Maclean's Magazine (May 16 2011)

o u r b i g g est n ews i ssu e ev e r the assassination of

bin laden see back cover

THE royal wEdding 50-pAGE commEmorAtion of

william and kaTE’s big day p.73

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May 16, 2011

54-page election special

a nation turned upside down an epic look at the most astonishing political shift in a generation by Paul wells

Plus Rick MeRceR, andRew coyne and MoRe

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C A N A D A’ S N AT I O N A L M A G A Z I N E S I N C E 19 0 5

M AY 1 6, 2 0 11 • V O L U M E 1 2 4 • N U M B E R 1 8

A day to remember p.73 4 From the Editors

145 The End David Stewart Arthur Cleverley, 1985-2011

|

To see and be seen: The guests were part of the spectacle .............. 122

National

Crowning glories: The hats, from classic to fantastical ...................124

ON THE COVER Dawning of a new era: Paul Wells on how Stephen

The feasts: Royals noshed on some fabulous food .........................126

Harper moved to a majority while the ground all around him shifted entirely, recasting the state of Canadian politics. Insiders dish the dirt on what went right, what went wrong, and how it all went down ........ 6

John Fraser: The palace’s savvy use of social media ........................ 128 The twittering classes: Moments that created buzz on the Web..... 130

A whole new game: Andrew Coyne on why the election results reveal a

new kind of coalition that could change the game altogether ............. 60 International

Where to begin? Rick Mercer explains the election to the world ...... 64 Capital Diary: Mitchel Raphael on the orange wave ........................ 68

Osama bin Laden: The super-villain of the decade is dead .............. 147

Scott Feschuk: Watching the concession speeches was like witnessing

The Abbottabad bunker: Bin Laden’s not-so-elusive hiding spot .... 148

a night of 1,000 delusions................................................................ 70

COVER: PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS BOLIN; INSETS: GETTY IMAGES; JOHN STILLWELL/REUTERS; PHOTOGRAPH BY COLE GARSIDE; FRED THORNHILL/REUTERS; THIS PAGE: IAN GAVAN/GETTY IMAGES

A life of jihad: The life and times of a terrorist ................................ 152 The Royal Wedding

The hunt: It took 10 years to track him down in Pakistan ................ 158 The path of destruction: What bin Laden left in his wake.............. 162

A perfect day: Our 50-page commemoration of the wedding .......... 73

No closure: 9/11 families are not dancing in the streets ................... 167

Love conquers all: William and Kate’s mutual affection was clear,

even through the pomp and ceremony of the day ............................ 74

Interview: Peter Bergen, author of The Osama bin Laden I Know ..... 168

The verdict: This time the monarchy got it right ........................... 100

Best frenemies: U.S.-Pakistani relations are likely to plummet ...... 170

A dress for the ages: Kate Middleton found just the right balance ..... 108

Hollywood is on it: There are already films in the works ................. 171

The man in uniform: Will’s shy smiles were reminiscent of Diana .... 116

Headless: Can al-Qaeda survive without its figurehead? ................. 172

Standing on ceremony: The bridal party’s youngest members ...... 118

Buried at sea: How the U.S. disposed of the body .......................... 174

Her royal hotness: Did Kate’s sister Pippa steal the show? ............. 120

Joy and anger: People took to the streets as the news broke ........... 175

MACLEAN’S BACK PAGES TV

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Books

The journalist who ‘got’ Charlie Sheen

Sex, drugs, and combat photography

Julia Child in the OSS; the quest to cheat death

Sun News debuts looking much older than its age

Jodie Foster defends Mel Gibson

The joys of warm mozzarella

Philip Kerr’s tales of Berlin noir

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From the editors

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When Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff triggered a federal election by bringing down Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority government in March, he called it “a historic day in the life of Canadian democracy.” It certainly was, though not in the way he might have hoped. This week’s stunning election has completely rewritten Canada’s political map, and marks a milestone in the country’s history. The biggest news is Harper’s long-sought majority government. Three consecutive victories is a substantial accomplishment in Canadian politics, and this win—the first majority for a Conservative leader in over two decades—is particularly noteworthy given the fragile beginnings of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. Jack Layton and the NDP have seized the title of official Opposition after running a picture-perfect campaign heavy on Layton’s personal appeal and light on traditional NDP policies. The Liberals, meanwhile, have been relegated to thirdparty status for the first time in history, and the Bloc Québécois, which many saw as a roadblock to coherent national politics, may now be a spent force. The election was indeed a historic day for Canadian politics. But what does it mean for

the country itself ? In his election-night concession speech, Ignatieff claimed we were all witness to “a polarization of Canadian politics.” Without the calming influence of his centrist party, the Liberal leader warned that the civility of our democratic discourse was in peril. Despite Ignatieff’s disastrous showing at the polls, his view that Canada is now a divided country, split between hard-right and hard-left political representation, has become a popular reading of the May 2 results. It is not accurate. Rather than an abandonment of the middle for two extremes, this election reflects the culmination of a major political realignment in which the Conservatives and the NDP have both found a way to share the middle space, leaving little room for the former Liberal tenant. A Conservative majority is unlikely to surprise many Canadians. This reflects both the familiarity of the platform and Harper’s assiduous moves to the centre. The middle-of-theroad 2011 budget and its deficit reduction strategy will be back, as will other signature Tory policies—anti-crime legislation, an end to the long-gun registry and a smattering of tax cuts for families. Nothing here can be considered particularly radical or unexpected.

It’s also worth noting that divisive social conservatism, on such issues as abortion and same-sex marriage, have been absent throughout Harper’s term, to the satisfaction of most Canadians. This is further evidence of the success the Prime Minister has had in taking his party deep into the centre of Canadian polity. Layton has also modified his party in significant ways. The 2011 NDP election platform accepted balanced budgets, promoted tax cuts for certain businesses, abandoned

THis week on THe web

Is this the end of the Liberal party as we’ve For more on the fallout from last Monday’s federal election, go to THe web PoLL

THe bLoGGeRs

What motivated you to vote the way you did in the federal election?

JOHN GEDDES on how the

32.7%

11.4% Fear

Other

11.7% 30.8%

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MAY 16, 2011

Conservative majority will make it hard for the NDP to change Ottawa like it promised to

Anger

martIN patrIquIN on

13.4%

the existential crisis facing the Bloc Québécois after its poor electoral showing

Loyalty

Hope 4

NathaN DeNette/CP; PhotograPh by Chris boliN

The real reason this election will go down in history

enabled this shift. With more than half its caucus now coming from La Belle Province, the NDP has undergone a fundamental realignment. Clearly Layton has an enormous task ahead of him in riding herd over a large and inexperienced group of rookie Quebec MPs of uncertain temperament and design. As for the Liberals, they find themselves in an unfamiliar fight for relevancy. It is no longer enough to simply claim the fertile middle ground of Canadian politics as traditional Liberal territory. Two other parties have now shown an interest and ability in winning the attention of that political terrain. The next Liberal leader must find a way to muscle the party back into this crowded centre. Amid all this furious political reshuffling, however, it’s important to remember that Canada remains the same moderate, temperate and prudent country it has always been. Voters haven’t scattered. The parties have converged.

attacks on Alberta’s oil sands and even called for more police officers to fight crime. This again shows deliberate respect for Canadians in the middle of the political spectrum. The biggest question mark for the NDP will be the role Quebec plays in the future of the party. Layton obviously benefited from a massive abandonment of the Bloc Québécois by nationalist voters. The fact the party has committed itself to many sovereigntist ideals, including such things as a 50-per-cent-plusone-vote referendum standard for separation,

Rarely has a single week contained as much news as the seven days just past: a glamorous royal wedding, a monumental federal election and the unexpected death of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. To mark this occasion, Maclean’s has produced our biggest news issue of all time. It is also an issue with two covers. On the front, we mark the extraordinary ramifications of the Canadian election. On the back, a unique upside-down second cover introduces a special issue-within-an-issue on bin Laden’s assassination and what it means for Canada and the world. Consider it an edition that’s as historic as the week it reflects.

publisher/editor-in-Chief

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the unto Family pack: Benjamin, Laureen and Rachel Harper joined the Prime Minister to celebrate his victory and Canada’s ‘unity of purpose’

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ld story Backroom manoeuvres, scandal management and sustained attacks. Behind the scenes of an epic campaign that turned Canadian politics on its head, and finally gave Harper his majority. By Paul Wells

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Election Special introduction

How Harper got what he’s always wanted, Layton took centre stage, and Ignatieff and Duceppe were done in

“What a great night! Quelle belle soirée!” By now Stephen Harper is getting used to making these speeches on the floor of the Paul wells Telus Convention Centre in Calgary. This was his fourth since 2004, his third as Prime Minister-elect since 2006. Canadians have been watching this man for nearly a decade: his cadences, his body language, his preferred topics and the terms he uses to discuss them are familiar. It’s just everything else that has changed. “Friends, I have to say it,” the modern architect of Conservatism as a durable governing force in Canada said. “A strong, stable, national, majority Conservative government.” It was what he had asked for, in those words, on every day of this astonishing campaign. By now it was an inside joke. But it was also a totem of victory, because for the first time Stephen Harper had won clear command of a Parliament within which no coalition could block or replace him. He is the first party leader in the history of the country to fall short of that goal three times and then succeed. By now the victims of his resilience are stacked outside like cordwood, and it may at last be getting hard for them to hang onto their easy dismissive smirks. He thanked the voters of Calgary Southwest for returning him—and “for giving me the honour of following in the footsteps of Preston Manning,” a bit of family detail that has 8

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been true since he first represented the riding in 2002, but which he had not mentioned in front of a national audience until this night. He spoke of his love for his children, Ben and Rachel, and for his tearful wife, Laureen. He thanked the voters, who “chose hope, unity of purpose and a strong Canada.” Hang on. Unity of purpose? Six voters in 10 did not vote for his party. Those who voted against him were so desperate for an alternative that more than a million of them abandoned once-sturdy vessels, the Bloc Québécois and the Liberal Party of Canada, in favour of a bicyclists’ party led by a former city councillor with a bum hip. Jack Layton is the evening’s second great story, in some ways fresher: a career politician with a Ph.D. whose opponents, and some of his allies, wrote him off for years as a naïf or a citified bumpkin. Harper himself would say in private that he had urged Layton to take a chance from time to time, but then the Conservative leader would always shrug: “You can’t teach an elephant to dance.” That’s okay. Elephants don’t have to dance. They just walk right over things. Every election comes down to a choice between “change” and “more of the same.” But in a parliamentary system we get to have both. Harper set the terms for this election two years ago. His agenda was never secret. He would propose stability and warn against risk. He knew the choice would split the electorate, and hoped only for the larger part. In the end, those Canadians who wanted stability have it. Only seven incumbent ConMAY 16, 2011

servatives were defeated on Monday night, compared to 82 incumbents from other parties. The Conservative vote keeps growing, but most of the voters who supported one of Harper’s candidates were doing so for the fourth time. As they head back to the drawing board, Harper’s opponents should start by admitting to themselves the extraordinary buyer satisfaction Harper provides his supporters. He is becoming what he has hoped Conservatism could become in this country: a familiar habit. But even the voters who rejected Harper’s stability proved him right by preferring risk— and taking a big one. A vote for the Bloc Québécois has, for 20 years, been a respectable way to wave the home flag and choose, in other important ways, not to play with others. A vote for the Bloc combined pride and safety, and why would anyone ever give up a blanket like that? Unless they started hoping for more. Quebecers did. Monday’s awesome swing in that province is many things, but among them it is an expression of hope. So Jack Layton became the first anglophone leader of a national party to win in Quebec when a francophone was on offer. Half of his caucus will now come from Quebec, so he will need to put more French into his speeches than he did in accepting the people’s verdict on election night. He’ll adjust. Sixty-four per cent of the NDP vote on Monday came from outside Quebec. Layton has MPs from eight provinces. In Saskatchewan, where a trick of the electoral system locked him out, his party won nearly a third

previous spread: photograph by Chris bolin

Politics turned over

photograph by Chris bolin; photographs by peter bregg

Go fourth and multiply: Harper is the first leader in our history to win a majority on his fourth try; Layton’s courtship of Quebec voters finally paid off; Ignatieff couldn’t overcome his past

of the vote. He is a truly national Opposition leader, facing a truly national Prime Minister, and that alone is good for the country. So it was not mawkish but accurate of the Prime Minister to say Canadians “chose hope” on Monday, even if they chose such starkly different kinds of hope. Even if the results throw some into despair. But we’ll get to the Liberals in a minute. “Because Canadians chose hope, we can now begin to come together again,” Harper said. “For our part, we are intensely aware that we are, and we must be, the government of all Canadians, including those who did not vote for us.” This will be the test of the next three or four

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years in this country. Will Canadians judge story. A team of Maclean’s reporters, led by that Harper has listened to them? Will he take myself, John Geddes and Aaron Wherry, travhis majority mandate, as his opponents always elled the country to cover the 2011 campaign. warned he would, and take such radical action We interviewed key members of every leadthat Canadians feel betrayed? Or do his oppon- er’s campaign staff, often on the understandents now have something worse to fear: the ing that nothing we were told would be possibility that more Harper will mean more revealed until after Canadians had voted. support for Harper, as has been the case now Here is that story. In part it is the tale of for four elections in a row? an election strategy decided by Harper himThe Prime Minister offered a few hints. self in the days after the 2008 coalition crisis “Friends, hear me on this. All those lessons nearly took his job away. He announced his of the past few years—holding to our prin- plan as soon as he concocted it—a clear choice ciples, but also of listening, of caring, of between a majority and a reincarnated coaliadapting—those lessons that have come with tion—in the first week of 2009, in an interview a minority government, we must continue with the publisher of this magazine. Michael to practise as a majority Ignatieff had two years to government.” but he never found jack layton, long ago prepare So he plans, or says he a persuasive answer. plans, to stay the course. written off as a citified This is also the story of a “Our first job will be to party, the NDP, that has bumpkin, somehow implement what we set out courted French-speaking in our budget.” The budget became the other great voters in Quebec for literally success story the other parties, including half a century, through good Layton’s, said they would days and bad, and of a leader oppose, a budget they cannot now block. The who has been written off as an also-ran for months ahead will show both the extent and every one of the four elections in which he the limits of Layton’s new clout. improved his party’s standing. So the Harpers move back to 24 Sussex, But the story has to begin with Michael but little of what lies ahead is familiar. The Ignatieff. To understand anything else in story of how we got here is one of the most this election, we have to understand how he amazing stories in the annals of Canadian became the leader of a once-great party, and politics. Once again, Maclean’s has deployed how Stephen Harper took him apart, piece all the resources at our disposal to tell that by piece. MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

9

Election Special CHApTER ONE

The first mistake The seeds of Michael Ignatieff’s troubles were planted last fall, and by the Liberals themselves Michael Ignatieff’s gaze drifted upward, past the ceiling of the foyer of the House of Commons and, as it seemed, toward heaven. It was Friday, March 25. The House of Commons had just voted, by 165 votes to 145, in support of this Liberal motion: “That the House agrees with the finding of the standing committee on procedure and House affairs that the government is in contempt of Parliament, which is unprecedented in Canadian parliamentary history, and consequently, the House has lost confidence in the government.” Tomorrow, an election campaign would begin. Now, the Liberal leader had come out of the Commons chamber into the grandly decorated foyer, backed by a handful of his most telegenic MPs and faced by a pack of reporters and cameras. The press wanted to know whether he would conspire with the other opposition parties to take power from Stephen Harper after an election, just as Stéphane Dion had tried to do in 2008. Ignatieff was trying to explain that if he had his wish, there wouldn’t even be any other opposition parties. He just wanted a fair fight between his Liberals and Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. His attempts to make this argument were not going well. “Let me make it more clear: if you vote for the NDP, if you vote for the Greens, if you vote for the Bloc, you’ll get more of this,” he said, tilting his head back toward the Commons chamber, where the Harper government had so vexed him for two years now. “And Canadians are saying, ‘Enough.’ I can’t be clearer than that.” Tonda MacCharles, who writes for the Toronto Star and does not like vague answers, cut in. “No, you’re not clear at all. You’re not clear at all, sir, actually. Do you believe that a coalition is a legitimate parliamentary option that you will pursue?” Ignatieff smiled wanly. Go talk to the Governor General if you want to debate “abstract constitutional principles,” he said. His formidable eyebrows arched up, then pressed downward and together, like twin dolphins at yoga class. He rambled on a bit more. There is a 2004 novel by the Toronto journalist and author Patricia Pearson called Play10

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ing House. Its main character runs into the dashing Harvard academic and essayist Michael Ignatieff at an Italian restaurant in New York City. She’s briefly smitten. “He was, I mused, everything that I’d ever dreamed suitable,” Pearson’s narrator says. “Accomplished, bold, socially gracious, a touch mischievous, emotionally pent-up in a wonderfully provocative way. One could sense real excitement within that crumpet. I was half in love with him by the time he’d analyzed the Middle East and the tartufo had arrived.” But that was seven years ago, in the pages of a novel. This was right now under TV lights. The leader of the oldest political party in Canada looked as though he might turn to salt. Finally, Terry Milewski from the CBC put Ignatieff out of his misery and into some deeper misery. “Surely this coalition monkey is going to stay on your back every day of the campaign,” the veteran broadcaster scolded him. “Because people will assume that if you don’t rule it out, that’s because you’ve got something to hide.” Ignatieff’s forehead was shiny as he started to perspire. “You’re buying the Conservative line here. There’s nothing to hide. I am saying as clearly as I can to the Canadian people, looking them straight in the eye”—here he focused his gaze into the TV camera directly in front of him, so it would seem to a television viewer that Ignatieff really was looking him in the eye—“if you want to replace the Harper government, you’ve got to vote Liberal. It can’t be clearer than that.” With that, Ignatieff wheeled 90 degrees and fled to the safety of a nearby corridor, his telegenic MPs marching briskly in his wake. The beginning of the election was still a day away. The Liberal leader was already fighting ghosts. He couldn’t get a clear shot at Harper because he had to wrestle with something he might someday do, or not do, depending. It was like struggling in molasses. A week later, with the campaign under way, a senior Liberal campaign strategist sat in a leather chair in a Toronto office tower and looked back on that scrum as the first sign of trouble in the Liberal campaign. “I thought it was a terrible day,” the strategist said. MAY 16, 2011

“I thought he didn’t answer the question right on the coalition thing—a total Ottawa issue which I hadn’t heard a single person outside of Ottawa talk about. But anyway, I understand why it is what it is. “But I thought he looked bad; he looked evasive answering the question. He was sweaty. I don’t think he was dressed properly. Other than that, I thought it was a terrific day.” The strategist paused to consider whether he had laid on the sarcasm so thickly that his meaning might be obscured. He decided clarity would be best: “I thought it was just a shitty day.” Oh, well. The campaign hadn’t even started yet. Five weeks of rallies and speeches lay ahead. Ignatieff had trained for this for a year. No opposition party leader could choose, alone, the moment a campaign began. But right now, hard on the heels of a deeply unimpressive Conservative budget, was the moment the Liberals had used for months as the basis of their election planning. Ignatieff had the best staff, the best equipment, the most up-to-date software, the most motivated troops any Liberal leader had brought to a fight in at least a decade. But there was something big he did not know, or maybe he knew it in his heart but still hoped it wasn’t true. The something big was this: this campaign had started long ago. Its central target was Ignatieff himself. He and his party had already taken hits so severe that he could not now recover.

Not a politician Most stories about Michael Ignatieff’s return to Canada after many years abroad begin with three Liberal activists—Ian Davey, Alf Apps and Dan Brock—visiting him at Harvard University in early 2005. But the story really begins a little earlier, in December 2004, when Ignatieff was in Toronto to deliver a dinner lecture. Apps invited him to the boardroom at his law firm, Fasken Martineau, with Brock, another Fasken lawyer, and a few other Liberals. Ignatieff showed up with his wife, Zsuzsanna Zsohar. Ignatieff said he felt his roots were with the Liberals. His hosts said the party, after only a year of Paul Martin, needed fresh leadership. The meeting ended with Ignatieff saying he was flattered and he had been thinking about Canadian politics for years—especially since the close call of the 1995 referendum. What was the selling proposition for a guy like this? “Not a politician,” Brock said this Central target: The Tories painted Ignatieff as

a schemer, an opportunist, malicious

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Election Special

spring. “Not part of the internal struggles magnetism,” Newman wrote. in the party in the previous decade. In a curiAt the convention, Ignatieff fumbled for a ous way, a liability of being away, we thought, bit on the podium after realizing he had lost could be converted to a positive: somebody a page of his prepared text, then delivered a coming in with a different perspective. Flu- very loose-fitting vision of Liberalism built ently bilingual. Notwithstanding having on national unity, Canadian sovereignty and been away, had a good understanding of the social justice. Less than a year later, he was country. And was a risk-taker. Bold and a candidate for the party’s leadership after provocative.” Paul Martin managed to lose to Stephen His admirers wrangled Harper. The timing wasn’t an invitation for Ignatieff ideal. “None of us thought to deliver a keynote speech it was a good idea for him ‘He looked bad; at the national Liberal conto be in the leadership race He looked evasive after his first election,” Brock vention in early 2005. Peter on tHe coalition C. Newman, the patriarch told Maclean’s. of Canadian political jourBut you play the hand question,’ said a nalism, wrote a week earlier you’re dealt. Ignatieff ’s CV liberal strategist made him the 2006 leaderin the National Post to explain what it all meant. ship campaign’s front-runHere was a leader born and bred, Newman ner. His fondness for freewheeling conversawrote, for a party that has often preferred to tion made him an easy target. He said he “pluck from obscurity an untried but inspir- wasn’t losing sleep over the war that erupted ing outsider.” King! Pearson! Trudeau! All that summer between Israel and Hezbollah had come from outside to shake up the party. forces in Lebanon, then overcompensated And now this crumpet. “Even those untutored by calling the Israeli bombing of Qana “a war Liberal apparatchiks who think charisma is crime.” “In the high relief of media reporting a brand of French perfume will recognize his and then the dynamic of a leadership race, it 12

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was incendiary,” Brock said. “So did it need fixing? Listen, you can’t succeed in politics if you have a propensity to light yourself on fire.” Ignatieff set about learning how to douse flames, and then to avoid igniting them. After he lost the December 2006 leadership vote to Stéphane Dion, he worked methodically on rehabilitating his image. He wrote a long article for the New York Times Magazine recanting his support for the Iraq war. He visited Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto to try to correct the impression he was anti-Israel. He muzzled his earlier support for constitutional reform as a remedy to Quebec nationalism. His admirers worried he might become too bland. “So many people in the party said, after the first leadership race, ‘He needs to become a better politician. He needs to be better at politics,’ ” Brock said. “And our sense was, that’s a mistake. The moment he becomes a good politician, he loses the sense of being kind of over politics.” Late in 2008, Dion lost the next federal election badly. Ignatieff announced again for the Liberal leadership. But then, weeks after the election, the Harper government deliv-

DARRYL DYCK/CP; PRevious sPReAD: PHoToGRAPH BY CHRisToPHeR PiKe

Not this again: The coalition question would dog Ignatieff on the campaign trail; in Abbotsford, B.C. (above), during his 2010 cross-country tour

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Election Special ered a fall economic update that threatened to end public funding for political parties; the great coalition crisis of 2008 was on. Dion and Jack Layton organized an alternative government with Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe’s support. Ignatieff was a reluctant conscript—the last to sign the letter to the governor general that every opposition MP signed, as if his place on the document made any difference. The coalition effort collapsed. Dion resigned. Ignatieff ’s opponents in the leadership race threw in the towel. The dejected Liberals handed him the leadership months before any formal mechanism could ratify the coronation. Still a rookie in federal politics, Ignatieff had become the third Liberal leader, after Bill Graham and Dion, in three years. The party had never known such frequent turnover at the top. Pierre Trudeau led it right through the ’70s, Jean Chrétien for all of the ’90s. You used to be able to build your life and career around that party. Now the whole organization was buffeted and exhausted by wave after wave of defeat and failed renewal. A few hawks around Ignatieff, including Ian Davey, wanted to provoke an election immediately and take the idea for a coalition into an election in early 2009. It would split the country, but Ignatieff and Layton might take the upper hand. Party veterans, including the aging Sen. David Smith, told Ignatieff the party was in no shape for such a fight. Ignatieff, unready for the top job and unsure of himself, decided he needed a pause. He extricated himself from the coalition with Layton by supporting Harper’s January 2009 budget. But he tried to look tough by demanding updates every four months on the budget’s progress. “We’re putting Stephen Harper on probation,” he told the cameras. What he had done was give Harper an excuse to spend millions bragging that he was spending billions. “You make a deal that says every three months they’re going to issue a report on how they’re doing on the recovery plan,” Brock said. “And every three months they do a major media show to talk about all the great things they’re doing. So I don’t know where that idea came from, but it was a colossally stupid one. We had let the PM off the hook.” Stephen Harper on the rebound was a dangerous character. On May 13, 2009, the Conservatives launched a multi-million-dollar ad campaign against the new Liberal leader. The long-time expat bon vivant was “just visiting,” the ads warned. “He didn’t come back for you.” The architect of the campaign was Patrick Muttart, a soft-spoken political consultant whose fastidious market research and flair 14

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for communication made much of the dif- leader brought to mind a passage from forference between Harper’s 2004 defeat and mer British prime minister Tony Blair’s 2010 his 2006 victory. Muttart had the party regis- memoir, A Journey. Blair explains how he did ter a website in Montenegro so its URL could away with a succession of Tory opponents. be www.ignatieff.me, reinforcing the notion “So I defined [John] Major as weak; [Wilthat the Liberal was “just in it for me.” They liam] Hague as better at jokes than judgment; stuffed it full of embarrassing old quotes. Ads [Michael] Howard as an opportunist; [David] ran for weeks on television and radio. Cameron as a flip-flop, not knowing where “I don’t think we really understood how he wanted to go,” Blair writes. effective it would be if done over a sustained “Expressed like that, these attacks seem flat, period of time between writ periods,” Brock rather mundane almost, and not exactly said. “We thought, ‘Canadians are going to inspiring—but that’s their appeal. Any one of reject this, because this is just over the top. those charges, if it comes to be believed, is Canadians are going to say, actually fatal. Yes, it’s not “You shouldn’t be doing this.” like calling your opponent ’ And that’s exactly wrong. The 2009 budgeT deal a liar, or a fraud, or a villain, Canadians aren’t going to a hypocrite, but the midwas a ‘colossally or dle-ground-floating voter say that. They’re too busy sTupid one. we had kind of shrugs their shoulliving their lives. They pay a little bit of attention to leT The pM off The ders at those claims. They [politics], and if that little chime. They’re too hook,’ says brock. don’t bit of attention is dominover the top, too heavy, and ated by a particular message, they represent an insult, not effectively delivered and repeated over and an argument. Whereas the lesser charge, over again, it’s going to sink in. And it did.” because it’s more accurate and precisely The ad barrage must have felt like a carpet because it’s more low-key, can stick. And if it bombing, but in many ways it was more like does, that’s that. Because in each case, it means a surgical strike. Halfway through the 2011 they’re not a good leader. So game over.” campaign, a Conservative war room operative sat down in an Ottawa pub to discuss the ‘It was Bob Rae’s idea’ party’s entire strategy against Ignatieff. In September 2009, Ignatieff arrived in Sud“They say that we try to portray Ignatieff bury for the annual Liberal end-of-summer in our ads and so on as a weak and flailing caucus retreat. He was in a fix. He had spent professor,” the war room staffer said. “No, the spring demanding changes to Employment that’s how we portrayed Dion. Dion was weak, Insurance to make it easier for jobless victims you know, Dion was ‘not a leader.’ We’ve of the recession to get benefits. This was worth never said Michael Ignatieff isn’t a leader. fighting an election over, he said. Harper sent We’ve never called him weak. And we’ve never emissaries to discuss the notion, but negotiacalled him a flip-flopper. Even when he chan- tions had come to nothing, and now Ignatieff ges his mind, we don’t say he’s a flip-flopper. had to decide what to do about it. At this sort of event, the leader always Michael Ignatieff, in our narrative, is a political opportunist who is calculating, who will gives an opening speech to his assembled MPs and senators. “In June, we set out four do and say anything to get elected. “He’s a schemer. When he says one thing tests for Stephen Harper,” Ignatieff said. “Mr. and then he changes his mind the next week, Harper, you’ve failed all four. After four years it’s not because he’s indecisive and a flip- of drift, four years of denial, four years of flopper. It’s because he’s an opportunist who division, four years of discord”—here he will say different things to different people. stared right into the camera facing him— I don’t think we’ve even used the phrase, even “Mr. Harper, your time is up.” The caucus internally, ‘He’s a malicious human being.’ applauded. “Give ’im the boot!” a voice from But that’s kind of the sentiment we’re getting the crowd said. Ignatieff did a nervous little at. With Dion, we were trying to portray him fist-pump thing to demonstrate a simulaas weak. You can’t trust him to lead us out of crum of enthusiasm. Ignatieff’s staff was quietly appalled. “None the economic recovery because he’s a weak man. With Ignatieff, it’s ‘He’s a bad man,’ of us thought that was a good idea. We didn’t right? He’s someone you don’t want your have the tools to bring the government down daughter to marry, right?” on our own,” Brock said. Then whose idea The Conservative staffer’s laudable effort was this? “Bob Rae’s.” to specify the precise nature of this sustained A couple of days before the speech, Ignatiassault on the character of a national party eff convened senior members of caucus to MAY 16, 2011

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discuss the meeting. “Bob’s exact line was, ‘You campaigning. The tour’s less obvious purpose can’t be half-pregnant. Either we’re taking was to give Liberals on the ground a reason these guys on or we’re not. And if we’re tak- to pick up their game. “So where we had a ing them on, say so.’ Seems sensible, except it candidate, for example, in London West, we completely ruins your room to manoeuvre.” would call the candidate and call that person’s As a reward for acting bold, Ignatieff failed team and say: ‘Okay, you’ve got to build us a to defeat Harper in the Commons. Jack Lay- 400-person summer event,’” a senior Liberal ton and the NDP supported the Conserva- organizer said. “And if they could do it, you tives. For trying to force an election, the Lib- could get a sense that they were ready.” erals sank in the polls while the Conservatives For every stop on Ignatieff’s bus tour, teams soared. “People were getting disheartened. of local Liberals had to have a venue and a The poll numbers were discouraging,” Brock crowd waiting. They were practising for a camsaid. “And Ignatieff personally just completely paign, along with Ignatieff. The goal: “Get the lost his confidence. Comleader ready, but at the same pletely lost his time get the ground realizconfidence.” ‘The biggesT misTake ing that we’re in a fight,” the Four days before Halloworganizer said. At one stop was Telegraphing on the endless and encoureen 2009, minutes before 5 p.m., rumours started flyaging Ignatieff bus tour, Their inTenTions ing around Ottawa that Sorbara turned to Donolo To bring down Ignatieff had fired his chief and said, “The Liberal party The governmenT’ of staff, Ian Davey, his comis not dead. The Liberal party munications director, Jill was just having a little nap, Fairbrother, and Brock, his principal secretary. Peter Donolo, who had served as Jean Chrétien’s spokesman through most of the 1990s, was the new chief of staff. It was a desperation move. According to one rumour, the party of Chrétien and Trudeau had sunk to 18 per cent in internal overnight polls. Patricia Sorbara, a long-time Ontario Liberal organizer, was reading about Donolo’s appointment online when her phone rang. It was Donolo. “Are you calling to talk about how crazy you are?” she asked him. “No,” Donolo said, “to talk about how crazy you’d be to come with me.” The two had dinner at Terroni, an Italian restaurant in downtown Toronto. Neither knew Ignatieff well. Neither had worked hard for the national party for more than a decade. But lifelong partisans hear calls of duty where others might hear only cries of despair. Donolo would be the ideas man. Sorbara would bring discipline and order. Most of the bright young staffers Davey had hired would stay. The party they were going to help Ignatieff run was in lousy shape. It needed fresh policy The budget that never was: Harper and and a campaign-ready leader, but most of all Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on budget day it needed an organization on the ground. Donolo and Sorbara visited meetings of the and we’ve managed to wake it up.” When Ignatieff hired them, Donolo and party’s provincial wings, where they spotted riding presidents who’d held the same jobs Sorbara had asked for a year to get ready for 30 years earlier. They’d stepped back into their the next election. By the fall of 2010, the year old roles because there was nobody else around was up. Liberals started to tell one another to do them. It was hardly a sign of strength. it would soon be time for an election, and A thinkers’ conference in Montreal helped then, being Liberals, they began to tell reporrefresh the party’s storehouse of ideas. A sum- ters. Late last fall, La Presse ran a column by mer-long bus tour by Ignatieff was obviously Vincent Marissal in which he quoted senior designed to get him used to the rigours of Liberals who said they didn’t intend to let 16

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MAY 16, 2011

the next Harper budget pass a confidence vote if they could help it. The Conservatives took Marissal’s column as gospel, and pounced. “If the Conservative party wins again, I think the single biggest strategic mistake the Liberal party made was telegraphing their intentions to bring down the government in the fall of 2010,” a senior Harper strategist said. “This basically gave the Conservative party and the operatives and the people who control the money licence to do two things: one, delay the budget as long as possible; and two, start an attack-ad campaign as early as possible and run it as long as possible.” Jim Flaherty had delivered the 2009 budget on Jan. 27, a not unusual time. This year he waited and waited before finally admitting he would deliver one on March 23. The Conservatives filled the space with by far the longest and heaviest anti-Ignatieff advertising barrage they had ever run. Earlier campaigns had run a few weeks. “This one went on for part of January, all of February and almost all of March,” the Harper strategist said. “And the Grits actually did that to themselves.” Of course, whenever the Conservatives started a new ad barrage, the Liberals debated about how to respond. Bob Richardson, a Toronto lobbyist who would be in charge of campaign advertising, figured the campaign was on as soon as the Conservatives fired a shot, and was eager to fight back. Donolo had the same instinct. Gordon Ashworth was Ignatieff’s campaign manager, a role he had played every time Jean Chrétien ran for prime minister. He was more worried than his younger colleagues about the cost of an ad war before an election. Down in the polls and saddled with a leader still learning the craft, the Liberals were not an effective fundraising organization. Ashworth also insisted the Conservative ads wouldn’t do lasting damage, although that attitude may have been influenced by the cost of a real fight back, even if Ashworth had wanted one. “It was a fight that we simply could not win,” a participant in those debates said, “because [the Conservatives] had more resources than we did.” In the end, the Liberals and NDP finally produced some ads to counter the Conservative barrage. But only the Conservatives had the resources, thanks to effective fundraising, to fund more than a token display. In the weeks before the budget, a Liberal strategist said, the Conservatives bought airtime to run 1,600 ads. “We had 131, and the NDP had, like, 25 or something,” the Liberal said. “It was a massacre.”

FRED CHARTRAND/CP

Election Special

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Election Special PHOTO ESSAY

MEATY ISSUES

Taking part in a long political tradition—the campaign BBQ circuit—the rail-thin Liberal leader ate his way across Canada Winnipeg

Vaughan, Ont. 18

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Montreal

St. Isidore, Ont.

Saint John, N.B.

Vancouver

Toronto RYAN REMIORZ/CP; CHRISTINNE MUSCHI/REUTERS; ADRIAN WYLD/CP; MARK BLINCH/REUTERS; PAUL CHIASSON/CP; JONATHAN HAYWARD/CP

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MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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Election Special CHAPTER TWO

Not feeling the love Harper was tightly controlled, Ignatieff loose and freewheeling. Layton? Just a guy most Canadians would rather have a beer with. If everyone involved is telling the truth about what happened on budget day, then the election happened because the Conservatives and New Democrats didn’t understand each other. Brad Lavigne is a former chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. Since 2009 he’s been the national director of the NDP, appointed with a mandate to make the party ready for an election at any moment. On March 23 he and Jack Layton read the budget Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was about to table. “It became obvious very quickly that the Conservatives wanted an election,” Lavigne said later. In fact, Flaherty had told a news conference a few hours before his budget speech that he had made specific concessions to obtain NDP support. So the Conservatives thought they were being conciliatory, and the New Democrats didn’t see any sign of it. Stephen Harper’s government fell into the gap between those two viewpoints. “The PM didn’t want an election,” a Conservative war room operative said later, once the campaign had begun. “That’s not spin, that’s a reality. I know that for a fact because I was in the budget lock-up so I got briefed on the budget before the journalists got briefed on it. And so we all saw the budget, and our reaction was, ‘Wow, maybe this guy really does want to win the confidence vote,’ you know? ‘Not only are there no poison pills. There are genuine attempts to reach out.’ ” But how far? At Harper’s invitation, Layton had met with the Prime Minister in the Langevin Block, a 19th-century sandstone building across Wellington Street from the Parliament Buildings, five weeks before budget day. Layton had listed measures he wanted to see in a budget. These included restoring the EcoEnergy home retrofit program, increasing the Guaranteed Income Supplement, bolstering the Canada Pension Plan and hiring more doctors and nurses. Both leaders’ offices said later it was a cordial chat. Harper decided Layton could settle for not quite half a loaf. The budget included $400 20

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million for energy retrofits but didn’t make the program permanent. And it enriched the Guaranteed Income Supplement, though less than Layton had hoped. There was nothing on the other demands. But the Conservatives figured Layton was not eager for an election. He was recovering from hip surgery and cancer treatment, walking with a cane. All the polls showed the NDP riding low. Surely Layton would take what they had offered as cover for a tactical retreat. Sometimes you guess wrong. “Mr. Harper had an opportunity to address the needs of hard-working middle-class Canadians and families, and he missed that opportunity. He just doesn’t get it,” Layton told reporters in the Commons foyer, minutes after Flaherty’s budget speech. “New Democrats will not support the budget as presented.” The “as presented” bit made everybody run around for a few hours trying to figure out whether Layton was hoping to be wooed with new concessions, but nothing came of it. Politically, the budget was dead. But the government had not yet been defeated. That happened on Friday, when the three opposition parties passed a Liberal motion of nonconfidence over the contempt-of-Parliament finding. The Conservatives would spend the entire campaign saying it was their budget that had triggered the election. “Our messaging was always: we’re defeated on the budget,” the Conservative war room staffer said. “You know, we kind of elide that distinction as to the specific vote on which we were defeated.” Harper’s campaign message was that he wanted to focus on the economy and his opponents were interested only in mischief. In contrast, the war room staffer said, “They had a narrative going in which was: this is going to be a campaign about contempt and disrespect for democracy.” Note that “they,” here, refers to the Liberals. For the Conservatives, for more than half of the campaign, there was no other opponent. Harper wanted to deny the Liberals a chance to tell the story Ignatieff wanted to MAY 16, 2011

tell. The Coalition Monkey that Terry Milewski and others perceived on Ignatieff ’s back helped. Properly rattled by the leader’s flopsweat scrum in the Commons foyer after the confidence vote, the Liberal campaign staff finally sat down and wrote out a statement for Ignatieff on the coalition question. “Let’s be clear about the rules,” the statement said over Ignatieff ’s signature. “Whoever leads the party that wins the most seats on election day should be called on to form the government,” the statement read. And that would be the end of that? Not quite. “If that is the Liberal party, then I will be required to rapidly seek the confidence of the newly elected Parliament. If our government cannot win the support of the House, then Mr. Harper will be called on to form a government and face the same challenge.” A-ha! What if Harper failed that challenge? What if the opposition parties ganged up to defeat his government? Guy Giorno, who was Harper’s chief of staff through the end of 2010, was his campaign manager now. Giorno, a Toronto lawyer, had been famously taciturn at the PMO, never speaking to any reporter about anything the government did. Now he spent his days sending out a surprising number of messages every day on Twitter. “Ignatieff statement pretty clear he will try to form government even if Harper wins most seats,” Giorno tweeted as soon as the statement was out. Reporters at Rideau Hall asked Harper whether this was in fact Ignatieff ’s plan. You bet it is, Harper said. Reporters replied: but what about a letter Harper, Layton and Gilles Duceppe sent to the governor general in 2004 after Paul Martin won a majority? Oh, that wasn’t about a coalition, Harper said. Gilles Duceppe has a Twitter account too. “Harper lied to the people, he agreed with the coalition,” the Bloc leader tweeted. For the next three days, every national leader had to face questions about whether they were planning a coalition government after May 2. Harper, meanwhile, was asked continually whether he had plotted to form one in the past. This was fine with the Conservatives. “The PM has, according to our focus groups, so much source credibility on coalitions—by which I mean Canadians just don’t believe he’s going to form a coalition. They just don’t believe it,” the Conservative war room staffer said. “Regardless of what was happening in 2004, they just Say it with me: Harper’s stump speech was

so similar each time out that reporters began reciting it under their breath along with him

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don’t believe it. And so our view was that by keeping that in the news, by keeping the word ‘coalitions’ in the news, it was probably still a net positive, even though guys like Terry Milewski and so on were focusing on our coalition, not Ignatieff’s coalition.” Harper is one of the great fatalists in Canadian politics. He does not expect the world to be perfect, so he is sanguine when trouble comes his way. He asks only that it not be the trouble his opponents wished upon him. “To the extent that Ignatieff wanted at least the first week of the election to be dominated by coverage of contempt, he failed miserably,” the Conservative staffer said.

