Patrick "Pat" MacAdam (15 September 1934 – 19 May 2015) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer and longtime Conservative Party insider born in

Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Glace Bay (Scottish Gaelic: ''Glasbaidh'') is a community in the eastern part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It forms part of the general area referred to as Industrial Cape Breton. Formerly an incorporated ...

. He died in Ottawa on 19 May 2015 after a years long battle with cancer.

Early and political life

MacAdam attended

St. Francis Xavier University St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada. History St. Fra ...

, in

Antigonish, Nova Scotia , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = File:St Ninian's Cathedral Antigonish Spring.jpg , image_caption = St. Ninian's Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of Antigonish.pn ...

from 1952 until 1956. He served as the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper The Xaverian Weekly in 1955, the same year he met longtime friend

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney ( ; born March 20, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studied political ...

when Mulroney was a freshman and MacAdam was a senior. MacAdam would serve as a

political advisor Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely tele ...

to Mulroney during his term as

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as suc ...

, taking a job at the

High Commission of Canada in London The High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom (french: Haut-commissariat du Canada au Royaume-Uni) is the diplomatic mission of Canada to the United Kingdom. It is housed at Canada House on Trafalgar Square in central London, with an ...

. After Mulroney's term ended in 1993, MacAdam was accused of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

, and eventually convicted in 1997.

Writing

In addition to a weekly column in the

Ottawa Sun The ''Ottawa Sun'' is a daily newspaper in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is published by Sun Media. It began publication in 1983 as the ''Ottawa Sunday Herald'', until it was acquired by (then) Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation in 1988. In Apri ...

, MacAdam wrote several books: * ''The record speaks!'' (1961) * ''Unbelievable Canadian War Stories'' (2006) * ''"Big Cy" and Other Characters: Pat MacAdam's Cape Breton'' (2006), nominated for a

Stephen Leacock Award The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, also known as the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour or just the Leacock Medal, is an annual literary award presented for the best book of humour written in English by a Canadian writer, published or self ...

in 2007. * ''Gold Medal Misfits'' (2007) * ''Mulroney's Man: Memoirs and Misadventures of an Ottawa Insider'' (2008)

References

* John Sawatsky, ''Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition'' (Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1991). An early chapter on Mulroney's freshman year at StFX in 1955 talks about his friendship with Pat MacAdam, then editor-in-chief of the ''Xaverian''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macadam, Patrick Canadian non-fiction writers St. Francis Xavier University alumni 1934 births 2015 deaths