JOHN J. BARR BIO
John J. Barr was born, raised and educated in Alberta. He began his career in journalism and television and for a time was Canada’s youngest newspaper editorial writer. Mind you, that was 56 years ago.
From journalism Barr progressed — if that is the right word — to politics, after which he wrote a book about the rise and fall of a Prairie populist government and then began a 40 year career as a communication consultant and crisis manager in Toronto and Vancouver.
He retired from public affairs practice in 2011. His experiences as a crisis consultant formed the basis of his book Trainwrecks, published in 2015.
Barr’s first novel, Geronimo’s Cadillac, was published as an ebook in 2011. His second novel, And Justice For None, will be published in September in paperback and ebook format.
He is at work on his third Walsh novel, Gold of Fools.
His non-fiction books include:
- The Unfinished Revolt (ed): Essays on Western Independence (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970)
- The Dynasty: The Rise and Fall Of Social Credit In Alberta (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1975)
- Trainwrecks: An Executive’s Guide to Avoiding and Recovering From Reputational Crises (Amazon Kindle books, 2015).
- (Contributor): The Making Of The Modern West (University of Calgary Press, 1984) and Alberta Premiers Of The Twentieth Century (Canadian Plains Research Centre, 2004);
Barr treks highly, travels widely, stargazes speechlessly and lives happily with his wife Jennifer Shifrin in the seaside community of Craig Bay, British Columbia.