Remembering Peter Gzowski: A Book of Tributes

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Shelagh Rogers’s very personal introduction sets the tone for a warm
and lively set of recollections and anecdotes about a person who will
not be forgotten by anyone who listened to Canadian radio in the last
third of the 20th century. Once editor Edna Barker had set to work, word
went out across Canada and stories began to pour in from around the
country.

Barker describes herself as “lucky and blessed” to have been
Peter’s book editor for close to 20 years. His last five books were
Selected Columns from Canadian Living (1993), The Morningside Papers
(1994), The Morningside Years, (1997), Friends, Moments, Countryside
(1998), and A Peter Gzowski Reader (2001). Barker and Gzowski were
kindred souls, and both considered his hosting CBC Radio’s Morningside
(from 1982 to 1997) to be “the best job in the country.”

Regarded as Canada’s best-known broadcaster, Gzowski was also a
strong advocate for literacy, and through his annual golf tournament,
the Peter Gzowski Invitational, raised millions of dollars to support
the cause. Over the years he was the recipient of many lifetime
achievement awards and 12 honorary doctorates. His death, at the age of
67 in 2002, was marked by front-page articles across Canada. Listeners
who loved Gzowski’s three-hour live Morningside show now have a void
in their lives. Barker’s generous serving of anecdotes may help, just
a little, to fill the gap.