Review
'
Divided Loyalties stands alone in the literature on Canadian political parties and makes an extraordinary contribution to how we understand this country's contemporary politics. Brooke Jeffrey advances crucial arguments on the Liberal Party's rapid decline that all future evaluations will need to take into account. She is uniquely positioned to communicate the complexity of the relationships between leaders, caucus, constituency associations, voters, and election advisers, and her extensive interviews with key Liberal politicians and advisers offer remarkably candid assessments of the party and its policies.' (David E. Smith, Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan, and Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina )
Product Description
The Liberal Party has governed Canada for much of the country's history. Yet over the past two decades, the 'natural governing party' has seen a decrease in traditional support, finding itself in opposition for nearly half of that time. In
Divided Loyalties, Brooke Jeffrey draws on her own experience as a party insider and on interviews with more than sixty senior Liberals to follow the trajectory of the party from 1984 to the leadership of Stéphane Dion in 2008.
Riven by internal strife, leadership disputes, and financial woes, the Liberal Party today faces unprecedented challenges that threaten its very future. Conventional wisdom attributes the origins of the disarray to personal conflict between Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin. However, Jeffrey argues that this divisiveness is actually the continuation of a dispute over Canadian federalism and national unity which began decades earlier between John Turner and Pierre Trudeau. This dispute, as evidenced by recent leadership crises, remains unresolved to this day. An insightful examination of the federal Liberal Party, Divided Loyalties sheds much-needed light on an increasingly fissured party.
