The Globe and Mail’s chief political correspondent John Ibbitson discusses the new book he coauthored with Darrell Bricker, The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and Culture and What it Means for Our Future (HarperCollins, 2013), with Joseph Planta.

The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and Culture and What it Means for Our Future by John Ibbitson (HarperCollins, 2013). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Big Shift

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

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

A provocative new book is out now; it’s called The Big Shift: The Seismic Change in Canadian Politics, Business, and Culture and What it Means for Our Future. Its authors are Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson. The premise of the book is that Canada has been run by a political, media and business elite along the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal corridor. Mr. Ibbitson, who joins me now, termed them the ‘Laurentian Consensus.’ They’re no longer in vogue as it seems, they’ve been replaced by a new coalition based in the West and supported by immigrant voters in Ontario and elsewhere. It’s a shift in Canada’s power structure and could shape politics for the next few decades. Just as the Liberal Party of Canada was the ‘natural governing party’ for the country in the 20th Century, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have endeavoured to make their party the one of the 21st Century. The Messer’s Bricker and Ibbitson have a great narrative in this book. It’s necessary reading whatever political stripe you might be, because with the reporting and analysis that’s in this book paired with polling data and statistics, it’s hard to ignore that they’re both onto something. Darrell Bricker will be on the program in the coming days. John Ibbitson is the chief political correspondent for the Globe and Mail, and spent time as the Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill columnist, as well as the bureau chief of the Globe’s Washington and Ottawa bureaus. His previous books include Promised Land: Inside the Mike Harris Revolution, Loyal No More, and the excellent The Polite Revolution. He was last on for Open and Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama, and Canada has Stephen Harper. The Big Shift is published by HarperCollins. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, in Ottawa today, John Ibbitson; Mr. Ibbitson, good morning.

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