Because everything is statistical
This Magazine then and now
BY Lynn Cunningham
Solidarity forever: During the first 10 years after the morph from This Magazine is About Schools, This ran 80 articles on labour and workplace issues. In total, it has covered the subject more than 140 times, including 1998’s special Work issue.
Second again: Women’s issues, from porn and abortion rights to the dearth of female movie directors and politicians, were the—what else?—number two topic, with more than 80 articles devoted to them.
Most optimistic prediction: “[W]e are at a very early stage of a typical revolutionary process” (1978).
Cover story least likely to fly off the stands: “Potash in Saskatchewan” (1974).
Cover story most likely to fly off the stands: 1996’s 30th anniversary issue, which sold a record 2,100 copies on newsstands. Runner-up goes to the 25th anniversary issue, with 2,000 sales. Both will be eclipsed, of course, by sales of the 40th anniversary edition.
Letter to the editor most likely to elicit the response “Duh”: “Please cancel my subscription to This Magazine, I find too many articles too revolutionary to my thinking” (1989).
Some of the This writers and editors who have won Governor General’s Awards: Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand, Gary Clement, Anne Collins, Karen Connelly, David Donnell, Erin Mouré, Paulette Jiles, M.T. Kelly, Dorothy Livesay, Gwendolyn MacEwen, Michael Ondaatje, Jason Sherman, Rosemary Sullivan, Leon Rooke and Al Purdy.
Columns that have come and gone: Labour Notes (John Lang), Media Tedia (Joyce Nelson), Letter from Babylon (“Marc Cooper”), Pop Tart (Lynn Crosbie), Art and Soul (various), Lotusland (Stan Persky), The Culture Vulture (Rick Salutin), Innis Memorial Column (Mel Watkins), Female Complaints (various), Gender Bender (various).
Least probable cartoonist: From 1975 to 1980 Margaret Atwood’s wry Kanadian Kultchur Komix strip (above)—drawn under the name Bart Gerrard—appears regularly.
Vanguard awards: In 1975, This details how freer trade has harmed the Canadian farm industry. Four years later Mel Watkins sounds the alarm about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In early 1986, it is also Watkins who itemizes “10 Reasons to Oppose Free Trade,” long before the anti-FTA movement develops momentum.
Slow to get it award: The first time This publishes anything about the gay movement is Michael Riordan’s 1977 “A Gay Manifesto.”
Best typo due to telephonic miscommunication: An excerpt from M.T. Kelly’s A Dream Like Mine runs as A Dreamlike Mind in 1987.
Most incendiary suggestion: Clive Thompson’s 1997 contention that prominent Tory Dalton Camp is the left’s best friend.
Most unusual masthead position: “Emergencies,” occupied by noted lawyer Clayton Ruby, who was joined by Brian Iler in 1995. The back story: Ruby was recruited in 1987, after a Globe and Mail article indicated the Canadian Security Intelligence Service had investigated the mag’s board and freelancers.
Worst career move committed in the pages of This: One-time Aboriginal leader David Ahenakew’s chat with Alex Roslin in 2003, in which he unapologetically reiterated his space-cadet notion that Jews controlled the media, one of the many racist comments that had got him in trouble the previous year. He was stripped of his Order of Canada in 2005.
Ambivalance ahead: This’s attitude toward the NDP has been as volatile as the Canadian dollar. In 1982, Robert Martin pronounced the party to be “sliding into oblivion.” After the disastrous “free trade election,” the CAW’s Bob White contributed “From Defeat to Renewal: The NDP Tomorrow.” Nine years later, Sam Gindin, then chief economist for the CAW, concluded “The Party’s Over.” Most recently, Annette Bourdeau’s 2004 piece focusing on Jack Layton suggested he might be good for the party—or not.
Longest article: Mohawk journalist Dan David’s 10,000-word reflection on his family’s history and its intersection with the Oka action. Not just lengthy, but superbly crafted, “All My Relations” won gold at the 1997 National Magazine Awards.
Total National Magazine Awards since the 1977 inception of the awards: 65.
This then: “socialist.”
This now: “progressive.”
