Rex Murphy reminded us of something important

Last night’s speech by CBC commentator Rex Murphy was one of the most entertaining, inspiring even, that I’ve heard in a long time. Murphy was sponsored and hosted, in the main, by the local branch of the Canadian Home Builders Association, and I’ve never seen more people packed into the Campus Activity Centre.

Murphy is known for his sharp wit and clever turn of phrase, and he could easily have turned them against the nation’s political and cultural foibles, for there’s much to criticize. Instead, he talked about what is right with this country. If only our city’s angry people — those who constantly carp about our failures, about not getting enough — could have been there. They would have been ashamed.

Not that Murphy didn’t touch on some notable and not-so-notable mistakes of history, but he didn’t dwell on them. For the first half hour, he kept the crowd in stitches with a constant barrage of one-liners, beginning with the likes of, “I work for the CBC so I’m unaccustomed to speaking to a large audience,” and “I don’t get out much, especially by invitation.”

The Cross Country Checkup host professed not to consider himself a journalist, comparing his connection to journalism to that of a street walker with the department of highways.

But it was his characterization of Canada that was truly uplifting. Murphy’s charming Newfoundland lilt, combined with his natural way with words and his obvious passion for his country reminded the room of how blessed we are in comparison to most of the world.

Due to history, accidents of geography, and by construction, “we have build an entire nation centered on certain cardinal understandings of each other,” he said. “Everyone in this entire country is my neighbour,” where “a certain kind of social and civic code” governs how we treat each other.

With a mixture of anecdotes, jokes and examples, Murphy made everyone there realize once again that we live in the best of countries and the most caring of communities.

If anyone else had been at the podium delivering the same message, it might have come off as corny or even insincere, but Murphy is a gifted messenger who is anything but insincere. He spoke for well over an hour, and it seemed like five minutes. At the end, everyone left feeling a little better about our place in the world than when they arrived.