The political columnist and author Geoffrey Stevens discusses the book he co-wrote with the late Flora MacDonald, Flora! A Woman in a Man’s World (McGill-University Press, 2021), with Joseph Planta.

Flora! A Woman in a Man’s World by Flora MacDonald and Geoffrey Stevens (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Flora!

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

An important Canadian life is given a new look with the release of a memoir, Flora! A Woman in a Man’s World. Written by Flora MacDonald and Geoffrey Stevens, the book looks at the life and times of a trailblazing politician, humanitarian, and adventurer. MacDonald, who died at the age of 89 in 2015, had completed part of the manuscript with Mr. Stevens, who joins me now. It was up to Geoff to finish it, and he has done so in a most thoughtful, elegant way, not losing MacDonald’s voice in the process, capturing her voice through various sources and material. The book looks at MacDonald’s remarkable life from her childhood in Cape Breton, to her early adventurous travels in Europe and through North America, to her years in the backroom of the Progressive Conservative Party. She talks candidly about John Diefenbaker, who was the leader of the party at the time, and how he subsequently had her fired. We follow MacDonald as she’s elected a Member of Parliament in 1972, through her fabled run for the Tory party’s leadership in 1976, and her appointment as the first female minister of External Affairs in 1979 as part of the short-lived Joe Clark government. We see the male chauvinism and sexism that MacDonald encounters, as well as a different kind of politics then as now. And we are reminded in the book of MacDonald’s remarkable role in two files that dominate her time as foreign affairs minister, the bringing in of the 60,000 Vietnamese refugees to Canada, the so-called Boat People; and the Canadian Caper, where six American hostages were rescued in Tehran, dramatised elsewhere, like in the film Argo. Afghanistan also plays a big part in MacDonald’s life. It’s a country that fascinated her, and that she travelled to many times in her post-political career as a tireless advocate for women’s rights. Geoffrey Stevens is a political columnist, former managing editor of the Globe and Mail, and Maclean’s. He is the author of Stanfield, a biography of Robert Stanfield, as well as The Player: The Life and Times of Dalton Camp. He also co-wrote books with John Crosbie, and John Laschinger, including Leaders and Lesser Morals. This new book is published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Geoffrey Stevens; Mr. Stevens, good morning.

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