VANCOUVER – As it’s year’s end and I’m on hiatus from the interview program, I figured it apt to reflect on the program and what’s been wrought.

This year, 171 interviews were produced for this website, of which all but three I conducted.

I’m not a professional journalist, nor have I been trained as one. I began the interview program as a bit of a lark five years ago to see what it would be like interviewing people and conducting conversations on the small and big issues of the day. I’d come to it with a great appreciation of interviewing and the art of the conversation.

I’m a steady listener of Don Imus and a lot of how my interviews are constructed—the mannerisms are copped from him. For example, my introductions will end with, ‘Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, John Smith; Good morning, Mr. Smith.’ As well, Imus’s interviews, when he was on CBS Radio and MSNBC would be about twenty minutes in length. I strive for about the same length, give or take a two or three minutes.

I remain an admirer of interviewers like Jack Paar and Dick Cavett. They’re two great personalities to learn from. Their interviews on DVD are fun to watch as well as instructive. One could also do no wrong emulating Charlie Rose. His format is that which I covet: a long form interview on a sparse set, that’s all about the conversation. As well, Rose is a fine interviewer because he’s knowledgeable and interested in a wide variety of subjects. He can have Richard Holbrooke on to talk about the Middle East, while the next guest might be Angelina Jolie about her new movie.

Early on, two influences were Rafe Mair and the late Tim Russert. When it came to political interviews they were terrific. They were tough and dogged. I’d also read Lawrence Grobel’s books in preparation, as well as books by Steve Allen.

In this country the three finest interviewers are Eleanor Wachtel, Steve Paikin, and Ken Rockburn. I like them because they’re very smart, yet they’re unpretentious. They also make asking questions seem easy. They’ve been on the program and I’ve learned a great deal from them. They are also talented in that they make subjects I wouldn’t necessarily find interesting, captivating. More often than not, I’ll find myself listening to Wachtel on CBC Radio’s Writers and Company talking about something I wouldn’t have found myself tuning into in the first place. And the same with Rockburn and Paikin, who make their guests captivating to watch. Rockburn has such vast interests himself, and reflected them on his CPAC program. It was also fun to see what pin he had on that show. Paikin is such an amiable fellow with a great countenance that he’s a relief to watch. He makes interviews look so damned effortless, he’s easy to envy. He is also right down-the-middle when it comes to his interviews, so good that he’s regularly called upon to moderate the federal leaders’ debates. He’s also one of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered.

In the five years since the beginning of what is now the Planta: On the Line program, I’ve interviewed authors and journalists, politicians and newsmakers, thinkers and philosophers, poets and other artists. It’s been fun, but it’s also a lot of work. There’s a great deal of reading, note-taking, and a bit of writing.

The guiding principle of the program is curiosity, and not necessarily the audiences, rather my own. I hope you see through the guests and what’s discussed what I’m interested in. I still haven’t done a program on Frank Sinatra or the sitcom The Office, or an appreciation of Jack Benny. I would love to have someone on to discuss Churchill, The Sopranos, even Margaret Thatcher. But generally, I’m curious about the debate surrounding global warming; I follow politics; and I enjoy hearing about the writing process, among other things.

If there’s anything that sustains the program, it’s the willingness of people to come on as guests. I’ve been very fortunate to have people agree to come on, as well on occasion people who offer themselves up as guests. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the many publicists who are in regular contact, submitting recommendations for guests.
A good thing about this enterprise being non-commercial is that I don’t have a regular schedule, though I’ve gone on extended breaks during the summer. I have the great luxury of having guests on I want to have on, and not having to book someone who I’m not enthusiastic about because I have air to fill.

Looking back at the interviews I’ve done in 2009, I have favourites. But looking at the list, I’m pleased to say I haven’t regretted any of them. In fact, I’ve learned something from all of them.

