Happy David Suzuki Day!
Celebrating the eco-icon turning 88 (March 24, 2024)
When I was writing a TV special back in 1999 that was billed as “the world’s first eco-comedy” (sadly still almost the world’s only eco-comedy) there was one special guest I was determined to feature… Dr. David Suzuki. And I knew exactly who he had to play… God.
My comedy duo, Local Anxiety, was based in Vangroovy - birthplace of Greenpeace, Canadian Green politics and Suzuki’s iconic science series, The Nature of Things - so we referenced Canada’s number one eco-icon in pretty much every show.
In one sketch I would confess my environmental sins in an Eco-confessional and part of my penance was to recite seven “Hail Suzukis.” So for the TV special, the running gag was that I kept having visions of Suzuki. As God. And then, finally, I met him.
When Suzuki agreed to appear in our TV special we were thrilled - but the logistics were a nightmare because I’d landed a gig writing for a TV series in Toronto. So we pretty much thanked all the deities when we got word that Suzuki was flying to Toronto to do some work for his TV series The Nature of Things and could spare an hour or two to be silly with me. To make things easy we shot his cameo in a park across the street from CBC headquarters.
He was hilarious.
Years later he agreed to be a guest voice on a Local Anxiety song.
And then, many years after that, he agreed to be the first guest on the Skaana podcast. Because he and I had crossed paths a few times over the years - and he was a big supporter of my book, The Killer Whale Who Changes the World (co-published by The Suzuki Foundation) our conversation was so frank that I was told that people at the Foundation were shocked by it.
In recent years Suzuki has become… let’s go with franker than he used to be… but our interview Skaana was one of the first places he publicly dropped an F-bomb in the media. I kinda love that Canada’s eco-icon was responsible for Skaana’s language warning, because he was so passionately opposed to a pipeline that could and still may end the endangered southern resident orca population.
Suzuki’s passion also helped inspire me to stop trying to pretend to be neutral about the threats facing humans and the other animals we share the planet with.
I know Suzuki has his haters - find me anyone who has taken a stand on anything who doesn’t. And I know he’s not actually God - pretty sure that was/is Leonard Cohen. But I doubt there’s any Canadian who has introduced more people to science, the nature of things and the nature of nature.
In 2004 when CBC produced the reality-ish show "Greatest Canadians" and invited all of Canada to weigh in on who they admired most, Suzuki ranked fifth overall. He we the only one of those top five who was still alive, so he was the greatest living Canadian.
Two decades later, I’m pretty sure he’d still make the top five.
Like I say to him in the comedy sketch we filmed (don’t tell me you haven’t watched it yet) Godspeed.
