A Leader Must Be a Leader Encounters With Eleven Prime Ministers

Based on impressions and personal encounters with each of the last 11 Canadian Prime Ministers, Senator Jerry Grafstein has explored their paths to power, considering the legacies they have left on the pages of history. Like all politicians, Grafstein became obsessed with the factors that made a leader a leader. Is leadership a natural or a learned skill set? What unique amalgam of oratory skill, ambition, character, persistence, detachment, decisiveness, empathy, intelligence, personality, experiences, memory, common sense, ideas, judgement, temperament and, most especially, self-awareness, separate wannabe leaders from the pinnacle of leadership? This is a unique book written by an acute legal mind, a powerful political strategist, a very successful media and communication expert, an engaged Canadian, and a most thoughtful Liberal. Senator Grafstein assesses, evaluates, and appreciates these Canadian Prime Ministers with insight, humor, and generosity.

Jerry S. Grafstein is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and former politician, who served in the Senate of Canada from 1984 to 2010. In 2005 he was named one of Canada’s top 100 Public Intellectuals. He is the author of Parade: Tributes to Remarkable Contemporaries (Mosaic Press, 2017). He lives in Toronto.