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MAY 16, 2011

PHOTOGRAPH BY PeTeR BReGG; PReviOus sPReAd: JAsON RANsOM/PMO

Who do you love While Harper was visiting the Governor General, the Conservatives released their first two campaign ads. One was an attempt to frame the “ballot question,” the idea that Conservatives hoped would stick in the heads of voters right through to voting day. “Ballot question” is a term of art among political strategists, but the Harper Conservatives have never thought it is possible to be too literal-minded, so this one began with an election ballot unfolding to reveal the words of a question. Ballot. Question. “What’s this election all Gearing up: Layton, with his chief of staff Anne McGrath, before a town hall meeting in Toronto about?” a soothing female voice asked. “It starts with leadership. Stephen Harper has Taken together, the two ads stripped the The Conservative mentioned a Léger poll led our country through a global recession Conservative message to its essence: our guy that ran in newspapers of the Sun chain at with a steady, determined hand . . . why would good, your guy bad. This was not a profes- the start of the campaign. It asked which we risk changing course?” sion of faith. It matched the market research leader Canadians wanted to have a beer with, The second ad, perhaps unsurprisingly, that Muttart, Giorno and the rest of the Con- which one they wanted as a neighbour, and made fun of Ignatieff. “Fact,” said a male servative campaign used compulsively to test so on. “About the same number of Canvoice in a tone of unmistakable disdain. In what would work with voters. “The one thing adians said they would want their daughter case anyone had missed that, a single word the internal polling is showing is that across to marry Elizabeth May as would want their appeared on the screen: “FACT.” “This elec- the country, ‘Stephen Harper/Michael Ignati- daughter to marry Michael Ignatieff.” In tion, a vote for the Liberals eff ’ is more advantageous both cases the number in question was about is a vote for Michael Ignatito us than ‘candidate vs. seven per cent. candidate,’ ” the Conservaeff,” the voice said. Words Lost in this fascination with a fairly small ‘angry stephen’ on the screen supplemented tive war room staffer said. subset of the Léger data was the pollster’s tended to emerge this information: “A VOTE “That is to say, if you do top-line conclusion. The leader likeliest to if harper had to FOR THE LIBERALS IS A [Fabian] Manning,” a New- look like marrying material for respondents’ VOTE FOR MICHAEL answer more than foundland Conservative can- daughters was Jack Layton. Their preferred IGNATIEFF.” The ad cut to didate, “against whoever neighbour was Layton. Their favourite hockey five questions black-and-white footage of he’s running against, Man- coach for their kids was Layton. Respondents Ignatieff (identified in block ning’s margin is smaller than wanted to have a beer with Layton and would letters as MICHAEL IGNATIEFF) saying, Stephen Harper vs. Michael Ignatieff in New- rather have him as their parent. They did “Nobody speaks for the Liberal Party of Can- foundland. By which I mean that [Harper]’s score Harper over Layton as the best-dressed ada but me.” Together, the snide voice and the guy who wins us. He’s the only reason that leader, but as for the rest, it was a clean sweep. block letters then informed viewers that this we’re talking about winning a majority.” “Jack Layton is the nice guy. The good guy. was the tale of an OPPORTUNIST who liked Hence the “somewhat imbecilic” Ignatieff’s- The buddy,” Léger vice-president Christian HIGHER TAXES and preferred a RECKLESS a-Liberal ad, this staffer said. “That summar- Bourque said. COALITION. izes our appeal. It is, ‘You may even consider What he wasn’t, for now, was the guy votThe 30-second ad managed to find room yourself a Liberal, but if you vote Liberal you’re ers were flocking to see. Layton kicked off at the end to repeat that a Liberal vote was voting for that guy.’ And if Canadians are his campaign at the Château Laurier in Ottawa an Ignatieff vote, and to replay that clip of thinking that, that does more to move votes and then hit the road, stopping in Edmonton, then doubling back to Regina and Moose in our corner than any other question.” Ignatieff speaking for Liberals.

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Jaw. “Here in Saskatchewan, only New Democrats defeat Conservatives,” he said again and again on the latter stops. He was not saying it to large rooms. “Did you hear about Jack last night?” Peter Donolo asked reporters as Michael Ignatieff ’s tour buses rolled down Spadina Avenue in Toronto. “Regina. Birthplace of the NDP. Seventy people in the room.” Donolo shook his head in an approximation of sympathy. Nobody was less surprised than Brad Lavigne when the NDP didn’t light the country on fire during Layton’s first week on the road. This was their fourth campaign together, and before it began, Lavigne had assembled the entire NDP staff in their renovated downtown Ottawa headquarters for a pep talk. “I said, ‘Anybody who is here for their first time, we’ll walk you through the ground rules.’ Giving them the vision of the campaign. And I remember we said, ‘Listen, I’m going to make you two promises. The polls are going to go up; and the polls are going to go down. The key thing to remember is that when they go up, you don’t slow down your work and you don’t get overconfident. And when the polls go down, you don’t slow down your work and get disappointed. We know where we need to go. We know what we need to do in this campaign.” Lavigne also knew what the competition would do. This took no particular insight.

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Harper had been repeating for two years that “There will either be Mr. Ignatieff, put in power he saw the next election as a choice for vot- by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, or there ers between a Conservative majority and an will be what Canada needs . . . a strong, stable, opposition coalition. He first made the argu- majority Conservative government.” ment, at length, in an interview with MacIt was stultifying. But the whole thing was lean’s in January 2009. He had never wavered hand-stitched with exquisite care. “More so from that message since. than the last campaign, we have aggressively As far as Lavigne was concerned, the Liber- focus-tested our script,” the war room staffer als had already tipped their hand in an article said. “You know, words like, ‘Unless Canadians in Maclean’s published elect a stable national majorbefore the 2011 campaign ity Conservative government, began. “They basically said, they will get this.’ We phrase Layton was ‘the ‘The New Democrats at 19 it that way. We don’t say, ‘We nice guy’ in poLLs. want per cent and the Bloc at 10 a majority.’ We say, But he wasn’t, for ‘Unless you do this, you will per cent, we need to get those numbers down,’ ” Lavigne now, the one voters get that.’ It’s deliberate.” Harper had begun rolling said, paraphrasing the Liberal argument. “Essentially were fLocking to see. out new policy, such as an saying, ‘They have no right income-splitting scheme to reduce couples’ tax burden, but only after to be this high.’ ” Lavigne knew the Liberals, with their road- the deficit was eliminated, a few years down tested leader and his handpicked staff and the road. Ignatieff was making extravagant accompanying armies of veteran reporters fun of it all. “He’s not going to deliver it until who still remembered how to cover a Liberal rainwater turns to beer!” triumph, were coming right at him. “They But the Conservative staffer swore these did exactly what they said they were going odd, time-delayed promises would work to to do. It’s the old jiu jitsu. They’re coming at Harper’s advantage. “Focus-tested, that’s our supporters, saying, ‘You must vote for what Canadians want. You put Ignatieff ’s us. You have no choice.’ promise of ‘now’ versus Harper saying, ‘We’re “But flip it over. Say, ‘Wait a minute. You going to balance the books and then we’re going to do it,’ in our focus groups our target do have a choice.’ ” demographic prefers it phrased the way A sea of troubles Harper phrases it.” Easy to say. Who was listening? Ignatieff had As for the cap on questions—four from the half the press gallery bigfeet on his bus and travelling Ottawa bigfeet, one from a local Harper had the rest on his. The emerging reporter—that was partly strategy, but it was story by the end of the campaign’s first week mostly just word from the top. “The PM was the contrast in the two leaders’ styles. doesn’t like taking more than five questions. Harper had an event every morning at a You can’t force the PM to do something he secluded location in front of a handpicked doesn’t want. The PM doesn’t care who asks crowd at which he’d re-announce part of his the five questions, but he says, ‘I’m walking budget and take five questions from repor- after five questions.’ ” ters. Never six. Every afternoon, somewhere For at least one of his senior advisers, that else, he’d attend an invitation-only rally where was just fine. Jenni Byrne was a young veteran he would stare at a teleprompter screen and of Conservative campaigns, but for the first read a tale of woe. He told a crowd west of time she had the top role as campaign direcMontreal that it was great to be in Quebec. tor. Hers was more of an operational role than “But this is not where I should be. All mem- Giorno’s. Her loyalty to the leader was absobers of Parliament should be in Ottawa work- lute but not blind. She believed Harper’s ing on the economy. We should be working uncanny ability to pound a message home could derail in two ways. Sometimes he became to protect our economic advantage.” In St. John’s, he repeated language so fam- “Angry Stephen,” getting way too hot for his iliar the reporters at the back of the room were own good. And sometimes he became “Proalready reciting it under their voices along fessor Stephen,” wandering off into theoretical with him. “Yes, Canada is doing relatively well. discussions that produced awkward news clips. But a sea of troubles is lapping at our shores.” The longer he talked, the more likely Angry And in that uncertain world, Canada itself Stephen and Professor Stephen were to wanwas facing more uncertainty. “There won’t be der by. In 2008, Harper said the looming global a Conservative minority government after recession presented “great buying opportunthis election,” he told the crowd in St. John’s. ities.” That visit from Professor Stephen bought MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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that campaign a week of trouble, and according to lore around the Conservative war room, it came in response to a seventh question. So seventh questions were banned. In contrast to Harper’s utter discipline, Ignatieff ’s campaign was hurtling toward something like free jazz. On March 29 at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., he gave a detailed presentation of his plan to make university tuition more affordable. But it was the evening rallies he liked, and when he turned a couple of them into town-hall events where anyone could ask him about anything, he was hooked. 24

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He had rehearsed the town hall format throughout his 2010 tours. The Liberals had a catchy name for them: “Open Mike.” He was Mike. He was open. “It was an attempt to strike the contrast” between Ignatieff and Harper, who is “controlled, hidden, cocooned,” a senior Liberal strategist said. The risk was obvious. If you take a dozen questions on as many topics, you have zero control over the clip that will play on that night’s TV news. But the freewheeling energy of the events was intoxicating to everyone on the Liberal bus. Crucially, Ignatieff had more of his best thinkers, including Donolo, MAY 16, 2011

travelling with him, than Harper did. Caught in the bubble, with no perspective. When the travelling Liberal campaign staff collapsed at tonight’s hotel and turned on the TV, they were bemused by what they saw. None of the Open Mike energy was making it onto the news. The travelling reporters, relaxing down in the hotel bar, were telling one another that this was a fresh, energized Michael Ignatieff. But on the first Thursday-night CBC-TV At Issue panel of the campaign, the pundits said not a word about Open Mike. “It just didn’t get reported,” one disappointed Liberal said.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PeTeR BReGG; JASON RANSOM/PMO

Always by their side: Both Zsuzsanna Zsohar (top, left) and Laureen Harper were regular fixtures on the campaign trail with their husbands

Election Special PHOTO ESSAY

Baby talk When politicians grab their favourite prop, results are always unpredictable

Harper with Journey Benson in Beaumont, Alta.

Duceppe and his granddaughter Jeanne in Montreal

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Ignatieff and Maeby Robertson in Kitchener, Ont.

Layton with Lily Clark in Prince George, B.C. MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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The velocity of indignation The PM had problems: the auditor general kerfuffle, Bruce Carson, the folks kicked out of rallies. The Liberals railed, but the NDP stepped up. Later, when everything went crazy and pollsters started projecting 100 seats for the NDP, the people running the other parties’ campaigns were still mystified about how it happened. Was it the debates? That’s when the New Democrats began a long, steady 26

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climb in the polls. But debates don’t usually blow a campaign wide open, and there wasn’t much in Layton’s performance that anyone could point to as a hall-of-fame moment. Layton’s breakthrough had its roots in events long before the debates. By the camMAY 16, 2011

paign’s end, voters who had never expected to abandon their old allegiances were swinging toward Layton. His performance at the debates, and in the days after, scratched a very specific itch for those voters: a growing frustration with the politics of allegation and accusation that dominated Stephen Harper’s Ottawa. That frustration had been building before the campaign even began, and the 10-day period before the debates was just more evidence that something had to change. For the Liberals it began on a bright note, with the release in Ottawa of the party’s electoral platform. Two years earlier, Ignatieff had told a reporter that the party’s next platform “is not a Red Book.” Now here he stood, waving a red book. Reaffirming basic principles might not be such a bad thing for a

previous page: adrian Wyld/Cp; ryan remiorz/Cp; paul Chiasson/Cp; graham hughes/Cp

CHAPTER THREE

Election Special Shifting tides: By the campaign’s end, voters

SKEPTIC

Andrew VAughAn/CP

who had never expected to abandon their old allegiances were swinging toward Layton

party that had taken a beating. This event played to several strengths of the current Liberal team. Ignatieff spoke off the cuff, and well. The event was webcast on the Internet (the party said nearly 10,000 people watched), so it felt modern. The platform’s themes and the event’s tone were reminiscent of the discussions during Ignatieff ’s April 2010 thinkers’ conference in Montreal, so the Liberals looked like an organization with an attention span and some follow-through. The centrepiece of the platform was a “Family Pack,” designed to pitch the Liberals as a party of modest, pragmatic activism. Five interrelated policies: tuition assistance, stronger pensions, a green renovation tax credit, family care, and a sort of gentle nod in the direction of public child care.

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The platform was an effort to re-establish the party as a champion of working families. This was the “jets, jails and corporate tax cuts” line that Ignatieff and other Liberal MPs had been using since December. Ignatieff said Harper was so eager to throw money around on fighter jets, prisons and tax cuts that ordinary people had to wait for help. Public polls showed there was enough skepticism about every element of that troika that the Liberals could hope for some traction. “They had a pretty good narrative going on public policy choices,” one of Harper’s top advisers admitted. “They were set to go to the electorate with a choice where there was a difference between the parties— and the voters actually recognized that there was a difference.” But the Liberals kept getting distracted by news that seemed to offer a quicker payoff. Scandals, some big, some small, every one irresistible to Liberals. While he was flitting from outrage to outrage, Ignatieff wasn’t speaking coherently about what Liberals would do as a government. Where to begin? At the end of February, four senior Conservatives, including two senators, were charged under the Elections Canada Act with exceeding spending limits under the so-called “in and out” scheme. On March 9, Speaker Peter Milliken ruled that Harper’s government breached parliamentarians’ privileges twice. First, over the crudely rewritten memo to International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda; second, for refusing to answer questions on the cost of those jails and corporate tax cuts. Milliken had already found the government in breach for refusing to share documents relating to the alleged torture of Afghan detainees. Then, in mid-March, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network broke a dynamite story over several nights: Bruce Carson, one of Harper’s most trusted former advisers, had lobbied Indian Affairs to land millions of dollars in water contracts for an Ottawa company where his fiancée, a former escort, worked. A Liberal ad that ran before the campaign showed how hard it was to weave all these stories into a coherent narrative. The ad showed pictures of documents and a photo of a slouchy, glowering Harper. It was all a muddle. The voice-over would have to make the point. Good luck with that. “Stephen Harper. He’s gone too far,” a woman’s voice said. “He’s MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

“I’ve been using the Mach3 for three or four years…” Ori B., Ontario

Election Special refusing to fire his cabinet minister for forging documents and misleading Parliament. He’s shrugging off charges against his inner campaign circle, including senators and top advisers who could face jail time for breaking Canada’s election laws. He’s shut down Parliament to silence his critics. And now he’s dictating that the government of Canada should be called the Harper government.” Huh? As the campaign wore on, the Liberals kept finding stuff to talk about that, a) made your head hurt if you tried to parse it and b) wasn’t their platform. It turned out Bruce Carson had been convicted of fraud five times before he became Harper’s chief fixer, which was three more than the number of convictions Harper claimed to know about before he hired Carson anyway. Meanwhile, the crowd control around Harper’s campaign events started to backfire. A steady trickle of headlines revealed that ordinary Canadians were being turned away from Harper events. In one case, the rejection apparently came because the RCMP had found a picture of the young woman in question standing with Ignatieff on her Facebook page. So much for policy. Ignatieff started devoting large amounts of his town-hall events to welcoming, at Proustian length, anyone from any party who wanted to hear him. “It’s called democracy,” he would drawl in an odd, folksy

accent from no known corner of the globe. In Toronto, Liberal adman Bob Richardson produced an online-only ad on a day’s notice: shots of a computer screen as somebody inspected, and then rejected, some innocent’s Facebook page. The “Hey Stephen Harper, Stop Creeping Me on Facebook” ad passed 100,000 views on YouTube within days. Privately, these attacks drew mixed reactions from bemused Conservatives. After a few days of the ejections-from-rallies stories, Harper’s staff decided to be contrite. Giorno and Byrne found most of the complaints from the travelling press to be self-serving and not worth worrying about. But ordinary people were a different matter. “When [CBCTV reporter] Terry Milewski is asking, ‘Why aren’t you letting me ask another question?’ we kind of like laugh at it,” the Conservative war room staffer said. “When Terry Milewski’s asking, ‘Why are you kicking people out of your rallies?’ we’re like, ‘This is not good. This needs to be fixed.’ ” After three days, Harper bit out a terse apology. But even on more consequential stories about ethics, the calculation was that Liberals couldn’t draw blood because—well, because they were Liberals. “Ethics is not a real wedge for the Liberal party,” a senior Conservative strategist said. “For an issue to be a wedge, you have to be

on one side, the other guys have to be on the other, and the voters have to actually believe that you are on one side and the other guys are on the other.” Liberals couldn’t ever see this, but accountability and ethics were a lousy wedge for them. “It would only work if the voters actually thought the Liberal party was different on these issues. And I know [the sponsorship scandal] isn’t top of mind for most people right now, but the Liberal brand has not exactly been reinvented on this front. People think that they’re a bunch of scoundrels and we’re a bunch of scoundrels.” Accusation and counter-accusation are frustrating in any era. What made this year different was the unprecedented velocity of the indignation. Laptop computer software has collapsed the cost of video editing almost to zero. YouTube and Facebook have made spreading these messages effortless. And just about every Ottawa reporter and senior staffers on every campaign had a Twitter account. Adding to the din was now as easy as typing 140 characters and hitting “send.” The odd thing here is that the New Democrats were relative Twitter luddites. Brad Lavigne sent out 14 tweets in the entire five weeks of the campaign. Kathleen Monk, Layton’s communications director, sent out two or three in a day. Whereas on most days Giorno’s Conservative co-workers nearly had to

PHOTOGRAPH BY PeTeR BReGG

Missing the point: Ignatieff, with Jean Chrétien in Toronto (below), didn’t speak coherently about what the Liberals would do as a government

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pry the keyboard from his hands. “He’s full of nervous energy and is obsessive,” the Conservative war room staffer said of Giorno, “and so he sees something and he just becomes obsessed with it. So his obsession is now Twitter. Here he is, he’s the campaign manager, but really, I would say, he spends 90 per cent of his time as the director of Twitter. It would be the equivalent of a cabinet minister really caring deeply about how their travel is booked and spending a lot of their time booking their own travel.”

almost certainly can help us decode it. The ad is all text. For the first half, the background is Tory blue or Liberal red and the music is ominous. Blocks of text spell out the message. “For too long in Ottawa, scandals and political games have gotten in the way of getting anything done,” the text said. A little later: “And now other leaders are telling you that you have no choice. That you have to vote for more of the same.” Who could this be about? The screen helpfully displays a blue door and a red door, just as Ignatieff described them in his flop-sweat scrum. Ready for their close-ups “Doesn’t sound right, does it?” By Monday morning, April 11, the EnglishThe tone of the music changes—to celestial language debate was a day and a half away. trumpets. “They’ve been telling JACK LAYThe Canadian Press newswire moved what TON the same thing for over EIGHT YEARS,” would, in any normal month, have been a the text reads. “Jack Layton has proven them blockbuster story. “The Harper government wrong.” The blue background switches to misinformed Parliament to win approval for orange. The doom music becomes peppy a $50-million G8 fund that lavished money acoustic guitar, Layton’s preferred instrument on dubious projects in a Conservative riding, for serenading trapped reporters on the NDP the auditor general has concluded. And she campaign plane. “Fighting for our families. suggests the process by which the funding Our veterans. Our seniors.” Here the content was approved may have been illegal.” of the pitch changes, from hope to accomThe little corner of Twitter devoted to Can- plishment. “New Democrats sit first or second adian politics promptly exploded. Accusa- in 104 ridings across Canada . . . ridings where tions, spin, new revelations and unanswered only New Democrats defeat Conservatives.” questions from reporters started to ricochet We’ll spare you the rest, except to note that across the ether. “The initial CP story was in the ad’s remaining 45 seconds, the words terrible for us because it accused us of illegal- “You can choose” appear five times. You can choose. “I’ll never ity and contempt of Parliaforget in 2008 when Mr. Layment. Contempt of ParliaThe liberals kepT ment is bad, illegality is ton started talking about terrible,” the Conservative geTTing disTracTed by applying for the job of prime war room staffer said later. Tory scandals—big minister,” Brad Lavigne said. “And so obviously a subse“People said, that is not credand small—in The quent draft was leaked out.” ible. And we didn’t care if The Conservatives found a hopes of a quick payoff the media thought it was later version of Sheila Fracredible. What we wanted ser’s audit which reached almost all the same to do was establish among the electorate that conclusions as the draft the Liberals had you have a leader here that you preferred. And handed to CP, but in more decorous language. you could vote for him locally to get him to “That turned it into a process story as to who that job. That was a path worthy of starting was the leaker. Competing drafts. That’s the to build.” sort of tactic of which Jenni Byrne would Layton had been building for years, of likely approve, because she knows how to course. With perfect hindsight, the former make a quick decision. And she knows that Toronto city councillor now looks like Aesop’s sometimes when you’re losing, muddying tortoise. In his first election as leader, in 2004, the waters is considered a win.” he nearly doubled the party’s anemic share For war rooms, perhaps. Voters might be of the popular vote, to 15.68 per cent, and less inclined to pop the champagne corks. If grew from 13 seats to 19. By 2008, he was up only they had a choice. By coincidence, on to 18 per cent of the vote and 37 seats. Each the day before the auditor-general kerfuffle, gain was a disappointment compared to skythe NDP started running an ad called, “You high expectations, but it was still a gain. In three by-elections last November, the Have A Choice.” At two minutes long, the ad aired only at NDP turned out very little of their vote. That NDP rallies and in those late-night free-time persuaded both the Liberals and the Conad slots nobody watches. It did not produce servatives that Layton’s time had passed. The the shift in attitude toward the NDP. But it NDP leader had struggled with his health for

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MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

BELIEVER “You can really tell the difference. It’s that much smoother.” Ori B., Ontario

more than a year, and largely sat out the Anne McGrath, ran most of the campaign. squabbling about scandals and democracy For the debates, Topp did what he often that so fascinated the big parties and the press does first: he called Romanow for a reminder gallery. But all the while, Lavigne was prepar- about how they used to do things in Saskatching for the next step forward. ewan. Romanow said long discussions of the He assumed Layton would keep his core strategic goals helped him before a debate. support of about 18 per cent of voters. He Rehearsing scripted smart-aleck answers just commissioned market research to tell him made him stiff and nervous. Layton had gone who might listen next. Respondents were the scripted route in his first three leaders’ asked to agree or disagree with the state- debates and had come off, sure enough, as a ment, “I would never vote for the NDP.” stiff and nervous smart-aleck. Topp asked Those who disagreed, but whether he was prepared to weren’t yet NDP supportwing it a bit more. You bet, ers, became the party’s tar‘SometimeS, when Layton said. get voters. If they all suc“The format this year had you’re loSing,’ SayS changed,” cumbed to Layton’s charms Topp said later. one tory war room “There would be a videothey might lift the party’s support to the mid-twenties. Staffer, ‘muddying taped question from an They tended to be older ordinary Canadian, and the waterS iS a win’ then and a tad more affluent a direct exchange than the young renters of between two leaders, and the NDP core. “They are in their 40s and a free-form exchange among all four. So we 50s, and they are squeezed,” Lavigne said. needed two sets of Lego blocks here. First, “They’re simultaneously worried about their a substantive answer. We owed that person who had asked the question a substantive children and their aging parents.” Preparing Layton for the debate was Brian answer. And then in the plenary, saying some Topp’s job. Most of the time he works for the key things that brought out the differences show-business union ACTRA in Toronto. He with other leaders.” Layton and Topp didn’t regard the onespent many years as former NDP premier Roy Romanow’s chief of staff in Saskatch- on-one exchange with Harper as the only ewan, and for some time he has written an highlight of each debate. “In many ways, we online column for the Globe and Mail in had business with all three of the other leadwhich he annoyed Liberals and Conserva- ers.” If an NDP breakthrough in Quebec was tives by predicting Layton’s eventual triumph. going to be blocked, Duceppe would do the In 2006 and 2008 he was effectively Layton’s blocking. Ignatieff had told the world he campaign manager, but this year Topp stood planned to play the same role outside Queback while Lavigne and Layton’s chief of staff, bec. “The Liberal campaign was predicated 30

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MAY 16, 2011

on breaking our vote,” Topp said. “And also part of our vote is parked with the Liberals.” As for Harper, Layton had to appear plausible as an alternative prime minister. Even with this more loose-limbed preparation, Topp still had Layton rehearse. Raymond Guardia, an ACTRA colleague of Topp’s who was the party’s Quebec campaign director, played Harper in the mock debates. Karl Bélanger, a Quebec City native who was Alexa McDonough’s spokesman before he joined Layton, played Gilles Duceppe. Two of the party’s press guys, Drew Anderson and MarcAndré Viau, took turns as Ignatieff in the two official languages. “They were new to simulating Ignatieff, and it was a different guy who showed up every time, which made them actually a lot like him,” Topp said. Okay, maybe they did script Layton’s answers just a bit. Ignatieff would present himself as a champion of democracy, Topp said, “because for about five days the Liberal campaign was about democracy.” Well then. “How do you bomb that bridge?” There had been stories in the papers only recently about Ignatieff ’s lousy attendance record for votes in Parliament. This was simple physics: he had spent months learning how to do a leader’s tour, and you can’t be in two places at once. Still, “That seemed to me to be a vivid way to make our point,” Topp said. “Mr. Ignatieff talks a lot about democracy, but he’s got lead boots.” Freshly rehearsed and relaxed in the Romanow manner, with just a touch of scripting, Layton entered the Ottawa Congress Centre on the evening of Tuesday, April 12.

JASON RANSOM/PMO

Reaching out: Harper, seen here at the Vaisakhi parade in Vancouver, apologized for the turning away of voters from previous Tory rallies

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Election Special PHOTO ESSAY

STRIKING A CHORD Jack Layton was belting out a new tune this spring—starting with singalongs on the campaign plane

At 30,000 feet

Saint John, N.B. 32

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MAY 16, 2011

St. John’s, Nfld.

St. John’s, Nfld.

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Charlottetown PAUL CHIASSON/CP; JACQUES BOISSINOT/CP

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Election Special Chapter four

Turning up the heat The leaders clashed predictably in the TV debates, but the election would soon turn unexpectedly on two key speeches: one by Ignatieff, one by Duceppe The Government Congress Centre across from the Château Laurier used to be the old Ottawa train station. In the 1960s, government planners decided they had a better idea and moved the trains out to a secluded corner of southeastern Ottawa. As is often the case with government planners, this was not, in fact, a better idea. They made taking the train a pain and left one of the grandest buildings in the Parliament Hill precinct nearly derelict. Sometimes men in suits shuffle in for conferences. Once a year, reporters are locked up in the old building for a few hours with sandwiches and copies of the federal budget. And for two nights in April, Stephen Harper faced his tormentors for the nationally televised leaders’ debates. “There was a sense coming out of the debates last time”—in 2008—“that it was a four-onone ambush,” a Conservative strategist said later. “Harper was under attack from all sides, and our positioning in the last debates was too defensive and we didn’t look our best. We knew that we would still face that threeon-one or four-on-one dynamic this time.” In the end it was three. Green party Leader Elizabeth May wasn’t invited. “The goal was to try and recast or reframe it so that rather than looking like we were the ones under attack, there would be a pivot away from the others, into the camera, to use the opportunity to drive the ballot question with the viewers at home. Number one, don’t make a mistake. Number two, try and strategically minimize the others by making a more direct connection with the viewer at home.” And indeed, Harper spent the debate’s first night physically pivoting away from whoever was accusing him of something and staring into the camera. Angry Harper would come out if he fought back at his opponents, so he basically didn’t engage. “That’s simply not true,” he said again and again, before telling the home audience a tale of modest, responsible government that had not very much to do with whatever the other guy had just shouted at him. For his part, Ignatieff spent most of the 34

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night turned toward Harper. The Conservative leader had spent two years making him hurt. Clearly for Ignatieff it was payback time. “You waste public money,” he said in one typical exchange. “That’s the issue. And that’s why the auditor general’s report is saying, not just that you wasted money, but you didn’t tell Parliament the truth about it.” The surprise, perhaps, when Ignatieff came back to Canada, was that this veteran of Harvard and the BBC was not a wonderful debater. In fact, the Liberal leadership debates of 2006 suggested he kind of sucked at it. His skin was thin and his tendency to over-personalize the questions at hand was acute, so that once when Bob Rae made an offhand, not unkind remark about Ignatieff’s mother, Ignatieff wandered way off topic to defend his family’s honour. This horrified his young entourage, and when he became Liberal leader in early 2009, they actually scheduled rehearsal time to improve his game. Dwight Duncan, the Ontario finance minister, would show up for these rehearsals and pretend to be Stephen Harper. He would go up one side of Ignatieff and down the other, and gradually it became harder and harder to get Ignatieff to make time for the sessions. Eventually they stopped. Unfortunately, he couldn’t cancel these debates. In the English debate, Duceppe was off to one end. The luck of the draw plunked Layton down between Ignatieff and Harper. He was able to strike a more conversational tone. The others had to shout past him to get at each other. Layton set about making the populist pitch that had been the basis for Ignatieff ’s “jets, jails and corporate tax cuts” attack. On the tax cuts: “You did get it through,” he said to Harper, “with the support of Mr. Ignatieff, who now, by the way, pretends to oppose the things that he voted for.” Then he made a more general point. “I’m asking myself, because I remember a Stephen Harper once upon a time who came here to change Ottawa. Was going to stick up for the little guy. But you’ve become what you used to oppose.” MAY 16, 2011

And, when his one-on-one with Ignatieff came, Layton bombed the democracy bridge. He talked about Ignatieff ’s lousy attendance record for Commons votes, and by most accounts he probably stretched the truth of that record a bit. But the look on Ignatieff ’s face, as the smile he happened to be wearing at the beginning of the indictment slowly curdled, was probably worth it. “You know, most Canadians, if they don’t show up for work, they don’t get a promotion,” Layton said, slipping in the shiv. Now, here’s the thing: after that debate, when Layton cheerfully whacked Harper for selling out the common man and Ignatieff for needing a map and a guide to find Parliament, a surprising number of Canadians decided he was the only statesman on the stage. The Angus Reid polling group ran a series of focus groups using an Internet-based response tool called Reaction Plus. For years pollsters have sat audiences down and made them watch debates with a dial to record whether they like what they’re seeing or not. Angus Reid measured their responses on 10 different axes to indicate whether they were “curious,” “engaged,” “confused,” “happy” and so on. “The primary reaction of Canadians to the English debate was annoyance,” Angus Reid reported later. “Certain feelings, such as engagement, excitement, happiness and even interest, barely registered.” This would not come as any surprise to anyone who had been knocking on doors for a political candidate so far during the campaign. The next bit is striking and, arguably, crucial, coming as it did after the Conservatives had spent $12 million destroying Michael Ignatieff ’s good name and Ignatieff had devoted much of his own campaign to picking at the bones of Conservative misdeeds. “The level of annoyance grew markedly when the leaders attacked each other, and respondents reacted more favourably to the leaders when concrete policy statements were made, particularly in the areas of the economy, health care and education.” Canadians were sick to tears of watching Harper and Ignatieff go at each other. “The level of interest and happiness definitely soars,” the Reaction Plus report read, “when attacks are avoided and the party leaders express their policy ideas in a clear and concrete fashion.” And despite his digs at Harper Faceoff: In the debates, Ignatieff and Duceppe

went on the attack, and Harper spoke directly to the camera. Layton emerged as the lone statesman in the eyes of many Canadians.

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Ad Lib: Ignatieff ’s ‘Rise Up’ speech was a hit with partisan supporters and the Tory war room, too

sounding the alarm about parallel threats to the nation. The Liberals have always tended toward the apocalyptic in their diagnosis of an opponent’s plans. “Where would Harper’s cuts leave your family’s health? The stakes are too high,” the Liberal ad said, as a cardiogram line on the screen flatlined. This ad came out even Leaning toward apocalypse though Ignatieff had not asked a single quesBut this entire election was stacked to the tion about health care in question period in rafters with leaders who wanted to do any- 2011, and even though the two parties had thing but co-operate. For two years Harper made similar pledges in statements from the had said: give me a majority or anarchy will leaders, but not in their platform documents, take this country down. It was a marvellously to keep increasing health care transfers at six polarizing argument because a little less than per cent per year. half of the electorate—more than enough to The Harper Conservatives have always give Harper a majority, if they all went his preferred narrower incentives. “The iPod tax,” way—thought an opposition coalition would their ad said. Seventy-five dollars extra for be the worst thing that could happen to some tunage! What a buzz kill. “It’s just the Canada. beginning of the coalition’s The rest, however, thought high-tax agenda.” Liberals, a coalition was a pretty good ignatieff was acting Conservatives and reporters idea. There are coalitions in set about merrily debating out moments of the on other countries, after all. Twitter whether the ad Coalitions are about work- debate that felt like had any basis in truth. ing together and overcoming The skirmishes continued. itching powder to differences. And what did A Conservative student at the home audience Guelph University contested those voters see when they looked at the alternatives to the legality of an advance Harper? They saw Ignatieff, who offered them polling station on campus. Overheated early a red door and a blue door. They saw Duceppe, reports claimed, falsely, that he had grabbed whose separatist party destroys the legitim- the ballot box and tried to make off with it. acy of coalitions even when it wants to par- Helena Guergis, dumped from Harper’s cabticipate in them. inet and caucus and running as an independAnd then, as if for the first time, they saw ent, said she’d still like to be a Conservative Jack Layton, whose message was: you have a again. He said no. Twitter buzzed merrily about all of this, as partisans called each other choice. As for the other guys, they filed out of the names in 140 characters or less. Government Congress Centre and kept on Later, Ignatieff ’s staff would admit what whaling the tar out of one another. The they did not see at the time: that all these fiveConservatives and Liberals released ads hour outrages simply came across as white 36

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noise to a population looking for a government. De-emphasizing the “family pack” platform in favour of the so-called health scare ads? “The decision was made during the campaign,” a senior Liberal said, not as part of an advance plan. “It was getting difficult to get a break.” The platform just wasn’t getting any coverage. “It’s unfortunate for us because it was a pretty creative platform.” But once the Liberals started changing channels they couldn’t stop. “The daily Tory scandals may have actually got us off-script. They became distractions, but not enough to cause damage [to the Conservatives].” This was only evident in retrospect. For now, the Ignatieff campaign was running the way its leader did, riffing on whatever came up. Then the weekend came and with it, two speeches: one by Ignatieff, one by Duceppe. They would turn the election. Neither in quite the way its author had hoped.

A tale of two speeches On Friday, April 15, Ignatieff stood in the middle of a hotel ballroom in Sudbury, doing the town hall thing. “While I was on the bus this afternoon I found myself thinking about a wonderful singer called Bruce Springsteen,” he said. “Does everybody like Bruce Springsteen? I like Bruce Springsteen.” He told the crowd about a wonderful song called The Rising. And in that song there’s a wonderful refrain: ‘Rise up.’ ” As armchair Springsteen scholars would soon point out, that refrain is actually in My City of Ruins, but it’s a common error. “And I began thinking about it today. Because we’re in a funny place in this election campaign right now.” Not really all that funny. Ignatieff was crouched forward, the not inconsiderable bulk of his tall body curving gently around

PHOTOGRAPH BY PeTeR BReGG; PReviOus sPReAd: FRed CHARTRAnd/CP

and Ignatieff, respondents felt Layton had done that the most. The next night, the leaders debated in French. Angus Reid stored up a bunch of clips and showed them to focus groups wielding the 10-dimensional Web reaction thingy. “Respondents clearly reacted more strongly to some leaders and themes than to others,” the firm reported later. “Prime Minister Harper elicited strongly negative reactions, no matter what he was talking about. Duceppe and Layton inspire more interest and happy sentiments, whereas Ignatieff provokes a decidedly mixed reaction.” That’s leaders. What about themes? Here again, Angus Reid found that attacking and interrupting were a bad idea. The audience was in a much better mood “when leaders outline concrete policies or talk about working collaboratively more.” Take that as a guide, not merely to understanding the clips a focus group watched after the debates, but to understanding what happened next. Attacks may hurt the victim, but they hurt the attacker too. Co-operation is a big asset.

Tabasum Akseer

BA, Political Science; BEd. MEd candidate, Education. Humanitarian, musician, painter. Goals: Educate children. Enlighten society.

