Lloyd Robertson, a stalwart of Canadian TV news for decades who earned the unrelenting trust of viewers, has died at the age of 92.
His family confirmed to The Canadian Press in an email that the veteran broadcaster died Tuesday evening.
Robertson joined CTV in 1976 and served as chief anchor and senior editor from 1984 to 2011, at the helm of one of the top nightly newscasts in the country and bidding viewers good night with his trademark sign-off: “That’s the kind of day it’s been.”
For 11 consecutive years, TV Guide Canada readers voted Robertson the TV journalist they trusted most, an honour he took to heart.
“Conferred upon you is this mantle of objectivity and fairness, and you have to take that seriously,” he said in a 2001 interview with The Canadian Press.
“And you’re also aware in this business that as easily as you win it, you can just as easily lose it.”
He resented the assumption of some viewers that his work was nothing more than reading from a teleprompter. After two decades with the CBC, he left the public broadcaster in the 1970s because he felt constricted in what he could do there.
Union regulations at the time restricted CBC anchors to simply reading the news, and prohibited them from writing scripts or choosing stories for the newscast.
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“I’m not a talking head,” Robertson told The Canadian Press.
“Damn right it’s important for me to be more than a talking head … I deal in the news every day. I ask questions. I do reports. I analyze. I edit. If that isn’t being a journalist, what is?”
Bell Media, the parent company of CTV News, said in a statement that Robertson was a trusted and beloved broadcaster with the network for 35 years.
“Lloyd left an indelible mark on both CTV News and Canadian journalism,” said Richard Gray, Bell Media’s vice-president of news.
“Throughout his illustrious career, he forged a genuine bond with viewers, becoming a reassuring voice while reporting on some of the biggest events happening across Canada and around the world.”
Gray said Robertson was a valued mentor and friend to those who worked alongside him.
“His enduring legacy continues through the standards and values he established at CTV News, and he will be deeply missed by all.”
Robertson got his start in broadcasting in 1952 in his hometown of Stratford, Ont., at a local radio station. He worked for a Guelph, Ont., radio station the following year before landing with the CBC in 1954 and turning to TV work.
He married his high school sweetheart, Nancy, in 1956. The couple had four daughters together, including a set of twins.
Robertson spent time in Winnipeg and Ottawa before anchoring CBC’s national news from 1970 to 1976.
When he left for CTV, he insisted it wasn’t for the money and said CBC actually offered him more to stay.
“The CTV network said: total freedom, whatever you want to do. You can write, you can go in the field and report, you can anchor, you will have freedom to do what you want to do,” Robertson said in a CBC interview in 1976, shortly before he took on his new job.
“It was irresistible, I couldn’t turn it down. I had a terrible, terrible time tearing myself away from (CBC). In fact, I woke up at six o’clock in the morning after the decision and I said to my wife, ‘What have I done?’”
CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson reacts during an ad break in his final newscast on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011. Robertson has died at 92.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Covering the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and its aftermath were among the most difficult stories he had to work on, Robertson said.
“I watched for a bit and realized this was horror,” he recalled.
He admitted he became emotional as he described the scene at a memorial service in Ottawa a few days later, when an estimated 100,000 Canadians turned out to pay their respects.
“When I saw those people crying on Parliament Hill, and the monumental nature of this tragedy came home to me, I began to cry. Now I was off camera, but when I was talking voice-over I think my voice may have been trembling a little bit.”
Robertson was named a member of the Order of Canada and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, both honours coming in 1998.
In 2007, he became the first journalist to be inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Lisa LaFlamme (right) sits in the anchor’s chair as CTV announces that she will succeed Lloyd Robertson (left) as anchor of CTV News, in Toronto on Friday, July 9, 2010.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrien Veczan
He fronted CTV National News until 2011, when he passed the torch to Lisa LaFlamme. He continued to work for the network as a special correspondent.
Robertson won lifetime achievement awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association in 2015 and the Canadian Journalism Foundation in 2016.
He also received several honorary degrees.
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