I am grateful to Ariel Rogers and Fogarty’s Cove Music for granting me permission to quote from Stan Rogers’ song “MacDonnell on the Heights,” to the Gourds for granting me permission to use “Rugged Roses,” and to Michael H. Goldsen, Inc., for the right to reproduce the first verse of “Moonlight in Vermont,” written by Karl Suessdorf and John Blackburn. Kim Bolan’s and Salim Jiwa’s books on Air India were helpful in reconstructing the events surrounding that tragedy.
Many friends and family members have held my hand when the going got rough and otherwise provided support and occasional escape, and I would like to thank them here, among them Tom Axworthy, George and Brenda Berry, Keith and Aileen Coates, John Coates and Catherine Graham, Sheila Crutchlow, Eva Czigler and Peter Herrndorf, John and Lynn Diamond-Nigh, Matthew Hart, Shira Herzog, Carole McDougall, Colleen Orr, Karen Saunders, Joanne Simpson and Paul Mader, Ruth-Ellen Soles, and Wendy Trueman. Val Ross, even as she was struggling to complete her own book and fighting cancer, was helpful and encouraging to me. Mel Bryan, Philip Lewicki, Craig Lockhart, Renzo Galleno and Lirio Peck kept me fed and watered.
To my dear and supremely literate friends Russ Germain and Joan Donaldson, to Wendy Germain and my son David McDougall, who were also prevailed on to read the work in progress, and whose suggestions I found in every case to be an improvement on what I gave them, my heartfelt thanks. I owe an additional debt to David for all the other kinds of support and diversion he has provided throughout the writing of the book and while I was working on the radio show before that.
It was Cynthia Good who first persuaded me that this book should be written and she has steadfastly guided me through its every phase, giving unlimited encouragement, advice and the necessary connections, up to and including my agent Margaret Hart and my contract with Knopf Canada. I thank Cynthia and thank Margaret for following through.
Thanks, finally, to Louise Dennys, Diane Martin, Sharon Klein, Deirdre Molina, Michelle MacAleese, Brad Martin, Duncan Shields, Scott Richardson and all the good people at Knopf Canada and Random House of Canada for taking a chance on me, for finding in my rough proposal the makings of a book and getting it to market. I am especially grateful to Kathryn Dean for her unflagging attention to detail in the writing. And thanks to Gillian Watts for proofreading.
As always, I must remind readers that any errors or omissions that remain in the text are mine alone.
Above all, many thanks are due to my hugely patient, wise and agreeable editor, Michael Schellenberg. I have always known the importance of good editing on the radio and in television and film, and now I am filled with admiration for the transformative power of a skilled book editor. I am indebted to Michael for his gentle poking and prodding, his judicious cutting and re-arranging, and because he made me believe in this project and kept everything on a positive plane from beginning to end.
As It Happens Interview Credits
Chapter Two
Dame Barbara Cartland 1 September 1997
Chapter Three
Big Cabbage 31 December 1976
Chapter Four
Colin Angus 31 May 2004
Derek Lundy 18 September 1998
David Hempleman-Adams 4 May 1998
Derek Hatfield 10 March 2003
Chapter Six
Greg Kelly 2 December 2002
Neil Morrison 2 December 2002
Chapter Seven
Troy Hurtubise 29 November 2001
10 December 2001
Chapter Eight
King of Redonda 29 May 1998
Chapter Nine
Aaron Naparstek 26 March 2002
Chapter Ten
Elizabeth Jordan 31 May
2002 Mike Brady 2 Jan 2003
Chapter Eleven
Eva Sobolska 19 September 1997
Barbara Budd 1 April 2004
Perrin Beatty 1 April 1999
Chapter Twelve
Don Cherry 13 December 2001
Adrienne Clarkson 22 February 2005
Felix Monserrate 22 October 1998
Chapter Thirteen
Dennis Mills 5 April 2001
Ezra Levant 17 May 2001
Chapter Fourteen
Jeff Greenfield 22 November 2000
Bart Voorsanger 26 October 2001
Jan Hoffman 26 October 2001
Chapter Fifteen
Lata Pada 21 June 2002
16 March 2005
Chapter Sixteen
Sally Edginton 12 January 2000
Mike Rees 17 November 2005
Chapter Seventeen
Salam Pax 3 September 2003
4 February 2004
Chapter Eighteen
Mike Stevens 23 September 2000
18 November 2003
Chapter Nineteen
Desmond Tutu 23 December 1998
As It Happens Producers 1997 to 2005
Laurie Allan
Jennifer Bakody
Kevin Ball
Jaeny Baik
Jet Belgraver
Leith Bishop
Jon Bricker
Barbara Budd
Affan Chowdhry
Marie Clarke
Bob Coates
Anita Elash
Natasha Fatah
Brooke Forbes
Kathleen Goldhar
Datejie Green
Linda Groen
Kent Hoffman
Chris Howden
George Jamieson
Sinisa Jolic
Adam Killick
Lesley Knight
Anna-Liza Kozma
Tim Lorimer
Reuben Maan
Sarah Martin
Alison Masemann
Dara McLeod
Mark Morrison
Neil Morrison
Lynn Munkley
Max Paris
Leslie Peck
John Perry
Meagan Perry
Tina Pittaway
Catherine Porter
Jamie Purdon
Kevin Robertson
Thomas Rose
Neil Sandell
Harry Schachter
David Shannon
Robin Smythe
Ann Sullivan
Mark Ulster
Carlos Van Leeuwen
Talin Vartanian
Gordon Westmacott
MARY LOU FINLAY has had an illustrious thirty-five-year career in broadcasting in TV and radio for the CBC and CTV. She co-hosted Live It Up at CTV (1978–1981), and she helped launch the CBC primetime news programme The Journal in 1982. In 1988 she moved into radio to host Sunday Morning, and from 1997 to 2005, she co-hosted As It Happens. Mary Lou lives in Toronto.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2009
Copyright © 2008 Mary Lou Finlay
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic
or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer,
who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada
Limited, in 2009. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf
Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, in 2008.
Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of
Random House of Canada Limited.
www.randomhouse.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Finlay, Mary Lou
The As it happens files : radio that may contain nuts / Mary Lou Finlay.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37300-7
1. As it happens (Radio program). 2. Interviews—Canada. 3. Radio
journalism—Canada. 4. Finlay, Mary Lou. I. Title.
PN1991.77.A8F55
2009 791.44′72 C2009-900384-8
v3.0
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