Canadian unity most important story in last 30 years: Jeffrey Simpson

In more than 30 years of writing on Canadian politics, the Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson has been called a lot of things.

A journalistic legend. A Liberal mouthpiece. A card-carrying Conservative. An out-and-out New Democrat.

“I don’t think anybody’s ever said I was a Marxist or a Social Credit, but there’s three weeks left,” Simpson joked as he joined the West Block’s Tom Clark in studio to discuss his impending retirement.

With four columns a week for most of his career, Simpson is one of Ottawa’s most prolific and influential pundits.

Looking back on his past three decades as a columnist and almost four decades as a journalist, Simpson said that one story in particular defined his career.

“The most important story of my lifetime in journalism was whether the country would stay together,” he told Clark.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The most important story of my lifetime in journalism was whether the country would stay together," he told Clark.

“That consumed us for three decades … We also had the question of western alienation, which gave birth to the Reform Party and the West Wants In, etc. This country has come through both of those existential questions and is now quite comfortable in its own skin, and I’m quite sure that we’re going to go forward and be successful.”

Simpson says journalism has changed more than politics on the Hill since he got his start in the late 1970s. Gone are the days of typewriters and one daily deadline.

“The pressure’s on us,” he said. “The 24-hour news cycle, social media … I don’t Twitter or tweet. I don’t know what that world is all about. It’s like the stars in the sky to me.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The pressure's on us," he said. "The 24-hour news cycle, social media … I don't Twitter or tweet. I don't know what that world is all about. It's like the stars in the sky to me."

(That’s very true. In fact, the Twitter user @jeffreysimpson has been mistaken for Simpson the columnist enough times that his profile makes it clear he knows nothing about Canadian politics, so don’t bother asking.)

The one thing he has always prided himself on, Simpson said, is not getting too personal in his writing.

“Never use the word ‘I’, that’s a badge of honour,” he said. “I’ve written 7,000 plus columns and I’ve never used that word and I never will in the last three weeks.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Never use the word 'I', that's a badge of honour," he said. "I've written 7,000 plus columns and I've never used that word and I never will in the last three weeks."

— Watch the full interview above.