Canada and Other Matters of Opinion By Rex Murphy
Rex Murphy has been called Canada’s most opinionated man. Whether you love or hate him, you have to agree that he is by turns amusing, incisive, exasperating, and always entertaining. A versatile writer and broadcaster, Murphy is equally at home with every type of news media. He’s a weekly commentator on CBC TV’s The National, appears as a columnist in the Globe and Mail newspaper, and is the host of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup. His new book “Canada and Other Matters of Opinion” contains a collection of columns and essays written over the past six years.
“Canada and Other Matters of Opinon” is organized loosely by topic. Columns about Don Cherry, Peter C. Newman, Michaelle Jean, and Rick Hillier appear under the heading of Eminent Canadians. Murphy, a self-described “Newfoundlander biting at the heels of Canadian conservatism”, doesn’t hold back when expressing his views and politicians are one of his favourite targets. He’s also equally at home skewering Canadians and Americans. In the section entitled Scandal, Murphy juxtaposes a column on Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York who was forced out office after being implicated in a prostitution ring, with one on Maxime Bernier, the Canadian Foreign Minister who left important documents at the home of his girlfriend who had links to the Hells Angels. Murphy observes that “Mr. Bernier, as numerous photo ops concur, acted more like a high school kid parading his cheerleader date than a high officer of the Canadian state.”
Politicians aren’t the only people to suffer from Murphy’s barbed wit. Here’s Murphy’s take on movie star Pamela Anderson’s first novel: “I know that this will be a heartbreaking work of staggering exposition, as transparent as wind, as still of mind as a tranquillized sheep”. That the novel is entitled “Star” and Anderson unabashedly admits that it was ghostwritten only add to Murphy’s glee.
Some of the other topics in the book include Canadian Identity, Human Rights, Literature, War on Terror, Canada and the US, and Newfoundland. Whether he’s writing about the folly of Starbucks or praising Tim Horton’s, Murphy writes in his distinctive voice from a uniquely Canadian perspective.
The Library’s online catalogue is available on the internet at www.city.kawarthalakes.on.ca/library and allows you to place a hold on any item in the system.
Linda Kent is the Chief Librarian at the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library
