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UPDATE: In contrast to my paean to Heather, this author recounts what seems to be a very different experience with the Indigo-Chapters chain.
As I wrote below, I had a grand time at both Indigo Books on Wednesday night and on the CBC show "The Hour". You can find some accounts of my Indigo appearance here, here, here, here and here, almost all of them pretty tough on my interviewer, Indigo head honcho Heather Reisman. For good measure, Edward Michael George is hard on both Heather and the host of "The Hour", George Stroumboulopoulos.
Look, I can see what folks are getting at, but there's no point making unnecessary enemies. Let's take Strombo first. It's his show and he does what he does well. When I arrived at the CBC, he swung by to say hello and said I'd be on with Mel C from the Spice Girls. "I'm honoured," I said, and he let out a big guffaw. I meant it. I love doing shows like that. I doubt anyone in the studio audience had a clue who I was before I walked out but they were a friendly crowd and, more to the point, they're part of that big uncommitted general population you need to reach if you're going to make a craven political class think the restoration of free speech is an issue worth picking up on. Strombo is a smart guy, and plays an interview like a good tennis rally. Since America Alone came out, I've done thousands of TV and radio shows in the US, Canada and around the world, and Kathleen, my publicist, knows which ones I find a bore and have no interest in doing again. The Strombo show isn't one of them. He didn't strike me as a reflex Trudeaupian liberal. He certainly didn't have to have me as his guest, and I was very glad he did.
As for Heather Reisman, she's the president of Canada's biggest bookstore chain. There are gazillions of books released every week, and she selects a mere handful of the authors to be that month's selected interviewees. So in choosing me she rejected 99.9999% of the other possibilities. Good for her. Let me say also that she was very fair to me. Yes, back when the hardback of America Alone came out, her buyer bungled the initial order. But, as soon as Heather herself found out, she called me personally from overseas and then called my publisher. By then, of course, I was having too much fun mocking her in Maclean's, The National Post, SteynOnline and sundry other places, to the point where my own publisher told me I ought to ease up on her. She never took it personally, and the clearest evidence of that was her willingness to host Wednesday's event.
Secondly, she's always been very complimentary about my writing. The first time we met, years ago, she came up to me to say how much she liked my columns. Almost everyone in the room was far grander than yours truly, and she would have no reason to seek me out if she hadn't wanted to.
Third, she happens to be showing an admirable political courage just at the moment. As part of the campaign to "denormalize" (as Ezra Levant would say) Israel, certain groups have accused her of, in effect, funding the "massacre" of Palestinians. What they mean is that Heather contributes to a fund that provides financial assistance after they've served their stint in the IDF to Israeli soldiers who have no immediate family. I happen to think this is a worthwhile cause. I also think it would be easy for Jewish-owned corporate enties in today's political climate in Canada and Europe quietly to shift their support to less contentious charities. Heather hasn't - and, as a result, she's attracted many of the same enemies I have.
Fourth, as to the tone of the questions, get used to it. This is where mainstream influential Canadians are. Heather's beliefs are no different from those of most other corporate players. She's not "Liberal" in any sense beyond the fact that for 40 years that's where you have to go to get things done in Canada: in a one-party state, the business community nurtues its contacts with the party that makes things happen. I didn't take Heather's questions as idiotic: I thought they were an understandable attempt by a mainstream figure to square my argument with liberal values. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Bottom line: She did me a good turn in hosting me. So did Strombo. To have someone making the case against the "human rights" enforcers and for freedom of speech in these venues helps "normalize" (Ezra Levant again) what to many Canadians are dissident ideas. On these issues, there are enough real enemies out there, not to mention innumerable hyperpartisan halfwits. Don't unnecessarily conscript others to the list.
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