A Chosen Path : From Moccasin Flats to Parliament Hill

The day he was elected mayor of Chetwynd BC was a special one in Frank Oberle's life.

As a youth he had made his way across the battle-scarred landscape of Germany, the bombs of Dresden still ringing in his ears.

As a teen he had crossed the Atlantic in the bowels of a derelict freighter, finally reaching the refugee barracks at Halifax.

With bleak prospects on the eastern seaboard, he made his way across Canada to find work in the remote Queen Charlotte Islands. And that was the beginning of a new life that eventually saw Oberle rise from self-educated immigrant to politician.

The first volume of Frank's autobiography, Finding Home, recounts his youth and his journey to British Columbia.

The second volume continues his remarkable story, tracing his path from mayor of Chetwynd to member of Parliament for Prince George-Peace River.

He was elected to the House of Commons in 1972 and re-elected for six consecutive terms. He was appointed to Cabinet in 1985 as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's minister of state for science and technology, and four years later, as minister of forestry, his determination led him to confront the industry's clear-cutting practices and demand sustainable forest management.

Now, more than a decade removed from that heady time and place, Frank Oberle combines reflection and the perspective of retirement to shed light on what is right and what is wrong in our political world.