On my night table: Just One Vote

Manitobans who were of voting age in 1988 should remember that the provincial government led by Howard Pawley fell in a vote of non-confidence that year as winter was winding down. A general election in April returned just 12 New Democrats to the legislature of 57, down 18 from the slim majority the NDP won in 1986.
The government fell because one embittered member of the legislative assembly, Jim Walding, voted against his party.
Acadia University poli sci professor Ian Stewart traces the events that led to the government's collapse in Just One Vote.
Stewart does an excellent job reconstructing the nomination battle of 1985-86 that Walding won by a single vote (203-202). He also tells of the tension that followed as party activists in the riding of St. Vital worked to get Walding re-elected, saw the petty jerk try unsuccessfully to blackmail Pawley into giving him a cabinet position, and then witnessed their MLA continuously criticizing and undermining the government's efforts until that day of ultimate betrayal.
But for me the best part of this book is its second and third chapters, in which Stewart gives a roughly 50-page history lesson about St. Vital, the place I called home for the first quarter-century of my life. I was surprised by how much I didn't know about the community.
Full disclosure: I was interviewed for this book, and I'm mentioned seven times as a supporter of someone who challenged Walding for the nomination in 1986.