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Morningside: The finale

Broadcast Date: May 30, 1997

After 15 years of hosting his daily three-hour morning show, Peter Gzowski signs off. In a makeshift studio in Moose Jaw, Sask., the beloved host of Morningside bids "au revoir." The loss of Captain Canada, Gzowski's nickname for his effort in bringing the country together, is a sad occasion for legions of his loyal listeners. "I feel like I'm losing an old friend," says a woman echoing the sentiment of some 1.5 million listeners who have regularly tuned in to Morningside.

A tribute from W.O. Mitchell, musical performances, tears and even a cockroach mark the final episode of the radio show that has helped define the country.


• Listen to the first hour of Morningside: The finale.

Morningside: The finale

• Gzowski chose Moose Jaw for the Morningside finale because that was where he got his start as a journalist.
• Gzowski presided over 3,000 hours of radio and conducted 27,000 interviews for Morningside over 15 years. He chatted with everyone from Pierre Trudeau, Margaret Atwood, Norman Jewison to many lesser-known Canadians such as Clarence Asham, a Winnipeg man who had a gift for instantly replaying on his accordion any music he heard.

• Gzowski said that he was certain that even after 27,000 interviews, there were plenty more interesting Canadians to talk to. "Some days I get up and think, 'My God, I must have talked to everybody,' and then the next day I come in and there's someone I never heard of... and he gives me a mind-boggling interview, just filled with breathtaking wisdom and pleasure and challenge, and I didn't know that guy existed."
(New York Times, May 22, 1997)

• Gzowski once likened the radio interview to two people paddling in a canoe — each trying to go in the opposite direction. "He [Gzowski] was better at steering the canoe than anybody else. The politician sweatily trying to stay on message and the author chirping the title of his book in every breath could feel the interview moving into the tall weeds with Gzowski in command."
(Michael Enright, Feb. 4, 2002, Maclean's)

• Gzowski, who often described himself as a "writer on the radio," said he wanted to return to his first love and write a book after leaving Morningside.

Morningside: The finale

Medium: Television

Program: The National

Broadcast Date: May 30, 1997

Guest(s): Peter Gzowski, Colin James, W.O. Mitchell, Rick Salutin

Host: Peter Mansbridge
Reporter: Kelly Crowe

Duration: 2:42

Credit: Morningside theme by David W. Thompson

Last updated:
Jan. 8, 2006