The mystery of the premier’s long-lost book

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2003 (8157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ON this, the much-hyped, long-anticipated official launch date of the next Harry Potter book, a similar kind of magical story.

Last week, 56-year-old Len Giesbrecht was culling through the collection of books he read as a boy, looking for duplicate copies of Zane Grey and Mark Twain and, yes, Franklin W. Dixon, when he chanced upon something unexpected.

A boy’s name penned inside one of Dixon’s Hardy Boys books.

“Gary Doer,” the childlike writing read. “554 Renfrew, Winnipeg 9. Manitoba, PH. hu98704.”

“It couldn’t be,” Giesbrecht recalled thinking. “Or maybe it could.”

It was, of course, and yesterday at 8:45 a.m. Giesbrecht was ushered into the Premier’s office with The Great Airport Mystery in hand.

Now 55-year-old Gary Doer opened the book and flashed his trademark still-boyish grin.

Like Giesbrecht, and so many other boys of their generation, Doer read all of the more than 50 books in the Hardy Boys’ series.

The Hardy Boys and the girls’ equivalent, Nancy Drew, were the Harry Potters of their day.

But how did one of the books from Doer’s prized childhood collection end up in Len Giesbrecht’s even more prized grown-up collection?

That’s where The Great Hardy Boys Mystery gets more interesting.

It begins with the two women in the future premier’s life.

One was an elementary school teacher who hooked him on the joy of reading.

The other was his mother, Gwen, who made sure he had lots of time to read.

“I got introduced to the Hardy Boys by Mrs. Sinclair or Mrs. Thomas, I can’t remember which one. Grade 3 or Grade 4.”

What he does remember is that, every day after lunch, one of his elementary school teachers would read a chapter from a Hardy Boys book.

“They only read one, and then they got you hooked.”

“I couldn’t wait for them to come off the press,” Doer recalled as he stood in his office.

But the book that ensured his passion for reading was Reader’s Digest.

Huh?

Actually, it was something his mother read in Reader’s Digest, way back in the ’50s.

“The story was kids were watching too much TV,” Doer said, and then he laughed.

This was at a time, he reminded us, when there was only one channel to watch.

No matter.

Each week his mother would give young Gary three tickets, worth one hour of television-watching each.

“She was very structured,” Doer said. “My dad was more fun-loving.”

Gary Doer is both, of course.

And the TV tickets probably had something to do with the disciplined part.

“I used up at last half of them, or two-thirds of them, on Hockey Night in Canada.”

The remaining ticket was used up on Leave It to Beaver and Davy Crockett.

As for reading, that’s what Doer did when he wasn’t playing baseball or hockey.

He would come home from school and have a Hardy Boys book devoured by bedtime.

His books were passed down to his younger brothers, David and Jamie, but that doesn’t solve the mystery of how one of them ended up in Len Giesbrecht’s collection.

The premier is convinced he knows what happened.

One year his mother chaired the Children’s Hospital’s used-book drive.

“I remember hauling books for my mother and putting them down the chute that went down to the basement of the old Children’s Hospital.”

Gwen Doer died of cancer in 1972, when Gary was 24 and his little brother Jamie was just entering his teens. His dad, Albert, who never got over the loss of his wife, died 11 years later.

But the love of reading that Doer’s mother wisely encouraged undoubtedly contributed to the making of the man who became premier — despite never graduating from university.

“I think it had a tremendous influence,” Doer said. “I love to read now.”

Well, usually.

“My reading today,” the premier said, gesturing toward his desk, “is a briefing book on Conawapa.”

* * *

On this, the official launch date of the next Harry Potter book, here’s what the magic is really all about.

It’s children reading in a time when technology is trying to take over where TV has failed.

May the magic be with you.

And your children.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca