And in no particularly political order here are a list of books that I’ve read that I think everyone should read in preparation of an election or campaign. These are plucked from my shelf so it isn’t a complete list, albeit this list is one I’m very familiar with seeing that I’ve read each of these front to back more than once,

• Parliament through Seven Centuries, Hansard Society
• Memoirs, Rene Levesque
• Memoirs, Brian Mulroney
• My Years As Prime Minister, Jean Chretien
• Why America has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper, John Ibbitson
• The Hidden Games of Organizations, Mara Selvini Palazzoli
• How to Run For Local Office, Robert J. Thomas
• The War Room, Warren Kinsella (Must Read)
• Leaders and Lesser Mortals, John Laschenger (Must Read)
• Words That Work, Frank Lunt
• Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare
• The Prince, Machiavelli
• Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell
• The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (Must Read)
• The Art of Always Being Right, Schopenhauer
• Harper’s Team, Tom Flanagan (get the 2010 edition–it has an extra chapter in it)
• Uses and Abuses of History, Margaret MacMillan
• The Armageddon Factor, Marci McDonald (Don’t read it for its argument or ideological opinions–rather, read McDonald for her name dropping and information on political-religious organizations.)
• City Politics, Canada, James Lightbody
• Shredding the Public Interest, Kevin Taft
• Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers, William Droms (For Financial and Official Agents everywhere.)
• Get Smarter, Schulich
• Smart Women Finish Rich, David Bach (Ignore the title–read the book.)

If you think any other books should be listed just comment below.