In this stirring and beautifully written memoir, Lloyd Axworthy tells the unlikely story of a Canadian prairie boy raised in the Social Gospel tradition who studied politics at Princeton at the height of John F. Kennedy’s Camelot and marched for civil rights in Alabama before returning to Canada and embarking on an illustrious political career of his own at the height of Trudeaumania.

Axworthy served twenty-one years in parliament, more than half of those in the cabinets of Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, and Jean Chretien. With extraordinary candor and introspection, he invites readers inside his roles in some of the most important political stories of the last half century, including the enactment of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the great debate over the Canada-US free trade agreement, and the global fights to ban landmines and establish the International Criminal Court. He illuminates such monumental events as the turnover of Hong Kong and Princess Diana’s funeral (at which he was Canada’s official representative), and offers unforgettable vignettes of encounters with a range of characters from Fidel Castro to the Māori Queen. Acutely aware of the trials and disappointments of political life, he frankly discusses its sometimes devastating effect on personal relations and the difficulties of balancing socially progressive ideals with the often brutal requirements of political power.

Lloyd Axworthy is a Canadian politician, elder statesman and academic. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. In 2000, he retired from politics, returning to western Canada where he served as President of the University of Winnipeg for ten years.In December , 2015 he was promoted to Companion of the Order of Canada. He now chairs the World Refugee and Migration Council and lives with his wife Denise, in Ottawa.

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