Trumpian wake-up call echoes in Montreal

An old high-school friend, who is still based in the Montreal area, alerted me to this review in The Gazette.

Shadows of Tyranny : Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship Ken McGoogan (Douglas & McIntyre).

BY PAT ST. GERMAIN
(Montreal Gazette / 14 September 2024)
September feels like the unofficial start of a new year. Days are shorter, nights are longer and with school back in session, it’s time to upgrade our reading lists.
Back in 2016, Canadian historian Ken McGoogan had qualms about Donald Trump’s political ambitions, but he let the matter drop during a conversation with a rich American woman who suggested it was none of his business.
In 2024, McGoogan makes a compelling argument that the spectre of a second Trump presidency poses a threat to all Canadians. It is our business, and we’d better think about how we’ll protect our democracy if Trump wins the U.S. election in November.
A prolific author and engaging storyteller (Searching for Franklin, Fatal Passage), McGoogan draws on dystopian fiction – including George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We – along with real-life parallels in recent history that gave rise to fascism and Nazism leading up to the Second World War.
Given that right-wing Trump ally Tucker Carlson has already suggested military action to “liberate” Canadians from our federal government – and given that MAGA-heads already have willing collaborators in this country – Shadows of Tyranny is an alarming wake-up call. It’s also a call to action, with a nod to great leaders – specifically Winston Churchill – and inspiring tales about the heroes and heroines of the French resistance.

1 Comments

  1. Mieke Koppen on September 16, 2024 at 7:01 pm

    I especially enjoyed the biographies of the ordinary men & women who had risked their lives to fight against authoritarianism & fascism. .

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