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You're a smart guy and . . .
Don't flatter me.
. . . a newspaper guy, so tell me: How long will the newspaper industry last?
I think it will last forever in one form or another, because people will want information. Whether they get it from something on a piece of paper or whether they get it off a screen . . . there's obviously a switch from print to screen, but there's always going to be a need to know, a need to find out what's going on, a need to hear gossip, a need to know something about what's going on in your community, your country, your world. For some people, a newspaper will be the most convenient way to get it.
From a controversial and column writing point of view, which prime minister were you sorry to see leave the stage?
Oh, Trudeau. By far the most interesting prime minister we've had. Whether you agreed with him or not, he had character, he had flair, he had ideas. He screwed up. He did great things.
How do you see the Schreiber-Mulroney soap opera ending, when Justice Oliphant finally releases his report this summer?
I think he will find that Mr. Mulroney made a series of serious and inexcusable errors in judgment and that he was dealing with somebody whose reputation was already so tarnished that Mr. Mulroney must have known that what he was doing was both highly unethical and that he was dealing with somebody who himself was highly unethical. It just doesn't pass the smell test of taking cash in bags. You can't explain that in any Tim Hortons in any city in the country.
What kind of feedback do you get from politicians about your columns?
Very little. This government doesn't pay attention to columnists at all. They are preoccupied with media on the electronic side and they don't think columnists have any influence so I get no feedback from them at all.
That must hurt a bit.
Not at all. I don't write for them. I write for readers — the mass of readers who are good enough to give me a few minutes of their time every day. I don't write to impress politicians.
Do you really have an Uncle Fred who lives on Gabriola Island?
No. People ask me that periodically and I'm kind of amused how they think that such a person could possibly exist. Although I suppose he is an amalgam of certain people who have certain views.
Have you ever told anyone how you vote?
No, because I don't vote. Because I get accused by readers and by people who see me personally as being a 'fill in the blank' — Liberal, Conservative, Green, New Democrat or whatever — and therefore, I must allow the fact that I voted in a certain way to dictate and influence what I write in the newspaper. It's not a very high-minded position of mine, and I don't encourage anybody else to take it, but it gives me the defence of at least being able to say to those who accuse me: 'Look, I don't vote in elections.' Not that I don't have views; I have many of them, but they certainly don't fall within any partisan framework.
What's your next book going to be about?
I don't know. I have none planned. The book market has shrunk. It's more difficult to get books read in our country these days, particularly if they're serious, non-fiction books. Unless one big chain gets behind your book, you're dead.
Do you have any close friends among politicians, or do you have to maintain a certain professional distance?
It's funny. In the past, much through happenstance, I wouldn't say I had close friends, but I had a few that I knew socially and quite well. In one case through my wife. But they've passed from the scene and for the moment, the answer is no. You have to know political people a little bit in order to understand who they are, and what makes them tick and why they do and say the things they say, but I've never wanted to pal around with them or get close to them or have them as my friends.
Who would have been the best prime minister that Canada never elected?
Peter Lougheed.
How long will it be before a woman becomes prime minister?
Not very long, I hope.
Anybody in mind?
Yes, absolutely, although she wouldn't do it. When the Liberals were having their leadership (race) at the time of Mr. Martin's departure, I phoned Carole Taylor in British Columbia, who was then the B.C. finance minister and said 'I'm going to write a column saying that you ought to run for the leadership of the national Liberal Party because I think you'd win in a waltz and you'd be the best candidate.' She said, 'I'm not doing that' and I said, 'Yeah, but it's a free country and I'm giving you a heads-up. You can't stop me from writing it.' I think she would have beaten the three of them — Ray, Ignatieff and Stephané Dion — hands down. She's really bright. She's extremely articulate. She has good political instincts, great personal skills. She'd have been the only candidate from west of Toronto. I think she'd have won it easily, but she didn't want to do it. I'd like to have seen her as leader of the Liberal Party and frankly, if you put her intelligence, personality and charisma up against that of Stephen Harper, I like her chances.
Do you ever get stuck for a column idea?
No. There's too much going on.
What do you know about Brandon, Manitoba?
I've been there three or four times, but I haven't been there in a while. One of the things I'm going to do is what I always try to do when I'm in a place. I'm going to ring up your mayor and ask to see him for an hour. When I travel, I like to see the mayors because they give me in an hour a pretty good reading on general issues in the area, what's on people's minds, what the problems are, etc., etc. I'd also like to go see the president of the university.
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