In this week’s episode of Canada Files, Valerie Pringle speaks with Justin Trudeau in what was the last interview he gave before leaving office.Supplied
Valerie Pringle, the legendary Canadian radio and TV journalist and host, is leaving the building – for real, this time.
The sixth and final season of Canada Files, a PBS show in which she interviews notable Canadians for an American audience, will be the capstone to a career that has spanned half a century.
In this week’s episode, Pringle speaks with Justin Trudeau in what was the last interview he gave before leaving office. It’s a sign the former host of CBC’s Midday, CTV’s Canada AM and Valerie Pringle Has Left the Building still has the ability to land a guest. (Others this season include conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, comedian Martin Short and singer Susan Aglukark.)
Pringle, 71, spoke with The Globe and Mail over Zoom from her Toronto home.
You end each episode of Canada Files by asking the same question: What does being Canadian mean to you? I don’t want to steal your format, so I’ll start with that instead.
I hate to use the word “values,” but there are some values that we could talk about in terms of welcoming, diversity, fairness, humility. I will also add as someone who spent 20 years building the Trans Canada Trail that the geography makes a difference in terms of what’s in our head – and how we have to reach out and help one another. Because there’s not many of us in this giant place.
So even after 50 years in broadcasting in this country, you still believe in Canadian kindness and humility. Certainly you must have encountered characters who were –
Less than? Yes, not even a question.
There’s a clear and present reason why a show explaining Canada to Americans would be important right now. Did Jim Deeks, who started this program in the first Donald Trump administration and hosted the first three seasons, see this moment coming?
Jim was eager to do a show showcasing and interviewing great Canadians. Needless to say, none of the Canadian networks were interested. The only place that was, was WNED PBS, which sees itself as a bridge between Buffalo, New York, and Toronto. They saw value in Americans learning about Canadians and providing that service.
They’ve also done specials on the Shaw Festival, the sort of arts and culture programming that CBC has mostly left by the wayside. Are there things that Canadians can learn from the American model of public broadcasting – which now, it seems, is about to die.
Yeah, they’re at risk – and who knows about the CBC. You don’t find a sit-down face-to-face half-hour television conversation any more. Things have moved to podcasts, which, as an old-school broadcaster, I will tell you I find often very undisciplined and very flabby and very unfocused.
It’s interesting that young people seem to be into listening to these podcasts that have a three-hour running time. I guess that people interpret some of that flabbiness as authenticity
I think it is authentic, but I don’t think you need 10 minutes to talk about yourself to warm up a guest.
What would your tips be to all these young people who are trying to become broadcasters online?
Again, I am old school. Life was all about preparation. I grew up in radio doing an interview show when I was in my 20s, and then went and did a show on CBC called Midday. Some of those interviews were three and four minutes long. The more disciplined you are, the more focused you are, and also the longer you’ve been doing it, then you’ve got the freedom to listen and hear what people have to say.
Your interview with Trudeau – he’s coming straight from his last cabinet meeting. How did you land that for a PBS show?
As soon as he resigned, I wrote a letter to my friend Seamus O’Regan – I worked with Seamus at Canada AM – and said: Do you think Justin might be interested in this? The day they set it up for was the day Justin had his final cabinet meeting and then came and met us in his office. I was stunned that was his only interview, but he was very serene, effusive, kind of upbeat. It was a remarkable moment to catch him at.
Did you always produce your own work as extensively as you have with Canada Files?
No. But that’s partly what made this show so great: the control. I raised my own budget, picked my own guests, I did the interviews the way I want, edited them the way I want. I had a fabulous producer and that was it, a two-person operation. It was a great, stimulating, wonderful coda to a career. The relations with America are so fraught that maybe this show is needed more than ever, but you know, I’m 71, so I’m calling my broadcast career.
What stands out to you from this coda?
Jean Chrétien had one line which really I found very touching. Pierre Trudeau had asked him at one point to be the Quebec lieutenant for the first referendum, for patriating the Constitution, for helping create a charter of rights. It was quite the mandate to be given, and he said, “I didn’t want it.” And that Trudeau had taken him to 24 Sussex and they were looking out the window and it was the sunset and the sky was red and Trudeau said: “Jean, home is on fire.” And Jean said, “Give me the hose.”
You anchored the coverage of the second Quebec referendum in 1995 for CTV, right?
I did. I was in Montreal like everybody else, almost having a heart attack. I covered the patriation of the Constitution in 1982 with Gordon Sinclair; he was 82 and I was 28. We were both at CFRB radio. I think back to these characters: Sinclair, Betty Kennedy, Andy Barrie, Barbara Frum, Peter Mansbridge, Peter Gzowski, Lloyd Robertson, Keith Morrison. It’s almost like saying, oh I worked with Edward R. Murrow. It’s been a very lucky life to work with brilliant people and be able to be part of people’s lives.
Canada Files airs on many PBS stations – check local listings – and is available to stream on pbs.org and at youtube.com/@canadafiles6222.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
