Graham Murray

 In Memoriam

   I first met Graham in the late 1960s in London, Ontario. He had arrived at the University of Western Ontario after passing successfully through the London School of Economics and teaching for a bit at Lehigh, in Pennsylvania. I was at UWO having attended, much less successfully, the University of Maryland. Graham impressed me (and everyone else) with his extensive vocabulary, spoken, as Steve Paikin notes below, with a "wonderful English accent." On the anniversary of his passing, he is worth remembering. 

   The information we find easily on the Internet is often ephemeral. For that reason, I have chosen here to capture some of it, although Mulcahy's Miscellany is also not likely to last for very long.  If a few people read this, however, perhaps some vestiges of memories of Graham will linger for a little longer.

   An obituary for Graham appears (for now) on the website of the Humphrey Funeral Home - A.W. Miles-Newbigging Chapel Limited. He died on August 29, 2021. Here it is:

"Graham died at Toronto, August 29, 2021. In death, as in life, on his own terms.

Only son of William Atkinson Murray (1916-1994) and Marjorie Mary Elliot (1916-1987), born in Enfield, England, July 21, 1943. He embodied his Dad's sense of fair play and his Mum's feistiness.

Survived by his sister, Susan Murray of Codrington Hill, London, his wife, Susan Cutler and their son, James Alexander Murray (and Alan the Cat).

He will be much missed by his cousins in England and his in-laws in Canada.

Graham was educated at the Latymer School, England and the London School of Economics (LSE) 1961-1964, graduating with a B.Sc. [Econ] International Relations. At the LSE he was the Editor of The Beaver and President of the Jazz Society. It was in this connection he argued with Mick Jagger over expansion to include blues nights. He taught International Relations at Lehigh University 1964-1966, in Lehigh, Pennsylvania, returning to LSE for a continuance of his degree and then to the University of Western Ontario 1968-1975, in London, Ontario, to teach International Relations.

Enjoying the politics of academia more than the slog of publishing, he joined the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) as Executive Vice Chair 1975-1978, when a strong provincial advocate was needed for effective lobbying.

He worked as a researcher for the Ontario New Democratic Party Leader's Office at Queen's Park 1978-1987, under Stephen Lewis then Michael Cassidy's leadership. Graham abetted on the "welfare diet" in November, 1982, to demonstrate how limited the food budget of the average person on welfare was.

As a member of the NDP, Graham ran twice provincially in the riding of Eglinton-Lawrence (and managed to recoup the deposit).

Graham found his true calling. As publisher of Inside Queen's Park 1987-2015, the definitive bi-weekly record of the political workings of Ontario government, Graham was able to combine his writing skills with his in-depth knowledge of how government could or should but inevitably would work.

At the Legislature, he was instrumental in getting Ontario wines and beers available in the Legislative dining room. His work with the Speaker of the House set up the Speaker's Book Award which recognizes non-fiction works by Ontario authors reflecting the diverse culture and rich history of the province and of its residents.

In 1990, Graham worked with the OSSTF-FEESO political action team on a brilliant campaign over the underfunding of education targeted to key ridings that contributed to the NDP electoral victory.

Graham was a founding member of the Public Affairs Association Canada PAAC and served as President from 1992-1994.

Graham was a man who loved a party, loved long convoluted tales that may or may not have contained outrageous puns, word play or obscure quotes. His store of Ontario provincial election and political trivia was prodigious. An admirer of Samuel Johnson and Winston Churchill, he would have held his own in a battle of wits and temperament with both.

Parkinson's disease did not win in the end. Graham did -- he died as he had lived, courageously and with an unflinching determination.

Our thanks to the Dotsa Bitove program at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to our PSWs Fiona and Samantha, to the Staff at St. Michael's Hospital ICU and Palliative Care Unit.

The family will receive friends at the Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles – Newbigging Chapel, 1403 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, on Thursday, September 2nd from 3:00 – 4:00, 4:30 – 5:30 and 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Funeral service to be held at St. James-the-Less Cemetery Chapel, 635 Parliament Street, on Friday, September 3rd at 2:00 p.m., with visitation to begin in the chapel at 1:00 p.m. Due to COIVD-19 restrictions, attendance at both is limited. Please email your attendance, including the time, to sue.j.cutler@gmail.com.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to TVOntario, B.C. Fire relief or the charity of your choice. Condolences may be forwarded through www.humphreymiles.com."

