The Canadian Association of Journalists has named its top award for Investigative Journalism after Don McGillivray, a leading political and economics journalist of his generation, and a great contributor to the founding of the CAJ and its predecessor. He died in 2003. Some may think it strange that the CAJ should name its top award for investigative journalism after Don McGillivray. After all, he wasn't that kind of reporter in any of the ways we consider it today. Most of what he wrote about was on the public record, he seldom, if ever, relied on secret sources, and I am not aware that he ever had any plain brown envelopes slid over his transom or under his door. His great talent was in dealing with facts and getting it straight. He knew as much or more about his subjects - economics and the Canadian Parliamentary system - than most journalists, and certainly more than many politicians. He put that knowledge, and his penchant for getting at the meaning of things, to the service of his readers in lean, clean prose that made the arcane business of government comprehensible to all. It was that ability to get at the facts, and report them clearly, that caused Denis Harvey, who had his own distinguished career with Southams, the Toronto Star and the CBC, to declare in a moment of exuberance that "Don McGillivray is the best goddam reporter in the world." Another reason for readers' trust, I believe, was that he never let himself get in the way of what he was talking about - he kept himself out of his copy. Tim Creery, in his eulogy last year, remembered one memorable exception. " Don nearly always kept himself off the scene that he was writing about," Tim said.  "But in one column, written in November 1988, he came on stage with such force and feeling that I am still bowled over by it.    'Whenever I get home to the Prairies, I feel again the strength of the bonds with my own place on this earth.   'Winter is now marching across the great northern plains.  Calgary glows in the November sunshine.  Swirls of snow dance down Edmonton's Jasper Avenue.  Ice flowers hurry down the North Saskatchewan.   'The tug at the heart of these familiar sights and of the broad brown countryside comes as a small surprise.  In the fevered pace of Ottawa politics, I tend to forget who I am and what I am.  Back in my own part of the world, I find the links stronger, not weaker, with passing time.   'To outsiders, the land of my birth seems a harsh, bleak country.   'I was a ragged little Depression kid with grit in my teeth and the relentless wind in my ears.  My father toiled on a barren quarter-section in the sandy hills southwest of Moose Jaw.  He never made a living at it and we were forced to rely on welfare - "direct relief" in those days - for necessities.        'We were dirt farmers but we weren't dirt' As that tells you, he was very much a child of the Depression and - as with many who were formed in those times - it never left him. He remembered the poverty: going around the pasture to collect dry cow pies, so they could be dried out further on the oven door and ultimately used as fuel for the stove. For ever after, he cared about the downtrodden and he was always concerned that public policy should serve ordinary folks. In line with that, he abhorred the sometimes-cosy relationships between journalists and politicians that were a feature of the time. A long-time member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, he was once banned from its annual dinner for reporting and then inciting others to report the traditional bad behaviour and humorous speeches of invited public figures. The dinner is now regularly reported. He carried that over to his feelings about the profession of journalism: he cared deeply about it, and believed that it must serve the public good. Thus he was an early member of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, and earnest younger members met regularly at his house to discuss their projects.  He was a leader, of course, in changing the organization's name to the Canadian Association of Journalists. His idea that it embrace all journalists wanting to do good work was vigorously opposed by many investigative activists. They feared a watering down of the mission. Most, however, now see the CAJ has become a formidable force for good journalism, and a vigorous defender of freedom of information and the public's right to know. He was an early president and was the life-giving treasurer for about a decade after that. Wendy McLellan, CAJ president in the early '90s, recalls: "His very brief financial reports to the board invariably ended with a quip about how we weren't completely broke. Yet. "It was always a delicate dance, and when things became too tight occasionally, Don was known to write a cheque to keep the CAJ afloat. "He was devoted to the organization and a strong supporter of Canadian journalism. Don was always collegial at the board table, but when he felt strongly about an issue, he would not be swayed." He was also a fine teacher. For more than a decade and a half, he drilled journalism students in the complexities of economics and public finance - eight years at Concordia and 15 at Carleton. Although most students approached these subjects with great apprehension, they loved his course - they knew it was important, but he made it interesting. Many have carried on his tradition: getting it right, and caring about the reader. And care he did, for more than 45 years. After a career that ran from Regina through Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and overseas, he returned to Southam News in Ottawa as National Economics Editor (1975 - 1984) and National Political and Economic Columnist (1985 - 1995). He won two National Business Writing awards and the Plain English Award (from the Canadian Council of Teachers of English). Even after retirement, he wrote twice a week for Southams, and an editorial for Financial Times (of London), and continued a brisk teaching load at Carleton. We normal folks can but wonder: prolific journalist, teacher, activist - how did he do all this in just one lifetime of 76 years? Tim Creery explained it: " ...  if you were to measure his life in waking hours rather than years, he lived a great deal longer, since he needed only four hours sleep a night and never seemed to spend an idle hour.   He also had an astonishing memory - give him a tag line of classical poetry and he could reel off the whole poem for you.  "But these and other exceptional characteristics would have meant little on their own: it was the way Don put them to use that mattered.   He seemed devoted to using every minute God gave him to the best advantage of family, friends, work and associations, the church, his quest for the truth about life's complexities, and voyages of discovery of many kinds." That - and Denis Harvey's exuberance - tell us something about his contribution to journalism and to public debate of the public's business. It was left to Charlie Bury, longtime chair of the CAJ board, to explain Don's impact on the CAJ, and thus the profession. "Don gave three things to the CAJ," Charlie told Don's children at the May conference in Vancouver. "He gave it leadership, he gave it money - but most of all, he gave it soul." It is for this that we will remember him - now, and at each annual gathering when we honour the best of our best. - - -

Don McGillivray embodied many characteristics prized by investigative journalists. by Lindsay Crysler

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