Book Description An inside account of Paul Martin’s decades-long campaign for the prime minister’s chair: how he did it, at what cost, and where he will take the country in the years ahead The most riveting political contest of the past decade has not been fought at the polling booths, nor on the floor of the House of Commons: it has been waged, mostly out of sight, within the palace ranks of the ruling Liberal Party. In the early 1990s, Jean Chretien and Paul Martinforged a political alliance that kept the Liberals comfortably in power and the Opposition in disarray: Martin’s fundamental retooling of government spending and winning economic policies gave lustre to Chretien’s leadership; Chretien’s support for his star minister gave Martin a pedestal for his larger ambitions. Those ambitions could not be higher. Since the early eighties, Martin’s interest in political office has meant interest in the prime...