Looking for Trouble: A Journalist's Life... and Then Some

Alexander Craig is a freelance journalist in Lennoxville, Quebec.

The book’s like the man. Right from the title (and the subtitle) one of Canada’s most experienced journalists comes out fighting, with all the aggressively charming pugnacity that he’s made his trademark. Whatever one thinks of the political views of the man, there can be no denying his verve and vigour.

There are some good black-and-white photos, but the book’s colour comes from the author’s racy style. We’re taken through his boisterous boyhood in Canadian arms camps and his wartime experiences at the end of World War II (he was born in 1927) and in Korea.

The body of the book, however, is his roving exploits as foreign correspondent for the Toronto Telegram from 1956 until its death in 1971. This takes us around the world, from Suez to Moscow, from Biafra to Dallas — he witnessed at close range Jack Ruby’s shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald — and many places and famous personalities in between.

When the Telegram died, the Sun rose. As its co-founder and editor, Worthington relished his high profile. He battled Trudeau, Clark, and any other dangerous leftists he saw hindering his robust definition of Canadian individual freedom. He goes over those struggles with gusto. He can be a trifle partisan.

Provided we keep in mind the author’s brazen, at times brash subjectivity, this book is a bracing, and occasionally engaging, experience.