Bruce Hutchison was a B.C. journalistic legend
Distinguished writer was prolific, writing his last column a week before his death at age 91
To mark Canada’s 150th birthday, we are counting down to Canada Day with profiles of 150 noteworthy British Columbians.
Bruce Hutchison rose from humble beginnings in rural B.C. to become one of the most respected and influential Canadians of the 20th century.
Hutchison’s career spanned nine decades, starting as a sports reporter for the Victoria Times in 1918 and ending as editor emeritus of The Vancouver Sun, where the last of his weekly columns was published Aug. 15, 1992 — a month before he died at the age of 91.
His writings, wise in human understanding and rich in the use of historical narrative, helped introduce several generations of Canadians to the glories of their past and the promise of the future. Pierre Berton once declared: “I owe him a great debt, for it was he who first taught me that the Canadian past could be interesting.”
Hutchison’s first book, The Unknown Country, which became a bestseller when published in 1942, was a clarion call for Canadians to shed the colonial and seek their own national identity.
“No one knows my country,” he wrote. “We have not yet felt the full pulse of its heart, the flex of its muscles, the pattern of its mind. For we are young, and full of doubt, and we have listened too long to timid men. But now our time is come and we are ready.”
William Bruce Hutchison was born June 5, 1901 in Prescott, Ont. but moved to B.C. when he was only six weeks old. His childhood was unsettled, as his father — “rich in affection and in nothing else” — knocked around from one job to another, never making a successful career of anything.
Hutchinson spent time in Cranbrook and Merritt before the family settled in Victoria. In 1918, he landed a job at the Victoria Times. Three years later, he was put on the political beat after the regular reporter came ill.
He covered his first session of the B.C. legislature in 1921, his first provincial election in 1924, and interviewed his first prime minister, Mackenzie King, in Ottawa in 1925.
At various times, he wrote for the Vancouver Province, The Vancouver Sun, and the Winnipeg Free Press, and freelanced or wrote short stories for Maclean’s, Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1950, he was appointed editor of the Victoria Times, and from 1963 to 1979 was the editorial director of The Vancouver Sun.
He also wrote 15 books. His work earned him singular distinction, including three Governor General’s Literary Awards, three National Newspaper Awards, four honorary university degrees, and numerous other accolades, national and international.
In 1992, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney appointed him to the privy council, allowing him to use the title “honourable”. He called it “the perfect honour for an old man like me — it doesn’t require me to do anything.”