by HEATHER CAMPBELL
Special to Whitewater News
BEACHBURG — Roy MacGregor was the guest of honour at St. Andrew’s United Church in Beachburg Friday evening.
Even though late because of Mother Nature deciding we needed more winter with dangerous driving conditions, anyone in that assembled audience on Friday, March 24 would tell you he was worth the wait. They also might mention that, totally unplanned, a few of The Valley Harmonizers, who were present in the audience banded together and musically entertained us during the wait. It was just a taste of the full concert coming on Sunday, May 7.
If you are a follower of Roy MacGregor’s journaling, who has been a Globe and Mail columnist since 2002 as well as writing for The National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Maclean’s and The Toronto Star, or have read any of his 50 books, you know that he is one of Canada’s best storytellers.
His dad grew up in Eganville and Roy was born in Whitney, grew up in Huntsville and now lives in Kanata. Besides enjoying writing, his passion is canoeing and often that is the subject of his writing. He has canoed on many of Canada’s rivers — Muskoka, Red, Bow, Fraser, Gatineau, Mackenzie, Don and our own Ottawa – just to name a few.
Roy enthusiastically supported the movement to have our Ottawa River declared a Heritage River. As he says, without the Ottawa River there would have been no Canada.
Roy regards rivers as a place to escape. Canoeing, in his opinion, is a spiritual experience. It is quiet and peaceful and there is a communing with nature. He lamented about the lack of outdoor experience and of physical education for our young people. Roy said that if he were in charge, a canoe trip would be mandatory for kids today.
Roy shared some of his extensive knowledge about each of the rivers and during the question period answered inquiries pertaining to such things as the rivers, related history, journalism, Tom Thomson, Algonquin Park, canoeing and hockey. When questioned about kayaking, which is so prevalent here in our area, he says he owns two kayaks and he realizes that kayaking is outstripping canoeing but says, compared to a canoe, a kayak is a pain to portage!
Roy talked about working with our former Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he wrote his book A Great Game. He also spoke extensively about the CBC’s 2007 contest “The Seven Wonders of Canada” for which he agreed to be one of the three judges.
In his latest book “Canoe Country: The Making of Canada”, his interesting 16-page introduction is all about his experience with that contest. CBC’s radio audience had been invited to send in their submissions for a national list of wonders, They were overwhelmed with 25,000 suggestions. That was painstakingly pared down to 50 and then the rest was left for the three judges who cut it down to 15 and then laboured over reducing it to seven that would be known as “The Seven Wonders of Canada”.
The fact that the radio audience could vote on the selections but the judges did not have to agree caused great concern. According to Roy, he even received death threats when he was not in favour of the “Sleeping Giant” of Thunder Bay being the winner. It had received the most votes but was not in the seven selected by the judges.
In order they were, the canoe, the igloo, Niagara Falls, Old Quebec City, Pier 21 (Halifax), Prairie Skies and The Rockies. He told us briefly why he was in favour of the canoe and what it had meant to Canada’s exploration and development from the earliest times to now. You can read that again in more detail in his book.
Ticket sale receipts from this event are directed to the Accessibility Fund. For several years, St. Andrew’s United Church has been fundraising to put in a lift because of the problematic stairs both at the front entrance and within. We appreciated having Beachburg’s own Mark Stevenson (now a Toronto resident) as the emcee for the evening. He and Roy are well-known to each other, Mark having been the editor-in-chief for many years of Maclean’s magazine, an editor of which Roy speaks highly.
No evening at St. Andrew’s is complete without refreshments. What a feast! The outlay of mainly homemade decadent desserts was unsurpassed. There was also great fellowship enjoyed around the tables and some folks had brought books to be autographed by Roy.
Everyone went home with both food for thought, thanks to Roy, and a satisfied appetite, thanks to our cooks!
