Barbara Frum Scholarship
Our Canada-wide Scholarships Program has been an exciting new Press Club project. With the support of generous sponsors, we are building a strong foundation to assist worthy journalism students in the years to come.

David Frum Comments:” Barbara Frum is rightly remembered as one of the greatest – if not the very greatest – interviewers of modern times. My sister Linda once asked her the secret of her achievement. The answer: “Ask short questions.” Linda was stunned. That’s it? That’s the secret?

On reflection, though, those few words reveal a very great deal. To identify the essential and omit the inessential requires careful preparation, intense intellectual focus, supreme self-discipline – and above all the perspective and modesty to remember that the interviewer exists not to glorify himself or herself but to serve as the instrument of the people’s right to know.

Preparation, focus, self-discipline and modesty: these were present in all of Barbara’s media work. And something else too: an absolute integrity that ramified through everything she did. She was always concerned to be fair to all, to give all a right to be heard, to explore fully views with which she might be inclined to disagree, to push back strongly against views with which she was inclined to agree. People called her tough, but she was toughest with herself.

In this as in the rest of her life, professional and personal, she was an example to follow of the acutest intellect, the hardest labor, and the most unspotted character. My family is honored by this scholarship in my mother’s name. And I hope that for the deserving winner this prize will be a source of pride and an enduring inspiration.” ~David   April-16-09