   Here is a portion of one of the remarks left on the "Tribute Wall" of the funeral home. [The name of the contributor is not included here.]

"I knew Graham back in the 1980s.  As well as being a brilliant researcher at NDP Caucus, Graham was also the President of our small Opseu Local.  Graham took on this thankless, volunteer role in addition to an incredibly demanding job that included preparing reports on issues of the day, and daily briefings of the Leader and MPPS for Question Period.  But no matter how busy Graham was his door was always open to staffers who needed help, advice or just a friendly ear.  As a new staff member I remember feeling overwhelmed about the layoffs that were coming following our loss of seats after the 1981 election. He was kind and reassuring.  He worked tirelessly following that election and others to save as many staff jobs as possible  - mine included."

Here is another from a friend of mine:

"Graham was a person of rare quality and wit, and a kind and generous friend."

I agree.

   The same obituary appears in the Toronto Star, Sept. 2, 2021. Among the condolences submitted, is this one: [I have not included the name of the person who provided it.]

"I only learned of Graham’s passing via Steve Paikin’s blog the other day and was greatly saddened by the news. Graham was a fixture around the Pink Palace during my many tours of duty there and lent the place a humanity and character that it sorely needed most days. I always enjoyed exchanging rapid-fire banter with him, and recall his enjoyment of a way I described our kind of relationship in political terms (I was and remained a diehard conservative). To wit, the old Warner Brothers cartoon about the wolf and the sheepdog who strolled to work together in the morning, beat the living daylights out of each other until closing time, and then marched back out into the sunset arm-in-arm. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s the way Graham Murray was. Rest In Peace."

  Here is the short obituary found in Inside Queen's Park:

"Graham Murray, Former IQP Publisher, Passes Away," By David Hains.

"Graham Murray, for decades a fixture at Queen’s Park in multiple capacities, has passed away. He was 78. Born in England, Murray found his way to Toronto and, through a combination of curiosity and an inclination to say yes, found himself in many roles at Queen’s Park. From the late-‘70s to late-‘80s he was a researcher for the NDP. He twice ran (unsuccessfully) for elected office. And in 1987 he joined the nascent publication Inside Queen’s Park as a freelance writer, and INSIDE QUEEN’S PARK would go on to publish and be the face of the publication from the early 1990s until 2015. He was also a founding member of the Public Affairs Association of Canada and served as its president from 1992–94. He also played an instrumental role in ensuring beer and alcohol were served at Queen’s Park, giving another reason for politicos to toast his memory. He is survived by his wife Susan and son James."

"Mr. Queen's Park"

   This article about Graham appears in the November 1, 2021 issue of TVO Today. The picture at the top is from that publication. Although the link to the article works today, it may not tomorrow. I trust that TVO will forgive me for pasting it here. As the family suggests in the obituary, donations to TVO would be appreciated.

"Remembering Graham Murray: Mr. Queen's Park," Steve Paikin.

"Nowadays, there are a lot of newsletters, websites, and podcasts that focus on what’s happening in Ontario politics. But back in the day, there was only one: Inside Queen’s Park, which started it all. 

It was established by Graham Murray, who was a researcher for the New Democratic Party from 1978 to 1987. It seemed as if everyone at the legislature knew Graham, who died this past summer at age 78. 

Graham knew a ton about Queen’s Park, and every time there was an event of significance, he seemed to be there. He was born in Enfield, England — just north of London — in 1943 and had every intention of becoming a foreign-affairs specialist. In fact, he studied international relations at the London School of Economics, then taught the subject at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and at the University of Western Ontario, in London.

“He enjoyed academia, but he didn’t enjoy the pressing need to publish or perish,” says his 32-year-old son, Jamie, his only offspring. That would prove to be truly ironic, given how much publishing Graham would come to do later in life. 

In 1975, he became executive vice-chair of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), which eventually led him to his caucus research job with the NDP at Queen’s Park. 

Graham wasn’t what you’d call a numbers guy, and that eventually led to his downfall at the legislature. He did some research for then NDP leader Bob Rae. 

