Peter C. Newman

Peter Charles Newman (born Petr Karel Neumann; May 10, 1929 – September 7, 2023) was a Canadian journalist, editor and author. He interviewed and wrote about every Canadian prime minister from Louis St. Laurent (1948–1957) to Paul Martin (2003–2006). His three-volume series on '' The Canadian Establishment'' helped set new standards for business reporting, while his three-volume history of the Hudson's Bay Company provided a comprehensive account of Canada's early beginnings as an international fur-trading nation.

Newman served as editor-in-chief at both the ''Toronto Star'' and ''Maclean's,'' the latter of which he transformed from a money-losing monthly magazine into a lively newsweekly that published some of the country's most talented journalists..

His half-dozen literary awards include the Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize for his 2004 autobiography ''Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power''.

In 1990, when Newman was promoted to the rank of Companion of the Order of Canada, his citation read: "Chronicler of our past and interpreter of our present, his popular histories and biographies continue to capture the imagination, bringing to life people, places and events that have shaped our great country."

Early life

Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929, Newman immigrated to Canada from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia Oskar Karel Neumann, a wealthy self-made factory owner. The family escaped German dive bombing at Biarritz in France as they left Europe and U-boat attacks on their convoy before they arrived at Pier 21 in Halifax in September 1940. He was educated at Upper Canada College, where he was a member of Seaton's House, and the University of Toronto. Newman joined the Royal Canadian Navy reserve in 1947 as an ordinary seaman and later reached the rank of captain, having served in the naval reserve for 50 years.

Career

Newman was a reporter for the ''Financial Post'', served as editor of the ''Toronto Star'', and was the long-time editor of ''Maclean's'', stewarding its transformation from a general interest magazine to a weekly news magazine. In 1978 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC), and was promoted to the rank of Companion (CC) in 1990.

Newman was widely respected for his intimate knowledge and understanding of Canadian business leaders. Newman made his name as an author in the 1960s with the publication of two books: ''Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years'' (1963), a study of the government of John Diefenbaker that some say helped destroy the Tory leader's career, and ''The Distemper of Our Times'' (1968), an examination of Canadian politics during the era of Lester Pearson. His 1975 book '' The Canadian Establishment'' was widely acclaimed.

On September 12, 2005, Newman announced the publication of '' The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister'', a biography of former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, whom he considered a friend. The information released to the press contained several surprising revelations, including an allegation by Mulroney that Pierre Trudeau's contribution "was not to build Canada but to destroy it." Later the same day, Mulroney issued a press release stating he felt "devastated" and "betrayed" by the publication of information he had understood to be confidential. Shortly after the publication of ''The Secret Mulroney Tapes'', both Mulroney and Conrad Black filed suit against Newman. The lawsuit was settled the following year.

In 1973, Newman described his "ideological swing… away from a blind acceptance of the 'small-l' liberalism of the Fifties to a strongly-felt nationalism."

He was appointed visiting professor of distinction at Ryerson University in Toronto in December 2009. In October 2012, he joined the faculty of the Royal Military College of Canada as its first journalist-in-residence. In this role, he was involved with RMC's graduate and undergraduate programs and gave lectures on topics relating to business, politics and history.

Personal life

Newman was married four times, once to writer Christina McCall. He lived with his fourth wife, Alvy (Bjorklund) Newman, in Belleville, Ontario. He died from complications of Parkinson's disease and a stroke at a hospital in Belleville on September 7, 2023, at the age of 94.Simon Haupt
Journalist Peter C. Newman went from Czech refugee to chronicler of Canada
The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2023

Bibliography

* 1959 ''Flame of Power: Intimate Profiles of Canada's Greatest Businessmen''
* 1963 ''Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years''
* 1968 ''The Distemper of Our Times: Canadian Politics in Transition''
* 1969 ''A Nation Divided: Canada and the Coming of Pierre Trudeau''
* 1972 ''Their Turn to Curtsy: Your Turn to Bow''
* 1973 ''Home Country: People, Places, and Power Politics''
* 1975 '' The Canadian Establishment: Volume One: The Old Order''
* 1978 ''Bronfman Dynasty: The Rothschilds of the New World'' (published in America in 1979 under the different title, ''King of the Castle: The Making of a Dynasty'')
* 1981 '' The Canadian Establishment: Volume Two: The Acquisitors''
* 1982 ''The Establishment Man: Conrad Black, A Portrait of Power''
* 1983 ''True North, Not Strong and Free: Defending the Peaceable Kingdom in the Nuclear Age''
* 1983 ''Debrett's Illustrated Guide to the Canadian Establishment'' (editor)
* 1984 ''Drawn and Quartered: The Trudeau Years''
* 1985 ''A History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Volume One: Company of Adventurers''
* 1987 ''A History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Volume Two: Caesars of the Wilderness''
* 1989 ''Empire of the Bay: An Illustrated History of the Hudson Bay Company''
* 1991 ''A History of the Hudson's Bay Company: Volume Three: Merchant Princes''
* 1989 ''Canada: The Great Lone Land''
* 1991 ''Canada 1892: Portrait of a Promised Land''
* 1993 ''Promise of the Pipeline''
* 1995 ''Nortel, Northern Telecom: Past, Present, Future''
* 1995 ''The Canadian Revolution: From Deference to Defiance''
* 1996 ''Defining Moments: Dispatches from an Unfinished Revolution''
* 1996 ''Vancouver: The Art of Living Well''
* 1998 '' The Canadian Establishment: Volume Three: The Titans''
* 1998 ''Sometimes a Great Nation: Will Canada Belong to the 21st Century?''
* 1998 ''Canada: The Land that Shapes Us''
* 2002 ''Continental Reach''
* 2004 ''Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power'' (Autobiography)
* 2005 '' The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister''
* 2008 ''Izzy: The Passionate Life and Turbulent Times of Izzy Asper, Canada's Media Mogul''
* 2010 ''Heroes: Canadian Champions, Dark Horses, and Icons''
* 2010 ''Mavericks: Canadian Rebels, Renegades, and Anti-Heroes''
* 2011 ''When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada'' (originally titled: ''Michael Ignatieff: The Man In Full'')
* 2016 "Hostages to Fortune: The United Empire Loyalists and The Making of Canada"

References

External links

*

Peter C. Newman Archive
at McMaster University

Peter C. Newman
CBC ''Life and Times'' profile.

Peter C. Newman
at The Canadian Encyclopedia
*

Peter C. Newman
at Western Libraries
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Peter C.
1929 births
2023 deaths
20th-century Canadian biographers
20th-century Canadian historians
20th-century Canadian journalists
21st-century Canadian biographers
21st-century Canadian historians
21st-century Canadian journalists
21st-century Canadian memoirists
Canadian business and financial journalists
Canadian columnists
Canadian magazine editors
Canadian male biographers
Canadian nationalists
Companions of the Order of Canada
Czech Jews
Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Canada
Jewish Canadian journalists
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Canada
Neurological disease deaths in Ontario
Toronto Star people
University of Toronto alumni
Upper Canada College alumni
Writers from Belleville, Ontario
Canadian people of Austrian-Jewish descent