John A.'s Crusade: A Novel

by Richard Rohmer

Rohmer, Richard

259 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1995

About the author

Major-General (Ret'd) Richard Heath Rohmer, OC, CMM, DFC, O.Ont, KStJ, CD, OL, QC, JD, LLD (born in 1924). Canada's most decorated citizen, an aviator, a senior lawyer (aviation law), adviser to business leaders and the Government of Ontario and is a prolific writer. Rohmer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, and spent some of his early youth in Pasadena, California as well as in western Ontario at Windsor and Fort Erie.

The Peterborough Examiner's lead editorial of 14 January 2009 says this: "Rohmer, one of Canada's most colourful figures of the past half-century, was a World War II fighter pilot, later a major-general in the armed forces reserve, a high-profile lawyer and a successful novelist and biographer."

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If Seward gets Russian America, he will gobble up everything west of Lake Superior!”

Richard Rohmer’s JOHN A’S CRUSADE certainly isn’t a history text. But it IS an informative, entertaining and quite compelling dramatization of real, possible, probable and hypothetical events of the political lead-up to Canada’s Confederation in 1867 – the Irish Fenian raids; the political conferences in Charlottetown, PEI, and London, England; US Secretary of State William Seward’s voracious, expansionist Manifest Destiny policy; Canada’s failed negotiations with Russian minister Eduard de Stoeckl for the purchase of Alaska; Sir John A MacDonald’s second marriage and his ongoing struggles with alcoholism; 19th century statecraft, diplomacy and espionage; and much more.

Definitely recommended for lovers of both history and historical fiction … and particularly, of course, those of you who may be Canadian.

Paul Weiss

[Reading Rohmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though rich in anachronisms, John A.’s Crusade reads like a historical novel written by one familiar with the genre; as such, it may very well be Richard Rohmer’s most competent book. Set during the London Conference, it casts Canada’s first prime minister as the Busiest Man in England, a title that would one day be held by fellow Kingstonian Grant Allen. Macdonald works at negotiating Confederation, survives a Fenian attack, pitches woo, marries and – the current publisher would like to point out – enjoys an overnight stay at Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle. But the real action takes place on the Continent, with Macdonald making secret trips to Paris and St. Petersburg in an attempt to purchase Alaska. Will he succeed? The ending comes as no surprise.