Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre

(Paperback)

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As Canada heads towards a pivotal election, bestselling author Mark Bourrie charts the rise of Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and considers the history and potential cost of the politics of division.

Six weeks into the Covid pandemic, New York Times columnist David Brooks identified two types of Western politicians: rippers and weavers. Rippers, whether on the right or the left, see politics as war. They don't care about the destruction that's caused as they fight for power. Weavers are their opposite: people who try to fix things, who want to bring people together and try to build consensus. At the beginning of the pandemic, weavers seemed to be winning. Five years later, as Canada heads towards a pivotal election, that's no longer the case. Across the border, a ripper is remaking the American government. And for the first time in its history, Canada has its own ripper poised to assume power.

Pierre Poilievre has enjoyed most of the advantages of the mainstream Canadian middle class. Yet he's long been the angriest man on the political stage. In Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, bestselling author Mark Bourrie, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize, charts Poilievre's rise through the political system, from teenage volunteer to outspoken Opposition leader known for cutting soundbites and theatrics. Bourrie shows how we arrived at this divisive moment in our history, one in which rippers are poised to capitalize on conflict. He shows how Poilievre and this new style of politics have gained so much ground-and warns of what it will cost us if they succeed.

Reviews

Praise for Mark Bourrie

Bourries book positively sings . . . [Big Men Fear Me] is thoroughly researched and the prose is clean and engaging . . . [McCullagh] made The Globe the dominant voice in English Canadian journalism. Bourries biography does him full justice.
Globe and Mail

Canadas greatest historian has done it for a third time, stripping the carcass of Canadian history and leaving readers horrified, riveted, in shock . . . A triumph.
Heather Mallick,Toronto Star

Bourrie is fast becoming the dean of Canadian literary non-fiction . . . Bourrie also manages to be panoramic in his historical descriptions of Huronia while concurrently focusing on biographical details of Brbeufs missionary work. This treatment of the problematic legacy of both the cleric and his religious order is top drawer.
Winnipeg Free Press

Crosses in the Sky is dramatic and enthralling . . . Bourrie has done more than any other Canadian historian writing for a general audience to disinter the root causes of degenerating settler-Indigenous relations and disrupted Indigenous societies in the 400 years since Brbeufs death. And he has done it with attention-grabbing panache.
Charlotte Gray, Globe and Mail

A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual . . . Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking.
Macleans

Gripping stuff, grippingly told.
Literary Review of Canada

Author Bio

Mark Bourrie is an Ottawa-based author, lawyer, and journalist. He holds a master's in journalism from Carleton University and a PhD in history from the University of Ottawa. In 2017, he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree and was called to the bar in 2018. He has won numerous awards for his journalism, including a National Magazine Award, and received the RBC Charles Taylor Prize in 2020 for his book Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson. His most recent book, Big Men Fear Me: The Fast Life and Quick Death of Canada's Most Powerful Media Mogul, was nominated for several book awards.