
“Yes you are!” He had never
thought of ie that way.”

' He makes no secret of
another less favourite leader.
“A curious thing that happens
with a lot of Prime Ministers is
they seein to get a litde bit
smarter than they sounded
before they were elected with
some obvious excepzions. ’m

ot going, to name any names
but initials are Brian
Muironey,” he laughs.

He compares him to
Diefenbaker: “They were both
leaders of the Conservative.
Party and they were both
lawyers. “That’s about the end
of it. Mulroney was a lawver
for powerful Arnerican outtits
and Diefenbaker was a cruninal
‘lawyer... you can be preity
sure his clients weren't rich. _

rg

they were Metis, and natives
and poor farmers, Fe was gen-
uinely interested in improving

cople’s lives not just those of
the party Sithful or certain
business peopic. He was
brought up in a shack in
Saskatchewan. I really like thar.
image in his campaign of going
from town to town on 2 rail-
way push cart. Whar a wonder-
ful i image.”

oists and Auttocrats deliv-

ers the good, the bad, and the
misguided wrap; peed up in the
Canadian flag. ere ts cnough
detail to satisiy any history buff
atid enough of Bowering’s
understated humour to create
a few more. It is also a
reminder of the eveuts that
direct politics today. It is an
education, for exampic, to sce _
the recurring separatist sent-
ments of Quebec from their

.. reluctance to fight in “British.
‘wars or the power of the’ :

Catholic Church to sway © °
Quebec faithful to support «
Mussolini and the fascists in
Spain. Montreal’s mayor,
Quebec leadcrs, and a Cardinal
lead the fight in 1936 to save
the Church from “anarchy and

communism and the like.”
Bowering chooses his
heroes and villains with
impunity but certainly gives
the reader enough information
(and personal dirt) to create
that informed electorate every
poliician wants. Right?
Bowering is secretive about
his next book except to hint at
an even larger political scope.
At first he refused the project
but says, greatly amused, that .
the president of Penguin
Books, Cynthia Good, “olack- .
mailed” him. “When you’re.a
western boy you get mistreated
by these tough women, back in
oronto. I’m supposed to. |”
deliver another manuscript 3.
year. from january. It’s impessi-
ble. All I really want toda is: |
write a novel,” he says. Wien”
asked if the genre is romance -
he replies with a hesitant yes.
Maybe something like The
‘English Patien? “Oh
would be much riore’ dpenly,
blatandy sexual— something
Pve been saving up all my lve
to do,” he Jaugns. Let's hop
none of our distinguished *
politicians mske