By Andrew Macdonald
- Topic: MacPolitics: Guess Who Pre-read Dan Leger’s Tome On Stephen McNeil?: Steve Murphy
Dan Leger’s new book of former premier Stephen McNeil is expected to be published this fall.
Steve Murphy, the former 29-year long news anchor at CTV Atlantic, tells me he did a pre-read of the book.
He provided cover quotes. “It’s an excellent book by the way. I recommend it. It’s a good read,” says Murphy.
Murphy did not divulge details in the book, but when asked if it will become a best-seller said: “I’d be surprised if it wasn’t. It’s a very insightful and enlightening book – and there is news in the book.”
He added, “it’s up to Dan (Leger) to decide when he wants to break the news – but I can tell you there is news in the book.”
Dan Leger was tapped by Nimbus to write a political biography of McNeil, who was a Liberal premier for eight years for Nova Scotia.
Leger is a long-time Halifax & Ottawa journalist and is 67-years-old.
Leger is a former managing editor of the Halifax Herald and also spent decades with CBC.
At the Herald, he had the inner ear of then-publisher and owner Graham Dennis, who would phone Leger nightly to get a rundown on tomorrow’s Herald articles. His tenure as managing editor of the province’s largest newspaper was transformative.
Steve Murphy’s final newscast as chief anchor of CTV Atlantic, where he signed off last December. (Screen capture by NB Telegraph-Journal.)
The book is expected to be published this coming September – just in time for the Christmas holiday period when there is high traction on new book sales.
It will be the second book he has written for Nimbus Publishing, after writing a book about Senator Mike Duffy and that former journalist’s political scandals in Ottawa. The Duffy book was published in 2014.
Leger is a Halifax Northend resident who with his spouse has a cottage in Economy, on the Fundy Shore, near That Dutchman’s Cheese plant.
“It is a straight-up political biography of an interesting political figure in Nova Scotia politics, who has been in office during some fairly turbulent periods, and especially the year 2020 – which was a brutal year for the whole province on so many levels, and also for him, and it tested his leadership”, Leger told me in a 2021 conversation.
“I hear a lot of good things about how McNeil has handled the pandemic”.
Leger promises a book that is “fair, balanced and straight-ahead biography”.
There are two books out on former NS premier Darrell Dexter and in 2020 a book was written about 1993-1997 NS premier, John Savage.
So far there are no other books on contemporary premiers, although there is Donald Ripley’s expose on the Regan-Buchanan governments, called Bagman, published in 1993.
There are a few books on Angus L. Macdonald, and Stephen Kimber focused a tome on the sex assault criminal court case against, Gerry Regan, who was premier from 1970-1978.
“Nova Scotia politics is colourful and I want to bring some of that to the book as well”, Leger said last year.
“Over the years I have written about McNeil and I have always been fair to him, and that is certainly what I plan with this book, too”.
Nimbus Publishing approached Leger to write the book.
The book will be different than his tome on Mike Duffy. “It will be a different type of book, Duffy was mired in scandal, and Stephen McNeil left office on a high point, so it is a whole different situation”.
Businessperson Steve Parker writes NS Premier Stephen McNeil should be Person of the Decade in the province. (Government photo).
He says McNeil “worked his way up, and became a premier based on his own hard work and his smarts”.
Question: If McNeil ran for a third term in an election on a re-election platform in NS, would he have won the next election?
Leger replied to The Notebook: “Oh, I think without a doubt he would have been, yeah, yeah. I have no doubt in my mind he would have won a third term, and I do not think there was anything countervailing. The pandemic is still going on, and it brought down other politicians, but McNeil’s handling of it has been pretty darn good and a lot of Nova Scotians are willing to give him a lot of credit for how well done it has been done compared to the rest of the world”.
Question: Was McNeil more right-wing than a Tory?
Leger replied: “Well, the Liberals in Nova Scotia and the Conservatives down here are not the Alberta Conservatives or the Doug Ford Conservatives, or God forbid like American Conservatives. The Liberals here are not way out on the left-wing of the spectrum and they never have been”.
He says over the years some Liberal regimes in NS “are more progressive than others, and I think Stephen McNeil reflects the kind of community he grew up in”, added Leger in a past talk.
It was expected Leger would talk to political leaders who were defeated by McNeil in 2013 and 2017.
“Definitely. He has gone through a couple of Conservative leaders and on his second NDP leader. Those guys have the scars to prove it and I’d be interested to hear what those guys have to say – they weren’t very successful in laying a glove on him”, said Leger.
Looking back at past premiers he says the Tory John Buchanan years “were not so good in the history of Nova Scotia”.
Liberal premier John Savage “was interesting. He probably got a little short thrift from history”.
Says Leger: “I think McNeil will certainly take his place among the more prominent premiers, going back to Stanfield or Angus L (Macdonald)”.
In 2021, when The Notebook asked for candidates for Person of the Year, business leader, Steve Parker, wrote about McNeil
“There are so many candidates for Person/Charity of the Year, which demonstrates how blessed we are in Nova Scotia. Stephen McNeil for instance is Person of the Decade for where he took our province over a sustained period”, wrote Parker.
“Leadership on COVID certainly (with Dr. Strang and others), but also reaching enormous goals over time. Specifically, regaining control of our finances, while gaining relative labour peace, a task which seemed impossible, was painful and difficult but accomplished.
“Even more impressive is moving the population of our province upward after decades of shrinkage. This is an achievement none of us expected, or even dreamed of, and it is critical to our future. Well done Premier,” added Parker, who founded the CCL Group decades ago.”