My conversation with Christopher Buckley stands out. The Globe and Mail’s Ian Brown, who is such a great writer, made me laugh and weep when I talked to him about his memoir on his son, Walker. David Grann from The New Yorker on his remarkable book The Lost City of Z is one that I remember fondly. David Finkel from The Washington Post talking about his book The Good Soldiers is one that I think about often. I remember with a smile, Jane Christmas talking about her mum, who she wrote about in Incontinent on the Continent. And of course, the interview with Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon about his wonderful memoir Manhood for Amateurs was a delight to do.

There are the good friends of the program who’ve been great about coming on: Rona Maynard, Paul Willcocks, Michael Klassen from CityCaucus.com, Sean Holman of Public Eye Online, Judi Tyabji, George Froehlich from the Savvy Insider, David Berner, David Schreck, Jim Taylor, Michael Kwan, Mike McCardell, Sean Cranbury, and of course the most frequent guest on the show, Rafe Mair. They’ve become audience favourites.

There are some fascinating and talented people I’d like to have on or on again when I return to the program. People like Stephen Hunt, Douglas Todd from the Vancouver Sun, Darren Barefoot, Craig Crawford, Mark Hasiuk, Charlie Smith from the Georgia Straight, Charles Demers, Craig Norris, Warren Kinsella, Dave Gerry, Chris Gailus, and Rachel Marsden, among many others.

And then there’s the audience. Modestly, I have to admit it’s great fun to see the hit counter to the website and see the numbers who are listening. I do the program for myself, but I’m glad someone out there is getting something from it.

Happy New Year, all.

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VANCOUVER – In less than a week, I’ll find myself on a long haul flight. It’s not the destination that worries me, rather it’s the journey. I’m not enthusiastic about the several hours I’ll be flying, and so I’ve sought advice from regular travellers like Rafe Mair and Rona Maynard. They have both suggested reading mid-air.

I am not a productive reader. Perhaps because I have to read a great deal to prepare for my interviews, I don’t read for leisure. I’m also not a fast reader, which puts me off reading more than anything else. It heartened me a bit when the great Eleanor Wachtel told me in an interview recently that she too was a slow reader.

I also have the habit of re-reading books I enjoy. Now there`s nothing wrong with that, however it does paralyse me from reading books that I ought to or should. I do the same with movies. I`m loathe to start a picture I’ve never seen, yet can easily watch Superbad or About a Boy whenever it’s rerun on television.

The combination of sheer boredom and close quarters on this forthcoming flight affords me the chance to get a great deal of reading done. I`ve been ransacking my brain as to what to pack.

As a book buyer and sort of collector, I tend to favour hard cover editions of books over what`s called trade paperback versions in the book business. I find they stand up better on the shelf, and the spines don’t wear out visibly as the softer covers. As carry-on items on a plane however, in light of events of recent days, it doesn`t seem viable to be lugging around many hardbacks. Rona Maynard says she packs up to four books on the flight, as well as a couple of magazines bought at the airport. Stuff lying around the house won`t cut it, as it`ll bore, since it’s likely sat atop a coffee table for some weeks.

Another consideration as to what to pack has to do with the possibility that I might lose or leave the book behind. As such, it`s gotta be a book I`m prepared to not return with. And I would admittedly be heartsick if I lost a hard cover that I spent nearly forty bucks on.

A favourite is Tony Hendra`s Father Joe. It’s my favourite book, one I go to regularly. I try and read it at Lent, and perhaps around Christmas. I`m due to read it again, and this flight would be ideal. I don`t own a soft cover version, and I`ve already lost one hardcover to a loan, so I`m really hesitant about taking this along. I suppose I could read the posthumous George Carlin memoir, Last Words, which Hendra co-wrote. It`s a hard cover, with no trade paperback out yet, so I might not want to bring that. I`ve always loved Carlin (and Hendra too for that matter), so I don`t think I`d want my collection at home to be without this book.

Earlier this year, Stephen Hunt from the Calgary Herald said that the Rick Pearlstein book Nixonland would be a book I`d like. I bought the soft cover this past summer, and have yet to read it. On the list it goes.

