Rambling with Rostad

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/10/2006 (7073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For nearly two decades, Wayne Rostad has been wandering. As the deep-voiced host of the long-running CBC series On the Road Again, the down-home singer-songwriter from the Ottawa Valley has visited just about every corner of this vast country of ours.

He shares with his audience charming portraits of ordinary Canadians who have quirky passions and pursuits — eccentric inventors, obsessive collectors, idealistic community-builders.

As he heads into On the Road Again‘s 20th-anniversary season (which premieres Thursday at 7:30 p.m. on CBC), it’s clear Rostad, who turns 59 this month, has not lost his love of the rambling life. As long as there are people he hasn’t met and stories he hasn’t yet told, he’s more than happy to hit the highway whenever the show’s production schedule demands it.

Free Press TV critic Brad Oswald got the ever-in-motion Rostad to sit still long enough for a quick interview during his recent cross-country promotional tour.

BO: When he sang about it in his famous song, Willie Nelson said he couldn’t wait to get on the road again. After all these years, is that how you feel about it, too?

WR: Oh, absolutely. The beautiful thing about this program is that it’s like visiting neighbours. In terms of personal satisfaction, it’s the best job in Canadian television. We’re fulfilling the CBC mandate in spades — bringing the people to the people — so I feel really good about what I do… And the energy I get from the show comes from the people I visit, because they’re genuinely excited to be part of it. It’s a fun show; there are no heavy issues or stresses associated with it.

BO: So the travelling never gets to be a grind for you?

WR: When you look at the calendar year, we arrange the whole schedule and the shape of the show as a lifestyle. We don’t do a heavy three-month blitz where everybody works their butts off and then has to retreat for three months. We work it into our lifestyle, so that every other week in the calendar year, we’ll go out and we’ll come home. And when you get into that kind of pattern, your body adjusts and the rhythm of your life adjusts.

BO: You’ve said in the past that the number of potential subjects and stories for the show is infinite. Is there any danger, after 20 years, that you’ll run out of places to go?

WR: It’s a bottomless bucket, truly. It sounds funny to say, but it’s so true, because if there’s one thing that never fails, it’s that if I go into a community to do a story, I will leave with two more in hand. Our filing cabinet has grown so much from the first year, when we were initially given the mandate to go out and cover the country by doing the stories of the most fascinating Canadians we could find…

We’ve got two researchers, assisted by our producers, who’ve always got their ears on the rail. I’m always open to suggestions when I’m on the trail, and then there’s all of the viewer base — the phone-in, the write-in, the e-mail. People who started watching the program quickly realized that Uncle Harry or Aunt Myrtle or that brother who might have seemed a bit off the wall at one point maybe isn’t so strange after all, and that they might fit in on our show. So they send us stuff.

BO: Do you think our country has changed during the 20 years you’ve been exploring it?

WR: I’ve seen a lot of changes in our country. I’ve witnessed the birth of Nunavut; I’ve seen the transition of the High North… As a country, I think we now embrace regionalism. There was a time in Canada when we feared regionalism, because of all the talk of separation, and we harboured the mindset that we shouldn’t be different, that we should all be one thing.

Well, that’s poppycock for a country this large and diverse, both culturally and geographically. You can’t help but have regionalism … And I think there’s a growing awareness, from sea to sea to sea, of what a great country this really is. I think the population is finally starting to get the fact that we’re lucky to be living in this part of the world.

BO: Would it be helpful for other Canadians to see the country the way you’ve seen it?

WR: Oh, sure. I’ve been very blessed to be allowed to do what I’ve done. If every Canadian had the option and opportunity to do what I’ve done for 20 years, which is literally go to every nook and cranny, in every province and every territory, and sit and talk to neighbours, week in and week out, we would all be of one mind — that this is a wonderful country to call home.

BO: At age 59, do you ever think about when it might be time for Wayne Rostad to get OFF the road?

WR: I’m still healthy, I’m still interested, and I still feel I have a contribution to make, which is to continue my rambling. If I’ve found something in my life that I’ve truly felt good about doing, it’s this program, because I believe in its fundamental philosophy and what it delivers. I would be happy to see it continue, and I would still watch it if I was, for some reason, no longer involved.

I don’t have a “I’m going to retire when I’m 65 and go to this little house on the Prairies and live forever” plan. As long as I’m feeling as good as I am, I’ll keep going.