The term war room, in political parlance, was coined by the team of U.S. strategists (specifically James Carville) who worked for Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign in the early 1990s. In a nutshell, a war room is a political command centre where a candidate’s strategists and media officers work to counter attacks by opponents while gathering research to mount an offensive in an ongoing, immediate fashion.

Warren Kinsella’s The War Room profiles and analyzes some of the best political warriors and spinners around. He employs personal anecdotes, political wisdom culled from his extensive experience on Liberal Party federal and provincial election campaigns, historical examples from other Canadian and American campaigns, and generous amounts of humour to deliver a book about what it takes to survive challenges not just in politics but in any kind of business or non-governmental agency, whether it sells music, movies, cars, or computers, or raises money to preserve the environment, combat cancer, or save animals.

Warren Kinsella's profile page

In 1963, at the age of twenty nine, The Rt. Hon. JEAN CHRETIEN was first elected to Parliament. Four years later he was given his first Cabinet post and, over the next thirty years, he headed nine key ministries. Jean Chretien served as Canada's twentieth prime minister from 1993 to 2003.

Jean Chretien's profile page

His book is a must-read for political junkies. I suspect the people who need to read it most are John Tory and his entire campaign team.

11/12/2007

In reading this book I felt his passion and belief in what he was saying. Some great insights written with ‘spit and fire.’ Great read!

Gloria Reimer

There's a lot of good hard information here... Kinsella has crafted a handy little guide for politicos and non-politicos alike.

Winnipeg Free Press

Warren Kinsella's new book ... is a must-read for anyone interested in political campaigning in Canada ...Warren is a wordsmith, so The War Room is an easy, breezy read ... I wish I'd had the chance to read The War Room before I became Stephen Harper's campaign manager; it might have saved me from many mistakes and months of painful learning on the job.

Tom Flanagan