Stuart McLean

A year ago yesterday was the death of Stuart McLean, author and radio broadcaster and Canadian icon:

“McLean’s trademark blend of storytelling — part nostalgia, part pithy observations about everyday life — and folksy, familiar delivery made him a hit with audiences for more than 20 years.”

When it happened, I wrote this on Facebook:

“A cassette of ‘Dave Cooks the Turkey‘ my aunt taped off of CBC is one of my earliest introductions to the power of radio storytelling.
“Years later, he was my first celebrity interview, when I was a student journalist. He was incredibly generous with his time, chatting for over an hour, mostly about music.
“He also invited me to the show he was promoting in Prince George, and we met backstage. My main memory of that was him being concerned about whether his socks matched his pants.
“He also told me I should listen to the Bicycles, which I did and fell in love with. So in his memory, a personal recommendation from the man who understood the power of audio”

And, on CBC itself, I wrote about one of his final performances, here in Prince George, in which he spoke about Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people. From that:

“We must remember, as we head off towards the next century, that the loudest voices are not necessarily the wisest.
“And so, I would say today as we toast the last 100 years, our toast should contain a certain humility. A modest acknowledgement of our stumbles and our quiet determination to try harder, to listen carefully, to be thoughtful of new ways, to be sure that we are on the right side of history.
“That is, to continue our coming together with open minds and hearts.
“And finally to ask ourselves from time to time how people will look back at us, 100 years from now.
“Will they say of us we were tolerant and enlightened?
“Will they say we did the right thing at the right time?
“Will they find people among us who stood firm and inched things forward, who made the world a better place?”

And finally, I had tears in my eyes a few weeks ago when I read this tribute from his “long-suffering” producer Jess Milton in the Walrus. There’s a lovely story in there about him becoming obsessed with telling the story of a man who, as a child, fell over Niagara Falls and lived, but only with his permission. And of his final performance, in a Halifax arena, ending with a sea of lights. And this:

“Over the years, we got a lot of flak for our show being saccharine. It was a valid criticism. But it wasn’t an act. That is how Stuart lived. That is how he saw the world. He wasn’t ashamed of that. He didn’t apologize for it. When he hired me, I was fresh out of journalism school. I knew nothing, or nothing about producing a successful national radio show. But I saw the world the same way he did. And he gave me permission to own that. He gave me permission to see the good. Always.”

The radio isn’t the same without him.