Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power (Hardcover)

This book is an exception to the rule.

It's a fascinating story of a once super-privileged Jewish boy whose family escaped
pre-war Czechoslovakia because a Roman Catholic priest gave them certificates to
slip past the Holocaust. Being Catholics enabled his family to emigrate to Canada,
where he became the leading political analyst in newspapers, magazines and books.
Like many immigrants, he is more Canadian than most people born in the country; the
result is a book written with humour, kindness and a sense of shattering
disappointment and disillusion.

Political journalism is a slash-and-burn war in the US, anchored by the pure hatred of
right-wing zealots such as Rush Limbaugh and his ilk; or the pompous twits who
debate whether dissent to erudite liberal wisdom ranks above or below the grunts of
orangutans. In Canada, journalism proves "the emperor has no clothes" by laughing
at the foibles, faults, fears and follies of politicians. Newman is a 'Mack the Knife'
artist, he doesn't use the blunt force trauma of a California Terminator. Newman
wielded the best scalpel in Canadian journalism for decades, and he did so with such
skill that his victims never felt obliged to drop him from their Christmas card list. In
this book, he provides the delicious details of how it was done,.

But it's much more.

Think of Newman as an intelligent Garrison Keillor, who talks for 20-minutes every
week about the inanities of ordinary folks in Lake Woebegone. Newman tells even
better stories about the motivations of the rich and powerful leaders of America's
largest trading partner (the single largest source of foreign oil, for example).
Newman's harshest criticism is of his own shortcomings, not the faults of the
unworthy villains writhing on the point of his pen. But he also portrays the absolute
perfidy of some Canadian politicians, the devils who make any US president look
saintly by comparison. It's the approach many wish they could have used against
newman 40 years ago.

A few years ago, Newman visited the Theresienstadt concentration camp where
most of his relatives died. He also saw10 names the same as his -- Peta Neumann --
ranging in age from 10 months to 10 years. This is what he escaped in a series of
events that would put the film world to shame. But this is not another Holocaust
book; it is a story of a life that soared to greatness when nourished by the freedom
of Canada. Instead of the "scorched earth" journalism of the US which I favoured, he
used humour to puncture the hubris of the high and haughty. In the US, humour is
often acerbic. Newman embodies the definition by Stephen Leacock, "the essence of
humour is human kindliness", but he accompanies it all with his penetrating analysis
of Canadian politics.

To understand the soul of Canada today, this is the prime guidebook.

It's written by a man who knows how to love; a combination of pure exhilaration and
crushing despair that creates true passion. Instead of the polls and poltroons of
modern politics, Newman's focus is on the feelings and meanings of public service.
I've known him since the 1970s, and we've been in the like sport for decades, though
I've never worked with or for him (he does quote me briefly in the book). Based on
my career, I can honestly say this is the book of a master craftsman gifted with a
rare insight, sensitivity and acumen.

It's liable to infuriate many Canadians, who tend to be very sensitive about having
their political idols described as emperors without clothes. For that reason, it's
probably the best book about Canada written within the last 50 years. Newman
reflects the finest principle of honest journalism, "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the
comfortable".