In The Right Fight: Bernard Lord and the Conservative Dilemma, CBC reporter Jacques Poitras provides a journalists account of how Bernard Lord rose to the top in provincial politics and why his path could lead to Ottawa.

The clean sweep of Frank McKennas Liberals in 1987 shook the foundations of the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party, but election night 1991 utterly shattered the Tory dream. As expected, the Liberals won a second majority, but the fervently anti-bilingualism Confederation of Regions (COR) Party formed the official Opposition. For the first time in a hundred years, the Conservatives were out in the cold, victims of vote-splitting on the right.

In The Right Fight, Jacques Poitras reveals that, although drug and other scandals plagued Richard Hatfields final years as premier, equally fatal was Hatfields insistence on English-French equality within his party. It ruptured the already uneasy coalition hed built and sent old-style Tories flocking into CORs arms.

It took the unexpected arrival of Bernard Lord, young and untried, to lead a dramatic reversal in the partys fortunes. Luring COR members back into the Conservative fold while maintaining the Red Tory base so carefully cultivated by Hatfield, Lord reunited the party and won back-to-back majority governments. Because of his success, Bernard Lord was vigorously and publicly courted as a potential leader of the new federal Conservative Party by backroom movers and shakers.

In this revealing look at the 25-year struggle over language in New Brunswick, Jacques Poitras shows where Bernard Lord comes from and what challenges remain before him.

A seasoned political reporter for CBC Radio, Jacques Poitras has received the top national feature reporting award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association of Canada two years in a row. His work has also been honoured by the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He has appeared on National Public Radio in the United States as well as the BBC. With his credentials, insight, and knowledge of New Brunswick politics, there is no better person to have written The Right Fight, a truly Canadian story.

Jacques Poitras' profile page

"The Tory Hamlet ... Poitras is a solid journalist who gives everyone a say ... a clear-minded and coherent portrait ... a reporter's book, concentrating on the nitty-gritty of political warfare ... The portrait of Lord is a good one ... Poitras is effective in capturing the essence of his consensus-building style and cautious nature."

<i>Globe and Mail</i>