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the microphone in his hand. thin air. Right there on the flight to Regina be leading by more if she were not a profoundly “We’ve got a Prime Minister who shut down they decided to buy a half-hour of TV time unimpressive political performer. Still, the PQ Parliament twice and Canadians kind of eight days hence, on Easter Sunday, to show is fresh out of better ideas for the moment, so shrugged,” he said, quietly. “We’ve got a Prime Michael Ignatieff to Canadians once again. on April 16, delegates gave her a resounding Minister who’s found in contempt of ParliaBut when the “rise up” video went online, 93.08 per cent endorsement as their leader. ment. It’s never happened before in the his- with Ignatieff’s sermon accompanied by quiet Duceppe had once flirted with competing tory of our country and people say, kind of, inspirational music, the reaction from Con- against Marois for the PQ leadership, but ‘So what?’ We got a Prime Minister who tried servatives was surprising. They started shar- now he could use her help, and her partisans’. to shut down the long-form census and people ing the footage as widely as possible. “With The BQ often presents itself as a big tent thought, that’s crazy, but kind of, ‘So what?’ any luck,” the party’s war room communica- within which all Quebecers are welcome, but tions director Jason Lietaer now he decided separatist backbone was And then we have a Prime wrote on Twitter, “this will handier than ecumenical diversity. Minister who just went out go viral.” “My friends, I say this often,” he told the and smeared a member of duceppe decided his own caucus, tried to separatist backbone Conservatives were per- convention. “Before being Péquistes and Blodestroy her public reputasuaded that the spectacle of quistes, we are all sovereigntists. We are going was handier than Ignatieff urging crowds to to finish the campaign side-by-side. More tion, and people say, kind of, ‘So what?’ ” ecumenical diversity. rebellion could look good united then ever. We have only one task to There was more in this only to Liberal partisans. accomplish. Elect the maximum number of that cost him. vein. “And then,” he said “You’ve got Stephen Harper sovereigntists in Ottawa and then we go to near the end of his peroraon the one hand saying times the next phase: electing a PQ government.” tion, “we’ve got a situation where at Guelph are dangerous and we need a stable governHe had not, in fact, been campaigning on university the other day, students lined up for ment,” our Conservative war room source a promise to make his party a cog in a great two hours, some of them voting for the first said later. “And then you got a guy yelling at separatist scheme. This was something of a time in their lives, to vote. And a Conservative people to rise up?” rebranding exercise. “A strong Bloc in Ottawa. operative tried to shut it down and stop it. And Think back to the Angus Reid dial groups. A PQ in power in Quebec. And everything some smart Conservative lawyer downtown “The level of annoyance grew markedly when becomes possible again.” That last sentence tried to write a letter to get 700 votes by Can- the leaders attacked each other.” Here was echoed the “yes” camp’s slogan during the adian students disallowed in a federal election Michael Ignatieff acting out the moments of 1995 referendum, which had split the provin Canada. And people say, kind of, ‘So what, the debate that felt the most like itching pow- ince against itself. der to the home audience. The crowd in the room loved it, as the crowd it’s just all political games, who cares?’ ” Which brings us to Gilles Duceppe. The in the room had loved Ignatieff ’s “rise up” Nobody travelling with the Liberal leader had planned or expected any of this. He used Bloc leader’s support had been a little soft so speech. Partisans always love the partisan stuff. to be a broadcaster, after all. Not a great far in the campaign, but nothing too preoccu- The people outside, who have had quite enough debater, but he does know how to ad lib. “And pying. So he was not overly worried as he of feuds and quarrels, not so much. The day I kept hearing that refrain from Bruce Spring- attended the national convention of the Parti before Duceppe spoke, the daily Nanos tracksteen—Rise up. Rise up. Rise up, Canada!” Québécois in Montreal. Pauline Marois is that ing poll put the Bloc at 38.7 per cent support He nearly shouted this. The crowd began party’s leader. She leads the province’s strug- in Quebec. Within a week they would lose oneto clap, but Ignatieff kept going. “Why do gling Liberal premier, Jean Charest, but given fifth of that support and fall to 30.3. And from we have to put up with this? Rise up! Rise all his trouble and woe, she would probably there the collapse would only accelerate. up! . . . Rise up! This goes beyond partisan politics! This goes beyond the Liberal party! This is about our country! This is about our democracy! Rise up! Rise up!” By now the crowd was on its feet. Later, on the flight to Regina, the campaign videographer showed the footage of the sermon to Peter Donolo, who clearly approved. The video guy then took his computer further forward, to the front of the plane where Ignatieff sat. The campaign crew made two decisions: first, get that Sudbury footage up on YouTube post-haste. Second, get more of the off-the-cuff Ignatieff in front of Canadians. This idea came from Patrice Ryan, one of the leader’s Quebec advisers, a son of former Quebec premier Claude Ryan. The Liberals had been counting on the debates to turn the polls. They had done nothing of the sort. Now Ignatieff needed to pull something as big as the debates out of A helping hand: Duceppe sought the support of Pauline Marois at the PQ’s national convention 38

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Graham huGhes/CP

Election Special

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Election Special PHOTO ESSAY

TAKING A SHOT

Often criticized for being stiff, Stephen Harper removed his tie and tried to show voters his sporty side Kitchener, Ont.

Thornhill, Ont. 40

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Brampton, Ont.

Colwood, B.C.

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Ottawa SEAN KILPATRICK/CP; ADRIAN WYLD/CP; CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS; FRANK GUNN/CP

MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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Election Special chapter five

The orange wave rises Years of quiet preparation in Quebec begin paying off for the NDP—Layton’s rivals wake up to a new reality “It’s whether we elect parliamentarians to bicker or build that will be the defining issue of our time,” Jack Layton said at the Toronto convention where he became NDP leader on Jan. 26, 2003. “And we say, let’s build.” Kudos for prescience, then. (The same weekend, Layton also said, “Canadians must rise up.” Spooky.) But when the building finally paid off and the rising began, it was in Quebec. There are reasons for that. Neither the weakness of the Bloc Québécois nor the NDP’s ability to capitalize on it came out of nowhere. Indeed, the NDP’s attempt to reach out to Quebec francophones is as old as the party itself. Since the 1930s, the party’s predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, had support only among Quebec’s anglophone Montrealers. Francophones saw it as a creature of English Canada. The archbishop of Montreal warned Roman Catholics not to support this socialist menace. So at the NDP’s founding convention in 1961, organizers were so happy to see a few francophone nationalists show up that they basically let them write the party’s constitutional policy. The results included very Quebec-friendly language on “co-operative federalism, equality of rights for the French and English languages, the right of a province to opt out of joint federal-provincial programs within provincial jurisdiction without financial penalty, and the recognition of French Canada as a nation,’’ Michael Oliver and Charles Taylor wrote in a 1991 book, Our Canada. The party’s first president, associate president and vice-president were Quebec francophones. But from the beginning the NDP was squeezed between extremes: the rising separatist movement and Pierre Trudeau’s hardline federalism. Tommy Douglas’s formidable Quebec lieutenant, Robert Cliche, lost narrowly to Eric Kierans, a former provincial health minister, in the 1968 election. Momentum basically went away for the party until 1984, when Trudeau retired, Brian Mulroney swept Quebec, and the Liberals were reduced to 40 seats. Ed Broadbent saw a 42

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chance to mow the Liberals’ lawn. He visited Quebec constantly. He and Lorne Nystrom and a few others asked questions in French as often as they could in the Commons. In 1988, the party won its highest ever share of the popular vote in Quebec, 14.4 per cent. Didn’t elect a single MP. Then Broadbent retired and the party was nearly swept away in the 1993 election. Layton didn’t run for his party’s leadership as the candidate of a Quebec rapprochement— if anything, his target market was Toronto— but he had inherited a half-century of effort and he was content to keep it going. At first you’d need tweezers and a magnifying glass to measure the progress. In 2004, Layton nearly tripled the NDP’s vote share in Quebec—to 4.6 per cent. By 2008, it was at 12.2, almost back to where Ed Broadbent had brought the party 20 years earlier. Whee. But even before that modest result, the seeds of longer-term Quebec growth had come along in the person of Thomas Mulcair, a whip-smart, hot-tempered Ottawa-born lawyer who had served as environment minister in the provincial government of Jean Charest. Mulcair has an ego. He quit Charest’s cabinet rather than get shuffled into a lesser portfolio. But he also has presence, and he managed to win a by-election in Outremont in 2007 when Stéphane Dion screwed up the selection of a nominee to oppose him. He held on to the riding in 2008. Mulcair became, with Vancouver’s Libby Davies, one of Layton’s two deputy leaders. So Quebec was genuinely familiar territory for the NDP by the time Brad Lavigne felt comfortable enough, in the campaign’s closing innings, to gloat a bit. “Duceppe made a joke the other day: ‘He doesn’t have the ground game here in Quebec. He’s weak on the ground.’ I watched with some wonder about his ground game. He’s got 49 seats, he’s been there 20 years, he’s only got to defend his seats in Quebec, most of his money comes from the public financing— Bold move: Layton went into Duceppe’s own

riding and drew a crowd of about 2,000. ‘My friends, I’m ready to be your prime minister.’ MAY 16, 2011

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Election Special and I don’t begrudge him the public financing—but then I’m watching his campaign. He’s with [Jacques] Parizeau in a campaign office with maybe 35 or 40 people there. Then he’s in a half-empty farmers’ market in the East End. And I say, instead of worrying about our ground game, you should worry about yours. Because we’re blowing the doors off.” The doors that got most definitively blown off belonged to the Olympia Theatre, an ornate vaudeville house in Duceppe’s own riding of Laurier-Ste. Marie. About an hour before Layton arrived there on April 23, there was already a long lineup outside. Cédric Williams, a young researcher for the NDP in Ottawa, openly admitted the wave of popularity caught the party off guard. “We didn’t expect this. We’re not running full campaigns in all the ridings in Quebec.

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More and more people are calling to volunteer. The challenge is to organize it.” The big screen behind the stage showed the NDP’s Quebec slogan: “Travaillons ensemble,” work together, precisely the message the Angus Reid dial groups sent during the debates. Marc-André Viau, an NDP media spokesman, echoed the concern about the speed of the party’s rise. “It’s a challenge to put resources on the ground in the ridings where we have the best chance,” Viau said. When the crowd finally filed in—maybe 2,000 people in Duceppe’s own riding—Layton delivered a version of his stump speech with one solemn addition. “My friends,” he said, “I am ready to be your prime minister. And I fully understand what that means.” Among those cheering was Stéphane Roy, 19, a Université du Québec à Montréal political science student. Roy called the NDP “the

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best choice on the left wing.” “The Bloc is a federal party with a provincial interest,” Roy’s friend, Maxime Milot, also 19, said. “It makes no sense.”

‘Something is happening’ There had been early warnings of the Bloc’s weakness, as there had been of the NDP’s potential. In 2006, the Bloc lost a handful of seats around Quebec City to the Harper Conservatives; bewildered, Duceppe commissioned a report on the phenomenon from Hélène Alarie, who was then the party’s vicepresident. The report she submitted acknowledged a “federalist vacuum” in Quebec after the Gomery report torpedoed the Liberals. This was especially true in the regions outside Montreal, because “the Bloc, its leader, its national organization, its program, the colour and odour they give off are too Montrealish.”

Duceppe really didn’t like that report. Alarie resigned from her party post not long after. The Alarie report heavily influenced the Conservatives’ campaign in Quebec, with its distinct slogan—“Our region in power”—and its goal of leveraging resentment of Montreal as a motivator in the rest of the province. It was an unusually subtle approach for Harper’s party, and it collapsed within days of the writ drop. The Bloc’s sag in the polls showed that the decay of Quebecers’ allegiance to the Bloc was real. The debates suggested the only attractive alternative was Layton. Duceppe’s bornagain separatist shtick at the PQ convention drove Quebecers to the NDP. And that became a spark that spread across the country. Here, too, the NDP had been preparing, unnoticed. When Lavigne became the party’s national director in 2009, the first thing he did was blow up a quaint old system by which

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the national party would contract out its elec- nationally—and four points ahead of Michael tion organization to provincial parties. Under Ignatieff ’s Liberals. that old system, “We’d go to Saskatchewan “These results, if they were to hold, would and say, ‘Federal election is coming up. We produce a profound transformation in the don’t have any organization staff. So I’m going Canadian political firmament, tantamount to pay you a sum of money to organize, find and arguably more far-reaching than the candidates, get the E-day set up, get our vol- Reform explosion in 1993,” Graves wrote. He unteers coordinated and all that stuff. And projected as many as 100 seats for the NDP— we’ll pay you so you can expand your current and a combined Liberal-NDP seat count that operation.’ And meanwhile, the federal party would easily top the Conservatives. Harper could go and work on other aspects.” had spent the campaign telling voters what All of that might have that would mean: Jack Laymade sense when federal ton as prime minister. elections came four years That evening, in a school ‘if you let it split, apart and provincial elecauditorium in Gatineau Harper and His old across the provincial border tions came as a surprise. But in an era of constant federal boys’ club are going from Ottawa, Anne Mcelection tension and fixed, to come straigHt Grath, Layton’s chief of staff, and therefore longer, provarrived a few minutes ahead up tHe middle’ incial campaigns, it was a of her boss for yet another recipe for divided energy and raucous Quebec rally. A reloyalty. “So I immediately cancelled all those porter asked her about the Ekos numbers. “I contracts with people. I said, ‘I will take the can’t breathe,” McGrath said, eyes wide. money that we normally offer to our provin- “Something is happening.” cial cousins and I’ll build a federal infrastructure ourselves.’ ” This dramatically improved The other other guy the coherence of the NDP’s national organiza- Ignatieff felt it too. He soldiered on, sometion. No more genteel, endless negotiations times sticking with the modest, constructive among social-democratic allies. “They’re fed- policy-wonk stuff that informed his “family eral employees. They do their duties as assigned. pack” platform. At one point, he promised They have a mandate letter signed by me and to convene a first ministers’ meeting on health the organizer down the hall and they work for care within 60 days of becoming prime minus, nobody else.” ister. This may not be the match that would So while the NDP’s growth in Quebec was light his campaign on fire. In his remarks to little short of spectacular, it was soon pretty reporters, however, Ignatieff insisted that good everywhere else. Everywhere except everyone who didn’t like Harper still had to Ontario. By the morning of April 25, accord- make their way to the red door. ing to the daily Nanos tracking polls, NDP “They really are coming to the crunch here,” support there was four points lower than in he told Maclean’s. “Jack Layton will not be the Atlantic, seven points lower than in the the prime minister of Canada on May 2. ElizaPrairies, 10 points lower than in British Col- beth May will not be the prime minister of umbia, 13 points lower than in Quebec. This Canada on the May 2. Gilles Duceppe will was looking less like a Quebec-led NDP wave not be the prime minister. It’ll either be me than like a national wave from which Ontar- or the other guy.” ians were opting out. Ontario was the only Increasingly, though, the other other guy region of the country where NDP support was turning into the other guy’s other guy. was no higher than on the day of the English- Ignatieff refused to pay Layton much mind. language debate. “It’s just one foot in front of the other. And But that was Nanos in the morning. Then every one has to be good. I can’t let anybody came Ekos in the afternoon. Frank Graves, down.” the chairman of the rival polling firm, released Within days, though, the Liberals knew the astonishing results of his own weekend Layton was becoming a serious threat. They survey. Ekos found the NDP finally picking responded with one of their curiously Byzanup momentum in Ontario, while they raced tine TV ads. This one featured a traffic light ahead in Quebec. Now Layton’s party was flashing NDP orange while zany circus music only five points behind the Conservatives played. The ad criticized Layton for being a “career politician” and his candidates for being Fighting words: Harper warned that if the “ridiculously inexperienced.” Finally the orange Liberals and NDP won more seats combined than light turned red. “Not so fast, Jack.” The Conservatives paid Layton the comthe Conservatives, Layton would become PM MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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Sagging in the polls: Duceppe’s born-again

separatist shtick at the PQ convention drove Quebecers from the Bloc to the NDP

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troubling to me, my colleagues and, I think, should be of concern to all Canadians. It is my belief that this planted information was intended to first and foremost seriously damage Michael Ignatieff ’s campaign, but in the process to damage the integrity and credibility of Sun Media and, more pointedly, that of our new television operation, Sun News. If any proof is needed to dispel the false yet still prevalent notion that Sun Media and the Sun News Network are the official organs of the Conservative Party of Canada, I offer this unfortunate episode as Exhibit A.” So Sun News ran everything Muttart had given them except the bogus photo. They were not the official organs of the Conservative party, although four days later every Sun paper in the country (outside Toronto, where there was a wrestling match to cover) would carry Harper’s photo and the words, “HE’S OUR MAN.” Be that as it may, on the morning Péladeau’s op-ed ran, members of the Conservative campaign team were told that Patrick Muttart, the architect of Harper’s 2006 victory and of everything the party had done to Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff for four years, had been dumped from the campaign. A very large number of Conservatives were furious. The decision, they were sure, was Guy Giorno’s and Jenni Byrne’s. Neither had ever really gotten along with Muttart. “The party took sides with a media organization over one of our own,” the Conservative war room staffer who has been with us throughMAY 16, 2011

out this report said after Muttart was canned. “If he can be thrown under the bus that quickly, any of us can be thrown under the bus. Loyalty has to be reciprocal”—by which the staffer meant that someone who has been as loyal to Harper as Muttart has deserved a little loyalty himself. “This is the kind of stuff that turns us against the government.”

The smears start It’s possible to overstate this. Everyone who was upset over the Muttart dismissal was still working long days to crush Ignatieff and Layton. As was every other Conservative. Perhaps the least noticed but most effective weapon the Conservatives had was Jason Kenney. The immigration minister had been key to the Conservatives’ outreach to immigrants and ethnic minority groups for years. But in the 2006 and 2008 elections he had stayed in Ottawa to oversee war room communications. This time Kenney spent almost the entire campaign on the road, and almost all of that in the Toronto and Vancouver areas, where the biggest gains in ethnic vote could be logged. “I just didn’t think me sitting around Ottawa, working with a bunch of 25-year-olds at the tactics meeting, was a great use of my time,” he told Maclean’s. The campaign trail was a different matter. Kenney was doing a half-dozen events a day. “I did an editorial board meeting with Sing Tao Toronto. The editor said, ‘You’re getting more coverage in our papers than the three leaders. And you’re now getting to the point

Paul Chiasson/CP; Previous sPreads: PhoToGraPh BY Cole Garside; Jenna Marie WaKini

pliment of a clear, hard-hitting ad. This one was about the 2008 coalition, and it reminded everyone of a detail in Brian Topp’s own book about that period: that Layton had begun discussing a coalition with Gilles Duceppe “before our votes were even counted.” In person, Harper was insouciant. This reflected the honest opinion in the Conservative campaign that the shift from Liberal and Bloc support to the NDP was not a serious danger to Harper, except perhaps in British Columbia. When the Conservatives finally hit trouble, it was self-inflicted. On April 27, every Sun paper in the country carried an article signed by Pierre Karl Péladeau, the company CEO. Sun Media had launched an upstart cable TV news and commentary network during the campaign’s second week. The company VP in charge was Kory Teneycke, Harper’s former communications director. One of its first “scoops” was a laughable account by reporter Brian Lilley asserting that Ignatieff had been a major planner of the Iraq war. The evidence was his presence at a 2002 conference in Washington. As Glen McGregor, a reporter for the rival Ottawa Citizen, pointed out within hours of Lilley’s report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch attended the conference, too. So if Ignatieff planned the war, so did they. But everyone gets to torque a story. What Péladeau now revealed was just weird. “Three weeks ago, our vice-president for Sun News, Kory Teneycke, was contacted by the former deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Harper, Patrick Muttart. He claimed to be in possession of a report prepared by a ‘U.S. source,’ outlining the activities and whereabouts of Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in the weeks and months leading to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.” This was clearly the basis for Lilley’s story. But there had been more: “Muttart also provided a compelling electronic image of a man very closely resembling Michael Ignatieff in American military fatigues, brandishing a rifle in a picture purported to have been taken in Kuwait in December 2002.” Goodness. But Teneycke “was properly skeptical and due diligence was conducted.” In dramatic terms, Péladeau said that after putting “a lot of pressure” on Muttart, Teneycke got a better copy of the photo and it turned out to be bunk. “But it is the ultimate source of this material that is profoundly

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of overexposure.’ I think that week I had three separate Chinese media conferences alone doing policy announcements.” Kenney was already known as the “minister for curry in a hurry” because of his prominence at ethnic community events. But “I’m learning a lot on this campaign,” he said. “I’m kind of finding new frontiers here. Like Punjabi talk radio. Huge! People talk for days about what was said on the radio show a few days ago. They’ve got huge advertisers, cutthroat competition.” The Conservatives were banking heavily on what Kenney once called “very ethnic” ridings for their seat gains. “I can tell you that in the polling we’ve done in Cantonese and Mandarin households that we are in the range of two-thirds of the decided vote,” he said. “I think what we’ve seen in this election is the initial erosion of the Liberal base amongst new Canadians going to complete erosion. And I think a huge amount of that has gone in our direction.” Ignatieff kept campaigning as though none of this was happening. He showed up at a rally in Kitchener wearing red Converse hightops. Signs in the crowd said, “Spring to May 2.” The riding had fallen to a Liberal-NDP split in 2008. “If you let it split again,” Rod McNeil, the former NDP candidate for Kitchener-Conestoga, said over wild applause, “Harper and his old boys’ club are going to come straight up the middle again.” Reporters asked Ignatieff about the polls later. Reporters were asking Ignatieff and

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Harper about nothing but polls. “The polls,” ment from Olivia Chow, Layton’s wife, an the Liberal leader said, “don’t measure what incumbent NDP MP, calling the story “nothmatters.” ing more than a smear campaign.” Layton But reports on the ground, especially from scrummed in B.C.: “Absolutely nothing wrong Quebec, sounded a lot like the polls. A Lib- was done. There’s no wrongdoing here and eral campaign volunteer in a long-time party yet the smears start,” he said Friday night. bastion in Montreal privately admitted there “This is why a lot of people get turned off polweren’t many signs the party could hold the itics and don’t even want to get involved.” seat. “It’s that serene optimism that Michael That the story was popping up on a netIgnatieff keeps talking about,” the campaign work whose affiliated newspapers were about staffer said. “That’s about all we got right to call Harper OUR MAN made some observnow.” Organizationally, he said, the Liberals ers wonder whether the Conservatives might had a better ground game than in 2008. Pat be the story’s source. The Conservative war Sorbara had seen to that much. Every riding room staffer swore it wasn’t so. “I know the organization had new software, LiberaList, oppo we have on Layton,” the staffer said, that Sorbara had bought and adapted from using the term for potentially damaging the Obama campaign in the United States. It “opposition research.” “That’s not the oppo helped Liberals identify and track support- we have. And Jack Layton’s not our enemy ers down to unprecedented detail. “We know in Toronto. He’s our friend in Toronto. We their history with the party, their vote, who want him to go up in Toronto.” the last person was to talk to them, and The Conservatives’ best hope for keeping whether that was positive or negative. It might their majority was for the New Democrats make a big difference in our ground game.” and Liberals to split the anti-Conservative They’d need it. The local New Democrat vote in Ontario. Their second-best hope was was all anyone was talking about, despite to drive down the NDP vote in B.C. To that her ragtag organization. “I went to their end, the Conservatives uncorked the largest office to see what it was like,” the Liberal ad buy of the campaign during the last five said. “It was in the basement of a house on days before the Elections Canada ad blacka residential street. There were two old ladies out came into effect at midnight on Saturday, working the phones. I asked April 30. “This really is a the candidate what legislamassive buy,” the war room tion she personally would ‘Layton’s not our staffer said. present after a private memmost campaign enemy in toronto,’ ads,Unlike ber’s lottery. She was like, these didn’t appear on ‘You mean if I win the elec- said a tory war room the party’s website or on tion?’, and I had to explain staffer. ‘He’s our YouTube. The Conservatives to her that she would be announced they were friend in toronto.’ never able to present private running these ads. In British member’s bills. ‘Oh, you’re Columbia, the ads accused teaching me things,’ she said.” Layton of wanting to impose a gas tax through And yet this was who the Liberals were los- his carbon cap and trade scheme; and of scheming to in a lot of the country. In the campaign’s ing with the Bloc separatists to form an usurpclosing days, the only question was whether ing coalition. In Ontario, the ads were a hybrid the NDP surge would stop or continue. And of the Conservatives’ patriotic and anti-Ignatithen on Friday night, April 29, with only three eff messages. They began with Harper standdays until the election, Sun News journalists ing tall while Canadian flags flapped and announced on Twitter that they were about inspirational music played. Then they faded to break into regular programming. If noth- to the old TV footage of Ignatieff telling an ing else, this was worth announcing because American audience that the U.S. was “your very few people knew what Sun TV News country as much as it is mine.” regular programming looked like yet. The ads were designed to push Liberal The story, when it broke, was a kind of votes to the NDP. In the closing days of the blockbuster. In 1996, the network’s single campaign, the Conservatives were camanonymous former police source said, Jack paigning for Jack Layton in Ontario without Layton had been found naked in a massage admitting it. In the Conservative war room, parlour at which illegal activities had been staffers chipped in a few bucks for the tradgoing on. The story was served up in high itional betting pool. The bulk of the betting Sun TV fashion, with Layton described as the action put the Conservatives between 151 “suspected John.” and 165 seats. They would need 155 for a The campaign put out an immediate state- majority. MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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Election Special PHOTO ESSAY

THIRST FOR POWER Which one of these leaders would you most like to have a drink with?

Ottawa

Ottawa 48

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Dunham, Que. MAY 16, 2011

Montreal FRED CHARTRAND/CP; JACQUES BOISSINOT/CP; ADRIAN WYLD/CP

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Election Special

Wainfleet, Ont.

Norbertville, Que.

Vaughan, Ont.

PHOTO ESSAY

HIS FAVOURITE PROP

Acton Vale, Que.

Richmond, B.C.

Sydney, N.S.

Conception Bay South, Nfld.

Royal Oak, B.C.

Ottawa

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SEAN KILPATRICK/CP; CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS; FRANK GUNN/CP; GREG LOCKE/REUTERS; ADRIAN WYLD/CP

Every few days, Stephen Harper made sure to be photographed in his Olympic jacket

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Election Special

Standing tall: Harper, waving to his supporters following his victory speech in Calgary, received congratulatory calls from Obama and Cameron

Chapter six

The morning after, the years ahead

JONATHAN HAYWARD/CP

What do Harper and Layton have in common? An understanding of what works in Canadian politics in the Twitter age—patience and determination. In the end, Stephen Harper’s party won 167 seats and 39.62 per cent of the popular vote. The players in the Conservative war room betting pool guessed low. But then conservatism is sometimes associated, even by conservatives themselves, with pessimism: it holds that human nature is not perfectible on this Earth, and that it rarely does any good to sit around hoping for the best. Harper marked his victory by receiving congratulatory calls from Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The laconic accounts of these calls from Harper’s spokesman mentioned that the current shooting

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wars in Afghanistan and Libya, where Canada still has soldiers risking their lives, were among the subjects of conversation. Silver linings always come tucked into clouds. At its worst, Harper’s pessimism about human nature hurts the country and discourages his own government’s political staff. They believe they are doing good work for Canadians. They would like to say so. The layers of threat and secrecy Harper has relied upon feel silly to them. Harper has pursued free trade with Europe without talking about the merits of trade with Europe. He wants to redefine Canada’s border relationship with MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

the United States a lot more than he wants to explain what that would entail. The budget he will now use his majority to pass listed, but did not describe, more than $2 billion in cuts to government spending. On many days during this campaign, a bored reporter could amuse himself by seeking an explanation for those very considerable cuts from incumbent Conservative cabinet ministers or senior staffers. Not a peep. Now we will all find out. The two drafts of Sheila Fraser’s G8 audit that leaked during the campaign were not the final draft. Now we will get to see the final draft. What the French 55

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call “l’usure du pouvoir”—the wear of power— will continue. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t wear down Stephen Harper. He has been Prime Minister for five years and he just won his biggest victory. By the time Brian Mulroney had been prime minister for this long, he had already won the last election his party would ever win. Three Liberal leaders have broken their careers on the assumption that Harper would soon wear out his welcome. Now Jack Layton has taken their place. A proper regard for the lessons of history should discourage the New Democrat from triumphalism. So it was fitting that the mood was far from celebratory at Layton’s news conference in Toronto, on the afternoon after the election. Many of the questions centred on the inexperience of his new crop of MPs, particularly the cluster of university students who won seats in Montreal. Layton tried to direct attention toward the more experienced individuals among his many rookie caucus members. “It’s a diverse group,” he said. “We have a former member of Parliament. We have a former cabinet minister. We have a former deputy grand chief of the Cree of the James Bay Nation. We have the first Innu lawyer from the community in the north of Quebec. We have an expert in international law. And, yes, we have some young people. But you know, young people got involved in this election in an unprecedented way. I think it was very exciting. I think we should see that as something to celebrate, not something to criticize.” Asked how he hoped to consolidate his election breakthrough in the face of a Conservative majority that’s likely to govern as the Prime Minister sees fit, Layton suggested he would somehow marshal progressive forces outside Parliament. “It’s a question of working with people all across the country,” he said, “and applying as much pressure as we possibly can to the Harper Conservatives.” He added that Harper has an “obligation and an opportunity” to work with him and others outside the Tory ranks. Later, an NDP campaign strategist acknowledged that the learning curve for rookies will be steep. “Of course some of these people will need to learn to deal with the national media, with the various agendas that are at play sometimes. There will be mistakes. We’ll learn from them and move on,” the strategist said. Already the NDP is making quick decisions about the challenges it can tackle and the An emotional night: (clockwise from left)

Harper among his supporters in Calgary; Laureen and Ben; Ignatieff and his wife

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Ben nelms/ReuteRs; PHOtOGRAPH BY PeteR BReGG; PReviOus sPReAd: PHOtOGRAPHs BY cHRis BOlin; FRAnk Gunn/cP

Big steps: Layton and Chow (below) make their way to the voting station in Toronto; May (above) is all smiles at her election party in Sidney, B.C.

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ones it must ignore. The strategist said Layton will be happy to let others interpret the significance of his breakthrough for Quebec provincial politics. “That’s not our battlefield. It’s up to Mr. Charest, Mme. Marois and Mr. Deltell”—Jean Charest, Pauline Marois and Gérard Deltell, the leaders of the main provincial parties in Quebec—“to fight it out.” Indeed. This should be the biggest lesson everyone draws from Duceppe’s failed attempt to save his bacon by dragging Ottawa into Quebec’s provincial fights. Quebecers have decided, this year at least, that they don’t like politicians who do that. The Parliament of Canada has enough work of its own. The Bloc will probably not fold up shop completely; it may well revive some day. Quebecers have demonstrated in election after election that they are prone to mood swings, and they may swing back to the flag-waving plague-on-all-your-houses stance the Bloc trademarked. If that happens, it will not be an unmanageable problem. Canada managed it for 21 years. The Liberals are in big trouble. Their best thinking got them here: every choice the party has made since 2002 drew a wide consensus within a party that thought it was good at winning. In June 2002, the overwhelming majority of the party thought it was an excellent idea to side with an heir apparent, Paul Martin, against Jean Chrétien. In 2006—this is the part Liberals are likeliest to forget—the party brass took care to organize a very long leadership race with a low threshold for participating, so a lot of candidates could take their time debating ideas. The product of that eminently laudable process was Stéphane Dion. It is revisionism to say Liberals knew immediately they had made a mistake. Most of them left the Montreal convention centre giddy. Most who disagreed thought the party should have preferred Michael Ignatieff. Liberals should not hurry to crown their next saviour. In fact, any Liberal who pops up next week with a one-election comeback plan should be keelhauled. We know now what works in Canadian politics in the Twitter age: patience, humility and determination. Harper and Layton became leaders of their respective parties, the dying Canadian Alliance and the negligible NDP, 10 months apart in 2002 and 2003. They then proceeded to do some losing. They were denied the false comfort of predecessors’ triumph. Michael Ignatieff hired dedicated young staffers and spent a year boning up. It did not get him much better results than Jack Layton won in 2004, after he had spent the same amount of

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time doing the same thing. Layton kept going. than just about anyone. That alone makes her Ignatieff’s successor will start again from zero. a welcome addition. Liberals should look for someone who will Finally, this election left homework on not pretend to be doing anything else. the plates of the capital’s political reporters, Even then the party may not survive. The if we care to do it. Too many of us spent an Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ungodly amount of time complaining about fought a competitive and well-financed leader- Harper’s cap on the number of questions ship campaign in 2003—three years after the he would take—and then conspiring, in an last election it ever contested. That’s life. absurd little morning huddle, to waste limThis Parliament’s other ited opportunity by asking newcomer reinforces the Harper question after quesliberals are in big tion about polls, process, lesson that dedication pays. trouble—their best and hypotheses. The man’s Elizabeth May has not had an easy time of things, jilted thinking got them career is becoming a sigby voters in Ontario and nificant chunk of modern Nova Scotia in earlier runs, here—and the party Canadian history. A greater may not survive and by the TV networks effort to understand why during this year’s leaders’ he wins would not be a sign debates. Finally the Green party leader camped of journalistic weakness. out in Saanich-Gulf Islands until the voters But enough shoptalk. Stephen Harper asked there realized she would simply stay if they for a strong, stable, national majority Condid not send her to Ottawa. Now she has a servative government and that is what he has chance to remind Canadians that her mes- received. What happens next is up to him. It sage is bigger than herself, if it is. If any of this would be foolish to believe he is done surprisParliament’s accidental MPs start to wonder ing us. With Colby Cosh, Josh Dehaas, stephwhether this life is worth it, they should talk anie FinDlay, tom henheFFer, Jason Kirby, Kate to May, who worked harder to get her seat lunau, martin patriquin anD Chris sorensen

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Election Special Politics

A new power couple The West is in and Ontario has joined it in an unprecedented realignment of Canadian politics Democracy, great and terrible as the sea: unknowable, implacable, irresistible, destroyer of parties, deliverer of others, humbler of leaders, elector of Andrew bricklayers and assistant pub Coyne managers. Tremble before it, and stay out of its path when it moves. Five parties were picked up, shaken out and tossed aside by the voters in this astonishing election, but of all the many implications one is fundamental: the Conservatives are now in a position to replace the Liberals as the natural governing party in Canada, as dominant, potentially, in the 21st century as the Liberals were in the 20th. This isn’t just a victory, the first Conservative majority in a generation. It is (at least under the terms of the current electoral system) a realignment. Simply put, the West is in—and Ontario has joined it. The temptation, looking at the wreckage of the Liberal and Bloc Québécois parties and the meteoric rise of the NDP, is to compare this election to 1993, which shattered Brian Mulroney’s old Conservative coalition into its Bloc and Reform party fragments. But it’s much more consequential than that. In retrospect, 1993 changed very little. It handed power to the Liberals, but it did nothing to alter the long-term dynamic of Canadian politics: the remorseless shrinking of the Liberal base. Once, under William Lyon Mackenzie King, Liberals governed with a majority in every region of the country. But they lost the West to the Conservatives in 1957, and never recovered. They lost Quebec in 1984, and have never really recovered there, either. The collapse of the Conservatives in 1993, and the splitting of the vote on the right that ensued, allowed Jean Chrétien to eke out three more majorities, largely on the strength of the Liberals’ near-total dominance of Ontario. But it did nothing to enlarge the Liberal base: neither the West nor Quebec rejoined the fold. By contrast, this election looks a lot more like 1891, when Wilfrid Laurier established the Liberal dynasty in Quebec, the foundation stone of Liberal governments for nearly 60

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a century; or 1935, when King added Ontario to the Liberal column. Now Stephen Harper has at last recaptured Ontario for the Conservatives, and in so doing has created a new governing coalition, unlike any that has gone before: the West plus Ontario. Quebec and Atlantic Canada (Laurier and King), or Quebec and Ontario (Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau) we’ve seen. Conservatives sometimes put together majorities out of Ontario and Atlantic Canada (W.B. Bennett) or Quebec and the West (Mulroney). But Ontario and the West? That’s new. They have voted together before, of course, but the combination has never previously been enough to produce a majority on its own. But as the population has shifted westward, so has the centre of gravity of Canadian politics. It is likely to prove more durable than previous Conservative governments, if only because it has been so long in the making. This is not like the sudden sweeps of John Diefenbaker and Mulroney, born of the collapse of previous Liberal governments, only to collapse of their own internal contradictions. This is one that has been built slowly, election after election, through defeat and victory. The Conservative dominance of the West is the single most established fact in Canadian politics, a dynasty now in its sixth decade. And it has only grown more pronounced over time. On Monday night, the Conservatives won 54 per cent of the vote in Manitoba, 56 per cent in Saskatchewan, 67 in Alberta, and 46 in B.C.: an astounding 55 per cent average across the West—nine points higher than they averaged in 2004. But meanwhile the same growth has been occurring in Ontario. Conservative parties won two seats in Ontario in 2000, 24 in 2004, 40 in 2006, 51 in 2008, and now 73—the first time the Conservatives have carried Ontario since 1984. Not only did the Tories take most of the seats in rural Ontario, but they also took 30 seats in the Greater Toronto Area, propelled by rising support among immiAlways on their side: The Conservative

party’s dominance of the West is the single most established fact in Canadian politics MAY 16, 2011

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grant groups. Overall the Tories took 44 per from the disarray on the left: first the collapse cent of the vote in Ontario—12 points higher of the Liberals, then, at the end, by the shockthan in 2004. ing rise of the NDP. What does this mean? It means the West, To be fair, the Tories were in part responhaving spent most of the last 54 years in sible for both. It was Harper who successopposition, is now firmly installed in power. fully framed the election as a choice between And it now has Ontario as its partner. This is the stability of a Conservative majority or the new axis of Canadian politics. The West another “reckless coalition” of the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc—the enduring legacy begins at the Ottawa River. Ontario’s decision is more momentous of the December 2008 fiasco—putting the when you think of what it has endured of late. Liberals in a box from which they struggled For much of the campaign, Ontario was very the whole campaign to escape. much in play. It had been through a harsh To voters frustrated with the political recession, and had become for the first time impasse of the last several years, Harper said: a “have-not” province, dependent on federal only the Tories could win a majority, while equalization payments. There was a real ques- the Liberals, behind by a dozen points or tion as to which way it would turn: to the more in the polls at the start of the campaign, parties promising an expanded role for gov- could not. Voters who were comfortable with ernment, or to the party promising to cut a Conservative minority, but wary of giving taxes and spending. them a majority, were told that the former That it chose the latter suggests the greater option was no longer available to them: a durability of this coalition. The Diefenbaker Conservative minority would surely be defeated sweep was based on cultish enthusiasm and in the House at the first opportunity. After the machinery of Maurice Duplessis in Que- all, was that not what had precipitated the bec; Mulroney cobbled together two mutually election: the withdrawal of confidence by the antagonistic political movements, western other three parties? populists and Quebec nationalists, united only As much as Michael Ignatieff tried to evade in their loathing of Ottawa. By contrast, this that logic, it proved ineluctible. If he wanted is based on a real affinity of ideology and inter- to govern, he had to leave open the possibilests. For all the attention paid to the Tories’ ity of doing so with the support of the NDP, inability to get over 40 per cent in the polls at least. But in so doing, he allowed himself nationally, the greater truth is this: they have to be tied rather too closely to the other par50 per cent of the vote in ties, at least for centrist vottwo-thirds of the country. As ers’ taste: the more so in it turns out, that’s enough. The LiberaLs need view of the Liberals’ disasAnd as the population decision to abandon Time, buT The Tories trous continues to shift westward, the centre, in favour of a and ndP wiLL be it will be more than enough. marked appeal to the left. At the next election, there I’ll concede there was a Tearing inTo Them will be 30-odd more seats in certain logic to it: steal voton boTh sides Ontario and the West, based ers from the NDP, knock on the redistribution bill the them out of contention early, Tories introduced in the last Parliament; and and drive up Liberal numbers to within strikin elections after that, more still. Add to that ing range of the Conservatives. Then appeal the coming abolition of party subsidies, as to voters to give Ignatieff a majority, rather promised in their platform, and the Conserva- than Harper. There was just one problem tive grip on power looks secure. with it. It couldn’t possibly work. The Liberal platform was just left enough AND YET IT all could have turned out much to put off voters to their right, without perdifferently. The Tories ran a frankly miser- suading anyone to their left. It came off as able campaign, aimed entirely at holding on what it was: a strategy, rather than a philosoto their existing base, but with little obvious phy, feeding doubts about the sincerity and appeal to the uncommitted. Though their authenticity of the man promoting it, already strategy was sound, and their platform con- planted by months of Tory attack ads. Add tained some interesting proposals, their mes- to that Jack Layton’s powerful personal appeal, sage was presented in an oddly sullen tone: and NDP voters had little reason to switch— paranoid of the media, spiteful of their oppon- the more so given all the talk of post-coalition ents. Indeed, until the last weekend of the alliances. After all, if the Conservatives could campaign they appeared to be losing support, win the election and still be tossed from power, not gaining it. They benefited enormously what reason had they to heed appeals to vote 62

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Liberal to “stop Harper”? Quite the contrary: better to give Jack a strong bargaining position in the negotiations. All that the Liberals leftward deke accomplished, then, was to leave the Tories in absolute possession of the centre-right: the only party promising to cut taxes and spending, while four parties promised to raise them— the only party, indeed, that seemed particularly concerned with creating wealth, rather than redistributing it. Yet as much as the Liberals ceded the economy to the Tories, neither could they lay claim to any other issues in the public mind: the NDP owned health care and accountability, the Greens the environment. (As one pollster put it,

Mario Beauregard/CP; PreViouS SPread: PHoTograPH BY CHriS BoLiN

Election Special

NEXT SPREAD: PHOTOGRAPH BY COLE GARSIDE; KAmAL SELLEHuDDIN/KEYSTONE; PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETER BREGG

Speaking their language: Quebec voters, having grown weary of the Bloc, catapulted Layton’s NDP into first place in the province

about the only issue Ignatieff polled strongest on was foreign policy. Ouch.) And as the Liberal campaign began to stall, the opening was left for the NDP to make its move. IN A WAY, the NDP message was the flip side of the Conservatives’. Where Harper offered a majority as the solution to seven years of partisan bickering and brinksmanship, the NDP offered another: kick everybody in the shins: Conservatives, Liberals and, in Quebec, the Bloc. And yet, as protest votes go, it was peculiarly sweet-tempered. The strategies of the other parties seemed aimed at forcing voters down one chute or another, with strident appeals to