I recently heard Wayson Choy on the radio talking about the Jade Peony. I read it in high school, and since it`s a Canada Reads finalist, perhaps it`s time to read it again. Perhaps because I was born and raised in Canada, even though my parents are Filipino, I have little connection to my roots. Choy, a Canadian born in Vancouver of Chinese ancestry has long struggled with his cultural identity in his writing, so perhaps it might be an interesting read. Or maybe his memoir All that Matters would be more apt.

Another book on my desk is the remarkable Vancouver Special by Charles Demers. I recounted the story on the program recently about how I sought the book out the weekend after it came out, and went of all places to the People`s Co-op Bookstore on Commercial Drive. A friend apprised of my political dispositions suggested that my shirts were perhaps a tad too starched for such an establishment. I`d love to bring Vancouver Special along, but I`m scared I`ll lose it on the trip, as it is simply too great a book not to have. It is such a wonderful love letter to Vancouver. Perhaps I should pack it along to combat homesickness?

I`ve considered packing some fiction along. I don`t read novels, despite having had some pretty big time writers on the program. I simply don`t have the imagination for reading a novel, and some idle hours over the Pacific Ocean would be good to catch up on some fiction. Rona Maynard suggested some light fiction conducive to interruptions. Maybe a collection of short stories? What about Alice Munro`s recent book? Would Mordecai Richler`s Barney`s Version be good for my situation? I`ve always wanted to read it. Then again, I`m tempted to go with what I know and what I`ve already read, and one I`m considering bringing is Nam Le`s The Boat.

My colleague Sean Cranbury did a great interview with Shinan Govani about his novel, Bold Face Names. I might bring that, along with the new Jeannette Walls book, Half Broke Horses. I really liked her last book, The Glass Castle.

It`s not the humidity, the language, the culture, the water, or the food that worries me about this trip. It`s what to bring along to read. Thinking about the situation, it`s not a bad bind to be in. Clearly proof yet again (if I ever needed it to begin with), that there`s no shortage of good reading out there.

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VANCOUVER – A few weeks ago, Sean Holman, the talented and prodigious editor of Public Eye Online was on the program to discuss the year that was and the year to come in provincial politics. We got to talking movies, when I’d asked him if he’d seen State of Play, the fine American film based on the British miniseries of the same name. He suggested two other films: The Candidate and Shattered Glass.

This got me thinking about what films had the best depictions of politics, media, journalism and the writing process. I came up with a few, and limited myself to twenty which seemed a workable number. Twenty favourites, as it were.

Of course the list is subjective, and is in no particular order. I suspect if I ever get to watching Dr. Strangelove, or The Front Page, or Bob Roberts, or Silver City, they might be added to the list, perhaps even bumping off something already here. There’s nothing on this list that was made for television, otherwise the House of Cards trilogy would be here, as well as the original British miniseries State of Play, The Thick of It, The West Wing, and of course, the Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister tandem.

Perhaps Mr. Holman or others would like to add to or debate my choices.

State of Play is a great thriller, and I say that despite seeing the original British miniseries. Russell Crowe is believable as a hard driving journalist, delivering an idealistic and realistic portrayal with a serviceable American accent. Helen Mirren keeps her accent and almost makes us forget Bill Nighy in the original miniseries. Ben Affleck plays equal to Crowe in this picture, and is terrific as a congressman whose life is seemingly unravelling.

A few years ago, Stanley Tucci won an Emmy for playing Walter Winchell in an HBO drama on the life of the famed columnist who was feared and revered for his uncanny ability of making or breaking careers in show business and politics, simply by a mention in one of his awfully stylish columns. That film is a favourite of mine, but the best depiction of Winchell is that which Burt Lancaster provides in Sweet Smell of Success. Although, it’s not Winchell per se, the columnist Lancaster plays, J.J. Hunsecker, is as complex as Winchell. Sweet Smell of Success is such a stylish film from its era of the late 1950s. It’s still sharp, dynamic and some of the lines delivered in the film are immortal.

