In mid-1991, I was new to the editor’s desk at Playback, having just moved over from reporting for Strategy. Neither that trial-by-fire beginning, nor several years at CBC Radio News had prepared me for Film-and-TV-Industry 101 – a day in the life of a Playback journalist.

But I remember quite clearly that the first time I heard Peter Mortimer’s mellifluous and soft, laughter-infused voice on the other end of the phone, I knew I had received my first call from a true industry advocate. He was co-leading the CFTPA and he wanted to talk about the need for a Canadian industrial strategy. He wanted the powers that be to recognize that until Canadians – in governments, associations, unions, TV stations, theaters and schools as well as in studios and editing suites – could set forth a plan to build an industry and define it as separate from Hollywood, and then actually say the words out loud, there could be no sustainable Canadian industry.

He explained the dream and the potential reality to me the following week, over tea on a Yonge Street cafe patio. I don’t know if the editorials written or articles assigned after that lived up to his faith in me, but I know he turned me into an advocate, too. And I know this: every single time I saw him after that, even long after he’d left policy work, he had a smile, a twinkling in the eye, that infectious laughter and many wise words to soothe my sometimes discouraged soul and remind me of my purpose.

The notice about his death in The Globe and Mail said that because he has gone, many people will miss the goodness he brought into their lives. But they will not forget.