Shadow Cabinet

When one of Canada’s most prominent citizens, who has been a distinguished law professor, an early advocate for gay and lesbian rights, a senior minister in the federal cabinet, leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, philanthropist and the chancellor of one of the country’s most prestigious universities, begins his autobiography with a declaration that he does not know where he was born, or the exact date, and that his legal father was a cuckold and not his biological father, the reader knows he or she is in for a candid ride.

But Bill Graham, more properly William Carvel Graham, was also a history major at university, so The Call of the World: A Political Memoir is much more than a compelling and often humorous biography. It is also a well-documented and analytic history of many important developments in the 21st century including the war on terrorism, the Iraq invasion, the Afghanistan deployment and the worrying ascension of national security over human...