Canada PoliticsStephen Harper’s hockey book to be released this Fall
It looks like Stephen Harper's hockey book will be available at a bookstore near you just in time for Christmas.
According to the Globe and Mail, publisher Simon and Schuster announced the details about the long-awaited publication on Thursday.
"According to the blurb from Simon & Schuster Canada, the as-yet-untitled work “tells the intriguing, little-known story of the origins of professional hockey, where strong personalities and philosophies battled to define not only how the game would be played on ice, but by whom.”
All author royalties from the work will go to Canadian military families, the publisher announced. Proceeds will be funnelled through the Canadian Forces Personnel and Family Support Services to support the Military Families Fund which provides emergency financial assistance."
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It took Harper about seven years to write the book and while he's been coy about it's content, he has mentioned it on several occasions.
PostMedia News' Stephen Maher recently wrote chronicled the history of the 'talk' of the book:
"The book was first mentioned publicly in 2005, when a friend told the Globe and Mail it was a hobby Harper became more serious about over time.
In 2006, Harper told CBC that he had hoped to finish it by then, but found it hard to put in the time. He described the research as “an escape from the pressures of the job.”
In 2010, a friend told a hockey researcher that Harper had completed a manuscript, but that he was unhappy with parts of it. He had personally hired (and personally paid) a full-time researcher — Greg Stoicoiu of Calgary. He has made several visits himself to the Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Centre in Toronto to dig through its collection.
In 2011, Harper said the book would be published in 2012 after eight years of working on it for 15 minutes a day."
While some critics have suggested that Harper's talk about the book was part of a political ploy, he is truly an avid hockey historian and is even a member of the Society for International Hockey Research.
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In a February 2012 article, the Toronto Star noted that Harper "has written extensively about the game for several publications, including Sports Illustrated and How Hockey Explains Canada, published last fall, about the 1972 Canada-Russia series, in which Paul Henderson scored the winning goal."
The Star also claims that advanced rights for this book could fetch a few hundred thousand dollars.
(Photo courtesy of Reuters)
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