The first non-Bennett to lead BC's Social Credit Party, a former mayor of Surrey, nurseryman, husband, father, defeated Vancouver mayoralty candidate. . . As minister of Human Resources and later, of Education, he became for some the most hated man in BC. During his time as Municipal Affairs minister he was an autocrat who pushed through the development of an ultra-expensive rapid transit system.

Through extensive research and interviews with people who know Vander Zalm well, and through conversations with the former premier (1986-91) himself, Alan Twigg presents an engrossing picture of Vander Zalm from his childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland to the present.