All the President’s Men is such a good film on many levels. It was the first dramatisation of the Watergate scandal, and features Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. It won Jason Robards an Oscar for his portrayal of their editor Ben Bradlee. And it unquestionably inspired a generation of reporters and journalists. It’s considered the Watergate movie, yet it’s an incomplete view of the scandal that brought down Nixon, as it didn’t feature, as Colby Cosh has written, “any special prosecutors, federal judges, the FBI, or the Congress of the United States.”

Nothing But the Truth is a recent film, not as high profile as State of Play, despite some star turns from Kate Beckinsdale, Matt Dillon, and Alan Alda. Its story is similar to the Joe and Valerie Wilson/CIA leak investigation, where journalist Judith Miller went to prison for refusing to name a source. Beckinsdale plays a journalist in similar circumstances, and despite not being a dramatisation of the Wilson case, it’s a fantastic drama about freedom of the press and the disclosure of sources, the court system, and the American constitution.

Network written by Paddy Chayefsky is a great film that came out the same year as All the President’s Men. It’s a wonderful view on to the media landscape as it was in the mid-1970s. It’s interesting to watch now, as we see how much more of the media world is concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations, how audiences are fickle, and how saturated our media is. It’s amazing to see how prescient Network is, despite it having some satirical elements. The magnificent performances from Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway (both Oscar winners), and William Holden are not to be missed.

Advise and Consent is perhaps the finest depiction of the United States Senate and its role in American governance. My favourite performance in this film is that of Charles Laughton, who in his last film performance plays an senator who virulently opposes the nomination of a liberal academic, Henry Fonda, to being the next secretary of state. From director Otto Preminger, it is a striking view of politics in the 1960s as it’s set at the height of the Cold War, as well as distinct as it depicts sex frankly as never before. Its senate is also unique in that it features a female senator played by Betty White, and a black senator, who had Preminger had his way would have been played by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Candidate, one of Sean Holman’s favourites, is a great movie. It shows the improbably idealistic candidacy of the scion of a prominent senator. A young Mike Barnicle plays a reporter in one scene. Robert Redford is the candidate, and we see him mature throughout the film. There were reports of a follow up to this film, and I hope they’ll make it because I’d like to know what happened to McKay.

There is a remake of All the King’s Men that starred Sean Penn and James Gandolfini, however I haven’t seen it. I do like the first movie from 1949 which starred Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, and won the best picture Oscar of that year. (Crawford and McCambridge also won Oscars.) Crawford plays a southerner who seeks the governor’s office in the vein of Huey Long. The similarities are clear, and the performances are tremendous. The view onto southern politics of the era is worthwhile.

Occasionally Dave is played on cable, and it’s great to watch time and again. Kevin Kline turns in a great performance, arguably underrated, as an ordinary guy who because of his uncanny physical similarities to the president of the United States, is hired to take on some public duties as the real president would rather fool around with a mistress. Dave walks out of buildings and into waiting cars for the president, waving at crowds and completing other superficial tasks until the real president is taken ill. Rather than invoke the 23rd amendment, the chief of staff played by Frank Langella decides to continue with Dave as the president, blocking the ascension of vice president Ben Kingsley. It’s a comedy, but it’s a delight and a view on the presidency from perhaps a different angle.

A Face in the Crowd starring Andy Griffith as a drifter who captivates radio audiences thanks to Patricia Neal’s promotion is a fantastic meditation on fame and how it’s achieved. It’s universal in its depiction despite being set in the southern United States prior to television. It’s a great film from director Elia Kazan.

84 Charing Cross Road is a favourite of mine, because of wonderful and understated performances from Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, and Judi Dench. Bancroft is a fast-talking New York writer who strikes up a letter-writing correspondence with Hopkins, a low-key if not dour English bookseller. It’s based on the true story of Helene Hanff, who orders books from this used book shop in England, and whose correspondence lasts some twenty-years. Bancroft is wonderful, and this film is a poignant valentine to book collecting.

