Rex Murphy, the Newfoundland-born pundit and wordsmith whose writing and often-blistering observations dominated a decades-long career in Canadian media, died at the age of 77, according to the National Post.
According to a post on the Post’s website on Thursday, Murphy died after a fight with cancer.
Murphy had a long career in the media, including many years at CBC, and was a columnist for the National Post at the time of his death.
For almost two decades, he hosted Cross Country Checkup on CBC Radio and was a familiar face to long-time viewers of CBC’s The National. His appearances on CBC-TV extend back to the 1970s.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper paid tribute to Rex Murphy on X, describing him as “one of the most intelligent and fiercely free-thinking journalists this country has ever known.”
Countless National Post readers throughout Canada will mourn his death, as they turned to him to make sense of the world and an increasingly weird national politics.
He was motivated not by party, but by the fact that he no longer recognized his own country. Some of this is undoubtedly what happens to all of us as we age, but the culture battles of the last decade, whether over green attacks on the oil and gas industry or the more identity-obsessed left, have bewildered people of all ages and backgrounds across Canada. Not only men and women from Rex’s generation, but all of us.
His critics condemned him as an out-of-date curmudgeon, but this was a mistake, a handy falsehood perpetuated by people with opposing political views.
Rex Murphy’s relevance only grown as time went on.
He spoke for a Canada that existed beyond the confines of downtown, a Canada unconcerned with the latest, useless tantrum on Twitter. He called for a Canada that values who you are as an individual above all.
Because of his exceptional use of words, Rex contributed to the survival of conservatism in Canadian politics. He was often aggressive, but always with a reason.
His approach, which relied on colorful language, was more like to British pundits at the Times or the Telegraph than anything you’d see in a North American newspaper. In fact, his style was frequently more British than the British.
He was unique, and not only in his writing. In person, Rex was as charming, gracious, and kind as he portrayed in his columns. He was a true gentleman.
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