A Conservative Lament

It might reasonably be assumed that a prime ministerial memoir such as this would be titled “How I Lead,” and it is to his credit that Joe Clark, as he did in his first book, A Nation Too Good to Lose: Renewing the Purpose of Canada, has opted not to make himself the primary subject. He does mull over his years in office as prime minister (1979–80) and secretary of state for external affairs (1984–91), naturally enough, and now and then he does see fit to congratulate himself for a job well done. But the point of How We Lead: Canada in a Century of Change is not to burnish its author’s reputation. It is to contribute to a debate about the nature and purpose of modern Canadian foreign policy, particularly since Stephen Harper took office in 2006. In that sense the book is hardly a memoir, even if Clark uses his experiences in office as justification for some of his criticisms of the current prime minister, but rather a serious...