In memory

Ode to Peter Gzowski

By Ted Canakis

            On the last week of January 2002 Canada mourned the death of Peter Gzowski at age 67. As was expected, an unusual outpour of grief and sadness, shown only in exception circumstances, covered Canada as the news of Peter’s death spread from coast to coast. Old and young, men, women and children who knew Peter as a man, a writer, a broadcaster, or as the host of CBC’s This country in the morning or Morning side for some 15 years, mourned the death of a great Canadian.

            In a day long tribute to Peter Gzowski by the CBC, Sheila Rogers, his former assistant and now in charge of the Morning side hardly managed her own emotional outpour as she tried to console a distraught nation. People called to say something, to offer condolences, to say how Peter Gzowski touched or changed their life. Many cried. Those who knew Peter personally spoke of his humanity, his unique way to touch or even to change the life of many, especially of marginalized Canadians. The “uncle of the Nation”, as Allan Fotheringham of the Globe and Mail called Peter Gzowski, was dead.

            Peter Gzowski was an icon of the Canadian psyche; a genius for Canada reported the Globe and Mail although Peter did not even finish university. Rex Marphy of the CBC described Peter Gzowski as “a propagandist for Canada to the world” although he really traveled outside the country. Canada, is said, “was enough” for him, and some callers went as far as saying, “Peter was Canada”.

            Many other heart-felt calls were heard over the radio through the day and afterwards far too many to be included here. But just a few may give a measure of the collective feeling for the national loss.

            “We are losing our heroes”, one caller said with profound sadness. First Pierre Trudeau, then Mordecai Richler, now Peter Gzowski.

Peter “did move for Canada than any politician ever did”, said another.

            Peter “brought into our homes great Canadians we would have otherwise never met and made me a fierce Canadian”.

            Peter was a best friend to many Canadians. I felt welcomed to Canada as a new immigrant because of Peter.

            A disabled woman from Nova Scotia found in Peter a daily companion, a wonderful human being that filled my house with “joy and a purpose for living”.

            Finally, the president of CBC was asked what his estimate was for our National Loss: We “are losing nothing”, he retorted, because “what Peter gave will always be with us”.

            Peter Gzowski spent a lot of his energy promoting literally in Canada. He traveled to the far north to meet with the Aboriginal People, especially children. He read, sang and played with them, sometimes as another child, trying to see, as he once said, “the world through the child’s eyes”. He worked tirelessly to promote awareness for children’s rights and exposed children abuses in Canada.

            Peter wrote with a great taste, clarity and devotion to his ideals on many subjects. A conservative estimate ranks the number of his books to eleven. One of them, a best seller, The Morningside Papers is consistent with Peter’s worldview – that all people of the world have much in common and many of their problems are the same.

            In one of the chapters in his book, Peter explores the life, the problems and politics of the people of Greece. He visits the countryside and finds it to be abandoned by its young people who have flocked the big cities or emigrated abroad. He writes of the plight of the writers and intellectuals who struggle for survival and finally the clear distinction between the ancients and the moderns.

            Peter Gzowski was a Canadian with a global conscience that launched many people independent of colour or nationality and, like so many others, I am grateful to you, Peter, for all the joy and goodness I enjoyed either listening or reading your books.