Remembering my colleague and friend, Peter Gorrie

Here in Canada, the number of journalists who cover the automotive industry is not very large. While the total number of writers, bloggers and videographers that include automotive content in their coverage may total two to three hundred, there are perhaps only a few dozen anymore who do it exclusively. Many scribes today include automotive content in their body of work but have also branched out to add other areas of coverage to their portfolios.

When it comes to covering environmental topics in the automotive sector, most news today is from automotive journalists who have added green to their coverage. There are very few who can say that they were environmental journalists first who then branched out to include automotive. While I do count myself among this list, I was also writing and blogging about fatherhood before adding automotive to my portfolio.

But notably, there was Peter Gorrie. A man well known for his coverage of green technology and renewable energy over a career that spanned close to 40 years, Peter was the name on the byline of Green Wheels, which regularly appeared in the Wheels section of the Toronto Star for several years.

I recently learned that Peter died on January 4^th after a battle with glioblastoma. He was 71.

Peter Gorrie was a friend and the two of us, along with Michael Bettencourt were the co-creators of the Canadian Green Car Award. The story of how the idea for the award came to be is one that I have told often and with great fondness.

L to R: Peter Gorrie, Michael Bettencourt and Eric Novak – 2014 Canadian Green Car Awards

All 3 of us were covering media days at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2012. At the beginning of the 2^nd day of press conferences I had marked in my calendar to cover the L.A. Auto Show’s Green Car of the Year presentation. I almost missed attending to be honest as I was suffering the ill-effects of revelling perhaps more than I should have with my colleagues the night before. But with a queasy stomach and a pounding headache I headed down to see what the event was about.

Peter was also there to cover the event. He was much more coherent than I as he opted the night before to do the right thing by writing his story in his room instead of tossing back shooters at the hotel bar. Together we watched the event that recognized (somewhat poorly I maintain) the advances in green technology and fuel economy improvements made by new model vehicles that year.

I don’t remember which vehicle received the award to be honest, but I did appreciate how the goal was to try to evaluate vehicles of different propulsion technology in a way that was more consumer oriented than other similar awards. I noted how Jay Leno was a judge and the criteria for evaluation was based less on traditional automotive judging metrics, but more on relevant matters to environmentalists and consumers alike.

At the end of the presentation Peter and I were trying to assess what we had seen, and I remember saying to him that there wasn’t anything quite like this in Canada. I remarked how it would be interesting to see if we could make something like this happen back home. It was honestly more of an off-the-cuff remark, but Peter jumped on it right away and said, “that’s a great idea!” and then spent several minutes figuring out some early concepts and logistics. We saw Michael later that morning and over that day and on the flight home we began to formulate a plan on how we could make something like this happen.

2016 Canadian Green Car Award Presentation

Over the next 3-1/2 months, many things transpired that allowed us to present the first ever Canadian Green Car Award at the Green Living Show in Toronto in April 2013. Peter brought a deeply analytical perspective to the process of creating the award, which was a perfect compliment to my evolving gung-ho enthusiasm. In the years that followed Peter, Michael and I took that idea born at a breakfast table in Los Angeles and grew it into one that automakers would go to great lengths to make sure they could be involved in and considered for recognition.

I should note that the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show wasn’t where Peter and I first met. That happened a couple months earlier in Burlington, ON when legendary environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall was speaking at an event put on by Burlington Green. We were both there to listen to Dr. Goodall speak and, if she was agreeable afterward, we would meet with her and ask some questions for stories we would write.

She agreed to meet with us, and I recall how the tone of questions asked by Peter and I kept drifting away from investigation and more towards admiration. It was just after the both of us had concluded our questions and then asked her if we could pose for photos that she remarked how our time together had turned into one of the most interesting, yet peculiar press conferences she had ever been involved in.

Meeting Dr. Jane Goodall, Burlington, ON – September, 2012

After the 2016 award was handed out, Peter shared that he was going to step back from the award as he was going to semi-retire and move out to Victoria, BC so he could spend more time with his grandkids. Michael and I asked if he would still be able to help with some of the analytical parts of the award for which his skills were far superior to ours. We even told him that if he agreed, we would bestow upon him the title of “co-creator emeritus” – a title which then appeared on each press release sent out that year.

With Peter scaling back, the work of a growing award fell to just two steering committee members now instead of three. We were able to persuade a more than qualified replacement in Vancouver Sun writer Andrew McCreadie, and the three of us formed a new steering committee going forward. We managed to build the award for another couple of years and by 2018 it was fully established in the minds of automakers as an award worth fighting for. Category winners were now asking to use our logo in their TV and print ads and brand recognition was high. But it also was a huge time commitment for the three of us and it had become more than we could volunteer to offer. 2018 was the last year the award was handed out, and while it may not actually be gone for good, it is now on a longer-term hiatus with no clear date on when or if it might return.

Peter was not a gearhead by any means. He still rode his bicycle more than he did a press car that he was reviewing. He saw the automotive beat more as something that needed to be explored than something with which he was passionate about. He understood how his years of green knowledge would bring a perspective to the Wheels section of the Toronto Star that was both valued and necessary.

The breadth and scope of green car coverage today is far deeper and more comprehensive than it was when Peter started Green Wheels, but his byline and his weekly coverage will never be forgotten.

Nor should it.

Peter and I communicated only infrequently after he moved out west. But I knew that he enjoyed dialing it down and enjoying the beauty that Vancouver Island offered him. I last saw him when I travelled to Victoria for an automotive event in 2017 when we had a coffee together and some catch-up conversations. Truthfully, I didn’t even know that he was ill, and I never thought his lack of posting on social media would have been anything more than him being too busy to post.

I will remember Peter Gorrie as a man who was a pioneer of sorts. Someone who believed strongly in the need to advocate for a sustainable future and was blessed with opportunities to write about and share stories that guided us toward a greener future. I am also thankful to him for allowing me to ramble off a crazy idea while amid a nasty hangover, and still be interested enough to help me turn it into a tangible and credible automotive benchmark for several years that followed.

If we ever bring back the award, perhaps it will be time to create our first ever award “in memoriam” to recognize his life’s work. In the interim I am grateful for his contributions, appreciative on our collegial bond and committed to work hard at sharing sustainable stories that need to be told with the same zeal he had for so many years.

So, cheers to you my co-creator emeritus friend. May the most renewable part of your legacy be your love and enthusiasm for sharing the sustainable stories that we all need to hear.