OTTAWA UNBUTTONED: OR WHO'S RUNNING THIS COUNTRY ANYWAY? McIntosh, Dave. Toronto. Stoddart, 1987. 247pp. cloth, $21.95, ISBN 0-7737-2115-0. CIP Grades 10 and up Reviewed by Thomas F. Chambers Volume 16 Number 4 1988 July The dust Jacket for this book claims that it will "turn Tories red, Liberals blue, and the Rideau Canal a whiter shade of pale." I wish that were true, but, unfortunately, Ottawa Unbuttoned doesn't live up to this bold claim. Ottawa Unbuttoned is a light-hearted romp by a Canadian Press reporter through the last thirty years. Topics covered include the civil service, the press, Canadian defence, and some well-known politicians. Part of the book doesn't even deal with Ottawa but discusses some of McIntosh's experiences as a foreign correspondent. McIntosh is a good story-teller. His book is fun. By taking an irreverent approach to those who have held power, he makes them into the ordinary people most of them are. Some of his stories are probably apocryphal. The one about former cabinet minister Paul Martin's forgetting the name of a man's wife has been told many times before in a variety of ways. There are also some noticeable errors. Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and armament's minister, is called the Third Reich's economic whiz. That term was used for economist Hjalmar Schacht. It is too bad that Ottawa Unbuttoned isn't illustrated with a few cartoons. The lack of an index seriously weakens the book's value as a reference. Thomas F. Chambers, Canadore College, North Bay, Ont.