Editor John Gleeson received the Jack Webster City Mike Award for Commentator of the Year Monday night at the annual gala in Vancouver that celebrates the best in B.C. journalism. These are his remarks upon accepting the award.
It’s a pleasure to be here and a real honour to receive the Jack Webster City Mike Award.
This one is a big deal for me in a way that I’ll briefly explain.
When I was a young lad, before I ever thought of becoming a journalist, my dad exposed me to one of his favourite pastimes – talk radio. Back in the ’70s I absorbed heavy doses of Pat Burns’ Hot Line, Ed Murphy’s Reaction Line and, of course, Jack Webster’s City Mike.
With vast audiences, those shows taught this future reporter many things. How to ask questions. When to listen. When to hang up. When to ask: “Yes, or no?” How to build an argument on a foundation of fact. What a bulletproof opinion sounded like. And perhaps most importantly, who these characters were working for.
Jack Webster’s obituary in Maclean’s said: “His manner was gruff with anyone who dithered when answering his tough questions, yet gracious with ordinary people who sought his help.”
Webster was more than a good reporter with a strong voice and a wealth of knowledge. He had a belief system. He was, to quote another Webster, Merriam-Webster, “a believer in the rights, wisdom or virtues of the common people.”
That’s the dictionary definition of a populist.
I mention this because populist these days has become a dirty word. The common people are supposedly not as compatible, or as admirable, or as trustworthy, or as worthy of respect as they used to be.
I think it’s healthy for us to challenge those assumptions.
Anyway, getting back to the life story part. In 1987, after working on and off as a reporter, I moved my young family out to the Prairies. I spent the next 25 years working at papers and newspaper groups in Manitoba and Alberta.
I would still be there, I’m pretty certain, if I hadn’t got a call six and a half years ago from the Sunshine Coast RCMP.
It was about my dad. He was found lying on the road near his home in Halfmoon Bay. He was in hospital in Sechelt, not in good shape. It was the ticker and I was the only next of kin.
I came back to B.C. because of my father. He approved of the move with one condition: I had to find work. Thanks to Peter Kvarnstrom sitting over there, I did, and I was able to stay close to my dad until he passed away last year at age 90.
So I’m not kidding when I say this Webster is a special one. I’d like to accept it in memory of my father, Frank P. Gleeson, who got me to listen to Burns and Murphy and Webster all those years ago, and I sincerely thank the Jack Webster Foundation for this once-in-a-lifetime honour.
