The Happy Camper: Roy MacGregor’s Memoir ‘Paper Trails’

September 25, 2023

thehappycamperoutdoorsreading Explore Magazine

I’ve cherished the work of several Canadian authors throughout my life. Raconteur Farley Mowat, naturalist R.D. Lawerence and Canadian historian Pierre Berton. They could all spin a good yarn. But for me the most gifted Canadian storyteller has always been Roy MacGregor. Boy, can this guy write.

Roy is the author of over 50 books, ranging from hockey to canoeing. Life in the Bush has to be one of my all-time favourite reads. He’s also a leading Canadian journalist. If you’ve ever browsed through Maclean’s or Cottage Life or subscribed to The Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen, National Post or the Toronto Star, then you’ve most definitely read Roy’s poignant yet humorous words.

Roy wrote a daily column for The Globe and Mail for five full years. Pierre Berton did the same but for only three. He took the pulse of the country and filed it at the end of each day. Not once did he have writer’s block; never a missed deadline. He retired after 50 years, and then went freelance.

According to Roy, some things changed along the way.

“I wrote my first stories on a portable Viking typewriter my mother bought me at Eaton’s as a Christmas present. Eventually, I moved on to electronic IBM typewriters, then, while at the Toronto Star, a Radio Shack TRS-80, which we reporters called the “Trash 80.” There were other Radio Shack computers—some capable of holding more than one column!—that you hooked up to a pay phone with rubber couplings; you could watch your story go, letter by letter, off to the desk back in Toronto. You waited breathlessly for the signal that your work had arrived safely—otherwise, you did it all again.”

He had an incredible gift to gather extraordinary interviews. Yes, he was a good writer, but author and columnist Jeffrey Simpson also noted that it was Roy’s “friendly wit, acute observations, sympathy for people, innate curiosity, and love of country that made him the reader of our national soul.” I like that comment.

Roy would spend quality time with whoever he was interviewing, so much time that they would forget that it’s an interview. He just hung out, absorbing it all in. Same goes about his writing of the natural world. More time spent with it, the more you can share how special it is.

His latest book—a memoir titled Paper Trails: From the Backwoods to the Front Page—shares a half century of the stories behind the stories. He went from being born and raised in a small town outside of Algonquin Park, where his low grades in high school almost had him kicked out of school, to travelling the world interviewing and writing up on prime ministers, hockey giants and a host of the most influential Indigenous leaders in Canada. He was also the lead in choosing the canoe as one of CBC’s Seven Wonders of Canada. Way to go, Roy!

I interviewed Roy for one of my Whisky Fireside Chats on KCHappyCamper’s YouTube channel. Make sure to check it out. It’s one of the best interviews of the series.