Bush Runner also makes it clear that what Europeans really brought to North America were guns, iron axes and diseases the natives were unprepared for. Sourced from Radisson's journals, which are the best first-hand accounts of 17th century Canada, Bush Runner tells the extraordinary true story of this protean 17th-century figure, a man more trading partner than colonizer, a peddler of goods and not worldview--and with it offers a fresh perspective on the world in which he lived. Bourrie speculates that the Mohawks were impressed by Radisson’s hunting skills and his obvious intelligence.

I thought it was about time to highlight the exploits of an early Canadian, about whom we learn a little bit in elementary school, and not much more after that. Despite Pierre-Esprit’s repeated betrayal, his adopted Mohawk family protects, ransoms, and even forgives him. They sailed in and out of Hudson Bay, for the British and for the French, and later to the Caribbean, with pirates. A few warmer days and plenty of rainfall had brought everything on unbelievably; rate of growth in late spring is such a contrast to the slow progress earlier, when nights are cold, even if days are warm. He double-crossed just about everyone, from his adoptive Mohawk family to his wife, the Jesuits, the Dutch, the king of England and the king of France to name but a few.Bourrie lectures on propaganda and censorship at the Department of National Defence School of Public Affairs; media history and propaganda at Carleton University; and Canadian studies at the University of Ottawa, where he is also working on a Juris Doctor degree. Still Radisson comes out looking better than most of his historical contemporaries regardless of their social standing. The allegiance of our adventurer to one side or the other seemingly alternated from one year to the next, ultimately ending up with the British, in England, where he spent his twilight years. Given the Black and Indigenous Lives Matter movements, Bourrie has written a book about the past that’s entirely relevant to the issues of today. He will betray any friendship, any alliance, even to the point of committing murder, if treachery furthers his own ends.

Depending upon the length of the local year, bush runners will have from 1 to 3 litters per mating season.Anybody who finds this hard to read should take a miss on Bourrie’s vivid narrative because you ain’t seen nothing yet.