By Edith Cody-Rice
Canada has a deep wealth of accomplished writers and Whit Fraser is certainly one of them. A CBC reporter from 1967 to 1991, his perspective is significantly influenced by the extensive reporting he did while resident in northern Canada. This, his second memoir, consists of a series of short stories about events he covered, experiences as a reporter, then Chair of the Polar Commission and afterwards political advisor and executive director of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada culminating in his unique perspective on his years as the spouse of Mary Simon, Canada’s current governor general.
The Ragged Ass Road of the title is not a metaphor. It was a real road in Yellowknife during Mr. Simon’s tenure in the north and in the preface to the book, Mr. Fraser credits the discovery of the road sign 60 years later in rural Nova Scotia as the spark that brought forward the images and stories that he includes in this book.
Mr. Fraser takes us inside the fascinating stories he covered as a reporter and which many of us of a certain age recall from media coverage of the time. As I learned during my career as a CBC lawyer, there is always a story behind the news story, the details of which deepen the importance and frequently adjust our perspective on the news of the day.
Mr. Fraser traces his personal history from high school drop out in Nova Scotia to CBC journalist to senior executive in Arctic oriented organizations and finally to Rideau Hall as partner of a governor general. As a good reporter he brings his audience into the story with the colour and detail that put us at the scene. In his preface, he notes that “few reporters get the opportunity to stand at Canada’s four extremities: from Cape Spear in Newfoundland in the east to Komakuk Beach in the west, where Yukon meets Alaska on the shares of the Beaufort Seas, from most southerly Point Pelee in Ontario to the North Pole”. This book, he states, celebrates the extraordinary people and events that helped shape Canada.
He did get that opportunity and he does celebrate Canada in his recounting of stories that define the Canadian experience: the Justice Berger inquiry into the Mckenzie Valley pipeline of 1974-77, the runaway Russian satellite that crashed in the north in 1978, the Quebec separation referendum of May 1980,, the National Energy Program that so alienated Alberta in the 1980’s, the February 1972 plane crash in the Northwest territories that killed a nurse, a pregnant woman, and resulted in a 30 day wilderness ordeal in subzero temperatures for the pilot and an indigenous boy. Only the pilot survived. Mr. Fraser covered the failed indigenous negotiations around the patriation of the Canadian constitution, the fight of the Lubicon Cree nation for just treatment in their oil rich lands, the1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster that sullied the waters of Prince William Sound for a generation. He was there for them all and broadcast reports to Canada and the world.
It is evident that Mr. Fraser’s heart is in the north. He writes with great affection for the people of the north and recounts, with some indignation, their treatment by the governments, both provincial and federal.
Each story is devoted to a specific event, then to his perspective as a spouse of the GG and finally to his disappointment at the turn journalism has taken in this new social media era, with specific reference to the misleading and outright false coverage of his wife Mary Simon.
Mr. Fraser’s love and admiration for his spouse is evident throughout the book. Both had had earlier marriages, but knew each other in the north and eventually joined forces in t he 1990’s for an enduring relationship now lasting 30 years.
This book tells a tale, or rather tells tales that are significant to Canada from the perspective of an experienced northern “hand” whose life and career has been largely devoted to arctic related endeavors. As I learned from visiting the north several times during my CBC career, the north is a different country and culture, particularly before the advent of modern communications (television only came to the north in the 70’s) and it is largely misunderstood and frequently ignored by those of us who spend our entire lives within a few hundred miles of the US border. This book is a fascinating read and a corrective to that southern centered view of Canada.
Published by Douglas & McIntyre
216 pages
From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall is available from Mill Street Books in Ottawa
Whit Fraser will appear in conversation with Sharon Johnston at the Almonte branch of the Mississippi Mills Library on Thursday May 28, 6:30-8 pm
Registration for the event is available at https://mmpubliclibrary.libcal.com/event/4014890
