Whit Fraser | |
---|---|
56th Viceregal consort of Canada | |
Assumed role July 26, 2021 | |
Governor General | Mary Simon |
Preceded by | Sharon Johnston (2017) |
Chair of the Canadian Polar Commission | |
In office 1991–1999 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Whit Grant Fraser November 26,1942 Merigomish,Nova Scotia,Canada |
Spouse | |
Children | 3 |
Occupation |
|
Whit Grant Fraser CC (born November 26, 1942) [1] is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster, and author who has served as the 56th viceregal consort of Canada since 2021, as the husband of Governor General Mary Simon. [2]
Born in Merigomish, Nova Scotia, and educated in Stellarton, Fraser began his career in journalism as a reporter for CKEC-FM in New Glasgow. [3]
He joined CBC News in 1967 as a reporter in Frobisher Bay and later in Yellowknife. His coverage of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in the late 1970s expanded his national prominence, following which he worked for a number of years as a national reporter based in Ottawa and Edmonton. [4] In 1989 he was one of the final contenders to replace Peter Downie as host of the network's noon-hour newscast Midday , but was not selected; [5] instead, he became host of This Country, a six-hour nightly program on the CBC's new all-news channel CBC Newsworld which covered regional news from across the country. [6]
He left the CBC in 1991 when he was appointed by the federal government as chair of the Canadian Polar Commission, a new federal government agency devoted to territorial and Arctic issues. [7] He briefly returned to television with the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation in 1999 as cohost with Jonah Kelly of the special broadcast covering the formal creation of Nunavut. [8] He subsequently served as chief operating officer of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami in the 2000s. [9]
In 2018, he published True North Rising, a memoir of his work in Arctic communities. [8]
In 2021, he was appointed an ex-officio Extraordinary Companion of the Order of Canada by Queen Elizabeth II – a customary appointment for all modern viceregal consorts – and gained the temporary courtesy style of Excellency upon his wife's assumption of office as governor general. He currently resides at Rideau Hall, the seat of the Canadian Crown.
In 2022, he published his second book, Cold Edge of Heaven, a historical fiction novel set in Dundas Harbour and based on some actual events.
Ramon John Hnatyshyn was a Canadian lawyer and statesman who served as the 24th governor general of Canada from 1990 to 1995.
Adrienne Louise Clarkson is a Hong Kong–born Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as the 26th governor general of Canada from 1999 to 2005.
CBC News Network is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It is Canada's first all-news channel, and the world's third-oldest television service of this nature
CITV-DT is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, part of the Global Television Network. The station is owned and operated by network parent Corus Entertainment, and maintains studios on Allard Way Northwest in the Pleasantview neighbourhood of Edmonton. Its transmitter is located just off of Highway 21, southeast of the city. CITV-DT carries the full Global network schedule, and its programming is similar to sister station CICT-DT in Calgary.
Michaëlle Jean is a Canadian former journalist who served as the 27th governor general of Canada from 2005 to 2010. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person to hold this office.
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. Founded in 1941, CBC News is the largest news broadcaster in Canada and has local, regional, and national broadcasts and stations. It frequently collaborates with its organizationally separate French-language counterpart, Radio-Canada Info.
The viceregal consort of Canada is the spouse of the serving governor general of Canada, assisting the viceroy with ceremonial and charitable work, accompanying him or her to official state occasions, and occasionally undertaking philanthropic work of their own. As the host/hostess of the royal and viceroyal residence in Ottawa, the consort, if female, is also known as the chatelaine of Rideau Hall. This individual, who ranks third in the Canadian order of precedence, after the Canadian monarch and the governor general, is addressed as His or Her Excellency while their spouse is in office, and is made ex officio an Extraordinary Companion of the Order of Canada and a Knight or Dame of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem.
CityNews is the title of news and current affairs programming on Rogers Sports & Media's Citytv network in Canada. The newscast division was founded on September 28, 1975 as CityPulse as a standalone local newscast on the network's Toronto station owned by CHUM Limited. Through the acquisitions of the Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary A-Channel stations in 2004, it was relaunched under the CityNews brand on August 2, 2005 and later expanded to Montreal in 2012. The remaining Citytv stations airs the news headlines segments during each station's Breakfast Television morning show.
Midday is a newsmagazine television program broadcast on CBC Television, which ran from January 7, 1985 to June 30, 2000, replacing local noon-hour newscasts on CBC stations. The program, which aired from noon to 1 p.m. on weekday afternoons, presented a mix of news, lifestyle and entertainment features.
Sheila Watt-Cloutier is a Canadian Inuk activist. She has been a political representative for Inuit at the regional, national and international levels, most recently as International Chair for the Inuit Circumpolar Council. Watt-Cloutier has worked on a range of social and environmental issues affecting Inuit, most recently, persistent organic pollutants and global warming. She has received numerous awards and honours for her work, and has been featured in a number of documentaries and profiled by journalists from all media. Watt-Cloutier sits as an adviser to Canada's Ecofiscal Commission. She is also a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.
Peter A. Herrndorf was a Canadian lawyer and media businessman. He retired as the president and chief executive officer of the National Arts Centre on June 2, 2018.
CBC News produces a variety of local newscasts for CBC Television's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os) throughout Canada. On most stations, the local news operation is branded with standard, regional titles such as CBC Toronto News. However, there are variations to this naming convention for northern Canada and certain markets where the CBC has historically been strong in local news, such as Here & Now in Newfoundland, Compass on Prince Edward Island, and Northbeat on CBC North.
Compass is a 60-minute local CBC television news program based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Broadcast weeknights from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. AT on CBCT-DT, it is the only PEI-specific television newscast available in the province.
William Peter Main Trueman was a Canadian television and radio personality, best known for his work for the Global Television Network between 1974 and 1977, and from 1978 to July 1988. In the 1960s and early 1970s he was a reporter, editor and producer for CBC News.
Diana Fowler LeBlanc is the widow of former Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc, during whose term she was a Viceregal consort.
Mary Jeannie May Simon is a Canadian civil servant, diplomat, and former broadcaster who has served as the 30th governor general of Canada since July 26, 2021. She is Inuk on her mother's side, making her the first indigenous person to hold the office.
Sharon Johnston is a Canadian author who was the 55th viceregal consort of Canada, due to being the wife of David Johnston, the 28th Governor General of Canada.
Norma Dunning is an Inuk Canadian writer and assistant lecturer at the University of Alberta, who won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award in 2018 for her short story collection Annie Muktuk and Other Stories. In the same year, she won the Writers' Guild of Alberta's Howard O'Hagan Award for the short story "Elipsee", and was a shortlisted finalist for the City of Edmonton Book Award. She published in 2020 a collection of poetry and stories entitled Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity.
Larry Audlaluk is an Inuk activist and writer from Canada who was among those forcibly relocated during the High Arctic relocation program. He was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2007.
Tainna:The Unseen Ones is a book written by Inuk Canadian writer Norma Dunning. It is a collection of six short stories based on the tales and experiences of modern day Inuit characters living outside their home territories in Southern Canada. Published in 2021 by the independent publisher Douglas & McIntyre of Vancouver, British Columbia, the book won the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction.