Whit Fraser chronicles journey from northern reporter to Rideau Hall

When Whit Fraser published his first memoir, True North Rising, in 2023, he and his editor walked into the old Ben McNally Books store on Toronto’s Bay Street. They had a bundle of copies, a hope and a prayer.

“Mr. McNally didn’t know me from a hole in the ground,” Fraser recalled Thursday evening at the new Ben McNally Books, on Queen Street East. “I put the books on the counter and asked him if he would take some. And he said, ‘I’ll take them all. Leave them right there.’”

This was the first of a dozen tales the former CBC broadcaster and husband of Gov. Gen. Mary Simon told an audience of 40 people who stopped in for the Toronto launch of his latest book, From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall. The “sweeping memoir,” as described by publisher Douglas & McIntyre, was published April 21 and chronicles the “stories he reported on up close, but never fully had the chance to tell until now.”

“Thank God for Yellowknife, because there is a Ragged Ass Road,” Fraser said during his book launch Thursday evening. “Many times I used it to capture the character and colour of Yellowknife.” (Photo by David Venn)

But first: the title. Rupert McNally, co-manager of the venue, said some customers can’t bring themselves to utter its name. “Can I get the new Whit Fraser?” they ask.

“Thank God for Yellowknife, because there is a Ragged Ass Road,” Fraser said. “Many times I used it to capture the character and colour of Yellowknife.”

Fraser spoke for about an hour, during which he shared highlights from his life and career.

In 1984, about 10,000 caribou drowned on Caniapiscau River in Nunavik. “Because an editor said, ‘Go,’” Fraser was on a Cessna within 90 minutes.

He also mentioned the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, when up to 760,000 barrels contaminated Prince William Sound near Alaska.

“The difficulty, as all reporters and producers will appreciate, is how you build around that and not have a book of only death and disaster,” he said. “So I had to reach for some of the warm stories.”

His anecdotes lightened when he described his wife receiving calls from the prime minister’s office. In September 2022, for example, he met former hockey star Frank Mahovlich when he and Simon hosted Team Canada’s 1972 Summit Series roster. “Always the gentleman,” Hall of Fame goaltender and former MP Ken Dryden watched the ringette highlights of a girl who sat beside him at dinner.

After Fraser’s prepared remarks on Thursday, he took questions from the crowd of mostly friends and family.

“Do you still have a place in Kuujjuaq?” a man asked.

“No,” Fraser said. “But we go back and sponge off the relatives and pick the berries.”

“What [do] you think the future is for northern Canada …with the imperialistic Americans?” a woman asked.

“I think we’re going to make it through, obviously,” he said. “More than ever, the government recognizes its own northern reality: people live there.” He believes the investments in national security will improve facilities in communities “that are in dire need of advanced internet technology.”

In an interview, Fraser opened up about what it will be like moving out of Rideau Hall, the governor general’s official residence in Ottawa, now that Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed Louise Arbour as the King’s next representative in Canada.

He and Simon plan to continue pursuing their interests. For Fraser, that means writing. For Simon? “You’ll wait for that.”

“I can only say this: that she’s going to be very focused on a legacy that deals with mental health.”

As he typed away at his novel Cold Edge of Heaven, his 10-year-old white Labrador, Neva, laid beside or beneath his messy desk in their spacious upstairs apartment at 1 Sussex Dr.

As he finishes the sequel, which he says is two-thirds complete, his process will mostly involve dictation. Last summer, his eyesight started to go, due to macular degeneration. He even struggled to finish From Ragged Ass Road to Rideau Hall.

“The last chapter, every time I wrote, I made the font bigger,” he said with a laugh. “And I made more typos.”

For him, it’s yet another story.