The McNair-Flemming Years, Volume 1

The McNair-Flemming Years is a two-volume history of New Brunswick politics and events, from the Depression to the beginning of the 1960s. Based largely on contemporaneous journalistic input from five daily New Brunswick newspapers, it is exactly as the title suggests: A Public Record of Uncertain Times. It is a distillation of the daily events that shaped public opinion and controlled political messaging, and upon which people formed their own bias and interpretation of the news.

John B. McNair is featured in Volume 1. He was an athlete, Rhodes Scholar, veteran of the First World War, who filled a prominent leadership role starting in 1935, as the Attorney-General of New Brunswick and as Premier 1940-1952. Under his guidance, New Brunswick embarked on a massive program of infrastructure spending, to pave roads, and to build bridges, hospitals, and schools. He provided calm reassurance to a nervous public during the darkest days of the Second World War. His innovative approach to politics brought professional advertising into election campaigns in the pre-television era. For almost a generation he was this Province's leading public figure.