CHAPLEAU EXPRESS
Local News Weekly
705 - 864 - 2785
Free to Every Household
Vol. 29, Issue 40, June 5, 2025
705 - 864 - 0911
A lifelong legacy of storytelling: Creston's Michael Morris shares wisdom By Kelsey Yates or more than six decades, Michael Morris has been telling stories — on a typewriter, a classroom chalkboard, from a mayor’s chair, and now from his room at Swan Valley Lodge. This June marks the 16th anniversary of his weekly column in the Chapleau Express, his beloved hometown newspaper in Ontario. These days, with more limited dexterity, Morris receives help from Swan Valley staff to continue submitting his work — a gesture he says makes all the difference. “They are very helpful to me in getting my column done, because I really can't. I have trouble typing,” he said. “I never took typing but reporters of my generation, we can move like hell with two fingers.” Morris still has a sharp memory and easily recalls the details of places, dates, and names. A storyteller by nature, he easily charms his visitors with shared anecdotes from his vibrant life of travel, newsroom antics, and days in the classroom. His columns, Chapleau Moments, are love letters to the town that shaped him. Even with the town's tiny population of 1,900, Morris has managed to mine stories from his deep family roots for many years. Morris was just a child when his father, a former police officer and Long Term S e c o n d Wo r l d Wa r Forecast bomber pilot, was shot Thursday down and killed. He was High 22 raised in Chapleau by his Low 8 mother and grandparFriday ents and credits their High 21 values with guiding him Low 8 throughout his life. Saturday
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Michael Morris is a resident of Creston's Swan Valley Lodge. (Kelsey Yates/Creston Valley Advance)
“Mom was a teacher for 40 years, and I never heard an unkind word about my mother,” he said. “I think I tried very hard to be like mom.” Despite some hardship and struggles with alcoholism, Morris recovered and found success in his career. After earning his degree at the University of Waterloo — where he edited the student newspaper and launched his journalism career — he received five job offers from Ontario newspapers. Over the years, he worked for 12 publications across Canada, including freelance work for the Toronto Star. He learned a lot from the "old-school,
tough-as-nails" editors he worked under. One of them, at the Star Phoenix in Saskatoon, once told him: “Journalists have no friends and no enemies. Just tell the truth.” "Mr. Wade had his favourite staff go to the liquor store at 10 o'clock every morning and get him a bottle. And if you were a good boy, you could have a drink. But nobody thought anything of it. We could still smoke in any room. I smoked a pack of cigarettes before deadline," said Morris. Beyond those startling cultural differences, the tools of the trade were different too. Cont’d on P.4
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