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Canadian Public Policy Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Berger by Carolyn Swayze Review by: Alan C. Cairns Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), p. 118 Published by: University of Toronto Press on behalf of Canadian Public Policy Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3550465 . Accessed: 10/06/2014 04:43 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of Toronto Press and Canadian Public Policy are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.157 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:43:00 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Bergerby Carolyn Swayze

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Page 1: Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Bergerby Carolyn Swayze

Canadian Public Policy

Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Berger by Carolyn SwayzeReview by: Alan C. CairnsCanadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Mar., 1988), p. 118Published by: University of Toronto Press on behalf of Canadian Public PolicyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3550465 .

Accessed: 10/06/2014 04:43

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Toronto Press and Canadian Public Policy are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.157 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:43:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Bergerby Carolyn Swayze

Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Berger by Carolyn Swayze. Vancouver, Toronto, Douglas & McIntyre, 1987. Pp.256. $24.95.

Carolyn Swayze's biography of Tom Berger is an admirer's account of a prominent Canadian of Scandinavian ancestry who has been a federal Member of Parliament, prominent human rights lawyer, particularly for aboriginal peoples, lead- er of the provincial NDP in British Columbia, Supreme Court judge in that province, Royal Commissioner, most notably of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, part-time law profes- sor, Commissioner of the Alaska Native Review Commission, controversialist and folk hero. As Berger, still in his mid fifties, is a Ulysses figure who seeks to leave his footprints on the sands of time, Canadians will certainly hear more of him, and Swayze's biography will doubtless not be the last.

Swayze guides the reader through the various stages of Berger's astonishingly varied career. She writes lucidly, has interviewed widely, read extensively, including 'plowing through 40,000 federal government documents obtained through the Access to Information Act,' (pp. 10-11) had the co-operation of her subject, and has a law degree. This translates into some 200 uncritical pages, a good read devoid of subtlety. The author has been too blinded by Berger's charis- ma to explore with any success what drives him. The book makes only minimal progress in exploring the complex personality which must lie behind the combination of talent and will- power which has crowned so few years with so many achievements.

In spite of the availability of his extensive writings, judicial decisions, and public speeches, Berger's social theory is not singled out for examination, but is scattered through the various chapters. Consequently, its strengths and weak- nesses, its coherences and contradictions are inadequately examined. This is unfortunate for, on the evidence of the book, Berger is a remarkably cerebral public figure, a devourer of books, and a believer in the overriding signifi- cance of ideas.

What does emerge is that, like the late Frank Scott, whom he greatly admired, Berger views law as a creative resource for enhancing individ-

Hard Choices: A Life of Tom Berger by Carolyn Swayze. Vancouver, Toronto, Douglas & McIntyre, 1987. Pp.256. $24.95.

Carolyn Swayze's biography of Tom Berger is an admirer's account of a prominent Canadian of Scandinavian ancestry who has been a federal Member of Parliament, prominent human rights lawyer, particularly for aboriginal peoples, lead- er of the provincial NDP in British Columbia, Supreme Court judge in that province, Royal Commissioner, most notably of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, part-time law profes- sor, Commissioner of the Alaska Native Review Commission, controversialist and folk hero. As Berger, still in his mid fifties, is a Ulysses figure who seeks to leave his footprints on the sands of time, Canadians will certainly hear more of him, and Swayze's biography will doubtless not be the last.

Swayze guides the reader through the various stages of Berger's astonishingly varied career. She writes lucidly, has interviewed widely, read extensively, including 'plowing through 40,000 federal government documents obtained through the Access to Information Act,' (pp. 10-11) had the co-operation of her subject, and has a law degree. This translates into some 200 uncritical pages, a good read devoid of subtlety. The author has been too blinded by Berger's charis- ma to explore with any success what drives him. The book makes only minimal progress in exploring the complex personality which must lie behind the combination of talent and will- power which has crowned so few years with so many achievements.

