Common Ground (Justin Trudeau)

Reading a political memoir is like a holiday for the mind. I can easily step away from denser texts and the complexities of everyday life, to a single story. Memoirs and biographies give me the kind of relaxation that other readers might receive from a crime thriller or a YA novel. 

I loved this book. I respect Justin Trudeau even more than I did before I read it. Please don't jump to conclusions however. I won't be voting Liberal in 2015 election--or any election for that matter. I respect Justin Trudeau's politics, but I don't necessarily agree with or support some of his policies. 

I sympathize with the difficulties Trudeau faced growing up. I hadn't realized that Margaret Trudeau suffered from mental illness. I can only imagine how hard it must have been growing up in the spotlight and then going through his parents' divorce. 

Trudeau starts the book with his childhood, not because he wants to write biographically, but because his political development begins, necessarily, with his father and the people, ideas and events he experienced growing up in a political family. 

Common Ground is not a book about Trudeau's life for its own sake, it is a book about Trudeau's politics. As such, it is a piece of propaganda--if you will--to promote the figure of Trudeau. It's no coincidence that this book was released approximately one year before the prospective date of the next Federal election. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying this is a negative thing. In fact, as a political tool, the book is fantastic. It's a legitimate avenue for Trudeau to inform and perhaps gather new supporters. The final portion focuses on Trudeau's election as leader of the Liberal party and outlines his philosophy behind gaining support as well as his ideas for the direction of the party. 

Whether you're a Liberal supporter or not, Common Ground is worth the read, if only for the sake of understanding more about one of the more prominent figures on the federal political scene