He has been deplored in the Ontario Legislature
as a "flatulent blatherer" and hailed on the same day by literary
critics as ".a national icon, the top of the literary pantheon!"
He has been booed, hissed, and applauded all in the course
of a single speech. Oh, he deserves it all; but there
is method to his madness. Allan Fotheringham, Vicki
Gabereau, Betty Kennedy, Lister Sinclair, June
Callwood and Jack McClelland all explain the methodology
and the man behind the brash juggernaut with the razor tipped
pen.
The Berton family gives us more food for thought - a candid
look at the private Pierre, the prima dona, the father, the
husband, the wild piano playing grandpa. Definitely
not the "Scourge of Bay Street" or the "National Scold" we
are all so familiar with.
At 78, Pierre is revealing and self-deprecating - "Maybe
I used to be unnecessarily mean. I once told a columnist
working for me that I had to re-write his column just so I
could throw it out.I'm not like that any more.".
The show follows Berton's path from the shores of the Yukon
in 1920 to the back steps of his Kleinburg home in 1998.
At the end of the trip you'll have a new understanding about
how circuitous the path really was and maybe even a new appreciation
for the word "arrogant." You will certainly have a better
understanding of "Canada's Arrogant Icon."
Original Air Date - January 11, 1999
Pierre Berton died of heart failure in Toronto on November
30, 2004. He was 84.
Links
Author
Pierre Berton dies at 84 (CBC.ca)
Indepth
Biography: Pierre Berton (CBC.ca)
Pierre
Berton: Icon and Iconoclast (CBC Archives)
The
Writers Union of Canada
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