Sean Connery gives a great and underrated performance as a sought after but reclusive novelist (think Salinger) in Finding Forrester. He befriends a black high school student, a gifted and aspiring writer (Rob Brown). F. Murray Abraham stands out as a bastard of a school principal who accuses the young student of plagiarism. It’s a fine appreciation of writing and the creative process, and how for some it can yield fantastic results at the outset and then paralyse completely. This is also a film where I realised, long before True Blood, that Anna Paquin was hot.

The Front stars Woody Allen and Zero Mostel. It’s a comedy/drama about the blacklist in the 1950s, when communist sympathisers were prevented from working in show business. Michael Murphy plays a recently blacklisted television comedy writer, who gets Allen, a diner’s cashier, to front for him, submitting his work to the network. Mostel is fantastic.

Adaptation is a great movie about writing, and the relationship it has with movie writing. It stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Oscar-winner Chris Cooper.

Frost/Nixon features the latest depiction of Richard Nixon, arguably the most fascinating of US presidents. It’s a good movie as it dramatises the legendary interviews Nixon gave to British television presenter David Frost after Watergate. Frost became widely regarded a serious journalist after these interviews, and there are great performances in this film from Frank Langella as Nixon, and Michael Sheen as Frost. As someone who interviews people on this website, Frost/Nixon is instructive in the art of the interview. The portrayal of Nixon is almost a caricature, and because of this it’s perhaps not the best portrayal of Nixon. Anthony Hopkins in the Oliver Stone film Nixon is perhaps more layered, though the film isn’t as strong as it could be.

Stranger than Fiction is a charming film starring Will Ferrell, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Queen Latifah. It describes the writing process, and Ferrell’s unwilling part as the protagonist in Thompson’s novel. It defies explanation here, but it’s a good movie. Maggie Gyllenhaal is attractively charming.

The Gathering Storm is the best depiction of Churchill I’ve seen. I enjoyed the recent follow up starring Brendan Gleeson in Into the Storm, but features the incomparable Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave as Winston and Clementine Churchill. Churchill, despite his idiosyncrasies, moods and mercurial disposition is depicted as a hero, charming, and sympathetic as he sees the threat of Hitler as more dire than his contemporaries, Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin (played by a great Derek Jacobi). I haven’t seen Richard Burton’s Churchill, or Simon Ward’s in Young Winston, but of recent Churchill depictions (ones on DVD at least), this is not to be missed.

Broadcast News starring Holly Hunter, William Hurt, and the wonderful Albert Brooks, is a great view on the world of television news in the 1980s. James L. Brooks manages to bring a love story into the newsroom, and makes it delightful. Jack Nicholson as a network news anchor is also great to watch.

Citizen Kane is considered the greatest film ever made, and visually it is matchless. The portrayal of newspaper baron turned politician Charles Foster Kane by director and co-writer Orson Welles is very nearly magical. Ken Whyte, the publisher and editor of Maclean’s, who wrote a magnificent biography of William Randolph Hearst’s early years, told me the idea that Hearst is Kane is inaccurate. Whether you agree with Whyte or not, on its own, Citizen Kane is tremendous in its story, and in the performances, not only from Welles, but Joseph Cotten as well.

In the Loop is a witty, timely comedy set on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s vulgar, but then again so is politics. Based on characters from the great British comedy, the Thick of It, it stars Peter Capaldi as the hard driving director of communications to a British prime minister, who has to deal with the loose lips of a hapless junior cabinet minister, played by Tom Hollander. The minister has told an interviewer that war is ‘unforeseeable,’ and so officials on both sides of the Atlantic scramble with the press fallout. A war is inevitable, despite no one really wanting to go. Actually, it’s more complicated than that. See it to see what happens. James Gandolfini plays an American general thrown into the fray. It’s just a great film.

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VANCOUVER – There’s a new look to THECOMMENTARY.CA.

The website has been redesigned and reorganised, making it more manageable.

It’s been six years since the website debuted online, and this is its third incarnation.  The publisher of THECOMMENTARY.CA Vishal Dhir, is responsible for this new look.  He’s done a tremendous job at getting the site ready and explaining all of its nuances to me.  It’s more web 2.0, but I’m hesitant to explain what that means, as I’m barely understanding it myself.  It’s not his fault; it’s mine, as it has always been a challenge for me to comprehend technology.  I’ll leave the website stuff to him and stick to the interviewing.

