Which Reminds Me... : A Memoir / Mitchell Sharp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sharp, Mitchell, author.

Series:

Heritage

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sharp, Mitchell.

Politicians--Canada--Biography.

Politicians.

Canada--Politics and government--1963-1984.

Canada.

Genre:

Biographies.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 pages)

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Mitchell Sharp is best remembered as one of the most unpolitical of politicians - a public servant somehow co-opted into the political sphere without ever acquiring a partisan patina. In this engaging memoir, Sharp contemplates the unexpected turns of his public life, combining narrative with reflection on the nature of public service, and the nature of policy over the forty-five years of his career in government. Sharp gives a vivid picture of what it was like to grow up in depression-era Winnipeg, where he put himself through university while holding a full-time job and trained as an economist at a time when the breed was scarce. Sharp's career took him into the Ottawa mandarinate in the 1940s and 1950s, then the Toronto corporate world, and then Lester Pearson's cabinet in 1963. Sharp's experience as a politician, which lasted until 1978, was not uncontroversial: within the Liberal party he spoke for those who found Walter Gordon's nationalist economics impractical if not misleading. It was a clash of different styles, and different ideas, of Canadian nationalism - a clash in which Sharp's ideas prevailed. Later, Sharp was the man on the spot during the 1970 October crisis, and his description of those events adds significantly to our understanding of what happened, and why. As external affairs minister from 1968 to 1974, Sharp reshaped Canadian foreign policy to decrease dependence on the United States by promoting a diversified economy with increased trade overseas. Sharp's memoir will engross any reader with an interest in Canada's political history of the last half century. Clearly written, and with Sharp's characteristic dry candour, the book brings the characters and circumstances of Canada's history to life. Sharp's reflections on the role of the senior civil service, on relations with the media, on the rise of the Canadian deficit, and on other issues should find a place on any reading list concerned with the nature of Canadian government.

Contents:

Cover; Foreword by the Honourable Jean Chretien; Preface; 1 From Winnipeg to Ottawa, 1911-1942; Parents; First full-time job, age fourteen; The struggle for higher education; Religion; Music; Learning to work; Postgraduate studies at the University of Manitoba; Winnipeg in the pre-war years; The London School of Economics; Grain-trade economist with James Richardson and Sons; Western politics; Offer from Ottawa; 2 In the Department of Finance, 1942-1950; The Department of Finance in wartime; Fiscal and monetary policy; Ilsley and Clark; The price ceiling; The Wheat Committee of cabinet

Closing the Winnipeg wheat marketTommy Douglas versus Ottawa; Revision of the Bank Act; Union with Newfoundland; Douglas Abbott becomes minister of finance; Decontrol of prices and rents; Varied assignments; Post-war recruitment; Veterans' rehabilitation and old-age pensions; The Economic Policy Division and federal-provincial relations; Housing; 3 In the Department of Trade and Commerce, 1950-1958; Learning to work with C.D. Howe; Howe and the Canadian Wheat Board; International wheat negotiations; Howe and the Liberal leadership52The Korean War; Visit to the Soviet Union, 1955

The first Canada-Soviet trade agreementVisit to Japan, 1956; The GATT; The TransCanada Pipeline; Cuban sugar; The Japanese trade agreement; The Brussels World Fair; Howe is defeated and Churchill becomes minister; The 'hidden report'; Some curious events; Resignation; Relations with the media; Reflections on the role of the mandarins; 4 In Private Business, 1958-1963; Vice-president of Brazilian Traction; The Donwood Foundation; The Kingston Conference; Entry into politics; The choice of Eglinton and the 1962 campaign; Coffee parties; Eglinton at the centre; The U.N. Coffee Conference

Political columnist5 Minister of Trade and Commerce, 1963-1965; Former civil servants become ministers; How Pearson ran his cabinet; Parliamentary secretaries; How to use ministerial staff; Agenda for a minority government; The Gordon budget; Trade promotion and trade policy; Nuclear weapons; The Great Blackout; Expo 67; Wheat sales; The Canadian flag; The 1965 try for majority government; 6 Minister of Finance, 1965-1968; From Trade to Finance; Keynesian budgeting; Why deficits later rose; The Carter Commission; Preparing budgets; Federal-provincial financial arrangements

The 1966 revision of the Bank ActThe Mercantile Bank case; The 1966 debate on economic nationalism; Relations with Walter Gordon; The introduction of medicare; Gordon returns to cabinet; The Bank of Canada Act; Deposit insurance; The Order of Canada; Party leadership; The defeat of the 1968 budget bill; Should I withdraw?; 7 Secretary of State for External Affairs, 1968-1974; I. The Domestic Side of Foreign Policy; Replacing Paul Martin; The principle of collegiality; Trudeau in cabinet; Trudeau as party leader; Organization of the department; The attack by Trudeau on diplomats

Notes:

"Reprinted in 2018"--Title page verso.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Aug 2019)

ISBN:

1-4875-8019-3

OCLC:

1114779333