The Big Blue Machine: How Tory Campaign Backrooms Changed Canadian Politics Forever

Here’s a look at politics from the inside out, where we see what it really takes to gain power in Canada. This is the story of a formidable campaign organization that ran a string of winning Progressive Conservative Party leadership campaigns, national general election campaigns, and provincial campaigns in a half-dozen provinces over four decades. Renowned as the Big Blue Machine, this electoral enterprise was operated by highly specialized individuals devoted to the art of winning campaigns, and pioneered new techniques in polling, advertising, image, fundraising, communications, and policy development. The Big Blue Machine not only redefined how Canadian election campaigns are waged, but in the process transformed the conduct of Canadian public life itself. This book dissects this little-understood aspect of major events in Canadian history from inside the operation, exposing the psychology of political campaigning from the perspective of the people who made it happen.