Peter C. Newman – Chronicler of Canada’s Rich and Famous
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929, Peta Karel Neumann enjoyed a privileged childhood in Czechoslovakia, where his father ran a large factory. Following a harrowing trip through Europe to escape the Nazis, Peter Newman arrived in Canada with his parents in 1940.
In 1944 his father enrolled Peter at Upper Canada College. As a “war guest” border in the exclusive private school, Peter got an intimate look into the lives of the people he went on to describe as ‘The Canadian Establishment’. In an interview for blogTO in 2009, he explained the move to writer Crystal Luxmore; “My father didn’t have the money but he sent me to Upper Canada College. And the reason was very simple. He realized that I would never lose my accent, never learn English, unless I was immersed.” As a journalist, author, newspaper and magazine editor, Peter C. Newman chronicled the lives of the rich and powerful, but he told Crystal Luxmore “he’ll awlays be an outsider”.
Peter C. Newman shaped the Toronto Star newspaper as editor-in-chief. He guided Macleans magazine into a weekly newsmagazine that thrives to this day. He has written 33 books, and in this most recent work, “When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada” Newman explains why he thinks the Liberal Party of Canada, often described as the natural ruling party, is finished. The federal election, that must be called by 2015, will prove him right or wrong.