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fear. You have to vote Conservative, Harper told them, to stop the coalition. You have to vote Liberal, Ignatieff told them, to stop Harper. You have to vote for us, BQ leader Gilles Duceppe told Quebecers, to defend Quebec from federal depredations. The faces of all three men scowled out at Canadians from campaign ads and the televised debates. And along came Layton, with his courtly manners and perpetual smile, asking them, in effect, “Would you like to vote New Democrat?” That seems to have been all there was to it. There wasn’t much that was new in the NDP message—its policies remain the same frumpy mix of dirigisme and populist businessbashing they have always been—but neither was there the same negativity. To compound the oddity, here was a protest against “politics as usual” being led by a 25-year career politician. Yet in today’s sourpuss politics, Layton’s old-school vibe came off as positively radical. Imagine: a candidate who actually seemed to be enjoying himself, as if he liked people. Voters in Quebec, weary of the Bloc and positively alarmed at the prospect of another referendum—for above all Quebecers prefer not to have to choose—were the first to respond, vaulting the party into first place in a province where it had only recently climbed above 10 per cent of the vote. That got the attention of left-of-centre voters in the rest of Canada, accustomed to being told they were “wasting their votes” if they opted for the NDP over the Liberals. Before you knew it, the NDP had doubled their vote nationwide. There’s never been a surge to match it. Soon the Liberals found themselves whipsawed between the NDP and the Conservatives. As the NDP climbed in the polls, left-wing voters abandoned them in favour of the NDP, the better to “stop Harper.” Then, as the NDP started to draw within a few points of the Conservatives, right-wing Liberals decamped for the Conservatives, especially in Ontario, in order to stop the NDP. That late shift seemed to catch the pollsters unawares, but it was probably on the order of two to three percentage points, pushing the Tories over the top and cratering Liberal support. THE RESULTING carnage—the Liberals gravely wounded, the Bloc mortally so—leaves as much altered on the opposition side as on the government’s, but with much less sense of its durability. The kind of sudden ballooning in support the NDP enjoyed has been MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

seen before, especially in Quebec: it rarely lasts, not least when so much of it is attached to the personality of the leader. Quebecers have been shifting their support about wildly in recent years, without evident regard for ideological consistency: it’s the left-wing NDP now but it was the centre-right Coalition pour L’Avenir du Québec earlier, and the furtherright Action Démocratique du Québec before that. The best that can be said is that the Quebec vote is in play. The NDP will now have to cope with the challenges of success. It has done the country the singular service of dispatching the Bloc. Now it must manage the expectations aroused by its own strident appeals to Quebec nationalism, without alienating either its new-found followers in Quebec or its traditional base elsewhere in the country. At the same time, as the second party in an emerging two-party system, it must adapt to the rules of a very different political game. Does it sharpen the divisions between itself and the government, in hopes of forcing the remains of the anti-Conservative majority into its camp—but at risk of yielding the centre ground to the Tories? Or does it pitch its tent for the centre, and risk being dragged to the right as the Conservatives remake Canadian politics in their image? But the Liberals’ dilemma is much more acute. Indeed, it is existential. The party needs time to debate its future direction—but in the meantime, the Conservatives and the NDP will be tearing into its support on the right and left. Should it, as some on the left of the party are urging, opt for a merger with the NDP— assuming the NDP has any interest in such an alliance—it will find itself deserted by many of its centre-right supporters. But if it tries to carry on, crippled, adrift, and deprived of a substantial part of its funding, it risks bleeding support, even some MPs, to the NDP. If it is to survive, it will have to make the case for the continuing relevance of a centrist party in Canadian politics. If all that being a Liberal means is to be a little less conservative than the Conservatives, a little less progressive than the New Democrats, the party may find itself meeting the same fate as the British Liberal party. But if it is bold enough to redefine the middle—to outflank the Conservatives on some issues, and the New Democrats on others, while claiming ownership of issues like democratic reform, or the need for a strong national government, capable of defending the national interest against the provinces, it may yet hope to rise again. Look on it as an opportunity, Liberals: it’s not as if you’ve got anything to lose. 63

Election Special THE CAMPAIGN

How in God’s name do you explain? Yes, my Nigerian brother: in Canada, time spent at the massage parlour is a positive, at Harvard not so much Having led the Conservative party to a majority government, with the Liberal party lying bloodied and dying at his feet, Stephen Harper saw the breadth Rick of his domain and wept, for he MeRceR had no more worlds to conquer. Twenty-four hours before Canada went to the polls, I went on BBC Radio International to explain to a very pleasant radio personality with excellent diction why Canada was having yet another election. Now it’s one thing to go on the radio and blather about politics in Canada—the audience knows the cast of characters and it’s safe to assume they are somewhat familiar with our recent history. But when you go on BBC International, the audience is in the tens of millions worldwide and you have to bear in mind that the average listener is likely tuning in from a shantytown in Nigeria or a loft in Oslo. How do you explain in a few minutes just what an accomplishment a majority would be for the Conservative party? How do you explain how Stephen Harper became the leader of a grassroots western-based regional party, a party that existed solely to give voice to individual MPs, and somehow transformed it into a national party so centralized in its power structure that no more than five of its MPs are allowed to speak in public? And how in God’s name do you explain that the demise of the Liberal party would be a seismic shift on our political landscape? And really, did anyone have an explanation for the orange crush? And why, my Nigerian friends may wonder, did the last-minute revelations of a visit to a sketchy massage parlour 15 years ago lead to increased support for the leader of Canada’s socialists, especially among separatists in Quebec? How do you explain that Michael Ignatieff was shaping up to be a loser of Ben Johnsonian proportions, not for having cheated or for having lied but for having been vilified for doing too many things in his life and for having lived in too many places? Yes, my Nigerian brother, in Canada, time 64

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spent at the Velvet Touch massage parlour is a positive, time spent at Harvard not so much. And speaking of Quebec, why on the eve of the election was the most senior government cabinet minister in that province, the minister of foreign affairs, facing certain defeat at the hands of a part-time karate instructor, collector of medieval weapons and one-time member of the Communist party? One assumes the phone lines at Immigration Canada did not light up that night. Luckily, the conversation soon turned to something any person with a passing knowledge of democracy could understand no matter where they lived: election night. It was shaping up to be a barnburner and the host assumed correctly I would be glued to the results. “But,” she inquired, “is the rumour true that twittering about election results in Canada as they come in is a criminal offence?” Yes, I was loath to admit, Elections Canada was attempting to succeed where Mubarak in Egypt and Ahmadinejad in Iran had failed. They were attempting to stop people from tweeting. When the interview was over, I declined an offer to be interviewed the following night after midnight to report how it all turned out. This was a wise stroke of foresight. I know me. Why is that man yelling and why is there the sound of ice clinking in a glass? The producer of the program wasn’t too disappointed. Canadian election results hardly warrant great international scrutiny, especially in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s death and sexy Will and Kate honeymoon updates. By now we all know that on election night it was all over by 10:15 Eastern, with most networks declaring a Conservative majority. For many Conservative voters, this was simply closing the deal on Stephen Harper’s promise of a stable government for the next four years; it was a vote for more of the same, please. For others, this indicates that Canada has finally taken a big step to the right, and they hope to see a very different MAY 16, 2011

Sending a message: Tory, Liberal and NDP

All we can be certain of is that for the time being, with a comfortable majority in the House, Stephen Harper will do whatever the hell he wants. That’s what Canada voted for. Canada emerge. All we do know right now is that the animal The more pressing question is, what will farm in Ottawa has changed dramatically. The the Liberals do? The talk on election night, once cocky and entitled Liberal, an animal despite Harper’s historic victory, was all about that once roamed wild in the nation’s capital, them. In four years from now, on election has ceased to exist. In its place we have a popu- night, will the Liberals be mentioned at all? lation explosion of a new breed of NDPer. Not Some people, Liberals among them, say only have their numbers doubled, but they this is the best thing that could happen to have gone from earnest to unctuous in one the party. It’s been called tough medicine, historic night. Very soon they will gather in the political equivalent of a bankruptcy proStornoway—Jack will play guitar, they will tection that will force them to restructure shake their lentil jars and plot the next once- and refocus. impossible step. They have supplanted the But this is not just a train wreck for the natural governing party of Canada in oppos- Liberal party. This is Lockerbie. Yes, this is a ition, next stop 24 Sussex Dr. God give me plane crashing into a Scottish village. If you the strength to sit through any of those are a Liberal it must be very hard to imagine conversations. any good coming out of this. But election results are not random events, And then there are the Conservatives: the staffers, the supporters, the MPs themselves. they are not natural or man-made disasters; For them a majority is uncharted territory. they are just that—results. This changes everything. And the results are stunning. A ConservaLiberals, even when in opposition, are tive majority, the rise of the NDP, the annihialways surprised when they lation of the Bloc Québécois, meet someone who isn’t a the near death of the LiberNOT ONLY HAVE THEIR als. We saw two national liberal. They tend to believe everyone looks at the world NUMBERS DOUBLED, THE leaders get defeated and the way they do, everyone NDP HAVE GONE FROM Elizabeth May win. In Queis on the same team. Conbec, a 19-year-old voted in servatives are the opposite. EARNEST TO UNCTUOUS his first federal election, for IN ONE NIGHT No matter how much suchimself, and is now a newly cess they achieve, they conelected NDP MP. Had he stantly believe someone is out to get them. lost, he would have sought summer employConservatives always believe they are swim- ment at a golf course. We have had 41 federal elections in this ming against the current, even when there is ample evidence to prove otherwise. This country and one hopes the plan is to have has served them well; it has allowed them to many more. And if history has taught us remain united and focused. The one ideo- anything it is this: we show up at the polls logical characteristic all Conservatives in and at the end of the night governments Ottawa share is a complete loyalty to the may rise and governments may fall. For some authority of Stephen Harper and his quest of those running it will be the greatest night for a majority. But along the way a lot of Con- of their lives. Others will find themselves in servatives have been told to sit down and the glare of TV lights wearing a smile while shut up and wait for the big day. Now that secretly cursing the day they considered public service. it’s here, what now? Will the Prime Minister take this opporAnd while we ponder the results and we tunity to relax, be more amicable, comfort- study what happened, and speculate what it able in the knowledge that the opposition’s all might mean for Canada, it doesn’t hurt power has been erased? I think we all know to think about what didn’t happen on electhe answer to that. Or will Mr. Harper go to tion day. work and salt the earth, remove the subsidies No shots were fired, no cars were burnt, to political parties, making it more difficult nobody was intimidated at the polling booth and nobody died. for the opposition to function? And while that mightn’t make headlines And more importantly, will he be able to keep his own troops down on the farm now on the BBC World Service, that’s exactly the that they have seen the glory that is a way it should be. It’s why we are a nation majority? worth voting for. supporters (top, middle left, and below), and someone who won’t like the election results

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PHOTO ESSAY

The milk run Wooing the rural vote, party leaders take their campaign show to the farm

Acton Vale, Que. 66

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Election Special capital diary

Mitchel Raphael on how Justin Trudeau could have changed electoral history Victory moustaches!

Mulcair’s strategy Each day during the election campaign, Thomas Mulcair would have a conference call with all the other Quebec NDP candidates. There were ridings they knew they could win, ridings in which they thought they had a chance, and ridings where the odds were against them. When candidates would report suspicious things like a large number of their signs being removed, Mulcair said that was their way of knowing the competition must be worried and they took it as a signal they should up their game in those areas. Mulcair’s riding signs included old ones from when he won his first-term by-election in 2007. They were much brighter than his new ones, which are a more subdued orange. “We needed to shout, ‘We are here,’ ” noted one NDP staffer. Mulcair’s by-election success was key for the NDP surge. “You’re on the 68

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panel,” quipped Mulcair, referring to the fact that once the NDP got one seat in Quebec they were booked on all the political TV shows. It was a seat that could easily have been lost. Mulcair won against a lacklustre candidate picked by then-Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. At the time, Liberal Justin Trudeau had wanted to run in that by-election, a decision which could have altered this election dramatically. Outremont is where Trudeau lived at the time, so it would have made sense. But high-up Liberals wouldn’t let him run there. When asked if he regrets not running then, in that riding, Trudeau said nothing, but his face said everything. Mulcair claims he would have beat Trudeau; for his part Trudeau did say he doubts Mulcair would have run if he had known the Liberal star was in the race.

First we take Quebec, then Manitoba The NDP surge this week in Quebec made one person in Manitoba very happy. NDP candidate Rebecca Blaikie—daughter of former MP Bill Blaikie—ran in Winnipeg North, but she was the director of the Quebec NDP from 2005 until 2008 when she lived in MontMAY 16, 2011

real. The bilingual Blaikie helped rebuild the party there with a team that included a former separatist, Nicolas Domenic-Audet, as her second-in-command. They shored up long-neglected riding associations and focused on getting stronger candidates. She had many conversations with NDP Leader Jack Layton over the years and helped do the groundwork for the election of NDP MP Thomas Mulcair in Montreal. Just before election day, Blaikie said that if the Quebec surge held, then Manitoba would be next on the list for a sweeping NDP federal makeover. Her loss by a slim margin may give her time to work on that.

Oh, it’s just ‘O Canada’ A few days before the election, the Bloc Québécois held a rally in Montreal for Gilles Duceppe. Bloc MPs confessed they never would have organized such a gathering had it not been for the orange crush that had descended on La Belle Province. One man in the crowd pretended he was spraying the crowd with holy water, using a Gilles Duceppe bobblehead as a prop. The packed high school auditorium became extremely hot, causing

Mark Blinch/reuters; PhotograPh By Mitchel raPhael

At the Toronto NDP victory celebration, which was filled with people sporting fake Jack Layton moustaches, the partiers kept the music playing over Michael Ignatieff’s concession speech as it was broadcast on giant screens. They turned the music down for all of Gilles Duceppe’s, and for half of Green Leader Elizabeth May’s. When Layton acknowledged the campaigns of the other leaders, May got the most applause. Layton was happy about the re-election of his wife, Olivia Chow. There had been a huge battle to keep her riding safe. The week before the vote, Liberals Bob Rae (who won) and Gerard Kennedy (who lost) went to Chow’s riding to support the Liberal candidate there. The NDP claimed it was an attempt to get at Layton by doing everything they could to take down his wife. Chow had her stepson, Toronto city councillor Mike Layton, helping her with door knocking, since the area he represents overlaps with hers. For his efforts, he ended up with a pile of complaints from constituents about local problems, mostly broken sidewalks and potholes.

Campaign portraits: (clockwise from top

left) Jack Layton and Olivia Chow on election night; Thomas Mulcair (left) with Irwin Cotler; Nicole Demers in front of her RV; Justin Trudeau shaking more hands; Bloc supporter with Gilles Duceppe bobblehead; Rebecca Blaikie; young Layton supporters

Aside from seeing it as a winnable riding, symbolically this was a key one for the Conservatives to win since Mount Royal was once held by Pierre Trudeau. At an event to mark the end of Passover, held at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, Conservative candidate Saulie Zajdel received the most applause when all the politicians were announced. To add salt to his wounds, Cotler’s battle was not only against the NDP surge in general: the orange candidate he was up against was Jeff Itcush, the man who taught all of Cotler’s children at Bialik High School. Though Cotler won, he says this was his last election. The shift in the Jewish vote was something Liberal Anita Neville had to battle in Winnipeg, too. She ultimately lost her seat. Both Cotler, 70, and Neville, 68, say there is a need for young Jewish blood in the party—and for a big name in the Jewish community. One dream candidate mentioned is Winnipeg’s Gail Asper, who, Neville says, has always supported her.

Will that rocking chair have to go back? party faithful who had been only metaphorically sweating up to that point to really start to perspire. The rally was the same night as a playoff game between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. Duceppe took a huge risk by continuing to speak once the game had started. But one former Bloc MP said it didn’t really matter, since all the crowd would miss was the singing of O Canada. As soon as Duceppe finished, the screens in the room flipped to the hockey game and, as if on cue, the Canadiens scored a goal, sending the room into a frenzy.

He just couldn’t resist the butter chicken Every few days during the election, Margaret Trudeau would bring homemade cookies to her son Justin Trudeau’s campaign office. Mostly, volunteers descended on them, leaving none for the candidate. Which is why, at the end of the campaign, a few cookies were sealed in a bag just for Justin. Not that the candidate went hungry. Campaigning in the ethnically diverse riding of Papineau meant he was constantly being offered food. Trudeau politely declined many of the offers

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(except for butter chicken, which he admits Each election, Nicole Demers of the Bloc he can’t resist), but courteously sampled the Québécois has bought something expensive huge array of soft drinks brought in from all to motivate her to campaign even harder to over the world to quench the thirsts of his keep her job. This time it was an oxblood multicultural riding. leather rocking chair that doubles as a bed. For the campaign in her Laval riding, this Cotler’s last election year Demers rented an RV. The idea was to This election was extremely hard on Mont- invite people in to sit around a table in a real MP Liberal Irwin Cotler. “This is the kitchen-like atmosphere. Says Demers: “We first time he has really had to campaign,” are a nation of people who grew up in kitchnoted one Liberal volunteer in the Mount ens. Living rooms were closed except for Royal riding. A good part of the Jewish com- when the priest visited.” The RV also had a munity, which makes up a chunk of Cotler’s queen-sized bed in it. riding, supported the Conservatives mostly During the last week of the campaign she because of Harper’s strong stand on Israel. sported a bright orange top. “Fight fire with As one Jewish resident noted, “The only fire,” she joked, referring to the orange crush leader who supports Israel more than Harper that hit Quebec. She said she heard people in is the prime minister of Israel.” Cotler, one Quebec talking about how Jack Layton was a of Ottawa’s most respected MPs, is seen as fighter because of his battle with prostate cana world leader on human rights, a strong cer. The fact he campaigned with a cane due supporter of Israel and a pillar in the Jewish to hip surgery, she said, brought back memcommunity. But Harper’s message on Israel ories of Lucien Bouchard after he lost part and the Conservatives’ attack on the Liber- of his leg to flesh-eating disease. Demers was als made many in the Jewish community beaten by the NDP’s José Nunez-Melo. turn their back on Cotler. Harper even made On the Web: Visit Mitchel Raphael’s blog at a stop there in the final week of the campaign. macleans.ca/mitchelraphael MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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the aftermath

The Night of 1,000 Delusions Layton imagined Harper would be psyched to meet with him to discuss NDP priorities. It was adorable.

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More oddly, given her moment in the spotlight, May behaved in the manner of an actress being handed a shiny prize—she recited a list of thank yous and cracked some inside jokes, instead of seizing the moment to make her case and build her following. One sensed an end, not a beginning. The night before our election, President Barack Obama had made his dramatic

Who’s next? Liberal leadership candidates are plentiful; it’s followers who are in short supply

announcement from the White House. Come May 2, therefore, Osama bin Laden was, depending on one’s beliefs, either burning in hell or being confronted by 72 virgins. Either way, he had a long day ahead—though perhaps not as long as that which awaited Michael Ignatieff. Casting their votes, traditional Liberal supporters heeded his call to “rise up,” but only so they’d be on their feet to wander over to the Conservatives or NDP. The Liberal leader began the campaign as a target. He ended it as an afterthought. Having attracted fewer than one in five votes nationally to the Liberal side, and having lost MAY 16, 2011

A Conservative majority gives Harper licence to stop acting like a little bully and start acting like a big bully. But perhaps he will make more of his opportunity. Perhaps freed of the need to be eternally combative, paranoid and, yes, dickish, he will indeed “govern for all Canadians.” He said he would. And he said he’d govern with hope. And maybe he even meant it as he said it. On this Night of 1,000 Delusions, it helped to imagine that at least one thing we saw and heard was real. On the Web: To read Feschuk on the famous, visit his blog, macleans.ca/feschuk

Adrien VeczAn/reuters

The most surreal moment of election night 2011 took form as it became apparent to one and all that Jack Layton, leader of the Opposition, had lost his SCOTT FESCHUK mind. It’s well and good to celebrate a historic surge in one’s popular support. A wide smile and a jubilant bit of cane-waving are undoubtedly in order. But a few lines into Layton’s speech, a nation gaped as it grew clear the NDP leader had mistaken his moral victory for, you know, an actual victory. He seemed to labour under the impression that he would hold sway in the next Parliament. Layton went so far as to imagine that Stephen Harper would be psyched to meet with him to discuss NDP priorities. It was kind of adorable, like a kitten pawing at a vacuum. One envisioned Layton’s aides whispering between themselves: —Should we tell him? —Nah, it’s cute. We’ll put it on YouTube and call it “I Can Haz Influence?” All campaign long, Layton had ended his speeches by vowing theatrically that, as prime minister, he. Would not. Stop. Untiltheworkisdone. He stuck to this rhetoric on election night. But the Opposition leader doesn’t get to do the work. At best, he gets first dibs on criticizing the work. With more than a hundred seats in a Conservative majority, Jack Layton has never been so undeniably relevant—and so utterly inconsequential. Layton’s wild imaginings were merely the evening’s most flamboyant. The Night of 1,000 Delusions had gained momentum only a few minutes earlier, when Elizabeth May of the Green party ventured a curious interpretation of her own election to Parliament. “Today we proved that Canadians want change in politics,” she told supporters. Is that what we proved? Because when the governing party wins a third straight election, and does so with a strengthened mandate, some of us are tempted to resort to the familiar Latin of status quo. Although to be fair to May, her party did attract 40 per cent fewer votes nationally this time—so that was change of a sort.

his own seat, Ignatieff somehow marshalled the words required to issue an empty vow to carry on as leader. The small crowd did him the favour of pretending that made a lick of sense. He resigned the next morning. Who would be the smart choice to replace Ignatieff? Justin Trudeau, according to some. Dominic LeBlanc, according to others. Bob Rae, according to Bob Rae. For the Liberal party, potential leadership candidates are plentiful—it’s followers who are in short supply. As Ignatieff showed, the stress of the campaign can sap the faculties. Not even Harper was immune. The Conservative leader was so boggled on election night that he gave a speech in which he portrayed himself as gracious and inclusive. One assumes he later rallied his senses.

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A PERFECT DAY

The rain stayed away, the bride was beautiful and the groom, smitten: 50 pages on the glamour, joy and occasional unscripted moment that was the royal wedding, from the first glimpse to the final wave

OLI SCARFF/GETTY IMAGES

Plus: Hats off to Beatrice, fifth in line to the throne; perfect Pippa; and everything you need to know about the dress

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On the threshold: When the married

couple kissed on the palace balcony, they were greeted by a roar of approval from the flag-waving throng ASTAIR GRA

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wedding day

love conquers all William and Kate’s mutual affection and tenderness shone through all the pomp and ceremony. ‘The newlyweds felt the people’s love—and returned it. We cannot help but wish them well.’

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One kiss was not enough. As a sea of well-wishers roared their approval, the newlywed duke and duchess of Cambridge felt the people’s love—and returned it. It was the second kiss that sealed the deal, a marriage the dean of Westminster had just pronounced a “mystical union,” and one that succeeded in uniting not just a young man and his winsome bride but a monarchy with its subjects. There they stood, awkwardly assembled on the Buckingham Palace balcony—the royal family in all their silly-hatted glory. Echoes of a similar scene 30 years ago hung heavily in the air, until Prince William acted with the kind of open-hearted spontaneity he could only have inherited from that sadly absent guest. Beneath all the titles, he is his mother’s son. On his wedding day, the signs of it were everywhere—in his gentle humour, his humanity, and most of all in his choice of bride: a young woman so radiantly poised and yet resolutely normal, entering calmly into a marriage—and a fate—she could never have imagined as a child. For William, of course, it was different. As a boy, he told his mother that when he grew up he wanted to be a police officer so he could protect her. Instead, as his cheeky younger brother pointed out at the time, he must be king. But that protective instinct, the impulse to attend to and make the world safe for the woman he loves, is still very much in evidence today. In a day of pealing bells, blasting trumpets and royal salutes, the real story was told through the smallest gestures. William’s words to Kate, when she finally reached the altar and relinquished her white-knuckled grip on her father’s hand: “You look beautiful.” His conspiratorial, tension-diffusing joke to his father-in-law—“We were supposed to have just a small, family affair.” And later, when the bride got into the carriage, it was not to one of the many uniformed attendants to whom she chose to pass her bouquet, but her husband, who accepted as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a future monarch to stand clutching a spray of lily of the valley on his wedding day. And in a way, it was. When Prince William was just 15, he lost the woman he loved most. Today, almost twice that age, he has gained another he can love and nurture for years to come. Beyond all the media noise, the planning and the pomp, the couple’s mutual affection and admiration shone through. And in this simple, enduring truth, we cannot help but wish them well. LEAH M c LAREN 75

Abbey arrival: Kate Middleton waves to the crowds as she enters Westminster Abbey with father Michael and sister Pippa ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/GEtty ImAGES

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Gareth Fuller/Pa/Keystone Press; Pascal le seGretain/Getty imaGes

Walking the carpet: William and Harry arrive for the wedding; Queen Elizabeth II greets the dean of Westminster

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A father’s moment: Michael Middleton lifts Kate’s veil as the ceremony begins at the abbey KIRSTY WIGGLESWORTH/AP

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Success: After a bit of a struggle, William slides the Welsh gold ring onto Kate’s finger ANDREW MILLIGAN/REUTERS

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At the altar: Kate and William

kneel for prayers by the dean of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury DOMINIC LIPINSKI/GETTY IMAGES

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Greeting the people:

The crowds roar upon getting their first look at the newlyweds at the abbey’s exit MARTIN MEISSNER/AP

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Chris JaCkson/Getty imaGes

The ladies: Carole Middleton (left), the Queen and Camilla, duchess of Cornwall wait to enter the carriages that will take them to the palace

Martin Meissner/aP

The grandfather: Prince Philip, who celebrates his 90th birthday in June, adjusts his military cap while in a royal carriage with the Queen

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The new couple: Kate and

William greet the crowds while riding through London in the 1902 state landau surrounded by the cavalry PAUL GILHAM/GETTY IMAGES

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At the Palace: William hands Kate her bouquet after they exit the state landau at Buckingham Palace Andrew winning/AP

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Crowd-pleaser: The

couple, their families and the bridal party crack up on Buckingham Palace’s balcony ANTONY GENTILE/REUTER

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Driving away: The couple in Prince

Charles’s Aston Martin, decorated by Prince Harry SEAN GALLUP/GETTY IMAGES

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John Stillwell/AP

Getting away: On the day after their big day, Kate and William hold hands as they walk to a helicopter for a weekend out of the spotlight

Lasting memories of a Royal Moment Join in the festivities, with Royal Wedding stamps and collectibles. Get your Royal Wedding Keepsake Kit and send a congratulations postcard to the happy couple.

Visit your local post office or

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the verdict

this time they got it right Couple, family, Queen and country came together in a ceremony that is being called the saviour of the monarchy and marriage She wore a tiara borrowed from her new grandmother, and diamond drop earrings, a wedding gift from her beloved parents, and that dress, which so perfectly captured the spirit of the day: a confluence of the modern and the traditional; a sense that the monarchy, the country and the couple were moving forward, with a fond look back. And at the altar of Westminster Abbey her husband-to-be turned, and became what seems like the last person on earth to see his bride in her finery. “You’re beautiful,” he said, as many a nervous groom before him has said. While every aspect of this day—the union of a future king and queen of Britain, Canada and the rest of the realms—would be weighed, debated and analyzed for deeper meaning, there was no arguing that heartfelt statement of fact. And, briefly at that moment, lost in each other’s eyes, this grand spectacle—1,900 guests, and two billion more watching over their shoulders— shrank to a universe of two. Then, before the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, Catherine Elizabeth Middleton and William Arthur Philip Louis Wales gave each other their “troth” in the archaic language of the Church of England, to love and to comfort and to forsake all others—pledges honoured more in the breach than the observance by generations of Britain’s royals. But maybe this time they’ll get it right. At least that is the hope of Queen and country. With that they became husband and wife, and, at the behest of their granny, Queen Elizabeth II, they were granted the titles duke and duchess of Cambridge and a mouthful of others. Like any royal event, the wedding had ele100

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MAY 16, 2011

ments of the absurd: headgear, for example, which Britons of a certain class embrace and treat with such seriousness that even fashion disasters are elevated into art forms. And so it was that Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, the daughters of Prince Andrew and the uninvited Sarah Ferguson, entered the abbey looking as if they’d been dressed by a blind quartermaster of the Ministry of Silly Hats. In this they were not alone. When television cameras in the abbey swept the bonneted crowd, it resembled the haphazard cluster of dishes and jury-rigged antennae you’d find on the rooftops of a Third World slum. Into this strange world were thrust the Middleton family, who comported themselves with style and class, middle or otherwise. Michael, father of the bride, guided Catherine down the aisle, with the requisite mixture of pride and gravitas. Mother Carole, determined not to cry, was elegant and understated in her ice-blue outfit, one deliberately chosen to upstage neither her daughters nor the Queen. Brother James gave a wonderfully plummy reading of the lesson from the Book of Romans. “Live in harmony with one another,” he intoned, “do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser that you are.” Then there was Pippa Middleton, who was both the exotically sleek caboose at the end of her sister’s 2.7-m bridal train, and a driving force unto herself. Both sisters wore, to great effect, creations by Sarah Burton for the British design house of the late Alexander McQueen. The reviews were in before the two women glided back out the abbey doors. “She is the Grace Kelly of our age,” designer Graeme Black gushed of Catherine. As for Pippa, the Internet was aflame with male admirers who conferred their highest honour, an HRH—Her Royal Hotness. Later that night, at a dinner reception in the Buckingham Palace ballroom, William gave a moving tribute to his bride, calling this the happiest day of his life, praising her beauty and calling her “my rock,” for the security and normalcy she has given him, guests reported. In that rare spirit of egalitarianism, the royals in the crowd were scattered among the 30 round tables of 10, intermingled with friends of William and Kate and the rest of the Middleton clan. Guests at the reception, strip-mined later for details by the Sunday papers, would disagree as to who was the star speaker of the evening. Some said Michael Middleton, who Kate’s grand entrance: Her father guided

her down the aisle with pride and gravitas

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hardly seemed overawed by a crowd that one family, saying the Windsors were “lucky to female guest called “surreal, like the pages have her.” It was a sentiment, this day, much of Hello! magazine coming alive.” He described of the nation seemed to share. his daughter’s childhood antics and William’s Perhaps it was always Catherine’s dream unconventional courtship, including the to become a princess, so much sweeter soundtime he landed in hot water ing than duchess. Walking with the military by touchthe thousands out‘william and Harry,’ among side Buckingham Palace one ing down his helicopter in diana once said, the Middletons’ back garsaw dozens of them, of all den, almost blowing the ‘are my one splendid ages, in fancy frocks and roof off the house. “I did bargain-store tiaras. Such is acHievement.’ sHe wonder how William was the enduring hold of fairy would be 50 now. tales. Or perhaps she loved going to top that if they ever got engaged,” he said. her man despite the fact that Other guests picked William’s brother, he is second in line to the throne, requiring Harry, a natural performer and gifted mimic, her to join The Firm and live over the shop. who had the guests whooping with laughter Regardless, almost a decade after their first as he described the long “inspiring” court- meeting as students at St. Andrews Univership of his brother, “the Dude,” and Kate. He sity, they fit together as snugly as the band even included a falsetto rendition of her of Welsh gold William wrestled onto her finphone chats with “Billy.” He described an ger at the abbey. email she’d received during the couple’s brief As with any good tale of kings, castles and breakup in 2007. It came from an American beautiful maidens, there is tragedy as well as who trapped ermine and was “a huge fan,” triumph. It goes without saying that the last Harry deadpanned. “Could he put himself time the abbey overflowed with royalty, and up as a replacement?” At another point in the streets thronged with people, and the his pitch-perfect speech, Harry’s glowing world’s attention focused here, it was a sunny tribute to his new sister-in-law moved Cath- Saturday in September 1997, to mark the erine to tears. Her father-in-law, Prince Charles, funeral of Diana, the turbulent, troubled, affectionately welcomed Catherine into the loving mother of William and Harry. 102

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Andrew MilligAn/getty iMAges; HugH PerAltA/reuters; Previous sPreAd: doMinic liPinski/reuters

Brothers in arms: William and Harry grinned and whispered, their bond of friendship obvious

For those who witnessed both events, almost 14 years apart, the contrasts could not be more stark. The Queen, in those dark early days after Diana’s death in a Paris car crash, lost touch with her subjects. Her allegiance to protocol, always her comfort and strength, angered a public that could not understand why she and the family remained secluded at her Balmoral estate in Scotland, why she didn’t address the nation, why there wasn’t a flag flying at half-staff at Buckingham Palace. Belatedly, she would address all these things, under pressure from her advisers and her son Prince Charles, Diana’s ex-husband. The day before the funeral, Elizabeth made her first live address in 38 years, conceding “there are lessons to be drawn from her life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death.’’ Throughout London then, the air was heavy with the scent of dying flowers, women wore black, and the nation sank ever deeper into a grief that bordered on the edge of madness. David Hutt, a canon at the abbey, walked outside the evening before the funeral and paused to consider a city and a country he could barely recognize, and the woman who had inspired such catharsis. “I think the church has lost its way in many respects,” he admitted, speaking softly and perhaps including the monarchy in his reflections. “It doesn’t touch the hearts of people. It is very much to do with the head, and people experience life here,’’ he said, putting his hand over his heart, “and in the guts. Maybe we’re having to learn from this because people are teaching us.” So different a time. Yet in many ways the feel and form of this wedding, and of the confident young man at its centre, are rooted in that event. Standing beside him at the abbey was red-headed Harry, third in line

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Diana was present in her two sons, who, to the throne, but the hair apparent among balding Windsor men. They grinned and for all the hardships they’d faced, from their whispered—two soldiers in dress uniform, mother’s broken marriage to her death, were brothers in arms—their bond of friendship given the space and freedom and a childobvious. William was 15 and Harry was 12 hood that their father could only imagine. when they’d made the painful, public walk “William and Harry,” their mother once said, to the abbey behind their mother’s coffin, “are my one splendid achievement.” She was forming a ragged black line with their father there in the bride William chose. He may Charles, their grandfather Prince Philip, and have given Catherine Diana’s diamond-andDiana’s brother, Earl Spensapphire engagement ring, cer, smouldering at his perbut he decidedly did not ception of Diana’s treat- ‘i don’t think this is marry a version of his ment by the royal family. This was a union about the monarchy,’ mother. She would be 50 years old of equals; he chose a consaid one witness. fident, accomplished and now, and it is impossible to grounded non-royal, the speculate how the passing ‘it’s the sense of years, or the senior royals, kind of love match Diana togetherness.’ would have treated her had died still searching for. her life continued its erratic Most certainly she was at course of good deeds and failed romances. the reception. Both of her sons paid their One needn’t have been a psychic to have pre- mother tribute in their speeches, wishing she dicted that her presence would be everywhere could see this day. After dinner, the guests at the wedding. It was in the relative infor- filed into the palace throne room converted mality of the service, and in the guest list, into a disco this night, under the supervision which included some of the charity workers, of Pippa. William led his bride onto the dance artists and other non-royals she’d introduced floor as 24-year-old British pop star Ellie her sons to. It was in the loosened leash of Goulding and her band opened with a cover procedure that even the Queen, resplendent version of Elton John’s long-ago hit ballad in sunny primrose, seemed to endorse. Your Song. While some of the lyrics (“I don’t 104

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have much money, but boy if I did / I’d buy a big house where we both could live”) seemed a tad ironic, the prevailing sentiment was lost on no one. Elton John was one of Diana’s dear friends. He sang at her funeral. He was a guest, with his husband David Furnish, at her son’s wedding. As the London Times would opine afterwards, “The wedding was final confirmation that Diana changed the monarchy forever, and for the good.” Certainly that was the view on the street. In the early hours of the wedding day, a group of young friends up from Southampton planted themselves on the royal procession route, finding a prime piece of sidewalk on Whitehall, near the entrance to Downing Street. They dressed for the occasion in middle-class casual, the young men wearing sport coats. They sipped wine from plastic cups, watching the passing scene as the crowd swelled behind them. Well, yes, they supposed they were monarchists, agreed Richard Clarke and Claudia Pack, both 23, Nikolas Wyeth, 22, and his 19-year-old sister Zoe. “But I don’t think this is really about the monarchy,” said Clarke, who’s just finishing a master’s degree. “It’s the sense of togetherness.” You don’t even need to like the royals to share a moment

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Would-be princesses: There were lots of crowns and tiaras among the crowds that came out to watch. No one seemed to begrudge the monarchy.

