Catherine Clark, the host of Beyond Politics and daughter of Joe Clark has the potential to be a young female version of Larry King if given the chance by a network with a much larger audience than the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC). Like that endearing host, her charming non-adversarial nature gets her guests to open up to her in ways that a more confrontational, traditional interviewer never could.

It was while watching and listening to her interviewing Chuck Strahl, the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs that I decided it would not be out of place if I asked her to present her father with a copy of Shooting the Messenger. This was more than six months after my email to the Right Hon. former Prime Minister.

She has not responded and I don’t blame her. What would I have done if someone asked me to pass a book with a chapter title beginning with the word Betrayal and ending with the name of a parent?

It’s really too bad, because if you have read my email to her father you know that I do not hold him responsible for what happened, he thought he was doing the right thing, or so his officials told him.

The relevant portion of my letter to Ms. Clark at CPAC:

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May 5,2009

Ms. Catherine Clark

CPAC

P.O. Box 81099

Ottawa, ON

K1P 1B1

Dear Ms. Clark,

I apologize for getting in touch with you on this matter as it concerns your father whom, unfortunately I do not know how to reach.

In 1985, I was fired from the Department of Foreign Affairs after the then Under-Secretary of State Marcel Massé had a conversation with your father. A former assistant to your father, Denis Beaudoin’s recollections of the event are recounted in Chapter 30, The Betrayal of Joe Clark in the enclosed book Shooting the Messenger.

Would you be kind enough to pass the book on to your father…

Again, my apologies for getting in touch with you in this manner.

Sincerely Yours

_____________________

Bernard Payeur