Writer of songs, screenplays, and prose;
President of The Writers Guild of Canada 1994-2003.
Pete White (occasionally miscredited as Peter White) was born in Kaslo, British Columbia in 1946 to newly-widowed Mary White following the death of his father, W.F. “Bill” Hill, six months prior to his birth. White lived in Kaslo until 1953, when his mother married Tony White, a hard rock miner. The family subsequently moved through a series of mining camps that included stops in the East and West Kootenay, Vancouver Island, the Northwest Territories, and Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario, where he attended high school. Finding his escape in books, from age ten he was determined to become a writer.
White left home at 17, hitchhiking from Ontario to British Columbia, where he began working as a miner in the Slocan valley, Elliot lake, and Yellowknife. As he had in high school, he continued writing poetry while developing a growing interest in contemporary folk music. In 1967, White quit mining and moved to Edmonton to become a songwriter. There he met expat British folksinger and twelve-string guitar player, Paul Hann. The pair bonded over music as White’s focus shifted from lyrics to complete songwriting when Hann taught White to play the guitar. White went on to write or co-write many of Hann’s songs while also managing and promoting Hann’s career and executive-producing his first two albums, as their music evolved from contemporary folk into progressive country-rock.
Their songs were featured on five of Hann’s albums including “A Fine White thread” (1973), “Another Tumbleweed” (1976), “Paul Hann” (1977), “High Test” (1979) and “Hometown Hero” (1980). “Another Tumbleweed” became the first album on Holger Petersen’s Stony Plain label. White and Hann also composed music for film and television sound-tracks, including the theme song for the program “Come Alive” for Access Alberta. Following the recording of the theme, producer Tony Wade offered White the opportunity of scripting a television series which subsequently launched his career as a screenwriter. Hann in turn moved on to become a children’s entertainer, hosting is own television show for eight seasons.
In 1977, White formed a production company, Kicking Horse Productions, with friend Arvi Liimatainen. Over the next seven years, White worked to master the craft of screenwriting, writing educational, sponsored, documentary, and drama productions. In the early 1980’s, he left Kicking Horse to pursue a career as an independent writer-producer of drama, developing movie & mini-series scripts (primarily for Jim Burt at CBC), crafting series episodes, and working as a long-form story consultant.
In 1986, White moved his family to Kaslo where he designed and built a house in which they resided for the next 22 years. Joining the Historical Society, he founded the Kootenay Lake Archives and later became president of the society. Four-wheeling and hiking in the high alpine to explore the old mining camps while researching Kootenay history became his primary leisure pastimes.
Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, White wrote episodes for television shows such as “The Beachcombers”(1982-1990), “Danger Bay” (1983-1990), “Northwood” (1991-1992) and others, his early efforts supported and encouraged by story editor and later show-runner, Jana Veverka. In 2003, he headed the story department of “Da Vinci’s Inquest” for creator Chris Haddock.
White was screenwriter of the television movie “Strikers Mountain” (CBC-1986), and wrote and co-produced “Legend of the Ruby Silver” (ABC-1996), and “Peacekeepers” (CBC-1997). All three movies earned White Gemini nominations for writing. White went on to receive Writers Guild of Canada “Top Ten” awards for “Legend of the Ruby Silver” and “Peacekeepers,” which was nominated for six Geminis in total.
At the same time, White became a key player in working to enhance the rights and interests of Canadian screenwriters. He was active in the ACTRA Writers Guild (AWG) for seven years, serving as Chairman in 1986 and 1987. In 1991, following the formation of The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), an autonomous guild within ACTRA, White served as VP representing the Pacific Region. Following the departure of Jack Gray, White was subsequently elected to the presidency of the WGC from 1994-2003. Following a referendum in 1995, the Guild became independent, severing all ties with ACTRA.
Under White’s leadership, supported by Executive Director Maureen Parker and a Council of working writers, the WGC administration was restructured, the jurisdiction was expanded to include story editors, story consultants, and animation writers, and the Department of Canadian Heritage was lobbied to establish the Telefilm Canada Screenwriting Assistance Program (SAP) which funded writers directly at the development stage. Resisting incursions by the Writers Guild of America, the WGC worked strenuously to maintain their jurisdiction over writers working on cross-border productions in Canada. Lastly, came the establishment of a collection society (CSCS) to collect foreign royalties for Canadian writers. White went on to chair the Policy Research Group (PRG) of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).
In 2004, White received the Writers Guild of Canada’s “Writers Block Award,” in recognition of his service to the WGC. In 2006, White was given the Margaret Collier Award, a lifetime achievement Gemini for his body of work as a screenwriter as well as his work with the WGC on behalf of Canadian screenwriters.
After residing in the Kootenays for 22 years, White and his wife Suzanne moved to Vancouver Island where he spent his final years writing prose that included “Crimea Sabre: A Non-fiction Novel,” “Hard Rock Camps: A Mining Memoir,” “Wrecked on the Highway: A Musical Ride,” “Hitting the Small Time: A Canadian Screenwriter,” “Fighting for Writers: A Noir Thriller”, and “The Kootenay Island: An Historical Romance."
