Thirty-five year old Frank Moores, retired millionaire, woman-loving, scotch-drinking sportsman had never been to a political meeting when he announced his candidacy as a Newfoundland Member of Parliament in 1968. Within two years he was national leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, and taking on the supreme demagogue Joey Smallwood for the job of premier of Newfoundland.
Never motivated by power or money, Moores was a likable, unlikely politician, and the people of Newfoundland were ready for a revolution. He also proved to be a brilliant organizer and strategist. Moores won the popular vote in the provincial election of October 1971 but the number of seats was tied, with one independent. For three months Smallwood clung to power amidst constitutional wrangling, bribery, intrigue and adultery, but Moores triumphed. He immediately called another election and won a substantial majority. In an administration beleaguered with controversy, he introduced sweeping legislative reforms as a powerful Ottawa lobbyist in the Mulroney years.
With hours of tape from Moores, Janice Wells documents the politician's opinions and insights into a lifetime of affairs of the nation and the heart; his side of the Airbus story; the power deal he had with Rene Levesque that was scuttled by Brian Peckford; and the ten-year estrangement from Brian Mulroney.
Augmented by interviews with Moores? family, friends and colleagues, readers are taken on a fascinating journey as a privileged outport boy in pre-Confederation Newfoundland finds his way to the seats of government, the boardrooms of power, the spotlight of scandal, and the love of living that created the legacy and legend of Frank Moores.

JANICE WELLS wrote weekly columns for the Halifax Chronicle Herald. Her popular columns, The Gin and Tonic Gardener and Definitely Not Martha offer irreverent observations and advice on coping with modern domestic realities. Her most recent book, Frank Moores, is a political biography of the colourful former premier of Newfoundland who played a pivotal role in the scandal involving former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. She is the author of Definitely Not Martha Stewart, which is a compendium of observations and advice from gardening to the domestic and romantic realities of a "re-single" woman in her fifties. She lives in St. Johns, Newfoundland.

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