Rex Murphy, the Newfoundland-born pundit and wordsmith whose writing and often-blistering commentaries were the focus of a decades-long career in Canadian media, has died at the age of 77, according to the National Post.
In a report published on the Post’s website on Thursday, the newspaper said Murphy died after a battle with cancer.
Murphy had a long career in media, including many years with CBC, and was a National Post columnist at the time of his death.
He hosted Cross Country Checkup on CBC Radio for more than two decades and was a familiar face to longtime viewers of CBC’s The National. His appearances on CBC-TV date as far back as the 1970s.
Kevin Libin, a long-time editor of Murphy’s work at Postmedia, spoke of the certainty that Murphy had in his writing and his work.
“When Rex had something to say, he knew exactly what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it,” Libin told CBC News on Thursday evening.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper, in a tribute posted on X, remembered Murphy as “one of the most intelligent and fiercely free-thinking journalists this country has ever known.”