The author and historian John Boyko discusses his biography of R.B. Bennett, Canada’s 11th Prime Minister: Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation (Key Porter, 2010), Bennett’s legacy, the Great Depression, as well as comparisons of Stephen Harper with Bennett, with Joseph Planta.
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Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation by John Boyko. (Key Porter, 2010)
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Bennett [1] |
Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line. This is THECOMMENTARY.CA.
A tremendous book out this season is the biography of Canada’s 11th Prime Minister, Richard Bedford Bennett. John Boyko, the book’s author, has written one of the first major biographies of R.B. Bennett, who was in office during the worst years of the Great Depression. We learn more about Bennett’s politics and policies, and see how he’s gone down in history, whether fairly or unfairly in this highly readable, relevant book. I particularly enjoy the author’s grasp of history, how he connects various events and people in Canadian political history to Bennett, either in contrast or comparison. This, I think makes the book lively, and the history contextualised. John Boyko is the Dean of History and Social Sciences and Director of the North Cote Campus at Lakefield College School in Lakefield, Ontario. He’s written other books: Into the Hurricane: Attacking Socialism and the CCF, and Last Steps to Freedom: The Evolution of Canadian Racism. He joins me now from Lakefield. The book, Bennett: The Rebel Who Challenged and Changed a Nation, is published by Key Porter. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, John Boyko; Good morning, Mr. Boyko.
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