In High Places by Arthur Hailey

https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/come-all-you-brave-canadians

A Canadian PM struggles to find a way to convince Canadians
that an Act of Union with the US is preferable to Atom
Dooooooom at the hands of the Soviets. However, a seemingly
straight-forward immigration case may doom his government and
with it, Canada.

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On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 6:50:28 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> In High Places by Arthur Hailey
>
> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/come-all-you-brave-canadians
>
> A Canadian PM struggles to find a way to convince Canadians
> that an Act of Union with the US is preferable to Atom
> Dooooooom at the hands of the Soviets. However, a seemingly
> straight-forward immigration case may doom his government and
> with it, Canada.

Is this what inspired Richard Rohmer to begin his literary career?

John Savard

On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 8:22:24 AM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:
> On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 6:50:28 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
> > In High Places by Arthur Hailey
> >
> > https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/come-all-you-brave-canadians
> >
> > A Canadian PM struggles to find a way to convince Canadians
> > that an Act of Union with the US is preferable to Atom
> > Dooooooom at the hands of the Soviets. However, a seemingly
> > straight-forward immigration case may doom his government and
> > with it, Canada.

> Is this what inspired Richard Rohmer to begin his literary career?

I was surprised to learn that Arthur Hailey was a Canadian author
of British descent, instead of an American. As the author of Hotel
and Airport, he _was_ the famous author I was thinking of, and I
didn't get him confused with anyone.

Certainly, I didn't get him confused with Alex Haley, who differs
from Arthur Hailey in appearance by a rather more obvious attribute
than the fact he wears glasses. (Alex Haley, of course, is the author
of Roots.)

As for Alex Hailey, I never heard of him.

In real life, of course, Canada and the United States joined to form
NORAD, and so Americans already intercept Russian missiles before
they get to Canada instead of over Canada, and without asking for
an Act of Union.

As for immigration policy: yes, indeed most Canadians, while they
would not have wanted an explicitly racist policy, definitely would
not want their country's demographics to be altered by immigration.
This may be considered unfortunate. However, it would only be
"the people with power", and not the ordinary Canadian, who would
think that a "pool of unemployed" was a good idea.

Ah, perhaps I should derive an insight into the brilliance of Pierre
Elliot Trudeau's decision to modify Canada's immigration policies
to admit more immigrants from "nontraditional sources". In *this*
way, instead of working-class Canadians voting in a Marxist party
to put an end to maintaining a "pool of unemployed", it will be
possible to distract them, by identifying immigration with persons
of color, into voting for a racist instead... who could be counted
upon to _not_ be a Marxist, but instead to be a "phony populist",
who would pretend to be on the side of the working man, but
instead continue policies favorable to free enterprise.

It worked for Donald Trump.

John Savard

On 2022-08-07 8:39 a.m., Quadibloc wrote:
> On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 8:22:24 AM UTC-6, Quadibloc wrote:
>> On Sunday, August 7, 2022 at 6:50:28 AM UTC-6, James Nicoll wrote:
>>> In High Places by Arthur Hailey
>>>
>>> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/come-all-you-brave-canadians
>>>
>>> A Canadian PM struggles to find a way to convince Canadians
>>> that an Act of Union with the US is preferable to Atom
>>> Dooooooom at the hands of the Soviets. However, a seemingly
>>> straight-forward immigration case may doom his government and
>>> with it, Canada.
>
>> Is this what inspired Richard Rohmer to begin his literary career?
>
> I was surprised to learn that Arthur Hailey was a Canadian author
> of British descent, instead of an American. As the author of Hotel
> and Airport, he _was_ the famous author I was thinking of, and I
> didn't get him confused with anyone.

The mere fact that he even wrote a book about Canadian politics
assuredly meant he was Canadian. Nobody else would bother.

>
> Certainly, I didn't get him confused with Alex Haley, who differs
> from Arthur Hailey in appearance by a rather more obvious attribute
> than the fact he wears glasses. (Alex Haley, of course, is the author
> of Roots.)
>
> As for Alex Hailey, I never heard of him.
>
> In real life, of course, Canada and the United States joined to form
> NORAD, and so Americans already intercept Russian missiles before
> they get to Canada instead of over Canada, and without asking for
> an Act of Union.

In real life the Americans never had any significant capability to
intercept Russian missiles.