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that will form part of the national memory, one wedding. At various times, William and said Zoe, in her first year at Cardiff Univer- Catherine’s union has been seen as a social sity, the prestigious school they all attended. leveller, the saviour of the monarchy, the “We don’t really see the monarchy as oppres- turning point for a stagnant economy and a sive,” added Nikolas, training to be a doctor, revival of the institution of marriage, which “It brings a lot of toys, and it brings days like in Britain is at the lowest rate since modern this, so why not have them? They don’t cost records were first kept in the 1800s. Maybe the event was merely a chance for us much.” Pragmatically, the wedding is a net profit people like 19-year-old Blioux Kirkby to don centre, they agree, one with less up-front a pretty sapphire-coloured gown and put a expense and more long-term tiara in her hair and spend potential than next year’s the day in the crowd outside ‘we’re lucky to have Buckingham Palace, dreamLondon Summer Games. her,’ said Prince “Kate Middleton as a brand,” ing a little dream. Yes, her said Nikolas, “is worth more charles of catherine mother, Rebecca, read little than the Olympics.” Blioux Cinderella and Snow at his recePtion White and all the fairy tales, They credit William and Party that night Harry with making the monand what’s wrong with that? archy relevant to a younger “Of course I did,” says Rebgeneration. Although they are not upper ecca. “It’s my job.” class, they said, they all know people who After the service, outside the abbey, Cathattended Eton with William or Harry, or erine settled into the horse-drawn landau Marlborough College with Catherine. It with her new husband for the ride to the palmakes the monarchy seem more accessible, ace. “I’m so happy,” she said, if the lip-readers they said. But when Nikolas and Clarke sug- are to be believed. “Are you?” asked William. gested the wedding marked a decline in the “Yes,” she said. “Good,” he replied. class system, Pack issued a fiery rebuke. With It was a sweet exchange. One hopes they university tuitions climbing in the face of have it often, for marriages aren’t fairy storgovernment cutbacks, soon only the wealthy ies; they have to live in the real world. Perwill attend, she said. “Unless you’re like super, haps it’s appropriate, then, that the couple super gifted as a poor kid, you’ve got no delayed their honeymoon; that the duke of chance,” she said. “It’s just going to put the Cambridge donned his flight suit Tuesday and went back to work. What could be more class divide back into our society.” So much—too much—has been asked of real than that? KEN M AC QUEEN MAY 16, 2011

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THE BRIDE

A DRESS FOR THE AGES Kate Middleton found the right balance, honouring royal tradition while putting her own stamp on the day The fact that Kate Middleton’s bridal legacy was assured months before anyone had an inkling of what it was going to be tells you all you need to know about bridal-industry conformity. Before the big day was even over, factories in China were pumping out knock-offs of the dress. Had she arrived in the swan getup Björk wore to the 2001 Oscars, future brides would be shedding feathers as they walked down the aisle. Yet the path Kate had to navigate was uniquely her own. She had to present as a bride for the ages, which meant pulling off a tricky high-wire balancing act: honour royal tradition while making a personal statement; provide a showy fashion moment yet be sensitive to the dire economic climate; inject new life into a beleaguered royal family; and, most perilously, prevail over the inevitable comparisons that would be made between her and Prince William’s mother, Lady Diana Spencer, on her wedding day 30 years ago. As the smiling bride alighted from a RollsRoyce Phantom VI at Westminster Abbey, it appeared all of the boxes had been checked off, and brilliantly. All eyes were on the dress, of course. The restrained V-necked whiteand-ivory satin-and-lace gown with a twometre train won near universal approval for being pitch perfect—classic yet fresh, formal yet fluid. She wore it; it didn’t consume her, unlike the fate of Diana Spencer who was overwhelmed by her billowing organza confection with an unwieldy 7.6-m train. Middleton’s choice of designer, Sarah Burton, the British creative director of Alexander McQueen, was a master stroke. On a pracChurch ready: Kate arrives at Westminster

Abbey with her father Michael Middleton and her sister Pippa Middleton

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tical level, it indicated Kate listens to advice Anyone familiar with the extreme wedding from her new relatives. Fashion writer Sara dresses in Burton’s fall 2010 collection— Buys, the daughter-in-law of William’s step- described admiringly by one commentator mother Camilla, is said to have recommended as taking inspiration “from a medieval psychithe designer, having worn McQueen at her atric ward in Alaska”—would have noticed that Middleton’s mainstream taste prevailed own wedding. But in selecting the house founded by Lee in the design process. The result was less Alexander McQueen, whose suicide in Feb- identifiable as a McQueen than a modern ruary 2010 rocked the industry, Middleton update of the wedding dress commoner Grace also sent a signal to fashion insiders that she Kelly wore when she married her prince, plans to take seriously her responsibility as Rainier of Monaco, in 1956. It referenced a British style ambassador, a role played by retro Hollywood glamour and a more innoWilliam’s mother. That clout is already evi- cent time before royalty was under assault. dent: the fashion world is waiting to hear Princess Grace was also one of William’s whether Burton will replace the disgraced mother’s earliest confidantes, once warning John Galliano as the creative director at a besieged Diana before her marriage that Christian Dior. The head “it will only get worse.” of Dior’s parent company Kate’s dress did display Kate is the new was rumoured to be waitMcQueen’s great strengths— patron saint of ing to see if the designer craftsmanship, evident in had scored the royal nupbridesmaids in her the elaborate lace overlay tials before making his by the Royal School willingness to let assisted decision. of Needlework, as well as her sister shine Within the fashion world, elaborate corsetry and conchoosing McQueen was struction yielding a proquickly, and erroneously, interpreted as nounced Victorian-era silhouette. The Vicindicating the new royal plans to take fash- torian theme carried through in the bride’s ion risks. The designer was known as a bad- modest short silk tulle veil and small bouboy iconoclast who dubbed one collection quet, freighted with floral symbolism dating “Highland Rape” and whose attitude to the back centuries. monarchy would have landed him in the Middleton was barely down the aisle before Tower of London in an earlier century. He the gush began. Vogue’s Hamish Bowles proonce famously boasted that as an appren- claimed the dress “sublime.” Simon Doonan, tice at Savile Row tailors Gieves & Hawkes, the British-born creative director of Barneys which makes Prince Charles’s clothing, he New York, went even further, boldly sugstitched “I am a c--t” onto the interlining gesting the new princess’s influence might of one of his royal highness’s jackets. bring an end to the “all-pervading culture of

The other dress: Maid of honour Pippa Middleton (left) also wore McQueen. The dress was a slight variation on the McQueen gown Cameron Diaz (right) wore to the 2010 Golden Globes. 11 0

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porno-chic” that has invaded fashion. Writing on Slate.com, Doonan referred to the bride as “Audrey Hepburn for the 21st century” and asked: “Could April 29, 2011, mark the beginning of a whole new era of elegant restraint?” for a generation that has grown up with hair extensions, stripper poles and skin-baring brides. Doonan pronounced the new duchess of Cambridge as poised to bring an end to “hot11 2

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ness” being the single viable currency for women in the spotlight, referring to her as “ ‘the anti-hooker,’ garnering the attention and admiration of the entire world with barely a glimpse of flesh.” (Doonan seems to have forgotten that Middleton allegedly captured her prince’s eye by modelling a see-through dress.) He may also be overlooking another of Catherine of Bucklebury’s potential bridal MAY 16, 2011

legacies: unleashing the “sexy bridesmaid,” heretofore an oxymoron. Maid of honour Pippa Middleton’s form-fitting McQueen gown with its décolletage-baring cowl neckline was destined to grab attention, too much so, according to some observers. It also defied wedding protocol by being white, thus competing with the bride. In fact, Pippa’s va-vavoom dress, a slight variation on the red satin McQueen gown Cameron Diaz wore to the

Fiona Hanson/aP; Previous sPreads: Tom PilsTon/aP; Pascal le segreTain/geTTy images; d. long/KeysTone Press

Something borrowed, something new: The ‘halo’ Cartier tiara was on loan from the Queen, the diamond acorn earrings a gift from her parents

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2010 Golden Globes, is itself expected to be and highly conscious Kate, a princess deterknocked off as a bridal gown. mined to write her own fairy tale, or appear Fashion is fickle, of course. Hubert de Given- to. She reportedly did her bridal makeup chy deemed Kate’s dress “very simple and very herself and told her hairdresser that she nice,” but wasn’t so taken with the short veil, wanted “William to recognize me” at the calling it “a little flat, but altar. Hence, her signature because she has such a lovely long locks were left down, ‘COULD APRIL 29, 2011, pulled back only enough to face, she can afford to wear MARK THE BEGINNING hold a simple 1936 “starter” it this way.” Valentino, a friend of Diana’s, referred to OF A WHOLE NEW ERA OF Cartier tiara, a loaner from the late princess’s wedding the Queen. Nor was her dress as “a dress of a fairy- ELEGANT RESTRAINT?’ family’s imagery completely tale princess . . . still a dress ASKED A COMMENTATOR eclipsed by the Windsors: everybody remembers.” He the bride’s pavé diamond thought Kate’s dress, on the other hand, was drop earrings, a gift from her parents, depicted “a very pretty, modern dress that will be cop- acorns, a prominent symbol on her family’s ied everywhere but lacks that fairy-tale ele- new coat of arms. ment,” a comment that suggests he forgot how For the evening’s events, the new princess that particular “fairy tale” ended. reinvented herself while remaining in bridal Valentino doesn’t like the new flock of mode, changing into a strapless satin gown princesses: “Today most of the new prin- with diamanté detailing at the waist also cesses are young, modern, non-royal women designed by Burton, a glam 2.0 version of who have clear ideas, independence from her wedding dress minus the lace. Over it, stiff protocol,” he said. “They want to be the modest newlywed wore a white angora themselves and not anymore a symbol of bolero sweater for photographs. Which means the crown.” that by the time you read this, a $19.99 verThat certainly applied to the confident sion will be at H&M. ANNE KINGSTON 11 4

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Christopher Furlong/getty images; John stillWell/aFp/getty images

Day and night: The back view of the dress (above) highlights McQueen’s signature corsetry; for the evening events, Kate paired a floor-length satin gazar gown with an angora bolero jacket

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the groom

The man in uniform

It was hard not to think of Diana while watching Prince William on his wedding day

Chris JaCkson/Getty imaGes; Daily express/keystone press

Prince William had his back turned to Catherine Middleton as she walked with her father down the aisle at Westminster Abbey. It was an old-fashioned, austere moment: the demure, veiled bride escorted to her stoic bridegroom, who stared ahead at the altar. To William’s right stood Prince Harry, who also accompanied him from Clarence House to the abbey in a state Bentley, while crowds exclaimed, “We want Wills!” Harry has, in fact, always been at his big brother’s side to provide comic relief and encouragement. Now was no different: Harry broke form by

most comfortable during the less formal times. That’s when his charming, even coy, nature revealed itself: he blew kisses to his aunts before the service began. He joked with Kate and her father, “We were supposed to have just a small family affair!” To Kate, he gushed, “You look beautiful.” During the sermon, when the couple was urged to “persevere in prayer,” he initiated a warm exchange of grins between them. Once out of the solemn abbey (where Diana’s funeral was held in 1997) and among the cheering fans, William waved and laughed heartily. By then, he had put on his military cap, which is adorned with the regiment’s motto. Translated from Latin, it reads, “Who shall separate us?” No one, it seems. As soon as the couple were seated inside the 1902 state landau, Kate looked at William and glowed, “I’m so happy.” En route to Buckingham Palace, they were a coordinated pair: when he saluted the guards, she lowered her gaze. They chatted along the way. And as the couple passed under a stone archway, William and Kate clutched each other’s hands. That intimate Coordinated respect: Prince William salutes, while his wife, gesture—fleeting, and done only when they were free from the Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge bows her head public gaze—was reminiscent looking over his shoulder and, smiling, advised of the consoling hugs William and Harry William, “Right, here she is now.” received from their family when they passed Throughout the formal 75-minute service, under that same archway during Diana’s William remained the picture of regal restraint: funeral procession. he wore the red uniform of the Irish Guards; That’s not to say William and Kate weren’t he was appointed the regiment’s honorary up for outward displays of affection. When royal colonel by the Queen in February. His they appeared on the palace balcony as the blue sash was that of the oldest and highest newly named duke and duchess of Camorder of chivalry in Britain. He recited his bridge—and future king and queen—more vows in a quiet voice; he knelt and sang with than a million spectators chanted, “Kiss, kiss, his head bowed. When William and Kate kiss!” William leaned over, gave Kate a giddy strode down the aisle, she beamed, chin up, peck, and blushed. As jets saluted overhead, and surveyed the guests; he gave the same the crowd hollered for more: “Kiss a-gain! shy smiles, slight nods and sideways glances Kiss a-gain!” William happily obliged them. If his mother was the people’s princess, that his late mother Diana was known for. Also like his mother, William appeared William surely is their prince. CATHY GULLI

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the bridal party

STANDING ON CEREMONY Six young children, two highly eligible wranglers in Prince Harry and Pippa—all the ingredients for royal chaos, but the attendants behaved (almost) perfectly Nothing says courage quite like including six young children in your wedding party, unless it’s choosing as wranglers a young man who’s been called the bad boy of the royal family and a young woman who’s been called the most eligible singleton in the kingdom. With so many wild cards, anything could have gone wrong. But nothing did. Pippa Middleton made sure of that. After helping her sister exit the car at Westminster Abbey and expertly arranging the train of the wedding dress just so on the red carpet, she took charge of the children, smiling calmly throughout. Walking up the aisle hand in hand with the pair of three-year-old bridesmaids, she summoned memories of Diana’s easy, natural way with children. And yet the impression she created was all her own: while her unobtrusive manner indicated a willingness to fade modestly into the background, Pippa’s form-fitting dress, with buttons up the back and a small train of its own, made that quite impossible. Unusually, it was only a shade or two away from Kate’s own gown, and the cut was substantially more revealing. There were whispers, and within minutes, squawks and tweets: had the maid of honour upstaged the bride? Online, detractors emerged, sniffing about the chestnut hue of Pippa’s fake tan. But in the church, she dispatched her duties serenely and with dignity. Prince Harry, too, stepped up, which is to say that he was subdued and entirely proper throughout the ceremony, after cracking his brother up with a whispered aside as Kate approached the altar holding her father’s hand. There was nothing inappropriate in 11 8

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AlAstAir GrAnt/AP; AP

Double duty: Maid of honour Pippa Middleton (above) and best man Prince Harry (below) shepherd the younger members of the wedding party

that, though: the best man’s job description is to lighten the mood. And after the ceremony, heading to the palace in a carriage with the youngest members of the wedding party, he was impeccably avuncular, reassuring the children and putting them at ease. The children were, it must be said, perfectly behaved throughout. If they were restless at the abbey or uncomfortable in their angelic, starched outfits, they certainly didn’t show it. Even more remarkable, not one of the girls fussed with the circle of flowers

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perched on her head, and astonishingly, when they appeared on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, all four were still having a good flowers-in-hair day. Either these are the most stoic children on Earth, or parental bribery paid off handsomely. Either way, photographers hoping for antics of the sort William himself pulled at his uncle Andrew’s wedding were sorely disappointed. The mood on the balcony was decidedly more relaxed, with Kate leaning down to speak to the children, and Camilla, then MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

Charles, lifting up her granddaughter Eliza who, even on tiptoes, was not quite tall enough to look over the ledge to see the cheering crowd below. The scene-stealing moment, however, belonged to Grace van Cutsem, who covered her ears and screwed her face up into the pout seen around the world when Royal Air Force planes roared overhead. That the happy couple had chosen that particular moment to kiss provided the perfect backdrop. A naughty photo op, at last. KATE FILLION 119

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the sister

Her royal hotness

‘On April 29, a duchess was made and a star was born,’ declared the British press. Pippa took it in stride.

Toby Melville/ReuTeRs; XPosuRePHoTos.CoM; ian Gavan/GeTTy iMaGes

They don’t call her Perfect Pippa for nothing. When Kate Middleton arrived at Westminster Abbey on the morning of her wedding, there was a collective gasp around the globe. The bride was radiant, to be sure, but so was the maid of honour, trailing her sister in a slinky frock that slipped and sizzled in contrast to the bride’s demure lace sheath. In one moment, Philippa Charlotte Middleton stole the show with her now muchreplayed bend at the waist to straighten her sister’s nine-foot train. It was an act of sisterly

a couple of days of the wedding. Its slogan— “It’s no secret Pippa Middleton is absolutely banging! Show your appreciation for the Minxy Middleton”—tells you everything you need to know about Kate’s frisky and feline younger sibling’s effect on the opposite sex. But admirers hoping for a chance with the 27-year-old party planner will be disappointed to learn she’s already taken. The lucky lad is not a prince, but he is as posh as they come. Alex Loudon is a ruggedly handsome 30-yearold graduate of Prince William’s school, Eton College. A promising professional cricketer

mer flatmate Ted Innes-Ker, son of the duke of Roxburghe, as well as her former squeeze Billy More Nisbett, whose mother was a ladyin-waiting to Princess Anne). Unlike her older sister, Pippa has been able to build a career for herself, albeit one that doesn’t stray far from the Middleton family brand. In addition to overseeing the online newsletter for her parents’ successful company Party Pieces, Pippa has, since 2008, worked part-time for the London-based eventplanning organization Table Talk. Her vivaciousness and love of the cocktail circuit caused a buzz in the British media long before the royal wedding. In 2008, Tatler magazine named her the number one most eligible “Society Singleton,” beating out fellow wedding attendee (and fashion-pundit whipping girl) Princess Eugenie. As the royal family stood assembled on the Buckingham Palace balcony awaiting the obligatory royal kiss, best man Prince Harry looked thoroughly chuffed to be escorting

Stealing the show? Pippa Middleton arrives at church (left); with steady beau Alex Louden; the bend at the waist replayed around the world

love and bridal attendance to be sure, but one that also inspired a torrent of lust from red-blooded men the world over. The British tabloids insisted she had “played a blinder” by daring to look so fetching at her sister’s wedding. The Daily Telegraph, widely accepted as Britain’s royal paper of record, ostentatiously declared that “on April 29, a duchess was made and a star was born.” The maid of honour’s enchanting effect was even evidenced by an official Facebook page. The Pippa Middleton Ass Appreciation Society had received over 153,000 “likes” within

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until his mid-twenties, he has since retired and enrolled in an M.B.A. program at the London Business School. By all accounts, he is typical of Pippa’s type, which tends toward handsome and sporty young men from socially connected families. Like her sister before her, Pippa attended the exclusive Marlborough College, followed by an undergrad degree in Scotland at Edinburgh University. There she excelled at sport— she is a keen skier and tennis player—as well as socializing (her social circle included a number of young aristocrats including forMACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

Britain’s most eligible young woman. Could sparks fly between the two? If Pippa is as bright-eyed and ambitious as she appears, it would seem unlikely. As things currently stand, she’s got all the perks of being royal (the attention, the social cachet, the long list of fashion designers at her beck and call) with none of the drawbacks (the endless tedium of receiving lines, and dreary garden parties to attend). As Plum Sykes recently put it, Pippa is “has become a princess without the bad bits.” Perfection, indeed. LEAH M C LAREN 121

the guest list

to see and be seen The guests did not just observe the spectacle— they were part of it, a dizzying mixture of fame, fashion and faux pas As their Bentleys and Rolls-Royces crawled up the stately thoroughfares lined with thousands of spectators, guardsmen armed with fixed bayonets watched over the royal wedding guests. It was that kind of day—one of contradictions, of whimsy and moving spectacle. A guest list that in the last days threatened to cast a pall over the whole affair—snubbed past prime ministers, slighted foreign presidents, all those despots—dissolved on the Westminster Abbey steps into a confection of colour, occasional poor judgment and elegance. And in an England otherwise made austere by hard times, many of the 1,900 invited used fashion to make their statements. Carole Middleton strode in wearing an iceblue wool crepe coat dress, the kind of thing Jacqueline Kennedy might have worn had she been a British royal rather than a bona fide fashion plate. The bride’s mother reportedly got her first choice of colour and outfit, followed by the Queen, who opted for a primrose dress complemented by Queen Mary’s True Lover’s Knot brooch—an appropriate touch. Elsewhere, though, there were real missteps. Sarah Ferguson, the duchess of York and ex-wife of Prince Andrew, being herself a prior Windsor slip-up, wasn’t invited, but her two daughters, the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, in beige and blue respectively, wore garments (particularly those towering, vertiginous hats) that suggested a recent sojourn in the Land of Oz. Lesser royals arrived in buses like tourists across the tarmac from a charter flight, including Montreal-born Autumn, wife of Peter Phillips, the Queen’s grandson. England rugby captain Mike Tindall, engaged to Peter’s sister Zara, made his debut at an official royal event wearing his incomparably broken nose. 122

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And there were others from the farther edges of the royal orbit. Prince Albert of Monaco came with his fiancée, Charlene Wittstock— Europe’s next major royal wedding. Earl Spencer, whose last memorable appearance here came during his sister Diana’s funeral (when he delivered a eulogy stinging to the WindMAY 16, 2011

sors), now found himself shunted to the side with his Canadian fiancée, Karen Gordon (her hat: giant, pink, spaceship-like); William found a moment to chat with them briefly. Here was David Beckham, impossibly handsome in Ralph Lauren Purple Label but wearing his OBE medal on his right lapel—

getty images; ReuteRs; keystone; ap

Famous friends: (clockwise from far left) David Beckham and wife, Victoria; David Furnish and Elton John; British Speaker of the House John Bercow and wife, Sally; Earl Spencer’s daughters Lady Amelia, Lady Eliza and Lady Kitty; Autumn Phillips; Prime Minister David Cameron and wife, Samantha; Deputy PM Nick Clegg and wife, Miriam; comedian Rowan ‘Mr. Bean’ Atkinson and wife, Sunetra

the wrong side, experts said—with his very hat. Foreign Secretary William Hague’s wife, pregnant wife, Victoria, in a blue dress so Ffion, rolled up in a wheelchair, and House dark she could have been at a funeral. David of Commons Speaker John Bercow walked Cameron, the British prime minister, arrived in hand in hand with wife, Sally, in a bosomin tails after threatening to wear a suit. His revealing dress (she once told a reporter the wife, Samantha, kept it simple in a green role of Speaker had transformed her husband Burberry and—a break from tradition—no into “a sex symbol”).

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MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

Elton John, judging by his waddle trussed up tight in an unforgiving corset, came in tails, a tie of sharp purple and a yellow waistcoat, his Canadian partner David Furnish more subdued in metallic greys. (During the ceremony, the pop singer appeared to fumble over the words of Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer, the final hymn sung at Diana’s funeral.) Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, the socialite and TV presenter, had complained in the ramp-up to the wedding that her family dog “chewed my royal wedding invitation.” Many worried the same could be said of her nose. A reformed drug addict whose cocaine habit destroyed the cartilage separating her nostrils, her new nose was complemented by a pointed blue hat that might have been borrowed from an episode of Star Trek . In an age of Internet and Twitter feeds, the notion of standing on the street seemed quaint. Yet they came, with flags, silly hats that echoed those of the royal entourage, and open bottles. Long before the digital age, this is how national memories were created—how the monarchy endured. Kim Marriott was among the hundreds of thousands who lined the streets. She made the two-hour drive from Dorset to stand behind a low cement wall on Whitehall Street. Standing precariously on the wall was her husband, Robert, steadying their 11-year-old son Jacob. “It’s history,” said Kim. “He needs to see them. When he’s our king and she’s our queen, then he can say he was there when they were married. Here, in the crowd.” Soon the wedding had drawn to a close and the sun broke through the grey sky as the landau rattled by, slowing in front of the children as it manoeuvred the narrow gate that led the procession toward Buckingham Place. Kim saw little of this, just a flash of colour and the backs of the couple. “Watch it, watch it!” she’d shouted to her son over the din. “You must take it all in!” Then to her husband, the keeper of the camera, “Did you get it?” Jacob and Robert scrambled down to the sidewalk. Kim gave an excited shiver. “Was she gorgeous?” she asked. Jacob nodded. “Was he handsome?” Another nod. NICHOLAS KÖHLER AND KEN M AC QUEEN

123

Lady Kitty Spencer in a whimsical creation by Philip Treacy, the Irish hatmaker behind most of the day’s memorable millinery

Victoria Beckham’s gravity-defying Philip Treacy fascinator ‘challenges how we see hats,’ says Toronto milliner David Dunkley

Miriam González Durántez channelled Carmen Miranda in a dramatic turban festooned with tangerine cabbage roses

millinery watch

crowning glories

Karen Gordon, Earl Spencer’s Canadian fiancée, in a hat that Toronto milliner David Dunkley called a ‘wonderful understatement’ 124

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Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson finished off her over-the-top cobalt blue ensemble with a flower-filled canoe-shaped fascinator MAY 16, 2011

Demure drama: Sophie, countess of Wessex in a beige partial headband boasting giant roses to complement her Bruce Oldfield coat

‘Magnificent,’ says milliner David Dunkley of Carole Middleton’s pale disc, adding, ‘People are asking for that shape already’

Getty ImaGes; Keystone Press

Prince William’s cousin Zara Phillips selected an intriguing Philip Treacy design that shifted shape with a turn of her head

Wind-defying hats, ranging from fantastical confections to classic headgear, made the day’s loudest fashion statements

Princess Beatrice—fifth in line to the throne—in Philip Treacy; it’s been likened to a door knocker and an IUD; below, previous looks

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MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

125

No bangers and mash?

Key ingredients for the wedding-day feasts—aside from the French bubbly—were sourced from the royal realm Bubble and squeak, smoked-haddock fish cakes, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding sounds more like dinner with Jaime Oliver than with the newly minted duke and duchess of Cambridge. But in keeping with the overarching narrative of this royal wedding, where everything from Kate’s dress to the

at the Queen’s own Windsor estate; the goat cheese stuffed into the roulades was sourced from Britain-based cheesemonger Paxton and Whitfield; and the smoked haddock for the fish cakes, crowned with pea guacamole, arrived from the east coast of Scotland. Even the organic celery salt dusting the quail eggs

Delectable: (clockwise from bottom left) Lunch-hour canapés; touching up the cake; quail eggs

ceremony has been steeped in tradition, British patriotism reigned supreme at the afternoon reception that immediately followed the newlyweds’ two pecks. At the reception, hosted by the Queen, at least 10,000 canapés in 24 varieties—prepared for the 650 guests by 21 chefs led by royal chef Mark Flanagan— were topped with ingredients showcasing the bounty of Britain’s produce. That’s 16 canapés per guest, for those keeping score. The bubble and squeak (a hash made from leftovers of a roast-beef dinner) was topped with confit of lamb shoulder, the lamb raised 126

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was made in Wales. In fact, nearly all the canapés’ ingredients were sourced from the royal realm,including English asparagus, rhubarb and crayfish, duck from Gressingham, langoustines from the northwest coast of Scotland and pork from the Cotswolds. To wash it down, only French bubbly, of course, would do, specifically Pol Roger reserve. For those who didn’t fancy champagne—including both Prince Charles and his father Philip—a selection of other soft and alcoholic drinks were available. The guests sashayed through 19 state rooms echoMAY 16, 2011

ing with music by Claire Jones, the official harpist, and nibbled on the canapés buffetstyle. After all, even the Queen doesn’t own a table fit for 650. In the Picture Gallery, surrounded by Rembrandts and Rubenses, was the eighttiered wedding cake that took pastry chef Fiona Cairns and her team five weeks to finish. Following Victorian tradition, 17 boozy fruitcakes were decorated with cream and white icing and some 900 intricate flowers and fauna, carefully chosen by the duchess of Cambridge for their symbolic significance (the couple’s newly designed insignia appeared in icing, too). There was also a sweet specifically requested by William: a three-tiered chocolate-biscuit cake, made by McVitie’s Cake Co. and based on a royal family recipe. Although as many as two billion people tuned in to watch Kate walk down Westminster Abbey’s red-carpeted aisle, only the 300 guests invited to the palace dinner and dance hosted by Prince Charles will be privy to the details of that affair. Luckily for the inquisitive, though, some guests are talking. The Daily Telegraph reported that Swiss chef Anton Mosimann catered the meal that, unsurprisingly, highlighted British fare. Dinner began after cocktails, with crab from Wales followed by a main course of lamb fillet from Highgrove prepared three ways, and ended with a trio of sweets—trifle, chocolate fondant and ice cream in brandy-snap baskets. The wine was “stunningly good.” Prince Charles, after all, is a famously generous host; “his guests,” Brian Hoey wrote in At Home with the Queen, “enjoy the delights of one of the finest tables and cellars in the country.” One guest described the post-dinner celebrations as “simply magical—the best party ever imaginable.” Not surprising, considering veteran party planner Prince Harry organized and emceed the event. It began on a tender note, with William and Harry both mentioning in their speeches that their mother would have really enjoyed being there. The best man eventually brought down the house. Harry “was so unbelievably funny,” one guest reported, “that by the end of it he had most of the room crying with laughter.” But the party really got going around 11:30 p.m. Guests were ushered into the Throne Room, which had been transformed into “a massive nightclub,” where they danced until the wee hours, even Camilla. And at 2 a.m., guests were offered bacon butties—greasy bacon sandwiches known for being the perfect hangover cure. Even a royal one. Jessica allen

Nick ANsell/ReuteRs; JohN stillwell/AP; Nick ANsell/AFP/GettY iMAGes

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not so feudal after all The palace’s adroit use of new media has created a more savvy, approachable monarchy The marriage of Catherine Middleton and Prince William of Wales came off without a hitch as close to two billion people around the world watched john fraser the British dust off their ancient institutions—from Westminster Abbey (10thcentury origins) to the state landaus and coaches from the last two centuries—and make a hugely successful fuss over their future king and queen, now titled the duke and duchess of Cambridge. Out of it all, a new sort of monarchy was seen to emerge, one more approachable, more savvy, and much more likely to survive the assaults regularly hurled its way. And that is thanks not just to a with-it and photogenic young couple, but also to the palace’s adroit use of new media. The couple has not made one mistake, and the only criticism of their pre-wedding behaviour—that they lived together “in sin”—not only redounded to their credit, it turned out the cohabitation had been almost blessed by the archbishop of York, the second-highestranked cleric in the realm. As the archbishop’s daughter said, couples “want to test whether the milk is good before they buy the cow.” Some cow! Some milk! So this wedding, firstly, was an important moment in royal chronology—especially if you are one of those for whom romance, majesty and constitutional sanity reign supreme—and, to quote the preacher of the day, a moment of great hope. If, on the other hand, the whole exercise seemed too silly for words, well, the only parade the rain fell on was yours. For the greater purposes of the royal family, however, the day was much more than a bril128

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liant event focused on a beautiful young couple. It was a triumph for its image handlers who have embraced new media and, through this wedding, seem at long last to have found a way to bypass a quarter-century of mean-spirited and often ludicrously fabricated reportage. A classic example occurred in the April 20 Daily Express, whose “royal correspondent” Richard Palmer pompously opined: “To the puzzlement of some courtiers, the monarch has avoided any show of support or welcome for Kate’s mother and father.” This was under the headline, “Queen bans meetings with Middletons until after the wedding.” The only problem was that while the paper was being sold on the streets, the Middletons were having a nice lunch with the Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle. A palace spokesman described it as “a long-standing engagement.” Although Buckingham Palace started a website nearly 15 years ago, it was pretty stodgy, even after a revamp in 2001. They

Glorious rendezvous: A brilliant event revealed

a monarchy in touch with what people want

had finally figured it out by the 2009 relaunch, and the site, along with that of the Prince of Wales, is now a model of interactivity. The Firm—as the royal family has been nicknamed for generations—can now engage directly with its vast constituency and is no longer willing to let the older media be the principal purveyors of official storylines. The wedding, and especially the buildup to it, has been one of the most tweeted and facebooked events in the short history of online communications. Mainstream reporters and certainly all the tabloid hacks have had to go—without exception—to royal websites to get their information. The news has MAY 16, 2011

been disseminated at a stately pace and journalists got it at precisely the same time as anyone sitting at home. Here was something genuinely new: a monarchy remarkably in touch with what the public wants—and so modern it’s made the regular media seem old-fashioned. The palace’s control was evident right to the end of the wedding reportage, when William and Catherine drove off in Prince Charles’s Aston Martin convertible, festooned with a “JU5T WED” licence plate and trailing helium balloons. A lot of this is inspired by William’s own dignified informality, which the public is only just now getting to see. Those 2.1 million tweets and 1.8 million Facebook comments in the month leading up to the wedding in Britain (and almost as many in the U.S.) tell the story. This hugely successful wedding also proved something else. While there may be no really logical argument to refute republican claims that hereditary monarchy is a feudal relic that makes no sense in today’s world, that is not the sum of the issue. It’s useless to hurl history and courtesy at someone who asks smugly if you also believe that the son of a professor of physics has a divine right to be a professor of physics. Red herrings like this are thrown at the monarchy every day, yet the idea of a Canadian monarchy, derived from our history and evolved through our federal and provincial offices of governor general and lieutenant governors, rests on a firm foundation of two sturdy and irrefutable facts: it exists and it works. That’s why this glorious rendezvous at Westminster Abbey has been such good news. It promises a continuation of the magic, the mystery and the civil solution to our fractious political propensities. When we say, “God bless young William and Catherine,” we are also saying, without illusion or embarrassment, please spare us the rancour and divisiveness of the constitutional alternatives. That’s a lot of weight to place on the shoulders of two young people setting off on a new life together, but it looks that they can handle it. The fact that they managed their nuptials with such aplomb, simplicity and directness, within a historical tradition of liturgical pageantry, is also our own confirmation that continuity and decency still have a role to play in our national life. Catherine’s small wedding bouquet included sweet william and myrtle, flowers historically associated with gallantry and loyalty. So, now, are they. John Fraser’s new book, The Secret of the Crown: Canada’s Fling with Royalty, will be published in 2012 by Anansi Press

Christopher Furlong/getty images

winds of change

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social media

The twittering classes

Pippa’s show-stealing behind, the frowning flower girl and Bea’s batty headgear dominated Web chatter When Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles got married in 2005, Facebook had just extended its membership eligibility to high school students, YouTube was in its nascency, Twitter didn’t exist, and no one really knew how to live-stream video. Fastforward six years, to a brave new world. Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding set online viewership records, dominated social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, and created instant Internet stars. The big winner? Live-streaming video providers. Livestream, which provided online video for the Associated Press and CBS, said the royal wedding was its most popular stream ever, with 300,000 concurrent viewers. Yahoo also saw big gains: its royal video stream exceeded the record set by Michael Jackson’s funeral by 21 per cent. “Consuming video on the Internet is an increasingly complementary choice to broadcast TV, even when the event is available on TV,” according to Jennifer Donovan, spokesperson for Akamai, another Web streaming service. (The official royal channel provider, YouTube, expected 130

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an unprecedented 400 million viewers, though the numbers aren’t yet in.) Major television networks, too, are finally leveraging social media to their advantage. Indeed, being on every platform—namely Facebook and Twitter—is becoming a necessity: “It’s about providing people with information they want in the format they want it,” says Wendy Rozeluk, a Google representative in Toronto. “One of the advantages is the ongoing commentary that people can make, as well as the participation people can have with an event.” In the past, the crush of commentary has crashed sites. In 2009, for example, Michael Jackson’s death knocked both Google News and Twitter offline. Now, however, sites are better prepared. Throughout the wedding, Google News stayed live and the iconic Twitter “fail whale,” an image displayed when the site crashes, didn’t make an appearance. In fact, the only major site that wasn’t prepared was, ironically, the BBC’s, which crashed on Friday from the volume of traffic. While the BBC floundered, Facebook and MAY 16, 2011

Twitter maintained astoundingly fast response times, 0.56 and 1.82 seconds respectively. By mid-ceremony, mentions of #Royalwedding (the hashtag used by tweeters) topped one billion. Tweet volume was heaviest in London, New York and Toronto, in that order. Liz Pullen, an analyst at Internet tracking site What the Trend, shared a list of weddingrelated Twitter trends: “QILF,” an acronym playing on MILF, and “Pippa” were big. British journalist Caitlin Moran summed up the reason in a tweet: “This wedding has mainly been about Pippa Middleton’s amazing arse, hasn’t it?” Both Pippa’s behind and Princess Beatrice’s royal wedding hat also inspired their own Facebook pages; by the day after the wedding, the latter had been “liked” by more than 77,000 people. Within hours, the royal wedding had created instant memes—popular online phenomena—celebrated with typical Internet idiosyncratic flair. The most popular? Bridesmaid Grace van Cutsem, Will’s three-yearold goddaughter, who was captured scowling, hands cupped over her ears, while Will and Kate kissed behind her on the Buckingham Palace balcony. Her face is already being photoshopped into hundreds of (probably inappropriate) photos for comedic effect. It’s too early to know if she’ll end up in the Internet hall of fame à la keyboard cat, but it’s already a safe bet to tweet “Frowning flower girl #ftw.” Ftw means “for the win,” or success. But you already knew that. STEPHANIE FINDLAY

Peter MacdiarMid/Getty iMaGes; NatioNal News/KeystoNe Press; Pascal le seGretaiN/Getty iMaGes

Royal memes: (from left) Grace Van Cutsem, William’s three-year-old goddaughter; Pippa Middleton, seen from behind; Princess Beatrice and the hat

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m a c l e a n ’ s film: The Bang Bang Club p.135

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books: Julia and paul Child p.136

MAY 16, 2011

tv: Bargain-basement Fox News p.139

b a c k fame: Jodie Foster rescues Mel Gibson p.140

p a g e s

taste: Marvellous mozzarella p.142

books: Bernie Gunther, pI p.143

TV

What Andrea wants. . . The TV journalist who famously ‘got’ Charlie Sheen has a surprising Canadian target in her sights It’s 10:30 on a Sunday night in mid-April, famously, an unhinged Charlie Sheen. Canand ABC TV’s Andrea Canning is gently grill- ning’s 90-minute February sit-down with the ing a 17-year-old girl about the serial killer actor, his first network interview after being who allegedly murdered her sister. The hunt fired, was a sensation. Sheen’s mash-up spoof for the prostitute-killing psychopath is big of the encounter, now part of his North Amernews in New York; Canning has just snagged ican tour, was a YouTube hit. It propelled the first on-air interview with the Buffalo, N.Y., Canning’s rising star at a time when it’s not teenager who says she received calls on her enough for network news to simply report sister’s cell from the man two years ago. The the news; it now has to make news itself. girl is filmed in shadow to protect her identity. Celebrities and scandal are the ideal vehicles. Before tape rolls at an “Gadhafi is important but ABC studio in Manhattan, Sheen pays the bills,” CanCanning expresses her ning says, quoting an sympathy, then breaks ABC executive. the ice by joking that Coaxing ratings gold some days she’d like to from Malibu’s “warlock” be filmed in shadow. “No is a world away from Canhair and makeup!” The ning’s childhood in the southern Ontario native Collingwood, Ont., area, then bonds with the girl’s where her grandfather entourage: “I grew up founded the Blue Mounknowing too much about tain ski resort, now run ‘My officer and a gentleman’: In Buffalo news,” she says. by her father. A “shy kid” 2008, Canning married a U.S. marine Then she gets down to who skied competitively, extracting enough footage for a one-minute she majored in psychology at the University clip for her regular stint on Good Morning of Western Ontario before a summer acting America (GMA) the next day. It’s a challenge: course at the University of California led to the girl’s answers are monosyllabic. The scene the TV journalism program at Toronto’s Ryerhas a mutually predatory aspect to it. The son University. A gig as a Baywatch intern lurking question, “Why are you risking your (David Hasselhoff remains “a good friend”) life?” isn’t asked. The answer is obvious: it’s paved her way to an intern position at the tabloid TV show Extra. While in L.A., Canher 15 seconds of fame. For Canning, the girl is a minor prize in ning shared a house with the then-unknown her roster of high-profile “gets,” a list that Ryan Seacrest, who was “very driven,” she includes fugitive actor Randy Quaid and his recalls. “We say there was something in the wife, Evi, 13-year-old Rebecca Black, whose water in that house.” Extra provided her first song Friday elicited Internet snark, and, most taste of the adrenalin rush of breaking scandal when she confirmed a 1997 phone tip that the woman accusing sportscaster Marv Albert Calling ‘Canada AM’: Andrea Canning grew of sexual assault faced criminal indictments. up in Blue Mountain, Ont., where her grandCanning plotted her on-air ascent strategicfather founded a popular ski resort

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TV ally: she babysat for a colleague in return for Canning bemoan her love life, met Bancroft Charlie’s father. “It was really kind and suphelp with her resumé tape, then hired a voice in Iraq in 2006 and set the two up online. portive,” she says. Canning, who’s trying to coach who also provided advice on hair, Frustrated when Bancroft, a fighter pilot who snag a behind-the-scenes exclusive of Sheen’s makeup and clothes. She was hired as a repor- was once an extra on The West Wing, didn’t tour, shrugs off his interview spoof: “I thought ter at CKVR in Barrie, Ont. Cracking the send a photo, Canning bought DVDs of the it was funny,” she says. Toronto TV market was difficult, Canning show and tracked down the episode. They Always looking ahead, Canning cultivates says. Sportsnet commentator Kevin Quinn, have two girls. “I’ve got my officer and a relationships. She corresponds with Michael a CKVR colleague, recalls it differently: “We gentleman,” she says of her husband, who Douglas’s son, Cameron, who’s serving prison were all, ‘Toronto’s the big time.’ But Andrea’s now works in finance. time for drug possession. For the past eight aspirations were higher.” She’d stay late to Onscreen, Canning’s poised, placid demean- years, she has written every two months to review her tapes, he says: “She had two jobs: our can come off as cool, aloof. In person, convicted murderer Scott Peterson, despite she’s animated and engaging. Colleagues no response. her regular job and improving her craft.” As for her own future, Canning cites Diane Canning moved on to a series of small U.S. speak of her with respect and fondness. She stations: West Palm Beach, Fla., Sawyer as an inspiration. She Cincinnati, then an ABC affiliate has also turned to ABC doyenne in Washington. ABC executive Barbara Walters for advice, while John Green, then producing GMA’s angling for a shot as a guest panweekend edition, recalls her conellist on her show The View. Canstantly pitching ideas: “They were ning doesn’t shy from self-proimpressive, very buzzy.” Canning motion; she even wrote to even volunteered to produce her Maclean’s, offering herself as a own segments, unorthodox for timely subject. on-air talent, Green says. It’s a constant hustle. A GMA She took a pay cut in 2006 to co-host spot doesn’t interest her, move to New York, where she she claims. “If they offered me it proved her versatility reporting tomorrow? Great. But I’m not for GMA, as well as for ABC’s plotting.” The only job Canning news and current affairs programs. says she covets comes as a surCanning takes particular pride in prise: co-hosting CTV’s Canada debunking a much-publicized AM. “I love Canada,” she says. “I 2009 “pregnancy pact” among think it would be fun to be the 17 Massachusetts high school stumain person in my home coundents. “It didn’t add up,” she says. try.” The show could use a shakeup, She tracked down five pregnant she says: “It could use more energy. girls who confirmed the pregnanBut maybe they don’t want that.” cies were coincidental and that She has even checked out co-host no pact existed. Her ‘breakthrough’: Canning talks to Charlie Sheen in L.A. in February Seamus O’Regan’s CV. “He’s a “Andrea’s an old-style reporter smart guy. I think, ‘I could have in a new business,” says Martha Raddatz, admits online comments about her can be fun with you.’ ” She pauses. “Bev will hate ABC’s chief foreign correspondent, who met hurtful but are also “instructive.” Of the heat me,” she says, referring to O’Regan’s co-host, Canning in Washington. Green attributes she got for reading nasty comments made Beverly Thomson. her success to a combination of talent, gump- about Rebecca Black in front of the girl, she Canning, whose ABC contract is up next tion and industry: “She’s one of the hardest- says: “I should have said, ‘Are you okay with year, is politic. “I love this network,” she says. me reading this?’ first. But she loved the inter- “I don’t want people thinking I’m trying to working people I’ve ever come across.” leave.” Yet she says she wouldn’t miss the Canning, who lives across the street from view. We hugged after.” ABC’s Upper West Side headquarters and The scrutiny has increased exponentially high-octane pace and would rather live at works 12-hour days, presents as a familiar since the Sheen interview, which ABC’s Green Blue Mountain than in New York City: “I stereotype—the TV network news careerist calls Canning’s “breakthrough.” Their encoun- want a house. I want a backyard.” She knows played by Holly Hunter in Broadcast News ter resulted from a GMA spot Canning pre- expressing such overt ambition will affront and Rachel McAdams in Morning Glory, a sented on the actor’s radio rants. “After, I some Canadians: “They’ll think, ‘Who does film Canning has seen twice. “Oh my God, I thought, if only I had his cellphone I could she think she is?’ Which is not what I want love that movie,” she says. A scene in which convince him to give an interview,” she says. them to think, honestly.” a hard-nosed newsman turned reluctant mor- Minutes later an email landed from Sheen’s Raddatz expresses shock her friend would ning show co-host played by Harrison Ford publicist, saying the actor had seen her report even consider leaving. “Oh, no. She commakes a frittata on-air brought tears to her and wanted to talk. “I was putting out my pletely loves her job and is only going to get eyes, she says. “If you’re not willing to do best pitch, and he said, ‘All right, I’ll do it more airtime. Maybe she means 10 years that stuff, you’re not going to succeed.” with you.’ I didn’t believe him.” A week later, from now.” Maybe. Green says “the sky’s the True to that script, TV played a central role a newly fired Sheen called and said, “You’re limit” for Canning in the U.S. Whatever the in Canning’s 2008 marriage to U.S. marine up,” she says. “I still have the message.” truth, Andrea Canning has figured out how Tony Bancroft. Raddatz, who’d listened to Now she also has a letter from Martin Sheen, to keep us watching. ANNE KINGSTON 134

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ABC NEWS/CP; PrEviouS SPrEAd: PhotogrAPh By ErikA LArSEN/rEdux; ANdrEA CANNiNg

Seamus O’Regan is ‘a smart guy. I think, “I could have fun with you.” ’ She pauses. ‘Bev will hate me.’