After taking the summer off, the interview program, On the Line returns this week.  The debut interviews this morning are with the child activist Craig Kielburger, and bestselling author Deborah Tannen.  Some of the other guests as we start the fifth year of the program include: novelist Linwood Barclay, TSN’s Bob McKenzie, American academic Michael Awkward, chef Jeff Crump, and the noted Canadian economist and commentator, Brian Lee Crowley.

Craig Kielburger, On the Line

I’ve long admired Kielburger.  We’re the same age, but he’s accomplished much already, certainly far more than I have.  He’s a passionate activist against child labour and poverty in the developing world, starting at the age of 13.  At 13, I could barely make a fist.  That Kielburger has made a significant difference in the world already is without question.  Tomorrow, at GM Place here in Vancouver he hosts We Day, a fantastic program for young people with speakers such as the Dalai Lama, Mia Farrow, Dr. Jane Goodall, and more.  In our interview we discuss his years of activism, and his new book, written with his brother Marc and the journalist Shelley Page, The World Needs Your Kid: How to Raise Children Who Care and Contribute (Greystone, 2009).

You can listen here:  http://thecommentary.ca/ontheline/376

Sisterspeak: Deborah Tannen

My second guest this morning is the Georgetown academic Deborah Tannen.  She’s a professor of linguistics there, and has written what is already a bestseller: You Were Always Mom’s Favorite!: Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives (Random House, 2009).  It’s an interesting book, and we talk about the unique relationship that sisters have with one another.  As a male and an only child, I ask Professor Tannen, what I could glean from understanding sisters.  It turns out there’s a lot.  The book is already a New York Times bestseller, as were her previous books:  You Just Don’t Understand, and You’re Wearing THAT? This is a fun, fascinating, and at times funny interview.

Deborah Tannen interview: http://thecommentary.ca/ontheline/377/

Thank-you’s

As this new site goes online and the new season of interviews begin, I thank again, my friend and colleague Vishal Dhir.  It’s because of him that I went online with a website in the first place.  It’s his forbearance, patience and endeavours since, that I remain online with the site you see today.

Also, I thank and acknowledge the contribution of Michael Kwan, who a while back, very kindly designed a new website for me.  I wasn’t able to use it, but I remain very grateful for his work.

Michael Klassen very generously came up with a fix to the old site last spring.  Thanks Mike; I owe you lunch.

I also thank Olivia Todd-DeRidder, who patiently assisted me as my interviews over the last five years were moved over to this new website.

Mike Kettel deserves acknowledgement for his contributions.  He took the photo of me that appears on the Biography page, marking the first time that I’ve ‘appeared’ on the site.  I don’t know whether that deserves thanks or not.

And I thank in advance, my friend and colleague Anjan Chaklader.  He will be contributing to the On the Line program from time to time this fall, filling in for me on occasion.  He’ll be on this week with a conversation with TSN’s Bob McKenzie.  He’s a terribly knowledgeable fellow, especially when it comes to sport and politics.  Do listen for him.

It’s been eleven years since I started writing commentaries, six years since this website went online, and five since the audio interview program began.  Thank you for visiting and listening.  There’s more fascinating conversation and discussion to come this fall.  I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you’ll be there as ever.

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VANCOUVER – The Commentary is ten today.

I had demurred writing in this space to mark the tenth anniversary of the first so-called column I wrote. It seemed disingenuous to come back to writing after neglecting it largely the last few years. It seems that as the website has morphed into a repository of audio interviews, I gave up on writing. Having once enjoyed the tapping away at the keyboard, allowing the thoughts to come out of my fingers, I found it difficult to write. I’d often claim writer’s block, but really, I’d rather talk to authors or journalists about their own writing, than attempt it myself.

But I’m a sentimental person, and I suppose ten years ought to be marked. At the age of 27, that’s a large chunk of one’s life thus far.

