Years after stepping down as Premier of New Brunswick, Frank McKenna is still on the minds of political watchers across Canada. The question today, however, is will he or won't he get back into the political ring. While the guessing game continues, Philip Lee's new book Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna provides fresh insights into the man and his politics.

Frank takes readers on a journey into the political backrooms and corporate boardrooms that make up McKenna's world, and offers a compelling glimpse of the private life and hidden agendas of a consummate insider. It also examines McKenna's unique brand of entrepreneurial politics and his staunch determination to transform New Brunswick into a vibrant, self-reliant partner in Canada. Lee uncovers the private man behind the public dealmaker, revealing an ambitious, calculating, passionate and highly intelligent individual. By providing an intimate look at McKenna's childhood on a subsistence farm, his marriage and family life, and his early fame as the lawyer who successfully defended boxing legend Yvon Durelle against a murder charge, Lee lays out the foundation that enabled McKenna to become one of the most successful and scrutinized politicians in Canadian history. Lee casts new light on McKenna's leadership during the Liberals' historic clean-sweep election victory in 1987, and the ten-year whirlwind of innovative social and economic policy that followed. McKenna's driven, no-holds-barred approach to governing frequently attracted controversy in his home province, and his forays onto the national stage made him one of the most fascinating politicians in the country. Whether he was voicing strong opposition to the Meech Lake Accord or convincing large companies to create jobs in New Brunswick at the expense of more prosperous provinces, McKenna always attracted the rabid interest of friend and foe alike.

Michael Harris calls Philip Lee "one of the country's best-kept journalistic secrets." Drawing on his skill and experience as an investigative journalist, Lee based Frank: The Life and Politics of Frank McKenna on a wide range of published material, on diaries, and other confidential records, and on interviews with McKenna and those around him, from family friends to political enemies. Beginning with stories for The Sunday Express that prompted the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage, Philip Lee's writing has received numerous honours. In 1991, Lee joined the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal and Saint John Times Globe, where he wrote the award-winning series Watershed Down and the book Home Pool. In 1998, after two years as editor of the Atlantic Salmon Journal, Lee returned to the Telegraph Journal as editor-in-chief. Under his leadership, the newspaper and its weekend magazine, The New Brunswick Reader, won several regional and national newspaper and magazine awards. Philip Lee currently writes for the Ottawa Citizen and is head of the journalism program at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

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"A biography for everyone interested in the future of Canadian politics. Philip Lee gives us a psychic road map of a man who could be Canada's next prime minister, from his dirt poor beginnings through his career as lawyer, politician, premier, and rainmaker. Absolutely first rate."

Michael Harris

"A marvellously readable book about a nearly perfect politician in the nouveau world of entrepreneurial politics."

Dalton Camp

"Captures McKenna's potential to be more than a small-town Horatio Alger boy who makes good, with tantalizing hints of other careers to come. It's a damn good read, with fascinating insider detail on political organization and major national events."

Hugh Winsor

"Beautifully written and deeply moving, Frank not only offers an insider's view of bare-knuckle Maritime politics and the price McKenna and his family have paid for his success, but also explores the intellectual and emotional progress of a passionate politician."

Stevie Cameron