THAT'S RICH

In her fourth book on British Columbia politics, Tyabji offers a biography and defense of former Member of the Legislative Assembly, Rich Coleman.

The author, an Indian immigrant to Canada who served in the British Columbia legislative assembly, seeks to vindicate Coleman, a member of the British Columbia Liberal Party whose career ended in 2020 after he was accused of ignoring money laundering in British Columbia casinos. Tyabji seeks to give a full picture of Coleman’s career, including his pre-politics work in law enforcement with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as the many issues he tackled while in office, such as a serial killer investigation. Throughout, she portrays her subject as a thoughtful public servant whose worst wrongdoing in the financial scandal was not addressing it firmly enough. Pointedly, she addresses this scandal only toward the end of the book, as if to underscore what a small part it played in Coleman’s decades-long public career. The book’s early chapters provide a good thumbnail sketch of Canada’s internal politics from the early 20th century onward, including the role of socialism. This book is well researched and does a great job of placing Coleman’s story in a larger context of Canadian politics and the Liberal Party in particular. It’s most valuable as a Canadian political history that bucks the assumptions that many Americans have that Canada lacks political turmoil. It’s also useful as a comparative look at how the Canadian government dealt with issues affecting the country’s First Nations peoples, including how a pipeline building project affected their lands. However, its hyperfocus on British Columbia politics may narrow its audience, and the author doesn’t really make a case for broader appeal. The book also includes photographs and an appendix of Coleman’s legislative accomplishments.

A sometimes-informative but narrowly targeted political history.