Steve Paikin. The Dark Side (2004)

     Steve Paikin. The Dark Side (2004) Paikin, host of TVO’s Studio 2 and Diplomatic Immunity, and a political junkie by his own admission, wrote this follow-up to The Life, intending to show the price politicians pay, and succeeds admirably. He also wants to persuade us the we underrate and undervalue politicians, partly because they have badmouthed each other so much that we believe they are all villains (mud does stick to the slinger), and partly because they are an easy target for our frustration with all the things that inevitably won’t go right in our lives. He comes close to succeeding in this second aim, too, but I suspect that most of the people who will read this book will already be half persuaded. But since accepting his thesis entails a good deal of blame for our own stupidity, persuading others will be much harder.
     Paikin’s style is easy to read, he is a journalist after all, and he tells a good story. This book was a prize I won for my phone-in to CBC North about my relationship with Joe Clark, a man whom I still admire, and who in his interviews with Paikin comes across just as I remember him. A book worth reading, once anyway. **½ (2004)