On the newly settled Muskoka frontier, animosity between Richard Bell, farmer and township clerk, and A.P. Cockburn, steamboat and lumber magnate, simmers for several years. Bell is jealous of Cockburn, and when the two lock horns in the 1872 federal election, Cockburn a Liberal candidate, Bell the Returning Officer appointed by John A. Macdonald’s Conservative government, Bell finds a way to finally put Cockburn in his place—or so he thinks. The feud that began in backwoods Muskoka comes to a dramatic head in precedent- setting events in the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Reviewers’ comments on the first edition:
“Gordon Aiken seems to know Muskoka as well as his own face…If you are interested in history in easy-to-read fiction form, this book is a must. Muskokans should read it and this one did read it.”
- Gordon Sinclair, Toronto Star columnist and CFRB Radio broadcaster
“A surprisingly good evocation of the nature of a partisan activist, the grist stuff of a party at the local level.”
-Douglas Fisher, former MP, broadcaster, and Toronto Sun columnist