Beacher’s book examines human side of Canadian prime ministers

J.D.M. Stewart’s first book, Being Prime Minister, grew out of a lifelong curiosity about the men and woman who have held Canada’s highest office and the wealth of “amazing stories” he unearthed through his research.

Using vacation days away from the Bishop Strachan School where Stewart teaches American and Canadian history, it was while digging through decades of newspaper and magazine material at the National Archive that Stewart found his gold.

The “day-in-the-life” stories were the most fascinating, he said, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the human side of being a prime minister—an aspect that makes the book a fun and interesting read.

“When I was young I thought I wanted to be prime minister one day,” said Stewart in a phone interview from his home in the Beach. “I have been studying them my whole life.”

His journey to Ottawa led him to an archive of letters and notes from people who had brief contact with prime ministers as well as those who were more closely associated with them.

Adding to these historical accounts are Stewart’s own interviews with six of the seven living prime ministers (only Stephen Harper declined), as well as the friends, staff and everyday people who mingled with them during their time in office.

One such story connection led Stewart to Farley Mowat’s widow, Claire, who described how in the late 1970s, then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau acquired not one dog from them, but eventually, two.

“The first dog was highly regarded by Trudeau for his intelligence, so much so he decided to get a second dog from the Mowats,” he said. Unfortunately, dog number two wasn’t as smart or as well behaved as the first, and both dogs eventually ended up living with Margaret Trudeau’s parents in B.C., he laughed.

“There are so many stories in the book,” said Stewart, known locally as James. “For example, I was not intending to write about celebrities, but found so many interesting archives about Charles Lindbergh and Shirley Temple visiting with Mackenzie King that the chapter just developed.”

The insightful and often humorous stories come straight from staff who worked directly with the prime ministers.

One story, shared by John Diefenbaker’s aide Mike Deacey, recounts the PM’s 1958 visit to Northern Ireland. Upon his morning arrival, he was served an Irish coffee. “He was faking drinking it,” said Stewart, as the Women’s Air Force hosting the event didn’t realize Diefenbaker was a teetotaller.

Stewart said the resilient PM raised the glass to his lips several times and that “he managed to use conversation to distract from the drinking of the coffee before someone could whisk it away.”

Covering aspects of life as a prime minister not often explored, Being Prime Minister has a mass appeal that provides fun facts and a memorable anecdotal history lesson that’s indeed a treasure.

Stewart’s new book is available locally at Book City at 1950 Queen Street East.