In spite of the availability of his extensive writings, judicial decisions, and public speeches, Berger's social theory is not singled out for examination, but is scattered through the various chapters. Consequently, its strengths and weak- nesses, its coherences and contradictions are inadequately examined. This is unfortunate for, on the evidence of the book, Berger is a remarkably cerebral public figure, a devourer of books, and a believer in the overriding signifi- cance of ideas.

What does emerge is that, like the late Frank Scott, whom he greatly admired, Berger views law as a creative resource for enhancing individ-

ual rights. His conservative love of the law is grounded in his belief in its potential application for radical purposes, a position directly antitheti- cal to Marxist beliefs about the role of law in bourgeois society.

Berger the person emerges in these pages as a loner, a self-contained devotee of the protestant ethic for himself, and as a leader capable of eliciting intense commitment in those who be- come involved in the causes he has championed.

For students of public policy this competent but not profound volume is a useful reminder of how policy can be influenced without political power or bureaucratic influence. Berger belongs to the special category of fringe mandarins, whose influence derives from their status as privileged outsiders.

ALAN C. CAIRNS, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia

Canadian Hospital Costs and Productivity by L. Auer. A study prepared for the Economic Council of Canada. Ottawa, Supply and Servic- es Canada, 1987. Pp.xiv,82. $8.95.

In the early 1980s, the total cost of 'institutional care,' which includes hospitals and institutions of special care, amounted to the equivalent of some 4.5 per cent of Canadian GNP, making the sector a larger user of resources, than, for example, all of agriculture. Auer's analysis of the evolution of hospital costs and the productiv- ity of hospital resource use is a welcome addition to the sparse Canadian literature on this large and rapidly expanding sector.

Measured in real terms, the amount of re- sources used in the hospital sector increased by some 5.3 per cent per year between 1961 and 1980. The rise in the proportion of older people in the total population contributed both to the increase in the number of admissions, and, as Auer notes somewhat obliquely, to the rising cost per admission: The cost of the typical hospitalization episode is higher than average for older persons. Population aging will continue to put upward pressure on the aggregate cost in the coming decades; on the other hand, the moderat- ing influence of reduced hospitalization rates

ual rights. His conservative love of the law is grounded in his belief in its potential application for radical purposes, a position directly antitheti- cal to Marxist beliefs about the role of law in bourgeois society.

Berger the person emerges in these pages as a loner, a self-contained devotee of the protestant ethic for himself, and as a leader capable of eliciting intense commitment in those who be- come involved in the causes he has championed.

For students of public policy this competent but not profound volume is a useful reminder of how policy can be influenced without political power or bureaucratic influence. Berger belongs to the special category of fringe mandarins, whose influence derives from their status as privileged outsiders.

ALAN C. CAIRNS, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia

Canadian Hospital Costs and Productivity by L. Auer. A study prepared for the Economic Council of Canada. Ottawa, Supply and Servic- es Canada, 1987. Pp.xiv,82. $8.95.

In the early 1980s, the total cost of 'institutional care,' which includes hospitals and institutions of special care, amounted to the equivalent of some 4.5 per cent of Canadian GNP, making the sector a larger user of resources, than, for example, all of agriculture. Auer's analysis of the evolution of hospital costs and the productiv- ity of hospital resource use is a welcome addition to the sparse Canadian literature on this large and rapidly expanding sector.

Measured in real terms, the amount of re- sources used in the hospital sector increased by some 5.3 per cent per year between 1961 and 1980. The rise in the proportion of older people in the total population contributed both to the increase in the number of admissions, and, as Auer notes somewhat obliquely, to the rising cost per admission: The cost of the typical hospitalization episode is higher than average for older persons. Population aging will continue to put upward pressure on the aggregate cost in the coming decades; on the other hand, the moderat- ing influence of reduced hospitalization rates

118 Reviews/Comptes rendus 118 Reviews/Comptes rendus

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.157 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 04:43:00 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions