My first exposure to journalism was selling newspapers for three cents at the corner of Bathurst Street and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto. The truck would drop off The Toronto Star and The Toronto Telegram in the afternoon and then, after school, I would open the bundles, take out the papers and stand on the street corner and sell them to passersby. I remember my biggest sales were on the day in June 1940 that Paris fell to the Germans. I had so many pennies in my pockets that my short pants almost fell off.
The first ‘real job’ I had was as editor of the Canadian High News. I then worked for British United Press, becoming Bureau Manager in Halifax, Vancouver and Toronto. I went to Washington in 1951 as Director of Information for the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP). In that job I promoted world trade and the establishment of a world food bank to feed the world’s hungry. I attended United Nations meetings, organized conferences and traveled to Europe and South America. Within about a year or so, I was writing articles for Maclean’s magazine, the
Financial Post, and various Canadian newspapers, as well as broadcasting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
I became the CBC Washington correspondent in 1958. I covered the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, as well as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and both Kennedys. I remained in Washington until 1969 when I returned to Canada and became Director of CBC News and Current Affairs.
Over my career as a correspondent, individuals have stood out in my mind more than events. The Kennedys––Bob and Jack––especially stood out for me. I had known them for a good long time because of my coverage of the Senate Labor Rackets Committee, when Bob was the Chief Counsel for the committee and Jack was a member of the Senate. They inspired hope in people and appealed to the better side of our nature. I had spent a good deal of time with them both personally and professionally so maybe I was biased.
Bob Kennedy would be my personal hero. He was soft-hearted but hard-headed. He had an extraordinary quality of caring and a deep commitment to make the world a better place. At times he could be a brass knuckle political street fighter and at times a rash romantic. Bob and Jack shared the same unrelenting competitiveness, but their styles were vividly different. Bob was more emotional, more intense, more impatient. Jack loved to gossip, Bob loved to argue. Jack was a pragmatist, Bob was an idealist.
I went with Bob on a campaign train in California a couple of days before his assassination and did one of the last long TV interviews that he gave. It was a challenging interview because he was in a very meditative mood. He was a fatalist and, with a sigh, he told me, “Look, fate is so fickle... life is a risk. You deal with what you have. You do what you can. But most of all you must try.”
I also admired Mike Pearson tremendously (Lester B. ‘Mike’ Pearson was Prime Minister of Canada from 1963-1968). He was the quintessential nice Canadian. Ronald Reagan was a lot of fun to be with and I had a chance to have a couple of dinners with him when he was the Governor of California. It is always a challenge when someone you disagree with philosophically is a very nice person.
In 1978, I left my job as Director of News and Current Affairs to become anchor of The National (CBC’s nightly news program) and the CBC Chief Correspondent. In the late 1980s, CBS in New York was anxious to lure away one of our best reporters and anchors, Peter Mansbridge. That would have been a devastating blow to the CBC and I wanted to keep Peter here in Canada working for the CBC. So, after a decade as anchor of the National, I decided to step down and let Peter take my place. I would host other programs and do documentaries. It was not a difficult transition at all because after leaving the role of anchor I was now so busy chasing news stories and doing various programs for CBC that I did not have much time to reflect on adjusting to doing something different. Certainly the CBC has benefited from the switch and I gained by having a slightly slower-paced, less frenzied existence.
My first sign of Parkinson’s disease came while reading the newspaper. I noticed a slight tremor in my left hand when turning pages of The Globe and Mail. The tremor was more of a curiosity to me than anything else. I didn’t mention it to the doctor for about a year. When I did, he made an appointment for me to go to a neurologist and I was diagnosed right away. I figured there were a lot worse things to be going through than living with Parkinson’s, so I didn’t feel too badly about the diagnosis. I think my basic nature is that when I am confronted with a challenge, I try to deal with it and then get on with life.
It’s important to have a sunny outlook. I have always been an optimist about life in general. And I’ve been really fortunate to have had an exciting and enriching professional career doing something that not many people have a chance to do––and meeting, as the old cliché has it, so many interesting people. It’s been a glorious way to make a living.
I am even one who tends to respect politicians, and that is a rare breed in the business of journalism. I admire them and the sacrifices they make and, for the most part, I believe there are as many decent, honest politicians as there are journalists or teachers or any other profession.
Life is an ongoing mystery. What happens, will happen.
