Ripper
The Making of Pierre Poilievre
Published on 8. May 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-77196-700-6 (ISBN)
Description
As Canada heads towards a pivotal election, bestselling author Mark Bourrie charts the rise of Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre and considers the history and potential cost of the politics of division.
Six weeks into the Covid pandemic, New York Times columnist David Brooks identified two types of Western politicians: rippers and weavers. Rippers, whether on the right or the left, see politics as war. They don't care about the destruction that's caused as they fight for power. Weavers are their opposite: people who try to fix things, who want to bring people together and try to build consensus. At the beginning of the pandemic, weavers seemed to be winning. Five years later, as Canada heads towards a pivotal election, that's no longer the case. Across the border, a ripper is remaking the American government. And for the first time in its history, Canada has its own ripper poised to assume power.
Pierre Poilievre has enjoyed most of the advantages of the mainstream Canadian middle class. Yet he's long been the angriest man on the political stage. In Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, bestselling author Mark Bourrie, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize, charts Poilievre's rise through the political system, from teenage volunteer to outspoken Opposition leader known for cutting soundbites and theatrics. Bourrie shows how we arrived at this divisive moment in our history, one in which rippers are poised to capitalize on conflict. He shows how Poilievre and this new style of politics have gained so much ground-and warns of what it will cost us if they succeed.
Six weeks into the Covid pandemic, New York Times columnist David Brooks identified two types of Western politicians: rippers and weavers. Rippers, whether on the right or the left, see politics as war. They don't care about the destruction that's caused as they fight for power. Weavers are their opposite: people who try to fix things, who want to bring people together and try to build consensus. At the beginning of the pandemic, weavers seemed to be winning. Five years later, as Canada heads towards a pivotal election, that's no longer the case. Across the border, a ripper is remaking the American government. And for the first time in its history, Canada has its own ripper poised to assume power.
Pierre Poilievre has enjoyed most of the advantages of the mainstream Canadian middle class. Yet he's long been the angriest man on the political stage. In Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, bestselling author Mark Bourrie, winner of the Charles Taylor Prize, charts Poilievre's rise through the political system, from teenage volunteer to outspoken Opposition leader known for cutting soundbites and theatrics. Bourrie shows how we arrived at this divisive moment in our history, one in which rippers are poised to capitalize on conflict. He shows how Poilievre and this new style of politics have gained so much ground-and warns of what it will cost us if they succeed.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for Ripper"Mark Bourrie has produced a searing but convincing critique of the Conservative Leader's shortcomings that will give pause to anyone outside the diehard Poilievre base."
-Charlotte Gray, Globe and Mail
"In his pull-no-punches book, Mr. Bourrie portrays Mr. Poilievre as one serious ripper: mean, sneering, insulting, truth-evading, skilled at whipping up mass anger."
-Marsha Lederman, Globe and Mail
"If Pierre Poilievre is going to win, shake [the comparison to Trump] he must. This book, with all its pungent reminders of his record, will make it harder to do."
-Lawrence Martin, Globe and Mail
"Every Liberal in their war room, every journalist covering the campaign and-should he win-every stakeholder doing business with an eventual Poilievre government owes it to themselves to read Bourrie's Ripper so that they can have a clear picture of who Poilievre is, how he came to be, and how that past is almost certain to shape his decision-making going forward."
-Jamie Carroll, The Hill Times
"Former political journalist Mark Bourrie's new book, Ripper, is a bracing reminder of some of the reputations Poilievre has ruined, the malicious fictions he has promoted, [and] the tiresome slogans he stitches into every utterance."
-Susan Riley, The Hill Times
"Anyone wanting to know why Pierre Poilievre lost the 2025 federal election need not go any further than Mark Bourrie's Ripper."
-The Interim
"This book is a phenomenal effort, carefully researched and nicely written. Ripper should be widely read by everyone who cares about the value of casting an informed vote."
-Michael Harris, The Tyee
"Despite [the rush to print], the work never seems rushed. It is lengthy and historically detailed while relying on media, secondary sources and parliamentary debates."
-Winnipeg Free Press
"Ripper is a must-read for all who are concerned about the path Canada is on."
-Timothy Niedermann, Ottawa Review of Books
"By positioning Poilievre in the context of the global social and economic cleavages that permitted him him to attain power, Bourrie transcends a simple biography and creates a snapshot of our riven historical moment, one that should prove illuminating for anyone looking around in abject confusion and wondering how we got to this particular point."
-Steven Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag
"Mark Bourrie's new book is a detailed and surgical examination of the man who could be Canada's next prime minister."
-NB Media Co-op
"The page-turner is crack for political junkies."
-Cult MTL
"Ripper has no business being so detailed and wide-ranging, so authoritative and convincing, so brilliantly analytical and colourfully entertaining."
-Ken McGoogan
"[Mark Bourrie's] latest book Ripper isn't just a biography-it's a field guide to fascism wrapped in a Canadian flag soaked in Axe body spray."
-Dean Blundell
"If it weren't for Mark and a small number of others willing to make sacrifices, popular Canadian history would have vanished entirely from book stores."
-Dan Gardner
"[Ripper] is far from a hatchet job. Bourrie appreciates Poilievre's cunning and instinct for the jugular-he just doesn't like him too much."
-Ethan Phillips, Oversight
"In a scathing but comprehensive recent biography, Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre, the historian Mark Bourrie points out that his [Poilievre's] thinking on most subjects has not advanced much since adolescence."
-Michael Ledger-Lomas, UnHerd
"Bourrie's style is accessible, the prose is clear and sparse . . . Bourrie's dry wit brings a chuckle now and then."
-Margaret Shkimba
"[Bourrie] helpfully puts the past twenty years of federal politics into a single reference book. Even his endnotes are engaging."
-Nora Loreto
Praise for Mark Bourrie
"Bourrie's book positively sings . . . [Big Men Fear Me] is thoroughly researched and the prose is clean and engaging . . . [McCullagh] made The Globe the dominant voice in English Canadian journalism. Bourrie's biography does him full justice."
-Globe and Mail
"Canada's greatest historian has done it for a third time, stripping the carcass of Canadian history and leaving readers horrified, riveted, in shock . . . A triumph."
-Heather Mallick, Toronto Star
"Bourrie is fast becoming the dean of Canadian literary non-fiction . . . Bourrie also manages to be panoramic in his historical descriptions of Huronia while concurrently focusing on biographical details of Brebeuf's missionary work. This treatment of the problematic legacy of both the cleric and his religious order is top drawer."
-Winnipeg Free Press
"Crosses in the Sky is dramatic and enthralling . . . Bourrie has done more than any other Canadian historian writing for a general audience to disinter the root causes of degenerating settler-Indigenous relations and disrupted Indigenous societies in the 400 years since Brebeuf's death. And he has done it with attention-grabbing panache."
-Charlotte Gray, Globe and Mail
"A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual . . . Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking."
-Maclean's
"Gripping stuff, grippingly told."
-Literary Review of Canada
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Emeryville
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77196-700-6 (9781771967006)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2025
Biblioasis
€15.49
Available for download
Person
Mark Bourrie is an Ottawa-based author, lawyer, and journalist. He holds a master's in journalism from Carleton University and a PhD in history from the University of Ottawa. In 2017, he was awarded a Juris Doctor degree and was called to the bar in 2018. He has won numerous awards for his journalism, including a National Magazine Award, and received the RBC Charles Taylor Prize in 2020 for his book Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson. His most recent book, Big Men Fear Me: The Fast Life and Quick Death of Canada's Most Powerful Media Mogul, was nominated for several book awards.