Ten years ago, I was still in high school, wrapping up the 11th grade, wondering what to do to fill my summer. I suffered at the time from severe migraines and had spent much time in doctor’s offices and the sort. I recounted this story four years ago in an interview with Dogma Radio’s Roland Tanglao, which unfortunately you can’t find on the internet anymore. I’d read Allan Fotheringham for years in the back page of Maclean’s, and had marvelled at Rafe Mair’s editorials that opened up each of his radio programs. I wanted to do the same. So I thought I’d write a column myself. I’d write about whatever was on my mind, and e-mail it to unsuspecting friends. For the first couple of years, I was writing up to five-times-a-week.

It was at once interesting to work on one’s skill at composition, as it was a tiresome chore. I learned very quickly that to be a writer involved much discipline, and that writing was as much re-writing and editing as it was writing. The French mathematician and philosopher Pascal, once wrote a friend, something to the effect: I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.

A friend of many years, Vishal Dhir, one day suggested that I should put my written output on a website. It could be an online portfolio of sorts, as blogs were hardly as ubiquitous as they are now. This website www.thecommentary.ca went online in 2003. I wrote regularly, and attempted book reviewing as well. Eventually with review copies of books, came offers of interviews with the authors.

Thanks to the influence of Don Imus and his radio program of which I am a stalwart fan, I decided to do interviews over the phone, recording the conversations, and then stream them on the website. The On the Line interview program began in August of 2004, five years ago, and along with author interviews, I’ve been fortunate enough to talk to sundry journalists and commentators, the occasional celebrity, and the odd politician.

I suppose it was a mix of self-consciousness, laziness, and lack of discipline that I stopped writing on this website. I became self-conscious about the inane comments I’d made about the current affairs of the late 1990s, early 2000s. I was often loud and weak in substance. I grew lazy of sitting in front of the computer and writing, and undisciplined in writing 800-words on a regular basis. The interviews were becoming more regular and frequent, and I devoted my time to reading on and researching my guests. My yield was contained to writing out my notes for an interview, and the sometimes unwieldy, wordy introductions I would give my guests. Over time, I felt the columnist, or the writer, or the blogger views themselves the arbiter of good taste or the chronicler of current events to the world, when in fact it’s really just that small corner of the internet that one inhabits, for those sometimes anonymous people who stop by to read. I wasn’t going to be Frank Rich or Andy Rooney; Jeffrey Simpson or Mark Steyn.

Over the last ten years, Allan Fotheringham ended his back page column in Maclean’s and Rafe Mair is no longer on the radio. (I’ve been lucky though, to continue hearing him, whenever he appears with me. He’s been the program’s most frequent guest, appearing six times in the last five years.) Thankfully, the migraines aren’t as frequent.

In ten years, I’ve evolved online from a frequent e-mail correspondent, to an online columnist, to now, a bit of an amateur broadcaster, hosting an interview program. Realising that my opinion perhaps doesn’t matter as much, and that it was simply ego driving the former writer, I’ve become somewhat more circumspect in my rhetoric and tone-to the point where I rarely write.

What’ll happen for me as I go into year 11, I don’t know. Nor do I worry anymore. These last ten years have been good ones for me; fortuitous ones.

But in the end, the space I inhabit online with my old columns and interviews is really my own space to think or speak out loud. It has been more fun in recent years, and I have every intention of continuing this for a little while longer.

The interview program will continue, though with greater frequency after the summer. Perhaps I’ll write more, but I’m not going to promise to do so, because I rarely find myself compelled to. My writing these days consists of alerting e-mail buddies about new interviews on the website, or updating my Facebook status. Vishal Dhir, bless him, is bringing thecommentary.ca a new look that’ll debut in the next few weeks. Perhaps I’ll be compelled to write more. Perhaps not.

As I continue doing this, I still wonder about its purpose.

What is it for? I don’t know.

Will it be around in ten years? I don’t know.

But here I go into year 11, trying to figure it all out.