Allan Fotheringham

Allan Fotheringham (born August 31, 1932 in Hearne, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian newspaper and magazine journalist. He is widely known by the nickname Dr. Foth and styles himself as, "Always controversial... never at a loss for words" and also as "the Great Gatheringfroth".

Fotheringham studied journalism at the University of British Columbia and worked at a variety of media outlets during his career. He was best known as a columnist, originally at the "The Ubyssey", a still-operating student newspaper noted for its "biting" reporters and editors. After university, he was hired by local papers and had a regular column in the "Vancouver Sun" during the heady times of the late '60s, the final days of the old Bennett Socreds and the advent of Pierre Trudeau. Fotheringham's columns and commentaries brought him national attention as well as wider syndication and a broader subject base. He was one of the leading specialists in explaining the twisted world of British Columbia politics during his time at the "Sun".

He later wrote for "Maclean's", where his column appeared on the back page of the magazine for 27 years. Fotheringham's column was so widely read and so influential that he is said to have made "Maclean's" "the magazine people read from back to front". Some of his more memorable political niknames include "the brogue that walks and talks like a man" (for Jack Webster) and its offspring, "the jaw that walks and talks like a man" (for Brian Mulroney. He is credited with coining the terms Natural Governing Party for the federal Liberals, and the Holy Mother Corporation for the CBC in the course of writing his columns.

In 2001, "Maclean's" underwent an editorial revamp, and Fotheringham's column was moved to an inside page to make room for a guest column. Soon afterward, Fotheringham left "Maclean's", and became a columnist for "The Globe and Mail". He currently has a national syndicated column that is in 20 newspapers.

For 10 years, Fotheringham was a regular panelist in the latter years of the CBC Television program "Front Page Challenge", replacing the deceased Gordon Sinclair.

Fotheringham has honorary degrees from the University of New Brunswick and the University of Saskatchewan.

Fotheringhamisms

Affectionately known as "Foth" as well as "Dr. Foth", he dubbed himself "the Great Gatheringfroth" and coined some well-known terms in BC political history:
*Lotusland -- British Columbia, particularly Victoria
*the Granite Curtain -- the Rocky Mountains
*the Tweed Curtain -- the Oak Bay, British Columbia-Victoria border, referring to the former's deep conservative British flavour
*"the Brogue that walks and talks like a man" -- journalist and broadcaster Jack Webster) (who had many nicknames, not all of them Foth's. Foth later adapted this phrase to "the Jaw that walks and talks like a man" for Brian Mulroney
*the Natural Governing Party -- the federal Liberals
*the Holy Mother Corporation -- the CBC
*Jurassic Clark -- former prime minister Joe Clark
*Coma City -- Ottawa

Fotheringham was of a generation and an era in journalism in British Columbia that, in retrospect, have both historical importance and a luminary air and all of whom were part of Fotheringham's regular social and professional milieu, and all of whom he knew:
*Bruce Hutchison -- editor/writer and historian, publisher and editor for many years of the "Vancouver Sun", author of several books on BC history and geography, notably "The Fraser", concerning that river
*Len Norris-- influential political cartoonist.
*Paddy Sherman -- editor/writer and political commentator, also an editor at the "Vancouver Sun" and known for his histories and biographies
*Jack Wasserman -- society and celebrity columnist and occasional political commentator for the "Vancouver Sun" during the wild heyday, glitter and sleaziness of the Vancouver nightlife and society whirl (and scandal) in the 1950s and 1960s
*Paul St. Pierre -- columnist, author and MP for Coast-Chilcotin. St. Pierre's writings on the Chilcotin and Cariboo districts as well as his profile in -- and, when not serving as MP, editorial columnist and commentator on -- the arcane backroom politics of provincial politics and big business. An educated scholar as well as crafty politician, now retired in Mexico and writing from there on occasion
*Margaret Lally "Ma" Murray -- editor/writer and wife of publisher and MLA George Murray and Order of Canada recipient. A Kansas farm girl come to Canada to find a man and make good, she became famous for her spicy wit and backcountry, down-to-earth style, "Ma" was co-founder with her husband of "Bridge River-Lillooet News" and the "Alaska Highway News", and both had a high profile in provincial politics
*Jack Webster -- pioneering talk radio host who eventually launched a TV interview program that became the nerve centure of British Columbia, and sometimes national, politics.
*Pierre Berton -- Klondike-born historian and commentator, prominent in Canadian politics and popular historical writing, a "character" who, late in life endorsed marijuana legalization and rolled a joint of marijuana on television, on the CBC comedy program "Rick Mercer Report"
*and more, plus the artistic and entertainment and business cocktail-party crowd of the era, and various colourful shady characters, some of whose careers Fotheringham is noted for profiling and covering in the course of his columns

Books by Allan Fotheringham

* "Collected and Bound" (1972)
* "The World According to Roy Peterson with Gospel According to Allan Fotheringham" (1979)
* "Malice in Blunderland" (1982)
* "Look Ma...No Hands" (1983)
* "Capitol Offences" (1986)
* "Birds of a Feather: The Press and the Politicians" (1989)
* "Last Page First" (1999)
* "Fotheringham's Fictionary of Facts and Follies" (2001)

References

External links

* [http://www.drfoth.com Allan Fotheringham's Official Site]