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THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE HAS APPEARED IN THE RECORD December 31, 2002

Five years as a columnist and
still counting



Last month marked my 5th year as a columnist for the Record and would you know, I am as surprised as I am proud that our association lasted this long. After all, my weekly column can hardly be qualified as entertainment orientated or "user friendly ". I never did find a way to liven it up with a healthy dose of lifestyle, gossip and scandal reporting.


The mere fact that it is still being published even though it may not correspond to today's media marketing preferences is in itself quite significant. I like to believe that it has a lot to do with the Record's ideology to try and provide the readers with food for thought and not just to keep them informed.


As for attributing my drive in churning out my weekly prose because of what the Record pays me - forget it. Had I decided to return to private practice I could have earned a heck of a lot more in the time it takes to research and write each column.

Although I've written over 260 columns for the Record I won't pretend that they are getting any easier to produce. Yes, there are times when the ideas and words still flow with little or no effort but there are also days when trying to find the right words can be as painful as watching paint dry.

Could it be that I'm driven by a desire to seek fame and glory? If by chance I've gained a large following it has to be one of the best-kept secrets. Judging from the feedback, my columns pleased some and angered others. Either way it proved that they were being read. As for the letters to the editor, which publicly took me to task, I consider them as one of the occupational hazards that go with the job. Keep in mind that I was also well trained. Any trial lawyer who can't learn to cope with his share of public criticism might just as well change professions, all the more for a prosecutor, whose decisions are constantly being questioned.



While I may have learned as an attorney to talk up a storm and to shoot by the hip, neither one of these attributes made my writing any easier. This is not to say they never played a role when it came to selecting many of the subjects that had little or nothing to do with my legal expertise, quite the contrary.

To put it bluntly, I'm convinced more then ever that to be a columnist it is imperative to have a pretty strong ego. Without one, how is a columnist supposed to believe that his readers care about what he thinks? It also helps to believe that you have all of the right solutions. Fortunately for most columnists that isn't a problem. The ones I know of, even those who are not vain or pompous, invariably think they are blessed with a privileged insight of the world.

The psychological dynamics in writing a column have to be far reaching. If the mere belief that one has all the solutions to the problems of the world justifies the raising of an eyebrow or two, what about the need to put the solutions in writing, which all columnists have, for everyone to read, praise and criticize?

While I may sound like a columnist -basher, I'm not. When I look back on some of my own columns I can't help but recognize the very same pattern. I became an overnight specialist in politics, health-care, judges and psychology, to name only a few. I too rarely lacked in criticism and solutions.

Some of my titles are quite revealing. "Health Minister Allan Rock missed his cue", "Joe Clark: From Joe Who to Joe Why", "When a prime minister lobbies a bank president", " Did Justice Boilard make the right decision?" "Perjury could be Bill Clinton's Waterloo" and just recently ," Improving public health care through private sector" .

Does this mean that I feel some sense of shame? Of course not! To begin with, even with the passage of time I never considered myself as a journalist and still don't - the reason being that I don't really write for the purpose of providing news. Whenever I ranted and raved over issues that bothered me, I naturally hoped that you would agree with me. Even if you didn't, as long as I made you aware of the issues and got you to think about them, I accomplished a useful service.

So what was the driving force that kept me writing all these years? The simple fact is that I happen to enjoy writing on a whole range of subjects. But there is more. Retirement convinced me that too much leisure can be as destructive as too much work. I look back and realize that in seeking the right balance, this column provided an ideal outlet for my so-called "creative juices" as well as a great opportunity to continue learning.

To top it off, no matter where I travel, all I need is my laptop and access to a telephone line.

Until we meet again in 2003, allow me to wish you all the happiness and good health during the holiday season and throughout the new year.

One final wish deserves to be expressed, now more than ever: Peace on Earth, good will toward men.