CONRAD BLACK is a great Canadian. Anyone foolish enough todoubt the truth of this assertion need only consult any page of A Life inProgress, whereinBlack offers an impressive range of evidence for the proposition that he is, asthe book`s dustjacket announces, "one of "- and the modesty of"one of` is characteristic - "the most compelling personalities ofour time." The compulsion begins in the"Prologue." Directly addressing the question of why, at the age of49, he has ventured down the garden path of autobiography, Black comments thatI owe my countrymen a statement of why I am not now mainly resident in Canadaand of my hopes and concerns for that country." Speaking as a maleCanadian who had not thought to invoice Black for his views on these matters,this strikes me as outstandingly generous; and it is certainly the case that ALife in Progress amplyillustrates its author`s commendably unequivocal stance on the nature andfuture of Canada. Black envisions a Canada purged of those"clamouring categories of selfpitiers" who have done "terribleand perhaps irreparable damage to the social and fiscal structure of thecountry." He observes that "The Canadian system still provides asafety net for the propagation of socialist rap"; and if it be objectedthat rap must be a misprint for crap, Black`s excoriation of Peter Newman as"an unrequited Canadian Establishment groupie" suggests it is anintimate familiarity with popularmusic that is being exhibited here. Among the many socialist rappers Blacksingles out for individual attention, Bob Rae (a "symbol of swinishsocialist demagogy at its worst"), Bertrand Russell ("the quaveringdecrepit dupe"), and Herbert Marcuse (a "superannuatedpoltroon") are dismissed in refreshingly candid terms. Black`s talent forincisive character description is most fetchingly displayed in his portraits ofthose more attuned to his ideological wavelength. Ronald Reagan - "Hisintellect is not unlimited but in his prime he was far from beingunintelligent" - and George Bush -"To true conservatives, whether ofthe intelligent or merely fervent varieties, Reagan was the ventritoquist, Bushthe dummy" - come vividly alive here. But the pike de risistance, the ultimate in doubleedgedprose, is A Life in Progress`s depiction of Brian Mulroney: If it was not always easy to determinewhere sincerity and expedliency intersected in Brian`s thoughts, if he blurredthe edges of truth more than most people I knew as well as I knew him, hisopportunism was almost majestic in its single-mindedness and sometimes itsingenuity, but rarely, in my observations, reduced him to being unnecessarilynasty or completely unethical. Black`s own executive style is farsubtler. Take this account of how he and his colleague David Radler dealt withthe staff of one of his newspapers: Employees were monitored, more or lessgood-naturedly, but with superhuman persistence. We had a Montreal telephonedirectory by sequence of telephone numbers and relentlessly hunted down anypersonal calls from Sherbrooke to Montreal. When one reporter marched intoDavid`s office to present a petition of grievances, David fined him two cents,deducted from his weekly pay cheque, for wasting a sheet of paper. When, on thenight of NDP leader Allan Blakeney`s first victory in Saskatchewan in 19 7 1,the same reporter raised the two-finger V for victory sign, then current amongthe left, to David, he too raised up two victorious fingers and said,"That just cost you two," and deducted two dollars from his next paycheque, "for provoking the owners." And such anachronistic concepts asjournalistic objectivity are, similarly, treated with all the contempt theydeserve: We had a good time with the election inSept-Iles. All my local opponents ardently supported the Parti Qu6b6cois candidate, the local head ofthe Steelworkers. Our reporting was fairly balanced for most of the campaign,but we did an editorial sandbag job on the P.Q., complete with publication of a poll indicating a Liberalvictory. There was no indication of the number of people sampled so the factthat I consulted only seven people (including myself) never came to light. Not since Machiavelli, in fact, has therebeen a more revealing glimpse into the corridors of power than is provided by ALife in Progress. Themost touching, the most intimate, pages of A Life in Progress concern its hero`samorous inclinations. On some occasions these are cloaked in coyly rhetoricalphraseology, as when Black speaks of the 1960s` "relaxation of the sexualmores, of which I was, in conventionat parlance, an active beneficiary";on others, his depth of feeling results in new literary breakthroughs, such asthis lyrical description of his wooing of Barbara Amiel: "Slowly, hesitantly at first, Iset out my stall. She was first bemused, then incredulous, and finally shefenestrated with astonishment." The terse, businesslike phrase "setout my stall," followed by the inventive use of "fenestrated" asa verb, is a fine example of creative juxtaposition in action, and establishesthat Black is a prose stylist of remarkable range. Clearly, Conrad Black`stalents are of no uncommon variety, and I am frankly amazed that no one has asyet noticed that they are beingwithheld from Canadians. Fortunately, A Life in Progress closeswith a prescription for the kind of transformation that might induce him toreturn to his native land: I await with others in the Canadiandispersion a spark of national selfesteem and renewal: Canada for its own sakeand value and not in pursuit of some extravagant fable about being oresocialistic than the Americans. If no such renewal comes, I will be consolable, apartial, voluntary; comfortable, and trans-national exile. If it does come, Iwill rejoice and be present. One need only add that such aneventuality would be an extraordinarily Black day indeed.