Over the years, I’ve covered and interviewed a lot of famous people who have had a great impact on our country, society and the world.
In Ottawa, I met and interviewed former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev amid the most security personnel I’d ever encountered at that early point in my journalism career. That encounter didn't have the same relaxing feel I got a few days later when speaking with the easy-going Alanis Morissette at an Ottawa Senators home-opener, which actually felt like speaking with an old friend.
While working for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal, I had the good fortune to come across former U.S. president George Bush and his Secret Service entourage, former prime minister Jean Chretien a few times and many others as well the man with a name for the ages, former U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and by far the coolest person I've ever interviewed, minimalist composer Philip Glass.
And in Quebec City, I got to cover my childhood idol Guy Lafleur’s last game. (He remains the only person I have ever asked for an autograph while working and I still have the signed press pass squirrelled away somewhere.)
But while it’s always exciting to cover and interview celebrities, sports figures or prominent public figures, nothing quite featured the aura or magic of covering a visit by Queen Elizabeth II, whose death was announced Thursday.
During a weekend stop in Moncton many years ago, the monarch cheerfully chatted with the adoring crowd, attended a luncheon with then-premier Bernard Lord and afterwards again chatted with the same adoring crowd waiting outside.
Some of them held placards stating their love for her while many carefully shot out their arms with bouquets of colourful flowers.
She seemed genuinely pleased to be there as she always seemed to be, no matter where she was.
And if I thought the Gorbachev visit had high security, it was nothing compared to a Golden Jubilee visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
First up was undergoing a rigorous security screening process completed by the RCMP, the province and a federal government agency. And upon approval of that process, I was given The Book. It featured the Queen’s official emblem and a canary yellow cover. And it was long!
The Book and a subsequent information session with a government official outlined how a journalist was supposed to act (I wish someone had given The Book to a couple of former editors about proper behaviour, but I digress.)
The Book featured everything from meeting the Queen at the airport to trying to get a quote from her to where to stand when she was within range to what to do when she returned to the airport to leave.
The Book also outlined other etiquette tips and things that were verboten. And there were many things you weren't supposed to do, including the previously mentioned 'try to get a quote from her.' I learned that one quickly when she ignored my soft question.
As a journalist, one gets used to being shooed away, yelled at, told to wait here and he/she will be right out or to stop what you're doing.
But I have never felt more under the microscope by security staff and government officials than that particular fall day I followed Her Majesty's visit to the Maritimes.
And unlike Guy Lafleur, she didn't autograph my press pass.
Andrew Philips is the editor at MidlandToday.
