I’m astonished and hugely flattered to learn that a long time
listener and reader of my stuff, Gavin Bamber, has nominated three of my
books for recognition as the top Canadian political books of the past
25 years by Samara. This about Samara and the awards:

25 Influential Books on Politics: Samara will be collecting
nominations from people across the country—and the political spectrum—on
their picks for the 25 most influential political books of the last 25
years. Samara is a charitable organization that studies citizen
engagement with Canadian democracy. Through our projects we hope to
strengthen the health of our democracy and encourage others to do the
same. Samara was created out of a belief in the importance of public
service and public leadership.

Our work focuses on three areas: political leadership; the
participation of citizens in public life; and public affairs journalism.

The books selected are, Canada Is Anyone Listening? (Key Porter), Rants Raves and Recollections (Whitecap),  and Still Ranting (Whitecap).

Mr Bamber says, “Unfortunately I had to narrow it down to only three… but those 3 work great as a trilogy. I worry that as is typical of the “national” scene that a BC writer such as Rafe Mair will be  overlooked, so I figure ‘what the bleep!’ (To quote Rafe!) Please help get Rafe the recognition that I believe he deserves!”

This project’s website is:

http://www.samaracanada.com/Best_Political_Books

The page to endorse me is:

http://www.samaracanada.com/Nominate_Books

Political books from BC writers suffer greatly from being all but
ignored by Indigo/Chapters which site books about as far away from
potential buyers as is possible and discourage local publishers. I’m not
whining just laying it out.

Still Ranting is available through TheCanadian.org for $20 (plus $5 shipping) – all proceeds go to supporting our work at The Common Sense Canadian. To order a copy, click the contact link on the home page and put Still Ranting in the subject line, along with your name, mailing address and email.