“He gave Bob some bad numbers, which Bob used in the house and got embarrassed by using them,” says Graham’s widow, Susan Cutler. The couple met through NDP politics. 

Rae eventually fired Graham, but Graham figured out another way to be part of the provincial political scene. He began publishing the bi-weekly newsletter Inside Queen’s Park, which established the template that so many other online publications now follow. Readers were treated to a recap of the political developments of the past two weeks, an extended interview with a newsmaker, a list of upcoming political events, and a trivia question. To be sure, if you knew the answers to Graham’s questions, you were neck deep in nerd-dom. He published the newsletter from 1987 to 2015. 

“He really enjoyed being an insider,” Jamie says. “He was well-respected by all parties and liked cutting through the spin and providing insight and context for things that were developing.” 

As much as Graham wanted you to subscribe to IQP — in other words, to pay for it — he really just wanted you to read it. He wanted everyone to know they’d be getting nuggets of wisdom not seen in the mainstream daily newspapers, so it wasn’t unusual for him to reach inside his jacket pocket and simply give away the newsletter for free at social events. He retained every ounce of his wonderful English accent and frequently gossiped and name-dropped. 

As much as people thought they knew Graham because he was around so much, his personal life was a bit of a mystery to many of us. I knew Graham for more than three decades, and yet until his death, had never known he’d been married three times. (Jamie is the product of his third and happiest marriage, to Susan, whom he wed in 1987.) 

In 1981, he thought about running in the provincial election for the NDP, but he reconsidered when the party’s leader, Michael Cassidy, began soft-pedalling his support for gay rights. Cassidy had won the party leadership in part because of his championing of gay rights, a politically brave position to take at the time. 

“Gay rights were a touchstone for other issues,” Graham once told me. “If you’d do it to them, why should other groups believe you’ll stick by them?” 

In 2004, Graham started experiencing tremors; he soon learned he had Parkinson’s disease, as his father had. Although the tremors became more severe, he continued to publish IQP for another 11 years. 

“His mobility really suffered,” says Jamie. “Instead of working the room, he’d sit, and people would come to him. He’d hold court. But, eventually, it was harder for him to speak and type.” 

Graham may have been a New Democrat, but his favourite politician was a Tory. 

“He always really, really loved Bill Davis,” Jamie says, referring to Ontario’s 18th premier, who died just a few weeks before Graham. “They went to heaven at the same time, and they’ve probably got a really good table up there.”

Even through the pandemic, when it was impossible for us to see each other, Graham and I stayed in touch. This past August, he called me up to pitch a potential new provincial-affairs idea for TVO. Candidly, at that point in his life, it was increasingly difficult to understand what he was saying, but I told him once I’d returned from a vacation up north, we’d get together and talk through his idea. 

Graham died on August 29, before we got a chance to have that meeting. 

When I told his wife, Susan, about the fact that he was pitching Queen’s Park ideas almost right up until his death, she wasn’t the slightest bit surprised. “He never stopped loving the legislature,” she says. 

To the folks who haunt provincial politics, he was a sort of Mr. Queen’s Park, resplendent in his omnipresent hat and cane. He was part of the atmosphere there for more than four decades. 

To the general public, Graham Murray wasn’t a famous guy. But he might just be the kind of guy who deserves to be the subject of a column on the TVO.org website, because of all the stories and quirky personality he brought to Ontario politics. 

Rest in peace, Graham. And please say hi to Premier Davis for all of us."

Steve Paikin

"Steve Paikin is the host of TVO's flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. He co-hosts the weekly provincial affairs #onpoli podcast and contributes columns to tvo.org. Paikin was born and raised in Hamilton, which explains his love of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Toronto Maple Leafs. We’re still trying to figure out his obsession for the Boston Red Sox."

Post Script:

   One learned a great deal from listening to Graham. Every conversation was like a good seminar. In one of our last conversations by phone he casually mentioned the word "sepulchral" which many of us understand, but few of us would be able to insert into a discussion. 

   We benefitted in other ways back in those days. Graham had an account at Blackwell's. He circulated lists from which we purchased books at a discount. There are a lot of Penguins and Pelicans in this London, because of Graham.