Film

The Club: (from left) Frank Rautenbach, Neels Van Jaarsveld, Taylor Kitsch and Ryan Phillippe star in Canadian Steven Silver’s gritty drama

Sex, drugs and combat photography

eOne Films

The deaths of two photojournalists in Libya cast a chill over The Bang Bang Club Sometimes a film can be too timely for comfort. Last week, Manhattan’s Tribeca Film Festival hosted the U.S. premiere of The Bang Bang Club, based on the true story of four combat photographers working in South Africa during the final days of apartheid in the 1990s. One of them was killed by gunfire, another took his own life. The premiere took place the day after photojournalists Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros were killed by a bomb in the Libyan city of Misrata. Their loss may make the film more relevant, driving home the fact that photographers still routinely risk their lives in the line of fire. But it also sends a chill through this retro romance about combat photography—a Molotov cocktail of a movie that mixes graphic violence with bursts of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll bravado. The Libyan deaths “cast a shadow over the premiere,” Steven Silver, the film’s South African-born, Toronto-based director, told Maclean’s. “But if the film was released three months or six months from now, there’s a good chance we’d be talking about the death of another journalist.” This predominantly Canadian co-production is based on The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War (2000), a memoir by Johannesburg photojournalists Greg Marinovich and João Silva, the two surviving members of the group. (Last November, Silva lost the lower half of both his legs to a land mine while shooting in Afghanistan.) The story focuses on the war between Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress and

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the Zulu warriors of the Inkatha Freedom Party, which received covert support from the apartheid regime. The conflict, which killed almost 20,000 people from 1990 to 1994, was ignored by the censored South African media until the photographers’ images hit the front pages of the world press. Ryan Phillippe stars as Marinovich, a naive rookie who joins a pack of seasoned photojournalists, and wins a Pulitzer Prize less than a year after his baptism of fire. His winning picture shows an ANC supporter taking a machete to a burning man. What’s shocking about the scene—and others reenacted in the film—is that the photographer is so close to such visceral brutality. Recalling the first murder he shot, Marinovich wrote: “I was one of a circle of killers . . . just an arm’s length away.” Amid the horror, he recalls checking light readings, “as aware of what I was doing as a photographer as I was of the rich scent of fresh blood.” This is a very different killing field from the one in Restrepo, last year’s Afghan war documentary that Hetherington co-directed, in which the Taliban forces are so far away we never see them. The Bang Bang Club takes us back to a pre-9/11, pre-digital age, before cellphone cameras, when events didn’t exist without photojournalists. The four young men come across as daredevil party boys who

relish the work, but are haunted by their impassive role—especially the drug-addicted Kevin Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who commits suicide two months after winning the Pulitzer Prize for his shot of a vulture stalking a starving child in Sudan. While Phillippe is the designated golden boy, Kitsch—the Friday Night Lights kid who’s poised to become a superstar with lead roles in two upcoming blockbusters—quietly steals the movie as the sweet, shambling Carter. Phillippe’s lightweight image as the cute young terrier who seduces his picture editor (Malin Akerman) may unfairly tarnish the film’s credibility. And CNN’s Tom Cohen, who worked in South Africa in the 1990s, has criticized Silver for conflating characters, neglecting the political context and betraying the book. But this $6-million feature is no Hollywood sham. Silver—a documentary veteran making his dramatic feature debut— paid serious dues in the 1990s as an ANC activist. And he bent over backwards to be authentic. All the combat photos were re-enacted where they were originally taken, and Silva and Marinovich were on the set every day. But to compress a four-year conflict into a tight, adrenalin-charged drama requires some licence. Silver, like those Bang Bang cowboys, ran the risk of sensationalism every time he composed a frame. BRIAN D. JOHNSON

Rising star Taylor Kitsch quietly steals the movie from designated golden boy Ryan Phillippe

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Books

‘A Covert Affair’: Julia Child was a secret intelligence agent in China when she met her husband, who introduced her to sex and Asian cuisine

The untold story of Jane & Julia A COVERT AFFAIR: JULIA CHILD AND PAUL CHILD IN THE OSS

Jennet Conant

Still, he played the friendly Svengali when they were stationed in China, introducing her to sex and Asian cuisine. By 1946, he’d come to his senses and they wed. Though charmingly rendered, the Childs are secondary characters here, dangled as a lure, which makes A Covert Affair and its misleading subtitle something of a covert operation itself. Conant’s real mission is to tell the tale of the Childs’ OSS friend Jane Foster, a flamboyant American artist charged with being a Soviet spy in the 1950s, allegations that were never resolved and put Paul under investigation. Conant is clearly sympathetic to Foster’s plight, using it to place a lens on the dark days of McCarthyism. Yet by book’s end the reader will nod in agreement with Julia’s sage assessment of Foster as a “fascinating and amusing girl . . . who turned out to be a Russian agent,” and wish Conant had provided a lot less Jane and a lot more Julia. ANNE KINGSTON

Such is the interest in Julia Child and her devoted husband, Paul, sparked by Nora Ephron’s film Julie & Julia, that a prequel to the couple’s boeuf bourguignon days was inevitable. Now it’s here, sort of, with A Covert Affair, Jennet Conant’s fascinating chronicle of life inside the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War and the anti-Communist hysteria that followed. Drawing upon previously unpublished letters and recently unclassified documents, Conant creates a vivid portrait of the era that often reads like fiction. Later in her life, Julia Child liked to say, “The war made me.” This book explains why. Julia McWilliams was an inexperienced 30-year-old when she joined the OSS in 1942. Her first assignment, assisting with an ambitious plan to develop a secret intelligence THE GUILTY PLEA Robert Rotenberg network across Southeast Asia, transported her to exotic locales, gave her lifelong friendA Toronto lawyer turned crime ships and, most significantly, put her in the writer, Rotenberg won a lot of fans with his first novel, Old orbit of the older, more worldly Paul Child, an artist who built war rooms. Julia was smitCity Hall (2009), in which his ten from the get-go, but it took Paul time city and especially the former to see the unsophisticated late bloomer as civic headquarters that is now the nerve cena worthy soulmate. He detailed his doubts tre of Toronto’s criminal justice system were in often snotty letters home to his brother. leading characters. Rotenberg’s second effort 136

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MAY 16, 2011

picks up where he left off—new lawyers take centre stage, to be sure, and there’s a stronger role for plot over atmosphere—but there’s the same appealing lead cop and the same sort of open-and-shut situation that turns out to be anything but. In Rotenberg’s first novel, it was a matter of a prominent radio host, his girlfriend dead in a bathtub behind him, who opens his door and tells a caller, “I killed her.” In Guilty Plea, the plot kicks off with a rich man stabbed to death on the morning his highly publicized divorce case was to begin; soon after, the victim’s wife shows up at her lawyer’s office with a bloody knife. Once again, naturally, things are not as they seem, and once again nicely etched characters and the multicultural city take centre stage. (And in a realistic manner too, except for Rotenberg’s one fantasy point: in his first novel the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup; in his second, even as a reader half-expects the city to awaken from its collective hallucination, Torontonians are still basking in the wake of that triumph.) But in the end it’s not the motive and details, nor the loving portrayal of Rotenberg’s hometown, that turns Guilty Plea into a compulsive page-turner, nor even the backstage legal machinations, good as they are: if you ever need to get a key piece of evidence to a Crown prosecutor, without the authorities knowing it came from you, then Rotenberg’s your guide. No, it’s the author’s defence counsel

Rick FRiedman/cORBiS

Plus, new novels by Robert Rotenberg and Madeleine Thien, Sarah Vowell on the history of Hawaii, pivotal moments in love and the strange quest to cheat death

‘Unfamiliar Fishes’: This new history of Hawaii explains how U.S. imperialism has shaped the Pacific islands state where Barack Obama was born

sensibility that powers his novels, his insistence that every story is intensely personal (and almost never completely revealed), the way in which his humanizing of seemingly obvious killers raises doubts in the reader at the same pace as it does for the jury. As one character, clearly speaking for Rotenberg, notes, humans have not two but three sides: “We all have a public life and a private life— and a secret life.” BRIAN BETHUNE DOGS AT THE PERIMETER

Alex BrAndon/AP PHoTo

Madeleine Thien

In award-winning Canadian novelist Thien’s latest book, a woman named Janie discovers the impossibility of ever really leaving the past behind. Janie has been struggling in her role as wife and mother. One frigid Montreal winter, she abruptly leaves her husband and young son and retreats to the empty apartment of her mentor, Dr. Hiroji Matsui, a neurologist who’s recently disappeared. Janie believes Hiroji has taken off to find his missing brother, James, a Red Cross doctor transplanted from Vancouver to Phnom Penh, who mysteriously vanished in 1975 during the final stages of Cambodia’s devastating civil war. She eventually decides to follow Hiroji there. Learning more about James’s disappearance, Janie is brought back to her own childhood in Cambodia, where her family was violently ripped apart as the Khmer Rouge took control. In an effort to erase the past and start from scratch, the regime attempted to destroy any vestige of culture, tradition or family and return the nation to “Year Zero,” as it’s chillingly called. In the process, Janie and many others had their lives pulled apart. She was finally sent to Canada as a refugee, leaving her former identity behind in Cam-

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bodia—even her old name. The name Janie, she says, is her “Canadian name.” If Janie left Cambodia for Canada, James did it the other way round, travelling to Phnom Penh after completing his medical training in Vancouver. Like Janie, he’s lived under different names: born Junichiro Matsui, he renamed himself James as a teenager, and decades later—after losing his home and family in the war—he is living under another name entirely, making it all but impossible for Hiroji to track him down. In stark, beautiful prose, Thien (whose first work of fiction, Simple Recipes, was a finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book) shows that it’s through these characters’ relationships with others—like James’s complicated bond with his brother, or Janie’s with her husband and son, and the connection between Janie and Hiroji—that a more permanent identity is created. KATE LUNAU UNFAMILIAR FISHES Sarah Vowell

“You can’t really understand Barack until you understand Hawaii,” Michelle Obama famously said about her husband. In her new history of the Pacific islands state, Vowell doesn’t so much seek to understand the U.S. president as the republic he governs. In particular, how the nation’s practice of engaging in foreign wars under dubious pretenses has a history a lot older than many Americans would like to think, and Hawaii is a case in point. Hawaii is a popular tourist hot spot today, but America’s first interest in the 50th state was religious. Protestant missionaries landed on Big Island in 1820 and some of their achievements are near miraculous: Hawaiians had no written language, and in order MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

to teach through Bible study, missionaries invented a spelling system using the Roman alphabet. Within 40 years, the literacy rate hit 75 per cent. But Christianity was no match for a more fervent religion: capitalism. American businessmen saw easy money in the islands and subverted the native agriculture for sugar plantations. By 1890, nearly 90 per cent of the land was controlled by foreign interests. The following year, tired of King Kalakaua’s questionable spending and patronage, a group of mostly white businessmen forced the ruler to sign the “Bayonet Constitution,” vastly curtailing royal power. In 1893, they deposed the monarchy entirely, and Hawaii was annexed by the U.S. five years later. Potentially a dry history, Unfamiliar Fishes is well aided by Vowell’s acid wit. “Nuuanu is another good view with a bad massacre,” she says of some cliffs near Honolulu, while she describes one neighbourhood’s architectural style as “A Very Brady Brutalism.” However, the author often gets too caught up in her own tale: that a segment on the merging of Hawaiian and American laws focusing on a 19th-century land dispute includes references to recent U.S. Supreme Court appointee Sonia Sotomayor, a statue in a Maui park, and Dr. Seuss is a typical digression. Then again, perhaps Vowell is trying to diffuse the harshness of how she now understands her country: that its imperialism is as American as apple pie. REBECCA CALDWELL PULSE Julian Barnes

This is a collection of short stories, set in wildly different circumstances, that focus on pivotal moments in love: what makes us choose one person 137

Books

‘The Immortalization Commission’: Victorian spiritualists were sophisticates who believed they were exploring ‘scientific’ routes to immortality

138

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the title story, he creates a loving portrait of a long-married English couple whose health begins to fail in unusual ways. The man is losing his sense of smell, a minor but lifechanging affliction that the author uses to explore what it feels like to age, and to slowly lose the scent of the world. Like a good birdwatcher, Barnes detects movement where the rest of us see stillness, and makes us grateful for the hidden flashes of life he captures in these stories. MARNI JACKSON THE IMMORTALIZATION COMMISSION: SCIENCE AND THE STRANGE QUEST TO CHEAT DEATH

John Gray

In the later 19th century, all sorts of people who thought of themselves as sophisticated moderns— and therefore irreligious—explored new and purportedly “scientific” routes to immortality. Gray, in his intriguing take on two of these explorations, examines the era’s mushrooming interest in spiritualism. One British group, which included Arthur Balfour, prime minister from 1902 to 1905, communicated with the dead via cross-correspondence, automatic writing dictated by deceased scientists (and loved ones) presumed to be still active on the other side. In one of their experiments, not made public for a century, the immortalists decided to conceive a messianic child— expected to somehow save our world—fathered by Balfour’s brother, Gerald, with a married woman. Augustus Henry Coombe-Tennant, born in 1913, and bearing the name of his mother’s husband, was theoretically without imperfection. That’s because he was mysteriously “designed” fault-free from beyond the grave by another Balfour brother, Francis, a CamMAY 16, 2011

bridge biologist who had died in a mountainclimbing accident in 1882. Augustus, of course, never did save the world, but he did have an interesting life: after wartime military service, he joined MI6 (working alongside Kim Philby), converted to Catholicism while on spy duty in Iraq, became a monk in 1960 and died in his monastery 29 years later. But if the Victorian spiritualists were, as Douglas Adams might have described them, mostly harmless, the same can’t be said for Gray’s other subject. The so-called God-builders believed mankind, freed from religious superstition and powered by science, would eventually conquer death. They were well represented in the 1920s Bolshevik regime in Russia, where they were as enthusiastic about slaughtering present humanity, in the name of a more perfect future, as their fellow revolutionaries. But the God-builders’ most noticeable historic trace can be seen in Lenin’s bizarre afterlife. One of them, Leonid Krasin, convinced the Bolsheviks to preserve Lenin’s body after his 1924 death—with an eye to future resurrection. All the might of Soviet science couldn’t pull that off, but tender care has always been (and still is) applied to Lenin’s mortal remains. When the Germans advanced on Moscow in 1941, the corpse was evacuated before any living Muscovite. His clothes were changed every 18 months, and the body redressed in a new suit specially made by a KGB seamstress. And after a 2004 makeover, Gray sardonically notes, Lenin now looks younger than he has in decades. BRIAN BETHUNE On the Web: For book reviews, feature articles,

interviews and recommended reading by celebrities, check out our “Books Page” at macleans.ca/books. For this issue, Maclean’s Bestsellers list can be found online, at macleans.ca Columnist Mark Steyn is currently on leave. He will return.

Bettmann/CorBis

over another, the unpredictable course of mourning, and the trivial gestures that can break or make a new romance. In the story “Complicity,” it’s the secret exchange of cigarettes and matches behind a partner’s back at a party that lights a spark. In settings that range from a remote Scottish island to 18th-century Brazil, Barnes writes about these small transitional moments that tip us toward happiness or loneliness, with precision and tenderness. And as a palate freshener, three stories consist of nothing more than the unfettered conversations at a dinner party of old friends who overshare about their middle-aged sex lives and joke about the decline of the world. It’s like the real thing, where guests are torn between reaching for their coats or pouring another drink. There’s an exhilarating sense of freedom in these stories, even the sad ones, because for Barnes, curiosity about human nature seems to trump everything, including literary vanity: he would rather risk boring or offending his readers in order to imagine what X might say next. He likes to create an off-leash zone for his characters, where they can do as they please. In “Trespass,” he observes a young Englishwoman in a new relationship with a single fellow who is obsessive about hiking. They go on carefully calibrated walks, until she decides that there’s more to love than staying on the trail and wearing proper rain gear. Barnes, whose most recent novel, Arthur & George, was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, doesn’t waste our time on swaths of mere writing; his eye is on the peculiarities of human behaviour and sexual desire. When a character in one of the stories overhears three women talking about how different foods affect the taste of sperm, he just has to chime in. (“And what about asparagus?”) In

TV

The new fogey on the block: Sun debuted looking older than its age, with surprisingly low-tech, big-logo set designs and very drab backgrounds

Big mouths, small-town look

GETTY IMAGES; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TAYLOR SHUTE

If Sun News hopes to compete with Fox, it needs to up its production values SUN News Network expected to be attacked for its politics—not its professionalism. But the reviews of the conservative-leaning news channel have pointed out that it looks amateurish: “The sets and lighting are Spartan,” wrote Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press; Globe and Mail critic John Doyle called it “cheap, cheesy, terrible television.” That’s not a charge often levelled at Sun’s U.S. model, Fox News, whose high production values are acknowledged even by people who hate it. If Sun has trouble looking classy, it has nothing to do with the rather modest short skirts and sleeveless dresses; it may be because of the unexciting scenes behind them. The hyper-patriotic Sun turned to the Toronto-based AKA Creative Group to design the sets. Andrew Kinsella, AKA’s president, feels they created “a style that Canadians have never seen before,” but adds that it would be “a lot more expensive to work with the big-name [design] competitors south of the border.” But on screen, the American competitors sometimes look more spectacular. Ezra Levant’s The Source is modelled on Glenn Beck’s soon-to-be-cancelled Fox show; it has the host do wacky conservative things like destroy a bush to show his contempt for Earth Day. But Beck’s program has an elaborate set and there’s creative use of camera angles and lighting. Levant’s set, dominated by two fairly small TV screens with his name on them, looks much more low-tech. And like many of the Sun shows, the backgrounds are often monolithically blue, which can give news

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shows a feeling of sameness: U.S. set designer Jim Fenhagen, who designed shows like ABC World News Tonight, hasn’t seen Sun but told Maclean’s that as a general rule, “doing blue sets is pretty old-fashioned now.” While some Sun programs make good use of space—Kinsella is proud of the main news hub, with a “retractable rear-projection screen as well as flexibility for the host to move freely from one area to another”—others don’t look much more big-budget than the average local newscast. Some of the daytime shows feature the familiar sight of announcers at a desk with a drab-looking newsroom in the background, the kind of thing Fenhagen tried to avoid when he created the newsroom set for ABC: “Usually the main shot is all the people back there and you can’t get rid of them, which I think is a mistake.” Conservative TV host Michael Coren, who has appeared as a guest on Sun, considers the overall look “sharp and modern” but added that “because of the number of linked interviews with guests around the country, there is always going to be a certain limitation to the overall look.” But those limitations may mean the Sun hosts can’t compete with a Fox personality like Megyn Kelly, the network’s aggressively blond daytime star, who yells at guests against a stylish background of glass, metal and flickering screens.

Another difference between Sun and Fox is that Fox is a little subtler about plugging itself. The Sun logo is often omnipresent: Theo Caldwell, the tousled-haired host of the O’Reilly Factor imitator The Caldwell Account, sits at a desk that has the logo literally built into it, suggesting Stephen Colbert’s desk that’s shaped like the first letter of his name. Bryan Lilley, host of The Byline, sits in front of a background that has almost nothing on it except his own name and the name of his show. Fox News is cannier about pushing its brand name on its viewers; even when the logo is part of a Fox News set, it’s done in an almost subliminal way, like the semi-transparent logos on the set of Fox & Friends. “People do like to see the logo,” Fenhagen says, but a network needs to avoid “over-logoing it.” In the end, it could be that what matters for Sun’s future is not production values but Canada’s desperate need for conservative content. “I’d watch an Ezra or a Theo in a box, instead of any standard Canadian host in a palace,” Coren says. But as Fox News frequently points out, many of its viewers are independents attracted by its inviting look. Despite the righteousness of its anti-liberal mission, declared the conservative blog Rightchik, Sun “looks like a smalltown television station production. They need some Yankee help.” JAIME J. WEINMAN

‘I’d watch an Ezra or a Theo in a box, instead of any standard Canadian host in a palace’

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Fame

Extended family: Casting her pal Mel in the third movie she has directed, Foster co-stars as a wife who has to compete with a hand puppet

Jodie Foster on the ‘broken’ Mel Gibson The director of The Beaver explains why she stands by her shattered star

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Cannes premiere this month. “I think Mel’s going,” says Foster. “The French love him. They were like, ‘Did he have a scandal?’ They don’t know. They honestly don’t know.” A family drama spiked with dark comedy, The Beaver is the story of Walter Black (Gibson), a severely depressed toy executive, whose wife and teenage son (Anton Yelchin) have abandoned him as a hopeless case. After hitting bottom with booze and pills, and making a pathetic attempt to hang himself from a shower rail, Walter gets his mojo back via a bossy alter ego—a beaver hand puppet with a cockney accent. Eerily empowered, Walter charms his younger son with a new-found passion for woodworking, and rejuvenates his sex life and his company. But there will be blood before bedtime. The script, by novice screenwriter Kyle Killen, was a tough sell. “If the movie was starring Johnny Depp, and was not really about depression but about a puppet,” says Foster, “people would have been in line to make it.” But Gibson, she says, “brings the rawness of somebody who really understands struggle. It’s a beautiful side of Mel I’ve known for a long time, this real connective tissue, this deeply emotional man who has a broken side to him.” The day that the tapes of Gibson’s horrifically abusive phone calls to Grigorieva were

leaked to the press was The Beaver’s last day of filming. “It was a reshoot of the most important scene in the film,” she says. “ It’s the father-son scene at the end. It wasn’t fun. It was hard. God love him. He went to work and gave his two best takes. Both are in the movie. Then he got on the plane and left.” Was Foster not at all angry with him? “He’s part of my extended family,” she sighs. “When somebody’s struggling, my first impulse is not to take the heel of my shoe and smash him into the ground. It’s to throw my arms around him and say, ‘It’s going to be okay,’ even though it’s probably not. Look, I’m a celebrity and I’ve spent my entire life in the public eye since I was three. And I’ve had to do a lot of awkward fighting to have a life that didn’t feel like a reality show, as has he. You can think what you think about Mel Gibson, but he’s not Lindsay Lohan. He’s a very private man who has raised a lot of great kids. He’s made extraordinary films. He’s the most beloved person professionally you will ever meet. That’s the man I know.” Is serving as Mel’s public defender not beginning to wear thin? “It’s not frustrating now,” says Foster. “But I’m sure at some point I’ll curl up into a ball. It will hit me. Probably in a week and a half.” Brian D. Johnson

‘My first impulse is not to take the heel of my shoe and smash him into the ground,’ says Foster

MAY 16, 2011

On the Web: For the full interview with Foster and exclusive photos, visit macleans.ca/foster

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW TOLSON

Jodie Foster knows that you can’t talk about The Beaver without addressing the elephant in the room: the unholy mess of Mel Gibson. In the movie, which Foster directed, he plays a walking disaster whose manic bid for redemption, via a puppet, makes his family, and viewers, cringe. There’s no disputing the scary power of his performance. But you can’t watch it without being reminded of Gibson’s own demons, and his need to salvage a ruined reputation—especially with lines like “people seem to love a train wreck.” Foster won’t deny that Gibson’s story upstages the one in the movie. “And is that a bad thing?” she asks rhetorically, sitting down with me in Toronto last week. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. But I don’t know.” Then the 48-year-old Foster, crisply attired in pale blue shirt and black slacks, just laughs. “I don’t have any choice. The good news is that I’m not the distributor. It’s not my job to market the film.” Well, in a way it is. Foster, who plays Gibson’s distraught wife in The Beaver, has been busy burning up the promotion trail while her star lies low. Gibson, who is locked in a custody battle with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva over their daughter, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanour battery charge and was sentenced to three years’ probation and a year of counselling. That was in March, days before Foster attended The Beaver’s South by Southwest festival premiere without him. After its release was postponed three times, the film finally opens here this week. And it’s likely Gibson will brave the red carpet for a

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Handmade: After the curds are mixed until softened then stretched, the log is tied into a knot and formed into balls—perfect for a summer salad

Top-notch curds are the key to soft, sweet, squeakyon-the-teeth cheese Notwithstanding the distinct society’s insatiable appetite for french fries dressed with springy curds, or our pan-national enthusiasm for cheeseburgers made with gooey orange “singles,” mozzarella and cheddar are by far the most popular cheeses in Canada. And we make what we need: we produced at least 30,000 tonnes more of each last year than we did butter. Most of that is made by our cheese giants, like Saputo and Kraft Canada. While even young, mass-market cheddar is still cheddar, in mozzarella’s case the industrial variety is a hybrid type pressed to expel moisture so it shreds easily and lasts for months. This is the variety that is even sold pre-shredded, for those too busy watching TV to do it themselves. At the opposite end of the spectrum of quality, volume and price, you find the Italian progenitor, made from the rich and rarefied milk of the water buffalo—a product the Italians believe tastes best the day it is made, and should always be consumed within its first week, but are nonetheless willing to sell to us at a premium well after that. For this reason one does well to seek out local buffalo mozzarella, like the grassy, artisan product 142

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MAY 16, 2011

egory at the seventh Canadian Cheese Grand Prix the previous evening. They also make provolone, mozzarella and ricotta—chilled, just made and still warm. More important to our mission, that morning they had set aside a couple of buckets of fresh curds for Snell. “I’ve tried everybody’s,” he told me back in his car, now perfumed with the heady sweet aroma of whey. “These are definitely the best.” Later, in his test kitchen, Snell crumbled them into a mixing bowl while bringing a large pot of water to a boil. To that he added a rather shocking amount of salt and a splash of cream. When it returned to the boil he ladled some over the curds, and mixed them up with gloved hands until they softened and bound together. Then he drained the nascent cheese and did it again. After a long, repetitious sequence of stretching the cheese, folding it back onto itself, and stretching it out again, he wrapped the log in cellophane and tied it into balls. He cut one off and we tucked in. Mild, soft, sweet, squeaky on the teeth—just the thing for a summer tomato salad. Snell will be selling his N.Y.-style mozzarella at his Toronto shop every Saturday. And by the looks of it, your local cheesemonger can easily manage the same, if you give him a nudge. JACOB RICHLER

Why this billy goat’s gruff Hormones cause the sharp flavour of goat cheese, which is less tangy when milkproducing nannies are kept apart from billies.

photographs by andrew tolson; nancy nehring/getty images

Fresh, warm— yes, warm— mozzarella

from Natural Pastures in Courtenay, B.C., on Vancouver Island, or the milder tasting version from Quality Cheese, in Vaughan, Ont. In between sits the product category of fresh mozzarella made from cheap, abundant cow’s milk, and it is this last category about which cheese distributor Cole Snell has of late been brooding. Specifically, the owner of Provincial Fine Foods, and its Toronto retail outlet About Cheese, wants to know why no one in Canada is selling fresh mozzarella that is genuinely fresh. “In New York, when you go to a great cheese shop like Casa della Mozzarella in the Bronx, or Fairway, on Broadway, there’s always a mozzarella booth, with a guy forming the curd into cheese, and stretching it out by hand, tying it off, and selling it warm,” Snell enthused to me the other day, while piloting his BMW SUV in unrelenting downtown traffic. “Why not do that here? If you could have some prosciutto, some great tomatoes, fleur de sel, good balsamic—and warm fresh cheese for sale at the same counter . . . ” Fresh cheese like that, ready for the plate yet unacquainted with the refrigerator, has a discernibly superior texture to its previously chilled brethren. So Snell believes, anyway. Which is why, with a view to proving it, he has driven me deep into the west end of Toronto, where wedged between auto-body shops, sagging warehouses and rundown factories of the Junction, we eventually pulled up near a nondescript storefront under a sign announcing the factory outlet of the International Cheese Co. Ltd. It was late morning on Maundy Thursday, and under grey, drizzling skies, a queue 30-strong snaked out of the front door onto the wet street. Marketed under the brand name Santa Lucia, the International Cheese Co.’s bocconcini had won the “best mozzarella” cat-

Books

Won over: British writer Philip Kerr went to Germany long ago to do a postgrad in philosophy of law and learned to hate lawyers but love Berlin

Midnight in the garden of evil

PhotograPh by andrew tolson

Philip Kerr’s private eye Bernie Gunther walks the mean streets of Nazi Berlin There’s an obvious chicken-and-egg question that arises in an interview with British author Philip Kerr. A thorough pro, Kerr has penned stand-alone novels in various genres, including science fiction, and a first-rate preteen fantasy series (Children of the Lamp). But he’s best known for seven thought-provoking novels featuring German private eye Bernie Gunther. A note-perfect Berliner, from his alcohol consumption to his instinctive antipathy to authority, Bernie is both an everyman striving to maintain his humanity (and his life) in the Nazi and postwar eras, and the Teutonic reincarnation of Raymond Chandler’s PI, Philip Marlowe. So which came first, noir or Nazis, an interest in hard-boiled detective stories or in the Third Reich? “Germany—I went there long ago,” the 55-year-old replies, “to do a postgrad degree in philosophy of German law. Really, just an excuse to read German philosophy. You know how Bernie hates lawyers? That’s because I hate lawyers.” Immersed in German history, Kerr—like so many writers before him—fell under Berlin’s spell. “Its role in the world wars and the Cold War, its cultural influence in the 1920s—Berlin is the urcity of the 20th century.” And the city’s inhabitants won him over too, partly because Berliners had, in Kerr’s opinion, the right enemies—any group loathed by Bismarck and Hitler couldn’t be all bad— and partly because of their black humour, which “sounds cruel if you don’t understand it,” Bernie once remarked, “and even cruel-

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ler if you do.” Rather like the detective’s comment during his harrowing if brief stay in the Dachau concentration camp, where he met an inmate who was not only Jewish but homosexual and a Communist: “That made three triangles. His luck hadn’t so much run out as jumped on a f--king motorcycle.” Kerr wanted to set stories in Berlin and he admired Chandler’s writing. Enter the wisecracking Bernie Gunther, born in 1898 and a Great War veteran, who made his debut in three novels published from 1989 to 1991, and later repackaged in a single volume, Berlin Noir. As the first novel opens in 1936, Bernie—who despises the Nazis but spends a lot of time trying not to think about what’s become of his country— has taken a commission from a wealthy industrialist. (That means trouble, of course: in noir only a job offer from a dame is more sure to go wrong.) By volume two, it’s 1938, Bernie’s been in Dachau, war looms on the horizon—and it’s much harder for anyone to bury his head. Kerr closes the trilogy with a brilliant imaginative leap. The third novel simply skips over the entire war, leaving readers to wonder exactly how Bernie spent it. A survivor if there ever was one, he’s back at work in the bitter winter of 1947, in a Berlin now as much a physical as a moral ruin, negotiating with a prospective client for a fee worth having:

50 kg of coal. And there Kerr, who always worries he will “write one book too many” in any given series, left him for 15 years. Kerr came back to Bernie in 2006’s The One From the Other, mostly, he says, because author and character were then of an age— Kerr 49 while writing it, and Bernie the same in it—and it was time to reflect on the past. (“My own age always informs my writing,” Kerr laughs. “In the trilogy Bernie often gets the girl; now, not so much.”) In the newer novels, though, especially the just-released Field Gray, Bernie—when not engulfed in his current Cold War troubles—is looking back not at his sexual conquests but at his war. Drafted into the SS, he was hipdeep in morally murky war crimes—in one case executing 30 Soviet secret police who had just killed 2,000 political prisoners and a handful of German POWs. “You could say they had every right to do so given that we had invaded their country,” Bernie notes. “You could also say that our executing them in retaliation had less justification, and you’d probably be correct on both counts.” Bernie’s “saint-sinner tightrope is very thin now,” Kerr says, making him all the more interesting to write about—and to read about as well. Bernie Gunther, who survived the Nazis and the Red Army, may yet be crippled by self-loathing. BRIAN BETHUNE

Berliners’ black humour ‘sounds cruel if you don’t understand it and even crueller if you do’

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The end 1985-2011

David Stewart Arthur Cleverley

illustration by team macho

A skilled athlete and a fearless cliff diver, he pursued a lifelong dream and moved to British Columbia for a fresh start David Stewart Arthur Cleverley was born on March 30, 1985, in Prince George, B.C., the fourth child and only son for Donald, a teacher, and Lori, a bank manager. When David was three, the Cleverleys moved to Ontario. The pulp mill in Prince George had set off David’s sister Megan’s allergies, and Don’s entire family settled in Cambridge. The Cleverleys were a tight-knit bunch and spent summers in their white minivan, criss-crossing North America on road trips and singing Hey Jude and Walking on Broken Glass at the top of their lungs. When he was four, Lori found David on the roof of the house. “It’s okay, mom! I got my Superman shirt on,” he yelled down. After that, he was known as “Superman” to friends and family. He was “absolutely fearless,” says Lori. On instinct, he’d throw himself into any body of water he came across—lakes, quarries, pools. When visiting his cousin Ben in Vancouver, he’d sneak into UBC’s outdoor pool at night to dive off the 10-m board. School wasn’t really his thing— which was tough, because his sisters were all straight-A students— but sports sure were. Football was his passion. David, who had a vertical that made coaches drool, was tailor-made for the wide-receiver position. He was supremely confident and, with his larger-than-life personality, became a vocal team leader with the Cambridge Lions, the local under-19 team. He’d started attracting interest from schools in the U.S. and Canada, and his final season with the Lions was his moment to shine. But in the second game of the season, while returning a kick, David was dropped by a brutal hit, ruining his shoulder. In that instant his career was ended, leaving a gaping hole in his life. After working in corporate sales for Research in Motion for four years, last fall David decided to pursue a lifelong dream and move to B.C. The province held a mythical grip on all the Cleverleys. “The mountains, the feeling of the forests surrounding you, the ocean”— it was their Eden, David’s sister Kristin explains. But David had another reason. He left to try to find happiness. For even Superman had his secrets. For years, David, always the life of the party, had been secretly battling a deep depression. A

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change of scenery alone, however, won’t cure mental illness, as David learned. He was still sick, and on Dec. 22, at around 3 a.m., David, achingly lonely, took a cab to the foot of the Lion’s Gate Bridge. After he’d climbed to the bridge’s highest point and tossed his wallet and BlackBerry into Burrard Inlet, 200 feet below, a voice called out to him from the dark. It was a policewoman. “Please—you don’t want me to have a bad day, do you?” she shouted. That was all it took. David, in that moment, realized how many people would be affected— cop included—if he jumped, he wrote in “Chasing the Ghost,” a blog he launched while under lockdown in the psychiatric ward at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital. He’d decided to open up about his illness, and hoped his words might help other young men suffering in silence. At St. Paul’s, he realized he wasn’t like the other patients—the paranoid schizophrenic in a Slayer T-shirt who believed the government owns our brains, or the bearded fellow who’d found a formula proving, he insisted, that the Earth will shortly be covered by 13,000 feet of water. He wasn’t crazy. He could beat this. He made a decision to live, says Kristin, a psychiatric nurse. Instead of returning to Ontario, where he feared he’d fall back into old habits, he moved in with Ben, joined his cousin’s church, found factory work and gave up liquor. Staying put, it turned out, was the best decision he ever made. “I have no money, I don’t have my BlackBerry, my car is back in Ontario and I’m sleeping on a mattress in my cousin’s media room,” he wrote in January. “Yet I truly feel the happiest I have in years.” The fog of sadness, finally, had lifted. On April 9, he joined the church men’s retreat at Cultus Lake. After finishing a game of floor hockey, some of the young men decided to cool off by jumping off the cliffs into the lake. Ben jumped from 30 feet. But “David being David,” says his sister Anna, climbed 80 feet up the bluff. “Say a prayer for me!” he shouted. Then Superman, the graceful athlete, the young man who’d finally chased off the ghost, leaped into the air. It was a perfect swan dive, but David hit the water at a strange angle and was killed on impact. He was 27.

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A 3 3 - PAG E S P EC I A L S EC T I O N

1957-2011

cover: erIc THAYer/reuTers; geTTY ImAges; InseTs: pHoTogrApH bY cHrIs bolIn; JoHn sTIllwell/reuTers

Osama bin Laden His violent life, death and ruinous legacy

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Osama bin Laden, founder of the first truly global terrorist organization, changed the world. On 9/11, he brought terror home to Americans, and the rest of us. And that was just the beginning. Directly or indirectly, bin Laden was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the bombings in London and Madrid. His ruthless version of fundamentalist Islam inspired jihadists everywhere and irrevocably transformed the geopolitical landscape of the West. From the way we travel to the way we view the world, he altered our lives forever. MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

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International

THE TAKEDOWN

Hidden in plain sight It was around midnight on Sunday night when Naveed’s house suddenly went black. The 24-year-old student thought little of it—Pakistanis have gotten used to power cuts over the past few years as the country struggles with an energy crisis—but it was an odd time for it. Load shedding, as it’s commonly called here, happens on a schedule, and this blackout was not on schedule. Out on the quiet streets of the Kakul neighbourhood in Abbottabad, nothing seemed amiss. Nothing ever happened in Kakul, which 148

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was part of the reason Naveed had gone to Britain to study: he needed to get away from the boredom of living in a part of the city officially under military control—a cantonment zone—where residents were required to report regularly to the army about who lives where, and intelligence officers regularly harassed people they deemed suspicious. He felt suffocated. Being back at home, he was again feeling the walls closing in on him, and the darkness only made it worse. Stepping onto the roof MAY 16, 2011

of his family home, he breathed in the cool mountain air. The smooth, rolling silhouette of the Himalayan foothills to the east had a calming effect, as it always had, so when he heard the dull thump of helicopter blades, he was taken a little by surprise. The sound came from the west, in the direction of the Afghan border where a war was playing out, though to be in the peaceful hills of Abbottabad one would never know it. Naveed turned toward the sound, expecting to see Pakistani helicopters hovering over the

DIGITALGLOBE/GETTY IMAGES; PETE SOUZA/THE WHITE HOUSE

Adnan R. Khan reports from the small Pakistani town where U.S. forces took out the most wanted terrorist in the world

NEXT SPREAD: ANjum NAvEED/AP; REuTERS; ABC NEwS/AP

All eyes on Abbottabad: Obama’s war cabinet watched the dramatic operation unfold in real time from the situation room at the White House

city centre. That would not be odd: Abbottabad is a garrison town, home to the Pakistan Military Academy and, outside of the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, 75 km to the south, probably the most militarized city in Pakistan. But what he saw was something strange. The two helicopters he could make out appeared to be flying right toward him. And they were dark—none of their lights were on. When they flew over his head, so low he could feel the downdraft of the rotors, Naveed panicked. Running downstairs, he made for the front gate of his house. It was then that the thunderous explosions, from what he thought was rocket fire, struck. Stepping onto the street, he saw other neighbours, equally gripped by fear, emerging from their gated homes. No one knew what was happening; their quiet corner of the city was supposed to be secure against attack. This was a military district. But Pakistan was in a state of war with Islamic militants, and many thought that the war had

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finally arrived on their doorsteps. Little did they know that a mere 300 m to the east, in a million-dollar compound built in 2005 that Naveed had walked past dozens of times, the world’s most wanted terrorist had been living the quiet, family life. He’d always wondered about that house: the towering perimeter walls up to six metres high in places, barbed wire, and surveillance cameras marked it out as different. But he, like many of his neighbours, assumed this was some kind of military installation. They never questioned it—no one questions the Pakistani military—despite their apprehensions. And nothing particularly out of the ordinary had ever happened there. In fact, Naveed found it creepy that a house so well fortified would also show so few signs of activity. Sometimes, clean-shaven, well-dressed men would

come out, walk to the local grocery store and return with their bags of supplies—rice and vegetables, all the basic items a household needs to survive; other times a tinted 4 x 4 might be seen arriving or leaving, but these visits were few. Now, in the dead of night, that house was under attack, with the sounds of automatic gunfire mixing with screaming, including the highpitched wails of women and children. Naveed, his curiosity overcoming fear, edged closer to the house. It was a dangerous move. He could see flames rising from the compound but, with the electricity still down, little else. The sound of gunfire got louder the closer he managed to approach, but suddenly it dissolved into silence, broken only by the hum of a helicopter. And then that sound turned to fury as the helicopter lifted into the air, followed by

Neighbours heard automatic gunfire and screaming, including the high-pitched wails of women and children

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International an explosion so powerful that it sounded like an airplane had crashed into the compound. Naveed, now frozen with fear, watched what he thought was a Chinook helicopter rise into the night and roar back in the direction from where it had come, west, back toward Afghanistan. That helicopter, unbeknownst to him, was carrying the lifeless body of Osama bin Laden, a bullet to his head having accomplished what millions of dollars in intelligence and military operations had previously failed to do.

