Interviews
Politicians and government officials are frequently interviewed by the news media. See Finding Information - Current Events/News for tips on finding older and recent interviews. Some of the sources mentioned for speeches and film and video footage also include interviews. Other collections and sources for interview transcripts:
Newspaper and News Magazine Databases:
Full-text news databases such as CBCA (Canadian Business and Current Affairs), Canadian Newsdisc, etc. contain some television and radio transcripts from CBC, CTV and Global news programs and other shows. Exact coverage fluctuates. Check the title list for the database available to you.
Some databases allow you to limit your search by "interview" as the article type. If not, limit your search of the person's name with "interview" as a subject heading or keyword.
Interviews on Tape
More common for local history projects, cassette tapes of political interviews exist in some library collections. E.g. Canadian Public Figures on Tape: Conversations with Canadians who have made Major Contributions to Canadian National Life. Interviewed by Richard M. Alway. Toronto: Institute for Studies in Education, 1972-73. 10 cassettes. This series includes interviews with Lester Pearson, John Diefenbaker, Rene Levesque, Joey Smallwood, Paul Martin, Judy LaMarsh and others.
To find these, search library catalogues using the Library of Congress sub-heading --interviews.
e.g. politicians--canada--interviews
Search also using the person's name as Author.
Common keywords: interviewed, conversation(s), sound recording.
For interviews on film or videotape see Recorded Images - Film and Video Footage.
Published Interview Transcripts
Certain interviews may be available as published transcripts. Eg. Deifenbaker [sic] hot seat. Toronto: CBC, 1964. 10 p. This is the transcript of an interview John Diefenbaker gave on the CBC-TV program "This hour has seven days" in Nov. 1964, on political corruption.
To find these, search library catalogues using the Library of Congress sub-heading --interviews.
e.g. politicians--canada--interviews
Search also using the person's name as Author.
Common keywords: interview or transcript.