In a fascinating conversation, constitutional scholar and former MP Dr. Edward McWhinney talked with Joseph Planta about his new book The Governor General and the Prime Ministers: The Making and Unmaking of Governments (Ronsdale Press, 2005). Also discussed is the significance of the office in our country’s politics, and the possibility of reform.

Michael Adams, president of Envronics, talked with Joseph Planta about his new book, American Backlash: The Untold Story of Social Change in the United States (Viking, 2005). As a pollster, he offered his thoughts on the current federal election campaign in Canada, and the substance of his book, the direction of America, politically and culturally.

Journalist and author Adam Daifallah, co-author of Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, talked with Joseph Planta about the conservative revolution in Canada and how it’s going, offering his thoughts on what right-minded people should do.

This past Monday, TV Ontario’s Steve Paikin moderated the English-language leaders debate between Gilles Duceppe, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton, Paul Martin. He talks to Joseph Planta about the experience and what it was like in the room.

University of Toronto political science professor Stephen Clarkson talked with Joseph Planta about his new book, The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics (UBC Press, 2005).

Tasha Kheiriddin talked with Joseph Planta about her new book, which she co-wrote with Adam Daifallah, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution (Wiley, 2005). Kheiriddin is also the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Harbour Publishing’s Howard White joined Joseph Planta to talk about Raincoast Chronicles Fourth Five, which he’s edited, a large collection of stories, poems and articles on British Columbia identity, culture, and history.

A new book, The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper (ECW Press, 2005) attempts to shed a little more light on the politics and faith of Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper. Its author Lloyd Mackey talked with Joseph Planta about the book, and about the man who could be prime minister.

Kim Bolan, the Vancouver Sun reporter who has spent 20 years covering and who sometimes found herself part of the Air India bombing story, talked with Joseph Planta about her new book, Loss of Faith: How the Air-India Bombers Got Away with Murder (McClelland and Stewart, 2005).

In a wide ranging chat, Jerry Wasserman, theatre critic for The Province, actor, professor of English and Theatre at the University of British Columbia, and editor of Vancouverplays.com, talked with Joseph Planta about his website, being a theatre critic, and the vibrancy of the arts scene in Vancouver.

Noted historian and bestselling author Jean Barman talked with Joseph Planta about her latest book Stanley Park’s Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch and Brockton Point (Harbour, 2005), a fascinating book about inhabitants of the park who were displaced in order to create the constructed ideal of an urban oasis.

Joseph Planta has a neat conversation with the sports columnist and author Jim Taylor, who has edited a new book, The Best of Jim Coleman: Fifty Years of Canadian Sport from the Man Who Saw it All (Harbour, 2005). It’s a collection of the legendary Coleman’s classic columns representing a remarkable look back at Canada and the sports that the country watched.

Jonathan Ross of TDH Strategies, a communciations and public policy firm, talked with Joseph Planta about all matter of politics–from Christy Clark’s political future after losing the NPA mayoralty nomination, to the future of Larry Campbell as a senator, to the federal scene about a Martin cabinet shuffle, Pierre Pettigrew, and Stephen Harper’s grasp of the leadership of the Conservative Party.

The National Post’s Stewart Bell talked with Joseph Planta about his latest book, The Martyr’s Oath: The Apprenticeship of a Homegrown Terrorist.

Dr. Kenneth Haller, a pediatrican at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri, talked with Joseph Planta about the Harry Potter phenomenon, and how it’s a good tool in broaching developmental issues with children. Also discussed was how to address such tragedies, such as last week’s bombings in Britain and other violence that’s in the news.