After recounting his harrowing experience to Maclean’s, Naveed is still perplexed that something like this could happen in Abbottabad. “How is it possible for someone like Osama bin Laden to live in a place like this?” he says. “The officers at the military academy, the security agencies, they must have known he was there.” His confusion is accompanied by an equal measure of disdain for what his town has now become: the tree-lined Kakul Road leading to the military academy has been completely shut down, transforming what was a bustling thoroughfare into a barren strip of asphalt. News crews have swarmed the city, setting up cameras on rooftops and in tomato and potato fields. Scuffles occasionally break out between the military police guarding the access routes into his neighbourhood and overzealous journalists. “It’s a circus,” Naveed says. “We never wanted bin Laden here and we don’t want all of this attention now.” But the significance of what’s happened is not lost on him. And he sneers at the Pakistani foreign office contention that author-

ities had no idea bin Laden was there. Indeed, the thought of them not knowing defies common sense. Rawalpindi, that other garrison city adjacent to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, may be general headquarters for the Pakistani military establishment, but Abbottabad is, for many Pakistanis, GHQ North. That Osama bin Laden was here, living in a heavily guarded army cantonment district steps away from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, without the knowledge of at least some members of the military and intelligence services, seems surreal. And yet he was here, for years. In late November 2009, a former jihadist with links to Lashkar-e Taiba, the militant group accused of carrying out the terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008, told this reporter bin Laden may have been in Abbottabad. “I hear he’s hiding out somewhere here,” he said, while driving through the city on his way to Islamabad. “That’s what my friends in the LeT tell me.” It was easy to discount that at the time. With the myriad rumours about bin Laden’s location, it was impossible to imagine that the world’s most wanted terrorist could find refuge in this city, where every other road sign points to a military compound and the streets hum with the sounds of army trucks packed with soldiers. No one would have believed it. Army cantonments like Kakul are Pakistan’s safe zones, home to senior retired officers and their families, as well as wealthy Pakistanis who can afford the luxury of living in an area guarded by the military and closely monitored by the intelligence community. This is why many of them move there, especially at a time when

He was steps away from Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point, in an area monitored by the intelligence community

Not in my backyard: (clockwise from top) Disbelieving residents gather outside bin Laden’s

compound; a bloodied bedroom in the house; cellphone footage of the raid; a downed helicopter

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MAY 16, 2011

security is foremost in their minds. To live in a cantonment is to be safe from the likes of Osama bin Laden. Maybe that was the allure for the terrorist chief, and for those—whoever they were—who helped him relocate here. Kakul is, in addition, a restricted area, so sensitive that it is a designated no-fly zone. “No one can fly over that area without the military’s permission,” a military source with knowledge of Abbottabad’s security protocols told Maclean’s, requesting anonymity. “This is a very sensitive area.” And yet, according to senior U.S. administration officials, U.S. Navy Seals were able, without first getting clearance from the Pakistani military, they

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claim, to chopper in, engage in a very loud and explosive firefight with those protecting bin Laden (including blowing up one of their own damaged helicopters), and chopper out with his body—a process that took nearly one hour—with no Pakistani response. The inconsistencies hint at things playing out in the background. What those are will be crucial to the future of Pakistani-U.S. relations. That bin Laden was being protected by elements in the Pakistani military seems incontrovertible. U.S officials, including White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan, have already indicated as much: questions need to be answered. As Akbar Ahmed, who once served in Abbottabad and is a former Pakistani high commissioner to London, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., “That is a cantonment area, where any building being constructed has to pass through regular bureaucratic procedures, which means people would know who’s living in the building. It is highly unlikely that the authorities didn’t know who was in that building.” And that, said Ahmed, raises another question: “If they knew who was in the building, why, at this particular time, was this operation allowed, as it were, to proceed? I don’t believe Pakistan had no idea about the operation.” Was there a change of heart over protecting bin Laden? Who was protecting him? How deep does sympathy for al-Qaeda run within Pakistan’s security apparatus? For bin Laden to find refuge in such a sensitive military zone would indicate that it runs very deep indeed. The implications for the region and beyond could be devastating. The U.S. relationship with Pakistan has been teetering for months. Pakistanis themselves have become so antiAmerican that even the death of a terrorist they despise, someone who many of them see as soiling the image of Islam, is secondary to the fact that U.S. forces carried out an operation on the doorstep of their capital. Their anger is palpable on the streets of Abbottabad. Naveed has escaped that anger, slipping away to his ancestral village in Pakistanioccupied Kashmir. Kakul, once a quiet and unassuming neighbourhood, is now choked with military, living in tents around the smouldering remains of bin Laden’s compound, setting up checkpoints at every road leading into the neighbourhood, demanding identification from every individual who attempts to enter. It has achieved fame throughout the world, but not the kind of fame any of its residents would want—as the place where Osama bin Laden mysteriously lived and, ultimately, died. 151

International

PROFILE

THE WORLD’s mOsT HaTED TERRORisT The life and times of Osama bin Laden By Jonathon Gatehouse The compound was neither a mansion, nor a fortress; it was a prison. For months, maybe even years, the planet’s most-wanted man hid behind its high, razor-wire topped walls, trying to obscure his presence from spies, satellites and drones. The house had no phone or Internet connections. Garbage was burned in the courtyard. And afraid of being recognized simply by his tall, skinny frame, he could not even venture outdoors. In the end, the first real contact Osama bin Laden had with the outside world since he fled Afghanistan in December 2001 came when a team of U.S. Navy Seals touched down at his Abbottabad, Pakistan, hiding spot Sunday. Forty minutes later, he was dead—shot through the head in a bedroom, his blood spreading across a shabby oriental carpet. The 54-year-old’s death came as he had often predicted, from the barrel of an American gun. Perhaps he even welcomed it. “I’m fighting so I can die a martyr and go to heaven to meet God,” bin Laden once told Al-Quds Al-Arabi, a British-based Arabic language newspaper. “We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the difference between us two,” he proclaimed on another occasion. And few, in the West at least, will term it anything but justice. Author of deadly bombings in East Africa and Yemen, the Saudiborn scion of a multi-millionaire construction magnate had been at the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list since 1998. Then on Sept. 11, 2001, he dispatched teams of hijackers to fly passenger jets into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, murdering 2,933 people. (Forty more died when a fourth plane was brought down in a Pennsylvania field, short of another presumed Washington target.) The fires set that day still burn across the globe. For a decade now, Osama bin Laden has been the object of our fascination and the 152

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Favourite gun: Bin Laden liked to be photo-

launch his own invasion. He had met Osama’s mother, Alia, during a visit to Syria in the mid-1950s. The marriage—his 10th—lasted only a few years and repository of our fears. Academics and the produced just the one child. By some family press have parsed his hidey-hole communi- accounts, Alia was more of a concubine than qués looking for an ideology or explanation. wife. In others, she was a headstrong and Booksellers’ shelves are crammed with doz- sophisticated woman who demanded a divorce ens of biographies and oral histories, pur- and adopted Western dress when outside the porting to deliver the “inside” story of his country. What is certain is that Osama adored and al-Qaeda’s rise. Yet the motives, life and her. “First comes God and then his mother,” now death of a figure destined to go down Osama’s half-brother Ahmad Muhammad as one of history’s greatest villains remain al-Attas told journalists in the months after muddled. 9/11. During his years of exile in Taliban-ruled Some accounts of the bedroom firefight Afghanistan, bin Laden made a point of callsay a woman tried to shield bin Laden with ing her frequently, even though security offiher body. The Americans think it was his cials at home and in the U.S. were surely wife, although which one, or even how many monitoring the calls. he had (some sources suggest four, others Osama’s relationship with Muhammad, who five) is a mystery. The same for a son report- died in a September 1967 plane crash, was not edly left dead in the compound—one of his as close. One friend claims bin Laden only met 13, or 19, or maybe 23 children. The fate of his father five times. But he was accepted by the terrorist leader’s body, spirited away and his many half-siblings, and given an inheritsaid to have been buried at sea, is already ance—shares in the family firm that were worth the subject of conspiracy theories. Osama’s somewhere between US$8 million and $250 violent demise may offer million, according to widely “sober satisfaction,” as Stedivergent accounts. WhatHIs deatH came, ever the amount, he didn’t phen Harper put it, but it as He Had often won’t end the questions. do much with it. CompatriKilling the myth may prove ots remember him as a quiet predIcted, from even harder than killing kid, who enjoyed picnics and tHe barrel of an the man. soccer games, and had one amerIcan gun notable passion—horseback The date and place of riding. Osama’s birth—March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, While many of his brothers and sisters travSaudi Arabia—are clear. But not so much the elled and studied abroad, Osama preferred circumstances. As one of the 52, or maybe to stay in Saudi Arabia. There have been 54, offspring that Muhammad bin-Awad bin reports that he once travelled to Sweden as a Laden sired with his 22 wives, perhaps that’s teen, and Chicago as a young adult, but the understandable. The elder bin Laden emi- only confirmed voyages were annual visits to grated to the kingdom around 1930. A por- Syria to see his mother’s family. As a student ter in his native Yemen, he found a new call- at the prestigious al-Thager Model School in ing in construction, building a palace on the Jeddah—where the royal family educates its cheap for King Abdel Aziz ibn Saud and secur- boys—he was considered passably bright. In ing a lifelong patron. Lucrative contracts for 1978, he entered King Abdul Aziz University roads and bridges followed, as well as pres- to study economics, management and busitigious commissions to renovate Islam’s holi- ness administration. Already married and the est sites in Medina and Mecca. By the time father of two boys—he had wed his 14-yearof Osama’s birth, Muhammad was among old first cousin, Najwa, when he was 17—he the country’s wealthiest men. But he remained didn’t stick at school for long, and was soon renowned for his piety—praying at three dif- back working for the family firm. But what ferent mosques each day, never having more bin Laden did discover during his brief postthan four wives at one time in accordance secondary career was his first spiritual menwith religious law, and renovating the Dome tor, a Palestinian firebrand named Abdullah of the Rock in Jerusalem at cost. He was also Azzam. A follower of the Muslim Brothera fierce believer in the prevailing Arab cause. hood, Azzam was a deep believer in the conIn the wake of the 1967 Six Day War with cept of jihad. After the Soviet invasion of Israel, Osama once told an interviewer, Afghanistan in 1979, the religious scholar Muhammad tried to have his company’s 200 issued his own fatwa, declaring it every Musbulldozers converted to tanks so he could lim’s duty to join the struggle. graphed with a Kalashnikov that he said he got from a Russian killed in hand-to-hand combat

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Soon after, Azzam left Saudi Arabia for the handed, walks with a cane, and has used the border regions of Pakistan to minister to the aliases the Sheik, the Prince, the Emir and mujahedeen. Bin Laden followed. Some the Director. But as of the morning of May sources suggest the two men worked together 2, one hard fact had been added: the label raising money and setting up training camps “deceased” under his picture. for the fighters. Others like Michael Scheur, The emerging narrative of his death sugin his recent biography of the terrorist leader, gests the $25 million reward the United States claim Osama spent five years doing the bid- government has been dangling for his “appreding of Saudi intelligence, using his family’s hension or conviction” played no role in the equipment to build hospitals and cut roads Abbottabad raid. So too the Pakistani authorthrough the border mountains to ease arms ities, who managed not to respond to a helideliveries. By the time they officially set up copter assault and lengthy gun battle at a a joint operation in 1984—the Maktab al- compound located just a kilometre away Khadamat (services office)—to welcome for- from their chief officer-training school, the eign fighters, bin Laden had become a rec- Kakul military academy, and nearby several ognized force in his own right, possessed with other bases. the kind of confidence that made men follow. Official links to bin Laden have always “He was a natural leader,” Khalid al-Batarfi, been a touchy subject. In addition to Saudi a friend, told Peter Bergen, the author of The support during the war against the Soviets Osama I Know. “He leads by example and by in Afghanistan, it has long been reported he hints more than direct orders. He just sets and his men also received training and arms an example and then expects you to follow from the CIA. Certainly he was once—and and somehow you follow even if you are not given his final location, almost assuredly still— friendly with elements of the Pakistani 100 per cent convinced.” In 1986, bin Laden set up al-Masadah (the intelligence service. Lion’s Den), his own trainIn 1989, when the 32-yearing camp for Arab recruits old returned home to JedHe was one of 52, or dah after the Russian within the mountains. But the man who was teaching maybe 54, offspring drawal, he was considered others to fight had yet to of a wealtHy fatHer a hero. There were talks see action. In the spring of with Prince Turki Al Faisal, 1987, the base—garrisoned wHo Had 22 wives. He the head of Saudi intelliadored His motHer. gence, about overthrowing by 50 or so fighters—came the Communists in Yemen— under attack from a much larger Soviet force. According to some although the prince ultimately decided that accounts, the mujahedeen held out for a such a war would be a little too close to home. great victory. In others, they suffered heavy In August 1990, when Iraq invaded neighlosses and retreated in disarray. For years bouring Kuwait, bin Laden offered his serafterwards, Osama was always pictured hold- vices and followers to defend the kingdom ing a Kalashnikov rifle he claimed to have in the event that Saddam pushed on. He was taken away from a Russian he killed in hand- turned down. to-hand combat that week. As reports of Osama’s rift with the West is often attribthe battle spread, his prestige grew. In the uted to his anger over the garrisoning of following weeks, he and other foreign com- hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in manders met to form a loose alliance of Saudi Arabia in preparation for the first Gulf jihadis, which would ultimately morph into War, a supposed “desecration” of Islam’s al-Qaeda. It was the beginning of bin Laden’s holiest sites. But he had already begun forlegend. mulating a vision of global jihadism back in Afghanistan, working closely with a new The FBI’s wanted poster is scant on details. mentor, the Egyptian radical Ayman al“Usama” bin Laden is listed as between six Zawahiri. In 1991, his anti-government procfoot four and six foot six and “approximately” lamations became too much for the Saudis 160 lb. His languages are Arabic and “prob- and he was asked to leave the country. He ably” Pashtu. (What is not noted is that he made his way to Sudan, where a hardline also studied English in high school.) There Islamic regime had seized power in 1989. are no known scars and marks. He is left- Still, in those days he was hardly considered a global threat. In Khartoum, he operated in the open as a businessman, building roads Happy days: The 16-year-old bin Laden for the government and importing medical (second from right) in Sweden with members equipment and supplies. It was Zawahiri and of his extended family

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International his continued attacks on Egyptian targets that drew the most attention. His friend bin Laden was considered to be a sympathizer, and perhaps financier. At the behest of the Saudi government, friends and family continued to visit Osama in Sudan, trying to convince him to sever ties with his former Afghan comrades. At one point he supposedly mused about resigning from al-Qaeda to pursue life as a watermelon and peanut farmer. But in 1994, the bin Laden family found it necessary to take out advertisements in Saudi newspapers officially disowning Osama. (Although money continued to flow his way, and relatives travelled to see him in Afghanistan as late as January 2001 for the wedding of his son, Mohammed.) The Saudi government stripped him of his citizenship and he replied with an open letter calling for the royal family’s violent overthrow.

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It was the actions of Zawahiri’s followers, including a 1995 suicide bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, which killed 17, that eventually got the pair expelled from Sudan. In May 1996, bin Laden chartered a private jet and flew to Kandahar, where he was greeted with open arms by the Taliban and its leader, Mullah Omar. Al-Qaeda’s early Afghan days were idyllic, according to some. Followers, including Toronto’s Khadr family, congregated at a rough compound near Jalalabad. In their retelling, Osama was more like a sitcom dad than the father of a global terrorist movement. “He’s a normal human being,” Abdurahman Khadr told the CBC in 2004. “He has issues with his wife and his kids. Financial issues, you know. The kids aren’t listening. The kids aren’t doing this and that.” His sister Zaynab recalled a man who loved horseback riding, playing volleyball, and target

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shooting with the kids. Although he seemed a little strict, even by radical fundamentalist standards. The female bin Ladens “have lots of restrictions, where they go, when they go, where they come, when they come, who visits them and how long they can stay in their house and all that,” Zaynab explained. Osama also harboured some prejudices against creature comforts, forbidding his family from having running water, electricity, or even using ice. “He is against drinking cold water,” said Abdurahman. “He didn’t want them in any way to be spoiled.” Conspicuous non-consumption was a bit of an obsession for the rich Saudi. In the stifling heat of Khartoum, he refused to install air conditioning. “We want a simple life,” was one of his mantras. What bin Laden didn’t seem to shy away from was publicity. In the late 1990s, as his fame as a terrorist grew, he gave regular

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interviews to foreign journalists, and even held a press conference with Zawahiri in 1998 to announce the formation of the International Islamic Front for Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews. A few months later, al-Qaeda staged its first major operation, bombing the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, killing 224. President Bill Clinton responded by firing more than 100 cruise missiles at bin Laden’s Afghan camps, but al-Qaeda’s leadership escaped unscathed. The Taliban, already internationally isolated, resisted UN sanctions and blandishments like a $5-million reward, and refused to hand the Saudi over. But they didn’t necessarily enjoy the grandstanding. Even long-time bin Laden deputies like Abu Musab al-Suri (captured in 2005 and sent to a secret Syrian prison) found it all a bit much. “I think our brother has caught the disease of screens, flashes, fans and applause,” he wrote in 1999. Top of the FBI’s most wanted: (left) Bin Laden in Afghanistan, where he was welcomed by the

Taliban; the terrorist leader in a cave in the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan

It took a good long while for the Americans a budget of more than $1 billion a year. But to figure out that they had missed their chance that’s a drop in the bucket compared to an to kill bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora in Afghan campaign that has cost more than December 2001. The ferocious assault by $450 billion since 2001, and a loosely related Afghan tribal militias, backed by U.S. and invasion and occupation of Iraq that is closBritish war planes, killed more than 100 al- ing in on $800 billion. Still, in the afterglow Qaeda fighters, including 18 commanders. of bin Laden’s killing, which sent euphoric Foreign troops, Canadians among them, crowds into the streets of Washington, New returned to the scene several times over the York and other cities, many will say the expense following months, looking in vain for the and effort were worth it. corpses of Osama and Zawahiri. Eventually However, eliminating the face of terror the CIA obtained a videotape of Osama hik- doesn’t rid any of us of the problem. Footage ing through the mountains into Pakistan and of the Abbottabad compound show a large realized just how close they had come. It satellite dish which surely enabled bin Laden showed a U.S. plane dropping a bomb on the to follow the deadly exploits of his followers, caves. “We were there last night,” remarks clones and imitators around the world. bin Laden. One can only hope that he found channel surfing Audio tapes from the alHe liked Publicity. much less pleasurable in Qaeda leader would surface occasionally. (By 2010 there ‘i tHink our brotHer his final months, as Arabs were more than 40 authenthroughout the Middle East Has caugHt tHe to the streets to rise ticated messages.) In Octodisease of screens, took up against their dictators. ber 2004, he appeared in a fans and aPPlause.’ Not in violent jihad, as bin video, looking disturbingly robust and well-groomed. Laden has envisioned, but After George W. Bush won re-election, noth- in largely peaceful protests demanding rights, ing was heard from bin Laden for more than reform and democracy. three years. Many speculated that he had History will record that when revolution been killed in a drone attack, or died from a finally came to the region it was inspired by medical condition, like his supposed kidney a simple Tunisian fruit-seller, Mohammed diseases. All the time, the hunt—and the wars Bouazizi, who set himself ablaze to protest that flowed out of it—went on. government corruption and indifference—an The secret U.S. commando organization unwanted man who may end up having far responsible for the terrorist’s assassination, more influence than the world’s foremost the Joint Special Operations Command, has fugitive.

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Why did it take so long? More than once, U.S. officials had bin Laden in their crosshairs, including several times before 9/11 In the end, Osama bin Laden was hardly the righteous martyr he claimed to be. The same terrorist mastermind who murdered thousands of people in a single morning— and urged his followers to “kill Americans wherever they are found,” even if that meant their own demise—was not exactly toughing out the jihad in a dusty cave or secluded mud hut. He was holed up in a Pakistani mansion, in a third-floor bedroom with a king-size mattress, red-and-yellow curtains, and a closet. John Brennan, the White House’s counter158

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terrorism adviser, summed it up best: “Here is Osama, living in a million-dollar compound,” he told reporters. “It speaks to just how false his narrative has been over the years.” Snippets continue to emerge about the top-secret mission that finally claimed alQaeda’s elusive leader, 10 long years after the 9/11 attacks. The tips from Guantánamo Bay. Months and months of tedious surveillance. The dangerous midnight raid, carried out by an elite unit of Navy Seals—and relayed, blow by blow, to nervous officials back in the White MAY 16, 2011

House situation room, including President Barack Obama. But of all the details disclosed over the past week, nothing says more about Osama bin Laden than his final, heavily fortified hideout—an oasis of relative comfort and selfpreservation. Clearly, as committed as he was to waging holy war against the West, the world’s most wanted man was even more committed to dying of old age, far away from the battlefields and prison cells that have claimed so many of his loyal subordinates. That he managed to survive for so long was part savvy, part serendipity. More than once— including numerous times before 9/11—U.S. officials had bin Laden in their crosshairs but were hesitant to pull the trigger, fearful the intelligence wasn’t strong enough or the “collateral damage” too risky. On most occasions, though, he was simply too slippery. Bin Laden was so elusive—and so determined to outrun his enemies, rather than face them—that some

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THE HUNT

and “occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places.” In August 1996—a full five years before 9/11—the charismatic fanatic issued his first fatwa against U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia, declaring it the “legitimate right” of Muslims to strike “the infidels.” The CIA was listening. That same year, the agency quietly created a special unit to collect and analyze intelligence on the up-andcoming radical, who certainly wasn’t shy about broadcasting his beliefs. In 1997, bin Laden invited a CNN crew to visit him in Afghanistan. “[The U.S.] wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose agents on us to rule us and then wants us to agree to all this,” he told the interviewer. “If we refuse to do so, it says we are terrorists.” By the end of 1997, the CIA was concerned enough to concoct its first scheme to capture bin Laden, who at the time was living near the Kandahar Airport under the protection of the Taliban. The plan was for Afghan tribesmen working for the U.S. to raid his compound, then hand him over to the Americans at a secret rendezvous point. The concept was meticulously rehearsed three times, and “Mike,” a CIA agent stationed in the region, considered it “the perfect operation.” But the plan never materialized. George Tenet, then the CIA director, was concerned about “collateral damage” and did not even present the option to President Bill Clinton. As the 9/11 commission later concluded, it

Erik dE Castro/EdC/Jd/rEutErs; al JazEEra/aPtN/aP

Ten long years: (left) U.S. soldiers track bin Laden in Afghanistan; (below) U.S. bombing in Tora Bora; bin Laden with Zawahiri

spies nicknamed him “Elvis”: spotted but never quite seen. Over the years (and depending on the source), the fugitive terrorist was falcon hunting in Iran, killed in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, or living a clean-shaven life somewhere in Indonesia. Or Utah. Not even a $25-million bounty was enough to convince a single confidant to turn him in. Until last Sunday, when word of his assassination spread across the globe, the search for bin Laden had become more ghost hunt than manhunt. And now it’s finally over, with a bullet to the head and a burial at sea. “They took care of business,” said a relieved John Cartier, who lost his younger brother in the twin towers on 9/11. “He will never be able to perpetrate an attack on anybody ever again. It’s a good moment in American history.” The son of a billionaire construction magnate (his father was the official contractor of the Saudi royal family), bin Laden cut his

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teeth during the Afghan-Soviet conflict, establishing guest houses for Arab fighters bound for the front lines, and laying down the roots of what would become his al-Qaeda network. When the Soviets retreated, he shifted his focus to another enemy: the United States. To bin Laden, the U.S. was the bane of the Muslim world, propping up repressive regimes MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

was a fateful but reasonable decision made “from the vantage point of the driver looking through a muddy windshield moving forward, not through a clean rear-view mirror.” Just three months after the kidnap op was shelved, a series of coordinated truck bombs exploded outside the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people. The dual 159

Branding: Posters of bin Laden in Pakistan promote a medicine that promises to cure diabetes

Exactly what went wrong on that mountain range has been the subject of much debate. A former Delta Force commander, who wrote a tell-all book under a pseudonym, says bin Laden escaped because the U.S. relied too heavily on Afghan troops, and naively believed that Pakistani soldiers were guarding the border a few kilometres away. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a notorious Afghan warlord, has since admitted that he helped bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman alZawahiri, escape the Tora Bora ambush. “We helped them get out of the caves and led them to a safe place,” he said. A videotape, later obtained by the CIA, shows bin Laden walking on a trail toward Pakistan in December 2001. By 2006—five years after the debacle at Tora Bora—the hunt for bin Laden was, in the words of one intelligence official, “stone cold.” One rumour had him dead, the victim of typhoid fever. Another report said he succumbed to kidney failure and was buried in Iran. In 2007, Richard A. Clarke, Bill Clinton’s former counterterrorism chief, speculated that bin Laden was wearing a “phony looking beard” and hiding somewhere in southeast Asia. Adding to the frustration of every deadend lead was the gnawing suspicion that sym-

He waged holy war from his compound, far from the battlefields and prison cells that claimed supporters

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pathetic Pakistani officials were harbouring bin Laden. Last May, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as much during an interview with CBS. “I’m not saying that they’re at the highest levels, but I believe that somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda are.” Pakistan has repeatedly denied such accusations—even after bin Laden was found in the suburb of Abbottabad, just a short drive from a military base. But the obvious question lingers: how could Pakistani officials have no idea that the planet’s most infamous man was hiding in plain sight, perhaps for years? What we do know, according to the U.S. administration, is that the historic assassination was the culmination of dogged detective work, a careful examination of meticulously gleaned intelligence, a touch of luck—and zero input from Pakistan. It dates back as far as 2007, when numerous prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, dropped the code name of one of bin Laden’s trusted couriers. According to the New York Times, interrogators ran the pseudonym past two high-level detainees—Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the chief planner of 9/11, and Abu Faraj al-Libi, al-Qaeda’s operational chief—but both men insisted they had never heard of him. Their denials raised immediate suspicion, and CIA officers spent the next two years scrambling to figure out the courier’s real name.

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attack had all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, and on August 20, 1998, Clinton retaliated with Tomahawk cruise missiles, targeting bin Laden bases in Afghanistan and Sudan. “Our mission was clear,” the president said that night. “To strike at the network of radical groups affiliated with and funded by Osama bin Laden, perhaps the pre-eminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today.” Bin Laden survived. Later that winter, CIA officers reported another positive sighting, this time at the governor’s residence in Kandahar. “Hit him tonight—we may not get another chance,” wrote Gary Schroen, the Islamabad station chief. But again, officials in Washington feared collateral damage, and nixed the request. As Schroen later wrote: “We may well come to regret the decision not to go ahead.” In May 1999, the U.S. had “perhaps the last, and most likely the best, opportunity” to kill bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks. According to numerous assets on the ground, the al-Qaeda chief was seen over a five-day period in and around Kandahar. “This was our strike zone,” a senior military officer would later recall. “It was a fat pitch, a home run.” Concerns about collateral damage once again thwarted an attack. As the 9/11 commission wrote in its final report: “From May 1999 until September 2001, policy-makers did not again actively consider a missile strike” against bin Laden. He was free to plan his own strike. That all changed, of course, on Sept. 11, 2001. Bin Laden had dedicated his life to crippling the U.S., but until that Tuesday morning, most Americans had never heard of him. Suddenly, he was public enemy number one, taunting Americans in videotaped rants and promising further bloodshed. “Do you want bin Laden dead?” a reporter asked president George W. Bush, just days after the attacks. “I want justice,” he answered. “And there’s an old poster out west, as I recall, that said: ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.’ ” By December 2001, bin Laden’s demise appeared imminent. Amid heavy fighting in Afghanistan, the al-Qaeda leader fled to the Tora Bora mountains, where he was soon surrounded by U.S. special forces and levelled with a punishing onslaught of laser-guided bombs. Yet somehow, he once again managed to slither his way to freedom.

International impact

bin Laden’s ruinous Legacy How a series of terror attacks totally changed the Western way of life

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‘We got him’: President Obama after announcing on TV that bin Laden had been killed

They caught a massive break last summer, when Pakistanis working for the CIA spotted the courier driving near Peshawar. They jotted down his licence plate, and from that moment on he was under constant surveillance. One day, agents followed him to the Abbottabad compound—a suspicious, threestorey home surrounded by towering concrete walls topped with barbed wire. Said one official: “It was a ‘holy cow’ moment.” In August, Obama was briefed about “a possible lead to bin Laden,” but it would take many more months of eavesdropping to confirm (or at least reasonably assume) that the al-Qaeda chief was hiding inside. U.S. officials pored over satellite photos, but other clues were hard to come by. The compound did not have a phone or Internet connection, and the people inside burned their garbage rather than toss it on the curb. By March, the Pentagon had reportedly crafted three possible missions: a special forces helicopter assault, a B-2 bomber strike, and a joint raid with Pakistani operatives. White House officials settled on option one, concerned that an all-out bombing would likely kill civilians and leave no trace of bin Laden. On Friday, April 29, just before leaving Washington to tour the tornado damage in Alabama, Obama issued his order. “It’s a go,” he told his aides. That Sunday afternoon, after nine holes of golf, the President joined senior staff in

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the situation room, where, via closed-circuit television, CIA director Leon Panetta was passing along real-time updates from the troops on the ground. “It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time, I think, in the lives of the people who were assembled,” Brennan, the counterterrorism adviser, told reporters. “The minutes passed like days, a lot of people holding their breath.” Vice President Joe Biden reportedly held a rosary in his hand. The choppers touched down just past midnight, Pakistan time, and Navy Seals flooded the compound, triggering a brief but intense firefight. Two men—later identified as the trusted courier and his brother—were killed in the battle. An unidentified woman caught in the crossfire also perished. The commandos cornered bin Laden and his wife (one of four) upstairs. She charged the soldiers and was shot in the leg, but survived. Her husband, unarmed, took at least one bullet to the head, just above his left eye, although reports suggest he may have been shot two more times. Facial recognition software later confirmed, with 95 per cent certainty, that the corpse was bin Laden. Further DNA tests reported a 99.9 per cent match. Back in the situation room, word of his death was met with silence and relief. After so many years, so many missed opportunities, Obama uttered the three words that his country longed to hear: “We got him.” MICHAEL FRISCOLANTI MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

The ancient Yemeni port of Aden, on the southwest tip of the Arabian Peninsula, reaches into the blue waters separating the Middle East from the Horn of Africa to form a natural harbour. Yet the safe haven for foreign ships has over the years been less than friendly to visiting foreigners. “Aden is a terrible rock, without a single blade of grass or a drop of good water,” the 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote after arriving to work in the coffee trade. It remained a desperate place even a century later, when, in the early 1990s, the United States used the city as a staging ground to service its troubled military venture across the gulf in Somalia, and as an R & R spot for soldiers due back in Mogadishu, the Somali capital. On Dec. 29, 1992, a security guard at the swank, modern Aden Hotel spotted two men apparently fitting a bomb to the underside of a car parked in the hotel lot outside, a not unusual occurrence in wild Yemen. Seeing the guard, one man stood and was striding directly toward him when the briefcase in his hand exploded, dismembering his arm and spewing shrapnel into the guard and the man’s accomplice. Though foiled, the attack was evidently part of a broader plan: later that day, at the Goldmore Hotel, another Aden resort, an explosive device planted in a hallway closet killed a hotel worker and a 70-year-old Austrian tourist who had just sat down to eat dinner with his wife. Yemeni police later uncovered an arsenal of weaponry associated with the plot, including 25 other explosive devices, two anti-tank mines, two machine guns and a pistol. That stash and the large quantity of cash recovered from a suspect’s apartment pointed to an operation of means and sophistication. The two bombers at the Aden Hotel, who’d survived their injuries, described attending training camps in far-flung Afghanistan operated by a still-obscure religious leader and veteran 161

of the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahedeen campaigns. Osama bin Laden had recently run afoul of the ruling family in his native Saudi Arabia and now lived in the basketcase African nation of Sudan, raising horses, growing sunflowers and using his business acumen to fund terrorist exploits. For radical fundamentalist Islamists like these, Aden’s high-end hotels symbolized all that was rotten about American hegemony. As Richard Miniter writes in his book Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton’s Failures Unleashed Global Terror, they were “islands of Western culture, with alcohol, rock music, and even Christmas lights. And, as the only international five-star hotels in the city, they were also beacons of luxury that offered swimming pools and a disco, places where casually dressed men and women could flirt, drink, and dance.” Yet something else entirely had turned bin Laden’s attention to the Aden and Goldmore hotels: the nearly 100 U.S. servicemen who had been housed at the two hotels until just two days earlier. The plan had failed to kill its intended victims; nevertheless, bin Laden had reason to celebrate his first terrorist attack. Within hours of the blasts, the U.S. had pulled its military personnel from Aden, along with most of its civilians. As ham-fisted an operation as it was, bin Laden had achieved his goal: he had displaced an American show of force and driven the infidel from the region. If only he could do the same for the American military presence that he felt had arrived as an occupying force in Saudi Arabia, home to the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, in 1990 to establish a base of operations for the first Gulf War. Bin Laden and his fellow conspirators would suffer more missteps in the coming years. They would also improve along the way. Though few knew of the Aden attack then—indeed, it remains obscure to this day— bin Laden’s gambit managed to put him on the global map. Shortly after the hotel blasts, Yemen’s Ministry of Interior appealed to Interpol for help in locating bin Laden. That development was not without irony: bin Laden’s father Muhammad was one of a raft of Yemenis who had left his native country and gone on to make a fortune abroad. Along with his wealth, bin Laden would inherit terrific drive from his father, but he would prove to be a success of a different kind. In ruins: The destruction on 9/11 of the World Trade Center was bin Laden’s greatest coup 162

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At war: Embassy bombing in Nairobi (top); New York on 9/11; Clinton honours USS Cole victims

than anything we had seen in the United States before,” says Killorin. Though U.S. intelligence did not immediately link the 1993 bombing to bin Laden, the connections ran deep. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, an explosives expert with a background in electronic engineering who was later convicted of masterminding the 1993 bombing and is currently serving a life sentence, had lived in a Pakistan guest house paid for by bin Laden. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind and controversial Egyptian cleric based in New York who was later convicted in the conspiracy, had first established ties with bin Laden as far back as the mid-1980s, when the pair were both striving to run the Soviets out of Afghanistan. As Ahmed Sattar, an Abdel Rahman aide, told a television interviewer after the link became clear in the late 1990s: “You can kill Osama bin Laden today or tomorrow; you can arrest him and put him on trial in New York or in Washington. If this will end the problem—no. Tomorrow you will get somebody else.” And indeed the plots proliferated, even if for a time they grew less audacious and farther removed from U.S. shores. On Nov. 13, 1995, a car bomb bit into a U.S. military training facility in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing six people, five of them American service personnel. The following year, a truck bomb outside the Khobar Towers, an apartment MAY 16, 2011

complex in the Saudi city of Dhahran then being used to house foreign military personnel, killed 19 U.S. nationals and injured 386 more. Bin Laden, by now based in Afghanistan, is widely seen as being behind both attacks. Yet U.S. reaction to the growing al-Qaeda offensive remained splintered. In the aftermath of the Khobar bombing, Army Gen. J. H. Binford Peay III, commander of Persian Gulf forces, retired under criticism that lax security under his watch had permitted the carnage. Yet his replacement, Gen. Anthony Zinni, soon admitted what to many had already become obvious: American troops stationed in Saudi Arabia were being stalked by terrorists. That same summer, bin Laden issued his military manifesto, “Declaration of War Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places,” in which he argued that the “imbalance of power” he saw between his own radical Islamic movement and the “enemy forces” of the infidel West had forced his camp to adopt “fast-moving light forces that work under complete secrecy. In other words, to initiate guerrilla warfare, where the sons of the nation, and not the military forces, take part in it.” With his tactical ideas advanced, bin Laden appeared to hit his diabolical stride. On Aug. 7, 1998, two nearly simultaneous explosions

AFP/Getty ImAGes; GulnArA sAmoIlovA/Keystone Press; mArIo tAmA/AFP/Getty ImAGes

In the early 1990s, the U.S. government’s anti-terror efforts focused mainly on purveyors of state-sponsored terror—rogue nations like Libya or Iran—and, after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, its own homegrown paramilitary groups. Yet intelligence officials were increasingly concerned about the small, nimble, privately financed networks of religious radicals supported by wealthy donors in such places as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. That new threat presented authorities with a myriad of diplomatic and legal issues at the same time as it swamped multiple levels of U.S. and international agencies in jurisdictional turf wars. Compounding all this was the investigative headache of following the money—terror financing was more and more resembling the complex laundering schemes associated with masking cocaine profits. No group embodied the trend better than al-Qaeda, the organization that had grown up around bin Laden in Afghanistan during the last days of the Soviet occupation. But while al-Qaeda and its brother terror networks acted with speed, ingenuity and ambition, they also demonstrated a habit of overreaching. On Feb. 26, 1993, in New York City, not two months after the Aden hotel bombings, a young man named Eyad Ismoil drove a Ryder rental truck loaded with fertilizerbased explosive into an underground parking garage in the World Trade Center’s north tower. The subsequent blast tore a hole five storeys high into the building, ripped doors off elevators and caused dense smoke to curl high up through the tower’s emergency stairwells; the explosion killed six and injured over 1,000 more. The attack, it later emerged, had been designed to topple the north tower and cause it to careen into its southern twin. That didn’t happen. “It wasn’t a particularly successful attack,” says Jack Killorin, who at the time was a spokesman for the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a key player in the investigation. “They blew the heck out of a parking lot.” Indeed, instead of complete disaster, the first major terrorist attack on American soil led to complacency. “All I can tell you about 1993 is that it misled us into thinking that they could make their petty attacks on us and we would be invulnerable,” Mario Cuomo, then governor of New York, told Maclean’s. “We learned better than that on 9/11.” For those looking closely, however, the 1993 bombing was recognized as a turning point. “We knew this was more typical of the radical Islamist terrorist techniques

Direct hit: On Oct. 12, 2000, a small vessel filled with explosives and manned by men chanting prayers plowed into the USS Cole, killing 17

outside U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed 224 people. The blast on Nairobi’s bustling Haile Selassie Avenue was particularly vicious, knocking the roof off a neighbouring building and shattering windows for blocks—passersby caught in a hail of hot glass fled the scene dripping with blood. The bombings occurred eight years to the day after U.S. troops arrived in Saudi Arabia as part of American Gulf War operations. The attack prompted Bill Clinton to pronounce bin Laden “Public Enemy No. 1.” By the end of the 1990s, American commandos were biding their time on the border of Afghanistan, waiting to hunt the al-Qaeda leader down. It would not work out; he had more bloodshed to wreak, and U.S. efforts to curb the threat remained fractured. Indeed, those commandos were part of a morass of confused American activity aimed at bin Laden: as the CIA drew up plans to capture and spirit him from Afghanistan, U.S. Justice Department lawyers were moving to indict him and diplomats at the State Department were working to end Afghanistan’s civil war and put an end to human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Taliban, Afghanistan’s fundamentalist rulers. It all missed the point.

