John Ivison on his biography of Justin Trudeau
John Ivison\xa0is a\xa0Scottish Canadian\xa0journalist who is Ottawa Bureau Chief for the\xa0National Post.
Raised in\xa0Dumfries,\xa0Scotland, he worked as a reporter for\xa0The Scotsman\xa0newspaper in\xa0Edinburgh\xa0and as deputy business editor of\xa0Scotland on Sunday. He was educated at the University of Glasgow, McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario, where he earned a masters degree in Journalism.
He moved to\xa0Canada\xa0in 1998 as part of the team that launched the\xa0National Post, and\xa0has covered provincial politics in\xa0Ontario\xa0and federal politics in Ottawa since 2003.
He appears as a panelist on various Canadian TV public affairs programs and is the author of\xa0Trudeau: The Education of a Prime Minister\xa0(2019), a biography of\xa0Prime Minister\xa0Justin Trudeau\xa0that focuses on his government's promise-filled first mandate. Ivison is married to Canadian diplomat Dana Cryderman, and has three children. Together they have taught him 'how to be content.'
I want to be content, so my initial questions deal with this topic. We then discuss John's moves back and forth between Scotland and Canada, shuffle on to the story of the book itself, and then on to Trudeau and the lessons he may or may not have learned during his tenure in office. I raise the topic of the Post's right wing board of directors, and throw in some of John's humour and political wisdom, and we close with an examination of truth, and whether or not Canadians can trust Justin Trudeau.