Pierre Berton Dies At 84

[Aegis]

Pierre Berton: Canadian
CBC News Online | November 30, 2004


Here's a story about Pierre Berton when he wrote a daily column for the Toronto Star in the late-1950s, when daily columns truly were daily columns – 1,500 words, Monday to Saturday. One morning friends dropped by to take him on a fishing trip and Berton asked them to wait as he had to write two columns to give himself a day off. Thirty minutes later he stepped out and said, "Done. Let's go."

He used to say he had 200,000 words a year in him, which he said were enough for either a daily column or another thick Berton book. By the age of 84, he had written 50 books before announcing his retirement. He was a star of Canadian radio and television, a household name, a man who once was quoted as saying a Canadian is "somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe."

The "canon of Canadiana" as an Edmonton Sun reporter once aptly referred to Berton, spent the majority of his adult life researching, writing and speaking about Canadian themes, always reminding us that we have an exciting story to tell and talented people to tell it – including himself.

"The nation is bound together by its creative artists," Berton wrote in the Globe and Mail in 1999, "and not by parallel lines of rusting steel."

His books, 30-plus literary awards, a dozen honorary degrees, appointment as a companion of the Order of Canada in 1986, and umpteen Canadian television appearances, make him a true national icon.

Berton covered Canada from coast to coast to coast with books such as Klondike (1958), his tale of the gold rush of the late 19th century that sold 150,000 copies; The National Dream (1970), about the building of the CPR and Pierre Berton's Canada: The Land and the People (1999). His 50th, and last, book was Prisoners of the North, a collection of biographies of adventurers in Canada's North. His works cover history, anthologies, picture and children's books, and coffee table books.

What made his prolific Canadian storytelling so appealing, wrote the Canadian Encyclopedia, was his "patriotic verve, the marshalling of colourful detail and above all, a driving narrative."

Appropriately, the seeds of Berton's patriotism were sown in Canada's Great White North gem, the Yukon.


Born in Whitehorse in 1920, Berton spent his teens working in Klondike mining camps and then headed off for a four-year sojourn at the Royal Military College in Kingston.

After catching the journalism bug, Berton made a name for himself almost from the get-go, as the youngest city editor at a daily in Canada, while working at the Vancouver Sun at age 21.

Berton did as he pleased at work, once risking termination for reading comics on the job, but saving himself from being fired by landing a hot scoop the same day.

A tour of duty as the managing editor at Maclean's in 1957 – a noteworthy accomplishment – was eclipsed when the writer took his views and aired them on TV on CBC's Close-Up and as a panellist on Front Page Challenge.


He joined the Toronto Star as associate editor and columnist in 1958, but continued to make his presence known in the broadcast world as the host of The Pierre Berton Show, which ran until 1973. Other shows which he hosted and wrote for include My Country, The Great Debate and Heritage Theatre.

Berton garnered praise in the 1970s from writer Warner Troyer as "clearly Canada's best-known and most respected TV public affairs personality." In 2004, Berton was voted No. 31 on CBC's The Greatest Canadian.

He continued to write books and make television appearances into his 80s. One of Berton's last television appearances was on Rick Mercer's Monday Report on CBC. In a segment called "Celebrity Tip," Berton was introduced as a "marijuana connoisseur" and gave advice on how to properly roll a joint.

For all of his positive recognition, Berton also received scorn. He was dubbed arrogant, harshly opinionated and was disliked in Quebec for his views on the separatist movement.

On the CBC's Life and Times program, Berton once commented on his alleged mean streak. "I once told a columnist working for me that I had to rewrite his column just so I could throw it out," he said.


But Berton's tough tongue and razor-sharp pen took a back seat at home, where he was a compassionate father and grandfather.

While his family may remember him for being just that, the rest of Canada is left with a legacy of profound words, opinions and distinctly Canadian images, some of which appear below:

"We are a nation of canoeists, and have been since the earliest days, paddling our way up the St. Lawrence, across the lakes, over the portages of the shield, west along the North Saskatchewan through the Yellowhead gap and thence southwest by the Columbia and Fraser rivers to the sea. When someone asks you how Canada could exist as a horizontal country with its plains and mountains running vertically, tell him about the paddlers." – Why We Act Like Canadians, Pierre Berton, 1982

I know this will probably mean little to everyone outside of Canada (more than likely everyone outside of me and DW), but I figured I'd post it anyway. This man was one of my heroes. He wrote in a way they brought people into a desire to read, both his fiction, as well as his history of Canada. One of the greatest Canadian authors we've seen in the country's history. I'll always remember what it was he said that made me become fascinated with his work:

"A True Canadian is one that knows how to make love in a Canoe."

Absurd, yes. Off the wall, yes. Accurate of the Canadian identity, I'd like to think so. He was a man who liked to drink Scotch, Champaigne and Wine. A Good Argument, and a good woman. Tonight, I drink in his honour.

Rest in Peace, Pierre.

[Volk]

He was a true Canadian, lived like one and loved us for what we are.