A hint of what was to come arrived on Jan. 2, 2000, when—again in bin Laden’s paternal homeland, Yemen, in the port of Aden—a boat laden with explosives aimed its bow at the USS The Sullivans, only to sink under the weight of its cargo. Al-Qaeda would not bungle the plan twice. Later that same year, on Oct. 12, a small vessel filled with explosives and manned by men chanting prayers plowed into the USS Cole, which had put in to Aden for a routine stop. The blast lifted the ship out of the water, blew a 12- by 12-metre gash into the hull, and ripped through its galley at a time when many of the destroyer’s sailors were queuing for lunch. Seventeen died, 39 were injured. One of the U.S. Navy men killed that day was Craig Wibberley, a 19-year-old from Williamsport, Md., who had just graduated from high school a year earlier. “The loss of your son is something that bothers you for the rest of your life,” says Tom Wibberley, a 62-year-old equipment manager whose father was a Second World War pilot and who himself had served as a marine in Vietnam. “It’s no different now than when he was killed. To lose a loved one like that through a senseless attack is hard. People should be glad for

LYLE G. BECKER/AFP/GEttY ImAGEs

Since 2001, Homeland Security has spent US$40 billion rebuilding the aviation security system

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their children and be thankful to spend time with them.” For Kirk Lippold, commander of the USS Cole at the time, the attack signalled the arrival of a new terror paradigm. “We’d experienced truck bombs, the embassy bombings— that was our perspective when we trained for attacks on the USS Cole. We understood it would be from the land side,” says Lippold, who is currently running for Congress in Nevada as a Republican. Investigators looking into the USS Cole attack later made two conclusions, Lippold told Maclean’s: that there was nothing he or his crew could have done to prevent it, and that “the entire chain of command bore responsibility for allowing this to happen, for their failure to give us the training and the intelligence necessary to adequately defend the ship. We walked into that port untrained, without the proper equipment, certainly without the intelligence that would allow us to defend our ship. “Nobody ever envisioned boats packed with explosives, so it completely changed out mindset,” Lippold says. “Nobody ever envisioned planes used as weapons.”

Small, sophisticated, with only the merest whisper of central control, al-Qaeda had achieved an apocalyptic masterpiece in the USS Cole attack by inventing a new way of waging terror. Its next project would, in 165

International true Promethean style, prove both the alQaeda leader’s crowning achievement—and his undoing. At 8:46 a.m., on Sept. 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 flew into the World Trade Center’s north tower, cutting through floors 93 to 99. A little over 10 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower, crashing through the floors between the 77th and 85th storeys. In Washington, at 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 jetted into the west wall of the Pentagon, killing all 59 innocent people aboard and 125 more on the ground. Twenty minutes later, back in Manhattan, the south tower collapsed, razing a structure 415 m tall in just 10 seconds and spilling dust, debris and a crazy kaleidoscope of papers—resumes, blank cheques, a request for a promotion dating back to 1979—into the streets of New York. At 10:03 a.m., a fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed into a field in rural Shanksville, Pa., after the passengers wrestled control of the aircraft away from the militants. At 10:28 a.m.—30 minutes after its south doppelganger—the World Trade Center’s north tower fell. In all, the casualties are tallied at 2,975— 2,751 deaths at the World Trade Center towers, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Shanksville. Nineteen hijackers died. It was, as President Barack Obama said on Sunday night, “the worst attack on the American people in our history.” If any single story highlights the collision of security wrongheadedness and catastrophe that Sept. 11 represents, it is the story of John O’Neill. After getting hired as chief of the FBI’s counterterrorism section in 1995, O’Neill began tracking al-Qaeda and bin Laden relentlessly, including in his role overseeing the investigations into the attacks in Saudi Arabia, East Africa and Yemen, the latter of which was deemed unsuccessful. In 2001, unable to co-operate with the intelligence community and after suffering a series of personal scandals—including leaving behind a top-classified suitcase at a conference—O’Neill took a job working as chief of security at the World Trade Center. In a 2002 New Yorker profile of O’Neill, Lawrence Wright wrote that when O’Neill told Chris Isham, a friend and producer at ABC, about his decision to work at the twin towers, Isham joked, “At least they’re not going to bomb it again.” O’Neill replied,

“They’ll probably try to finish the job.” His lowing the attacks, gave law enforcement body was found in the rubble one week after agencies unheard-of authority to eavesdrop the attack. on telephone, email and other communications, boosted international intelligence Apart from its human catastrophe, mil- gathering and heralded an era in which suslions around the world felt the legacy of bin pected terrorists could be shipped to thirdLaden’s great coup. Most immediately, the party countries for torture-enhanced interroManhattan attacks snarled financial mar- gation. The Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, kets worldwide and led to an international passed in December, 2001, introduced simieconomic slump. Firefighters, paramedics lar measures here, and newspapers began and other emergency personnel who attended reporting on no-fly list snafus snagging the twin towers later suffered dispropor- unlucky namesake children and other innotionately high rates of cents. Those like Maher Arar were unluckier cancer, respiratory ill- still when they found themselves on the ness and other ailments. wrong side of the war on terror. The mound of rubble at The Homeland Security Advisory System, what came to be known introduced in the U.S. in early 2002, used a as Ground Zero turned colour-coded chart to keep the country into a hazardous salvage updated on the likelihood of a terrorist attack, job that took years to forcing Americans to endure endless stretches complete and sickened of “orange,” the second-highest level. Aireven more. plane travel became a checklist of aggravations, with passengers forced through a gauntlet of humiliations that now include the removal of belts and footwear, intrusive pat-downs and, at many airports, full-body scans that leave nothing to the imagination. Other terrorist threats spawned by bin Laden’s example have since prompted bans on bottles of water, toothpaste, hand moisturizer and other innocuous substances from airplanes. According to the New York Times, the Department of Homeland Security has spent US$40 billion rebuilding the aviation security system since 2001. Overall, the psychological impact of Sept. 11 was great and indelible, particularly in the way the day’s attacks led to the alienation of many Western Muslims. Who could conceive of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp nightmare, the obscenities of Abu Ghraib, tasteless Danish cartoons or the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” controversy in a universe sans bin Laden?

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Checkpoint: On guard at Boston’s airport

The events of 9/11 quickly led to war in Afghanistan, where the U.S., Canada and other allied countries have lost scores of soldiers, and where they continue to be mired in military campaigns of dubious long-term value. In 2003, the U.S. led a “coalition of the willing” in a costly, politically polarizing invasion of Iraq, a venture that likely would not have happened otherwise. Most insidiously, bin Laden’s triumph permitted an unparalleled curbing of civil liberties across the Western world. The USA Patriot Act, made into law in the weeks folMAY 16, 2011

what sense of personal satisfaction did he feel after achieving all this? We will never know. But after Sept. 11, he could never again entirely rely upon bungling Americans, the collision of interests among competing U.S. government agencies or the perception that U.S. security had priorities higher than alQaeda. In helping mastermind the 9/11 attack, bin Laden brought down the full force of the United States and its allies upon Afghanistan, toppling the Taliban, scuttling al-Qaeda’s safe harbour and forcing him into the caves of Tora Bora. It was, in the end, too much an apocalypse, too much a success. NICHOLAS KÖHLER AND STEPHANIE FINDLAY

JOHN MOTTERN/AFP/GETTy IMAGEs

Before bin Laden, who would have conceived of Guantánamo Bay or the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ controversy?

Taking action: Basnicki wants Parliament to pass the Justice for Victims of Terrorism bill

10 years later

Still no justice PHOTOGRAPH BY DOnAlD WeBeR/VII neTWORk

For family members of the Canadian victims of 9/11, bin Laden’s death does little to ease the pain There was no jubilant eruption in Abigail Carter’s Seattle home when she heard the news. While enjoying a dinner of grilled salmon and curried cauliflower with friends, her daughter Olivia screeched from her bedroom: “Mom! Osama bin Laden is dead! And everyone is celebrating. It’s so weird.” The 15-yearold couldn’t understand why people were so excited about a man’s death—even if the man in question was the mastermind behind the 9/11 plot that killed her dad, Arron Dack, a

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Toronto-raised vice-president of a financial software company. In many ways, Olivia’s ambivalence is shared by family members of some of the 24 Canadians who lost their lives when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. After nearly 10 years, they say they have pretty well forgotten about bin Laden, and don’t believe his death will curb the threat of terrorism. “We may have gotten the face of the organization,” says Abigail Cater, “but the MACLEAN’S MAGAZINE

organization continues. It also doesn’t change the fact that Arron is still dead.” In Winnipeg, Ellen Judd was flipping between news channels in search of the latest on the federal election, when the news out of Abbottabad, Pakistan, broke. “I didn’t want to look at [the joyous crowds],” says Judd, still mourning the death of her partner Christine Egan, who was in the south tower visiting her brother when the planes hit. “If we celebrate this as a military victory, we’ve missed the point.” Bin Laden’s death heightened Judd’s sense of solidarity with everyone who has been touched by the war—especially those in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “I have much more in common with the widows in Afghanistan than I do with anybody celebrating in the streets today,” she says. “They are trying to live their ordinary lives just as Chris and I were trying to do.” Erica Basnicki, the stepdaughter of Ken Basnicki, a Toronto businessman who was killed while attending a conference on the 106th floor of the north tower, blogged about bin Laden after receiving dozens of text messages and emails informing her that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been killed. “My first reaction wasn’t really to break into a celebration dance and I’m not sure why. I guess dancing about someone dying feels wrong . . . although I’d certainly consider an exception this time round.” In another blog post the morning after, she wrote, “I’ve heard many people speak about how the death of Osama bin Laden provides 9/11 families with some sense of justice. I have no sense of justice from his death.” What would go a ways toward that end, says her brother Brennan, is the passage of the Justice for Victims of Terrorism bill, which their mother, Maureen—along with the Canadian Coalition Against Terror—has been trying to get through Parliament for the better part of the last decade. The bill would allow victims to sue terrorists and supporters of terrorism for damages. “The essence of the bill is that it’s difficult to fight terrorism through military action,” says Brennan. “But if you can cut off their financial capabilities, you can bankrupt terrorism.” Abigail Carter also blogged about bin Laden’s killing, expressing wonder at “the sketchier parts of the story. Buried at sea? Seriously?” she wrote. “I wish [this] death could change things for me, but it doesn’t. Vengeance is a bitter pill that does little to cure any lack of justice.” JULIA BELLUZ 167

International INTERVIEW

The beginning of the end? With bin Laden’s death, the war on terror has lost its purpose, according to al-Qaeda expert Peter Bergen Peter Bergen began covering the rise of al-Qaeda long before the twin towers fell. One of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst, and has written three books about the terrorist organization. In his latest, The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda, he argues that 9/11 marked the climax of alQaeda’s power. Bin Laden’s organization, he writes, has been in decline ever since. Bergen spoke with Maclean’s from Washington. Q: Al-Qaeda has now lost its best recruiter and fundraiser. Is this the beginning of the end? A: Yes. When you joined the Nazi party, you didn’t swear an oath of allegiance to Naziism; you swore a personal oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. When you join al-Qaeda, you swear an oath of allegiance to bin Laden, not to al-Qaeda or al-Qaedism. Similarly, when groups join al-Qaeda in Iraq, they swear a personal fealty to bin Laden. He’s the grand fromage of al-Qaeda and the jihadi movement. No one can replace him. Q: Does his death also mark the end of the socalled war on terror? A: If this doesn’t mark it, what does? We can be involved in an endless war, or we can say that while jihadist terrorism won’t go away, and while it threatens people in the U.S. and Canada, the combination of bin Laden’s death and the Arab Spring undercuts both the ideology and the organization of al-Qaeda. Q: Why was it so crucially important for the U.S. to find bin Laden? A: At the end of the day, that’s what this war was about. If Mullah Mohammed Omar had just said: ‘Okay, we’ll just give this guy up,’ [the Taliban would] probably still be running Afghanistan. It really came down to that. Q: Will his death alter the debate on Afghanistan in the West? Will it hasten the pullout? A: It might. It increases political pressure to say: ‘Well, it’s over.’ Personally, I think there are reasons other than bin Laden for being in Afghanistan. The Taliban are the Taliban, after all, and it’s interesting how quiescent liberals have been about them coming back to power in some shape or form. It wasn’t 168

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just al-Qaeda. The Taliban hosted all sorts of terrorist and Islamist groups while they were in power. Where they continue to exert power, in places like western Pakistan and the tribal regions, they continue to host not just alQaeda but various Taliban splinter groups: Lashkar-e Taiba, the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan and any number of unpleasant groups. Q: In angry Arab capitals a decade ago, bin Laden was often seen as a hero, sheik, leader—a religious Robin Hood. How do he and the terrorist organization he launched differ today from what they then were? A: Al-Qaeda, in 2001, ran an almost parallel government to the Taliban in Afghanistan. They had training camps and thousands of recruits; they paid people salaries and even had a vacation schedule for their recruits—2½ months off a year, more than most American companies. They have much less capacity today. A 9/11-style attack is implausible; they don’t control big chunks of the country. A tremendous amount of pressure has been applied to them. That’s not an argument for saying: ‘Well, let’s stop, because the job is done.’ Let’s say Northwest Flight 253 [the infamous underwear bomber incident on Christmas Day 2009] had blown up over Detroit, not far from the Canadian border. Three hundred people would have been killed, plus more people on the ground, global aviation, tourism and international business would have been impacted, and the Obama presidency would have been severely damaged, perhaps even mortally wounded. So, even backed into a corner like a snake, these groups continue to have, and MAY 16, 2011

will continue to have, some capacity. Q: What about bin Laden himself? A: He was losing the war of ideas in the Muslim world, not because the West is winning them, but because al-Qaeda is losing them. In Indonesia, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, poll after poll shows declining support for al-Qaeda, bin Laden and suicide bombing. And that was true before the Arab Spring. There’s no bin Laden pictures in the streets of Cairo—no one’s calling for a Taliban-style theocracy in Libya. It’s simply not part of the conversation. Q: You met the man in 1997. What was your initial impression? A: Well-informed, intelligent, serious—he wasn’t a table-thumping revolutionary. He was a fairly thoughtful individual; he’s widely regarded as being humble, though killing

3,000 people on a Tuesday morning isn’t really the act of a humble person, I would say. I spent a lot of time interviewing his friends, family and people who fought with him in Afghanistan for my book [The Osama bin Laden I Know], and the picture that emerges is of a guy who was a religious zealot from the age of about 15 on. That is really the explanation of who he was. He believed he was doing God’s will, and saw the West, par-

ticularly the U.S., at war with Islam. That set of assumptions coloured everything else. Q: What was the biggest popular misconception about bin Laden? A: That he had a bank account with $200 million in it, and that he was at war with us because of our freedoms. There are hundreds of thousands of words on public record from bin Laden. But he was very quiet on the Supreme Court, alcohol, drugs, feminism, homosexuality—he didn’t care about cultural issues in the West. He cared about our foreign policy. He wanted the West, broadly speaking, to get out of the Muslim world. Q: Bin Laden was found in an ostentatious, suspicious compound in a town with a soldier on every corner, a mere two hours from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, nominally a U.S. ally; by last year, even journalists had heard

A meeting with Osama: Bergen (right) with

COURTESY PETER BERGEN

bin Laden near Tora Bora in 1997

rumours bin Laden was in Abbottabad. Are we to believe Pakistan’s intelligence service didn’t have a clue? A: It’s still hard to tell. But look, living in compounds with high walls is a lot less unusual in Pakistan than people believe. Q: What did Pakistan come to mean to alQaeda after its near-death experience in the

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winter of 2001? A: In a way, it was back to the future. Al-Qaeda was founded in Afghanistan in 1988; as adults, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri spent more time in Pakistan than anywhere else in the world. Q: Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, who is also believed to be in hiding in Pakistan, is commonly seen as the brains behind bin Laden. In the book, however, you describe him very differently. A: That was the conventional wisdom; it turned out to be untrue. Obviously, Zawahiri is a smart guy, and certainly Zawahiri made Osama more radical in the late ’80s. But by the mid-’90s, things had changed quite dramatically. It was Osama’s idea to attack the United States, an idea he basically foisted on Zawahiri. Zawahiri, at the time, was the leader of a relatively small group, and wasn’t well liked even within it. Osama, who by ’97 or ’98 was a global celebrity, subsumed Zawahiri’s group into his own, much larger organization. Q: In the beginning, was there a perception that bin Laden wasn’t very bright? A: In the ’80s, he was very much overshadowed by people who were older than him, and who had more experience fighting jihad or being imprisoned by the Egyptians. It doesn’t necessarily mean he was dumb, but no one saw him as a leader. He was monosyllabic, silent; that’s the picture that emerges. But by the ’90s, he’s running a large organization, he’s got the courage of his convictions, he’s leaving some of his mentors behind and making decisions they don’t necessarily like. Q: So will Zawahiri now assume the mantle? A: Zawahiri is the nominal successor. But I don’t think he’ll be successful—he’s not wellregarded by people in the organization. And the world doesn’t stop when he releases a tape, as was the case with bin Laden. One of [bin Laden’s] sons might choose to go into this, but I don’t see anybody similar in stature emerging. Q: You write that 9/11 backfired on bin Laden. How so? A: He didn’t achieve any of his self-stated goals. He hoped to get the U.S. out of the Middle East so the Saudi regime would fall and a Taliban-style regime would replace it. None of that happened. Rather, it was the reverse. The U.S. didn’t pull out of the Middle East; we’re in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he lost his base in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda

means “the base” in Arabic; their base ran almost a parallel state in Afghanistan. That’s gone. Many years later, they came up with post facto justifications—that this was all part of a clever plan to get the U.S. involved in the Middle East and bleed it dry, but that doesn’t make any sense. Q: He didn’t really understand the West, did he? A: No. He spent two weeks in the United States in 1979, and he had a series of “yes people” around him who said: “You’re right, Osama, the U.S. is a paper tiger, the U.S. will crumble”—he really didn’t get it. Q: Yet the U.S.-led invasion, you write, was also a boon to bin Laden’s cause. A: The invasion of Iraq, the coercive interrogation, Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib—all these things helped feed into bin Laden’s master narrative that we’re at war with Islam, even if that wasn’t the case. Q: So what now for the Taliban—whose raison d’être is first and foremost expelling foreigners, who have no record of terrorist acts outside Afghanistan and never seemed, as you’ve written, to have much in common with jihadists bent on using Afghanistan as the starting point for a worldwide caliphate? Was it a marriage of convenience for them and al-Qaeda, and will they now go their separate ways? A: Yes—but they’ve had a lot of time to go their separate ways, and they still haven’t. Q: In Iraq, it took Sunni Arabs to turn the tide against al-Qaeda. Can we draw lessons from the so-called “awakening,” in which Sunni tribes helped rid Iraq of the organization? A: There are differences. In Iraq, al-Qaeda was a foreign organization imposing a Taliban-like regime on the locals. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is much more of a local phenomenon. But you could imagine local militias setting up—and this is happening in Afghanistan right now—to fight off the Taliban. They wouldn’t be ethnically different from the Taliban; they’d be coming from the same community. Q: Why do you feel the U.S. will release photos of bin Laden’s body? A: They make a point. It was the footage of Saddam Hussein being checked for head lice that completely undercut whatever currency he had remaining. The pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein and Musab al-Zarqawi after their deaths—these pictures tell a thousand words. nancy macdonald

There’s no bin Laden pictures in the streets of Cairo—no one’s calling for a Talibanstyle theocracy in Libya

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U.S.-PakiStani relationS

More than a bit awkward Americans wonder how Pakistanis didn’t know bin Laden was hiding there—and weigh their response The discovery of Osama bin Laden, not in some desolate cave in a lawless tribal borderland, but ensconced comfortably in a suburban neighbourhood in the heart of Pakistan, has led to a single burning question in Washington: how could the Pakistani government, recipient of billions of dollars of American aid, not know that for possibly five years America’s most wanted fugitive was living in plain sight, a short walk from a military academy, no less? For years, Pakistan denied knowledge of his whereabouts, even while the Pakistani intelligence services stood accused of tipping off al-Qaeda’s leaders about American efforts to find them. Anybody who thought that Pakistan was protecting bin Laden was “smok170

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ing something they shouldn’t be smoking,” Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, told CNN in 2010. But those suspicions about Islamabad turned to outrage this week. Relations had already been sharply deteriorating, with the U.S. accusing Pakistan of not being serious in fighting terror—and Pakistanis outraged over U.S. drone attacks against suspected Pakistani terrorist targets. Now, with the news that bin Laden had been living openly in Pakistan, there were calls in Washington for Congress to limit an aid program that has allotted US$7.5 billion over five years to help strengthen the Pakistani government and win the support of Pakistan’s people. “I think this tells us once again that unfortunately MAY 16, 2011

Pakistan, at times, is playing a double game, and that’s very troubling to me,” said Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee. “We clearly need to keep the pressure on Pakistan, and one way to do that is to put more strings attached to the tremendous amount of military aid that we give the country,” she said. The chairman of the committee, John Kerry, a key advocate of the aid plan, complained that not only did Pakistani intelligence fail to look for bin Laden, but for years fed the U.S. what he called “misdirects”—false information—such as “the notion that he’s out in the western part of the country and they can’t control that and so forth.” Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate armed services committee, called on Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to “follow through and ask some very tough questions of his own military and his own intelligence. They’ve got a lot of explaining to do.” For his part, the Pakistani president issued a personal defence: “Some in the U.S. press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the ter-

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GEtty IMAGEs

Choosing their words carefully: Amid the speculation, the Obama administration has praised Zardari’s Pakistan for its ‘close co-operation’

JONATHAN OLLEY/SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT/AP

rorists we claimed to be pursuing. Such base- this relationship.” (Behind the scenes, the less speculation may make exciting cable administration would press Congress not to news, but it doesn’t reflect fact,” Zardari wrote jeopardize the money flows, he predicted— but the Government Accountability Office in in the Washington Post. In the midst of this diplomatic storm, the February reported that only a small fraction of the aid package had actually been paid out, White House tried to walk a fine line. On the one hand, administration officials in part due to concerns about corruption in said they would investigate the possibility that Pakistan.) “Our core interests include getting Pakistani officials at some level had played a them to act against al-Qaeda and getting them role in protecting bin Laden. “I think it would to act against this amalgam of groups that are be premature to rule out the possibility that attacking U.S. forces in Afghanistan,” Sanderthere were some individuals inside of Pak- son added. But he noted that the U.S. has istan—including within the official Pakistani little leverage in Islamabad, and for all his establishment—who might have been aware supportive words, Zardari is not calling the of this,” President Barack Obama’s top counter- shots. “The army is the most powerful and terrorism advisor, John Brennan, told National important and effective institution,” he said. Public Radio on Tuesday. “We’re not accusSome key congressional leaders also shared ing anybody at this point, but we want to the administration’s caution. The chairman make sure we get to the bottom of this.” of the House intelligence committee, RepubStill, Brennan and other administration lican Mike Rogers, warned, “I’d be very officials were also careful to praise Pakistan careful about saying we’re going to throw for its “close co-operation” in counterterror- them overboard, given how many other tarism activities. Secretary of State Hillary Clin- gets are really critical for us to go after.” He ton emphasized that nothing had changed in estimated that another 12 to 20 al-Qaeda U.S. relations with Pakistan: “We remain com- leaders of various levels remain in Pakistan. mitted to supporting the people and govern- Likewise, the chairwoman of the Senate ment of Pakistan as they defend their own intelligence committee, Sen. Dianne Feindemocracy against extremism.” The admin- stein, told reporters on Tuesday it was “preistration also credited Pakistan for providing mature” to talk about cutting aid to Pakinformation that eventually istan. “Here’s the problem: led to the raid. “The Pakif we don’t [give aid], what PAKISTANI istanis, you know, did not then? And that ‘what then’ INTELLIGENCE FAILED is really important. Does know of our interest in the compound, but they did TO LOOK FOR OBAMA, China step in? Who steps provide us information that in? Does anybody step in? helped us develop a clearer SAYS KERRY, AND SENT What will this do?” THE U.S. ‘MISDIRECTS’ focus on this compound over There were even calls to time,” a senior U.S. intelliuse more, not less. Michael gence official told reporters on Monday. O’Hanlon, a foreign policy scholar at the President Zardari, the widower of Benazir Brookings Institution, a Washington think Bhutto—assassinated in a 2007 shooting for tank, proposed that the U.S. should build its which al-Qaeda claimed credit—was eager to relationship with Pakistan—by accelerating share credit for the raid, which some other aid payments, providing debt relief, reducing Pakistanis called a violation of sovereignty. drone strikes in tribal areas, and negotiating “Although the events of Sunday were not a a free trade agreement. “We should have joint operation, a decade of co-operation and quiet discussions that would indicate a willpartnership between the United States and ingness to raise the stakes if they will shut Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama down Afghan Taliban sanctuaries, and take bin Laden as a continuing threat to the civil- other steps like slowing nuclear weapons ized world. And we in Pakistan take some development as well,” O’Hanlon told Macsatisfaction that our early assistance in iden- lean’s. “We are at a crossroads and, absent a tifying an al-Qaeda courier ultimately led to big idea like this, the likely direction in the relationship is downward.” this day,” he wrote in the Post. Despite his criticism of Islamabad, Kerry The non-confrontational tone of both governments was deliberate, said Tom Sanderson, also acknowledged that Pakistan paid a price deputy director of the transnational threats for allowing a U.S. drone campaign against project at the Center for Strategic and Inter- militants that has killed Pakistani civilians. In national Studies, a Washington think tank. future relations with Pakistan, he said, “We “That is not random. Those statements reflect really have to be careful not to cut off our nose a desire to quickly move beyond this and repair to spite our face.” LUIZA CH. SAVAGE

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Bigelow

FILM

BIN LADEN THE MOVIE STAR? Kathryn Bigelow may be glad her next movie is tentatively titled Kill Bin Laden. The independent film, which Bigelow has been trying to finance and cast as a follow-up to her Oscar-winning war drama The Hurt Locker, is said to focus on one of the U.S.’s failed attempts to take out the al-Qaeda mastermind. And according to Variety, the special forces unit she focuses on is “the very team that wound up killing the terrorist leader.” Literally overnight, the project is one of the “timeliest movies in Hollywood,” writes Deadline’s Mike Fleming. It has company, though, since other studios have Osama bin Laden ideas languishing in development hell. Paramount has the rights to Jawbreaker, a book about how the U.S. let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora in December 2001. The studio has gone through several drafts of the script, including one Oliver Stone was attached to. Paramount even considered featuring Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan character in the hunt for public enemy No. 1. Considering these projects were all developed when it seemed the U.S. would never catch bin Laden, the latest news out of Abbottabad, Pakistan, will undoubtedly alter the plots—or at least the endings. The Hollywood Reporter said that Bigelow and her Hurt Locker writer, Mark Boal, are “digesting the news and will spend the week figuring out their next move.” Nobody was quick enough to beat Corey Feldman to the big screen. The day bin Laden died, the Gremlins actor was in Texas for a screening of the low-budget comedy Operation Belvis Bash, in which he stars as a Jewish comedian who travels to Afghanistan and helps liberate the country from a bin Ladenesque terrorist. “I walk out of the premiere,” Feldman said in a statement, “to learn that Osama bin Laden had been killed by a special operation, just like in the film we’d screened.” Feldman’s movie, however, didn’t take 10 years to make. JAIME J. WEINMAN 171

Jihadists

the future of al-qaeda The world’s first truly global terrorist organization suddenly faces an uncertain fate In the spring of 2004, as investigators scoured mobile phone records for evidence in the Madrid train bombings, a disturbing truth about the killers began to emerge. Far from bloody-minded professionals carrying out Osama bin Laden’s orders, these suicide bombers appeared to be novices—self-radicalized warriors who believed themselves to be carrying out the al-Qaeda leader’s wishes. The closest many of them ever had come to the man was reading his polemics on a jihadist website. This phenomenon wasn’t new. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, cells of wannabes had popped up around the world; most showed all the acumen of Wile E. Coyote hunting the Road Runner. But the coordinated assault on Madrid’s commuter rail network marked a frightening new turn for the world’s first truly global terrorist organization. With its leaders in hiding or on the run, it had managed to outsource its work to self-styled “affiliates”—from the absurd172

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ist amateurs of the so-called “Toronto 18” to the homegrown jihadis who killed 52 people by bombing the London Underground. Just when Western intelligence agencies thought they had a handle on the threat, the threat had morphed into something almost as dangerous. This quicksilver quality had long been alQaeda’s key to survival. Bin Laden had assembled his following in the late 1980s from remnants of Arab volunteer brigades who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, and who shared his outrage at the Saudi royal family’s decision to allow U.S. troops on their soil during the 1990 Gulf War. Though the scion of a construction dynasty in Saudi Arabia, he was expelled from the country the next year, and quickly shifted operations to Sudan, where his organization began to live up to its name (in Arabic, al-Qaeda means “the base”). There, bin Laden and his lieutenants set up training camps for jihadis from around the world, along with a business structure through which to fund operations outside Sudan’s borders. At the same time, bin Laden began preaching his toxic blend of hatred and religious manifest destiny—a unifying ideology that “tapped into all the misapprehensions and bitterness toward the United States that many Muslims around the world were feeling,” in the words of national security expert Michael O’Hanlon. “You see a greater degree of competence on al-Qaeda’s part during this period, a willingness to use suicide missions and to upend assumptions about how terrorists operate,” says O’Hanlon, a foreign policy fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington. “There’d been MAY 16, 2011

an adage that terrorists don’t want a lot of people dead—that they want a lot of people watching. Well, al-Qaeda changed that. It turned out they really did want a lot of people dead.” This desire to shock became clear in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, a bombing in the underground parkade plotted by Ramzi Yousef, the nephew of bin Laden’s close associate Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 injured, but it had the potential to be much worse. Sudan faced growing international pressure to expel bin Laden, so he solved Khartoum’s problem in 1996 by decamping for Afghanistan, where the ruling Taliban would provide al-Qaeda with a safe haven for the next five years, and where it would plan its defining attacks. “What ultimately emerged was something unique and never seen before in the world,” says Wesley Wark, a security expert at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. “A truly transnational entity, engaged in a terror campaign that had a global political agenda. It was a centralized, command-and-control sort of organization.” The training camps expanded, notes Wark, while money flowed in from wealthy donors across the Middle East. The executive structure of the group solidified with bin Laden at the top, his long-time lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri in charge of strategy, and Mohammed handling operations. The sheer bloodiness of its attacks reflected al-Qaeda’s growing strength. More than 220 people were killed in the August 1998 truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and

Getty ImaGes

Toxic message: Bin Laden, at a news conference in Pakistan in 1998, showed the world that al-Qaeda was both organized and intent on killing

International

JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Tanzania, prompting the Clinton administration to respond with a barrage of missiles aimed at al-Qaeda’s camps in Afghanistan. Two years later, 17 American sailors were killed after a boat piloted by a pair of suicide bombers rammed the USS Cole near the Yemeni port of Aden. The organization reached its awful zenith, of course, with the Sept. 11 plot, in which 19 suspected members hijacked four planes and flew them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing 2,975. It was the worst ever attack on U.S. soil, and a watershed moment for alQaeda. The response, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, overthrew the Taliban and set in motion events that would see al-Qaeda reduced to a nucleus of leaders in permanent hiding. From their caves in the Khyber mountains, or the hinterlands of northern Pakistan, bin Laden and his inner circle could provide little more than advice and inspiration to their operatives. Al-Qaeda lived on, though, thanks partly to succour extended by Pakistani sympathizers, and partly to bin Laden’s success in spreading Islamist fervour. Suddenly, would-be jihadists around the world were taking up his stated goal of creating a caliphate, or political union of Muslims under a single leadership. Self-styled conspirators began hatching plans against Western targets for which al-Qaeda would later take credit, such as the Madrid and London bombings (two of the London bombers had travelled in 2004 to Pakistan, and

were thought to have made contact with al- in 2006 to hijack as many as 10 airliners over Qaeda leaders). At the same time, groups the Atlantic as an example of a grand-scale that had sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda ral- plot likely contrived by bin Laden and his lied around the cause of attacking Washing- cadre. “If that one attack had succeeded— ton’s perceived stooges. In Iraq, the terrorist even it it had brought down only half the leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fused disgrun- planes they were after—we would have been tled Sunnis and foreign militants into what talking about how this organization continued he would call al-Qaeda in Iraq, launching a to thrive even while on the run.” Another series of suicide bombings on Shiite mosques such attempt remains a nagging threat even and the country’s newly formed national after bin Laden’s death, O’Hanlon adds, with police force. the capacity to cripple the airline industry Zarqawi, in turn, kept in close contact and, potentially, the global economy. with Abdelmalek Droukdel, Wark is more optimistic. the leader of an Algerian “I think al-Qaeda is more front called the al-Qaeda ‘Bin Laden defined or less finished,” he says. Organization in the Islamic the group and i don’t “Bin Laden defined the Maghreb, which had been group and I don’t see anysee anyone within one within the leadership linked to a string of attacks, including the murder of 13 the Leadership who who could do what he did.” civilians at a fake roadblock its place, Wark expects couLd do what he did’ In in the town of Tablat. In a resurgence of localized Morocco, members of the Islamic terrorist groups, so-called Islamic Combatant Group were while the homegrown amateurs seek to charged with planning the Madrid train avenge bin Laden’s death. But for al-Qaeda, bombing, along with a coordinated suicide the writing was arguably on the wall before bombing in May 2003 in Casablanca that U.S. commandos assaulted that compound killed 33. A month later, the al-Qaeda-linked in northern Pakistan. Poll results released Islamic Army of Aden was implicated in an four months ago by the Pew Research Cenattack on a medical assistance convoy belong- ter suggested Muslims worldwide had overing to the Yemeni military. Al-Shabaab in whelmingly negative perceptions of the Somalia, Asbat al-Ansar in Lebanon, Jamiat group and its leader. Bin Laden might still ul-Ansar in Pakistan—all were revealed to be have stood at the front of a global Islamist doing al-Qaeda’s bidding. movement. But if he’d cared to look over That’s not to say the executive group went his shoulder, he’d have seen precious few dormant. O’Hanlon points to a failed plan followers. CHARLIE GILLIS

Amateurs: The 2004 Madrid attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda ‘affiliates’; an Afghan Northern Alliance fighter mocks bin Laden in 2001

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Why did they bury him at sea? The disposal of bin Laden’s body in the north Arabian Sea fuels the critics and the conspiracy theories

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the handling of bin Laden’s body is an insult to Muslims, and could possibly be grounds for retaliation against American targets. John Esposito, a professor of international affairs and Islamic studies at Georgetown University, dismisses any such criticism as “ultra-conservative” and “legalistic.” He predicts that any hardline response will likely have little impact on the Muslim world. Even the very small minority of Muslims who had once been attracted to bin Laden had grown increasingly alienated from him, he says, after al-Qaeda killed hundreds of Muslims in attacks in Iraq and Pakistan. Rather than focusing on the minutiae of religious rites, adds Esposito, “American Muslim groups were very quick to deal with this in the way this inci-

Washed away: Religious rites on bin Laden’s body were performed on the USS Carl Vinson

dent should be dealt with—to talk about the fact that they were pleased that this kind of person was finally caught, and, because it was necessary, was killed.” Yet, even in the U.S., some Muslims were questioning the White House’s pretense of propriety. Maher Hathout, a retired physician and a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a civil rights advocacy group, wasn’t sorry to see bin Laden go, nor concerned that he was dumped into the sea. “Without him, the world is a safer and better MAY 16, 2011

Turzanski recalls that when the U.S. killed Uday and Qusay Hussein, sons of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, their bodies were held for 11 days before being released for burial. And the administration even summoned international media to take photographs, so that it could be established that the two were, in fact, dead. Bin Laden’s burial, he says, should have been handled the same way. “The problem with the conspiratorial mind,” says Turzanski, “is that lack of proof is, in fact, proof.” ERICA ALINI

photo credit this page tktkt; Jason decrow/ap

On May 2, shortly after 1 a.m., Osama bin Laden’s body was washed and wrapped in cloth on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. A military officer read out prayers, his voice closely echoed by an Arabic translator. A few moments later, the bundle was eased into the north Arabian Sea. A rather dignified—albeit inglorious—end for the world’s most wanted man. Judging from Pentagon briefings, the handling of bin Laden’s burial was as smooth an operation as the 40 minutes of action that led to his killing. The decision to dispose of the body at sea, experts say, came out of a concern that a gravesite might become a shrine to the terrorist who masterminded the 9/11 attacks. Besides, U.S. officials said, no country seemed eager to become the final resting place for bin Laden’s remains. Even his native Saudi Arabia is reported to have refused to accept what was left of him. And though the decision to dispose of him at sea was dictated by pragmatism, according to the official narrative, the burial did not neglect cultural sensitivity. Though Muslims usually lay their dead to rest in the ground with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca, U.S. officials say that bin Laden’s body was washed and shrouded according to the Islamic rite, and the burial occurred less than 24 hours after death, as prescribed by tradition. Yet toeing the line between practicality and political correctness has landed the White House at the centre of criticism. Soon after details of the burial began circulating, a slew of Muslim clerics and scholars were shaking their heads in disapproval. A burial at sea “runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs,” said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar mosque. Others rejected the notion, circulating on several Western news outlets, that a Muslim’s burial at sea is acceptable in extraordinary circumstances, and the Obama administration’s inability to find a country to take bin Laden’s remains constituted one of those exceptions. That isn’t the case, said Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai’s grand mufti. Some even warned that

place, and Islam is less vulnerable to the tarnished image he imposed on it,” says Hathout, calling the burial “pragmatically savvy.” But he rejects the claim that things were handled according to Islam. “From dust we came, to dust we go back,” he says, recalling the Islamic belief, “and from dust we are resurrected on the day of judgment.” Edward Turzanski, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia, worries that the speedy, almost sly disposal of bin Laden’s body will fuel conspiracy theories and turn the story of his killing into the counterterrorism equivalent of the moon landing. A few photos and DNA samples taken by U.S. agents before the burial might not be enough to dispel doubts, says Turzanski. The disbelievers are already at work. A Facebook page called “Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD” launched almost immediately, and now counts 925 registered fans. And demands to see bin Laden’s death certificate became a favourite joke on the Web. “I wonder if the people that created Obama’s birth certificate will be the same ones that create Osama’s death certificate,” wrote one blogger.

International

Photo essay

joy and anger

Nearly 10 years after 9/11, news of Osama bin Laden’s death brought a torrent of emotion to the streets

Celebration: A New Yorker flies the flag near the 9/11 site

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Reflection: (above) Relatives of 9/11 victims comfort one another in Boston; U.S. soldiers in Helmand province, Afghanistan, view Obama’s speech

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MAY 16, 2011

New York City: (above) Firefighters in Times Square watch the news on a tickertape; a man holds up a handmade sign near Ground Zero

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ArshAd Butt/AP; MAjid sAeedi/Getty iMAGes; ChArles dhArAPAk/AP; sABAh ArAr/AFP/Getty iMAGes; Gene j. PuskAr/AP; rAMin tAlAie/CorBis; Previous sPreAd: dArren MCCollester/Getty iMAGes; MiChAel APPleton/the neW york tiMes/reduX; sPenCer PlAtt/Getty iMAGes; BAy isMoyo/AFP/Getty iMAGes

Anger: An Islamist in Quetta, Pakistan, protests the killing

Mixed reaction: (above left) In Kabul, men watch the news at a restaurant; a crowd gathers in front of the White House after hearing the news

The next day: (clockwise from above left) Security in New York; Baghdad men see a fake bin Laden death photo; at the Shanksville, Pa., 9/11 site

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O U R B I G G EST N EWS I SSU E EV E R 2011 ELECTION

A NATION TURNED

UPSIDE DOWN SEE BACK COVER

THE ROYAL WEDDING 50-PAGE COMMEMORATION OF

WILLIAM AND KATE’S BIG DAY P.73

Dead The life and times of the world’s most hated terrorist

PLUS AN EXCLUSIVE REPORT FROM THE SCENE OF THE ASSASSINATION

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