David Onley, a long-time Toronto broadcaster, space enthusiast and advocate for people living with disabilities, has been appointed Ontario’s next lieutenant-governor of Ontario.
BRODIE FENLON Globe and Mail July 10, 2007 –
“I really want to be the compelling and driving force to help make this province a more accessible place,”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office confirmed Tuesday that Mr. Onley will replace James Bartleman, whose term as the province’s 27th Lieutenant-Governor ends later this month.
Mr. Onley said his chief goal as the Queen’s representative in Ontario will be to secure rights for the disabled.
“I really want to be the compelling and driving force to help make this province a more accessible place,” he said in an interview today with CITY-TV, the Toronto station where he has worked for the past two decades.
Mr. Onley graduated from the University of Toronto’s political science program in 1975, abandoned law school in Windsor after one year, and at the age of 27, while living with his parents, he began to write a novel about space travel.
Published in 1981, Shuttle: A Shattering Novel of Disaster in Space became a best seller and launched Mr. Onley’s career as a science and technology commentator, first for Toronto radio stations CFRB and CKO, and then CITY-TV, where he was hired in 1984 as a science and weather specialist.
“I decided to write a book at the age of 27 because, number one, I had an idea, and number two, because I could not find a job,” Mr. Onley said in a University of Toronto profile published last year.
Named as one of the “Torontonians Most Likely to Succeed” in 1984 by Toronto Life magazine, Mr. Onley quickly made a name for himself at CITY. After five years on the weather beat, he became the station’s first anchor of its flagship morning program Breakfast Television, and later covered education. Most recently, he anchored the news on CITY-TV’s 24-hour new channel CablePulse24 and hosted a weekly live technology program.
Stricken with polio as a child, Mr. Onley is known to many Ontario TV viewers as one of the first and few on-air personalities with an obvious physical disability (he uses a motorized scooter and stands with crutches). As he told the author of his University of Toronto profile, “I wasn’t hired as the token disabled guy. I was hired by CITY-TV because I had the talent they were looking for.”
Stephen Hurlbut, vice-president of news at CITY-TV, said it was important to the station and Mr. Onley that his disability be seen on camera.
“The fact that he was disabled was absolutely secondary. Having said that, we completely, mutually agreed that it was not something that was to be hidden. It was important from David’s perspective and it was important from our perspective that when we saw him standing there, we saw him with his crutches, or if we saw him doing a standup, we saw the scooter.”
Mr. Onley has done much to raise awareness for causes that the improve the lives of people with physical disabilities. He was awarded the Clarke Institute’s Courage to Come Back award in 1996, and was inducted into the Terry Fox Hall of Fame the following year. He is also involved in the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons, the Ontario March of Dimes, and he was appointed chair of Ontario’s Accessibility Standards Advisory Council in 2005.
A born-again Christian, Mr. Onley was a founding member of the Safe Haven Worship Centre, a non-denominational Christian evangelical church in Pickering Ont., where he served as an elder for three years and is an active member with his wife, Ruth Ann, and three sons: Jonathan, Robert and Michael.
“We’re very pleased. We are so proud of him,” said church office administrator Deb Hewie, who described a scene of “hollering” and cheer when her office learned of the appointment earlier today.
“He is a man of integrity, honesty, (he’s) above reproach. He is a wonderful man,” Ms. Hewie said. “David always makes time for everyone. If you’re friend, if you have concern, David is always there … He is an integral part of our church.”
Mr. Hurlbut described Mr. Onley as “perfectly suited” to the role of Lieutenant-Governor.
“He’s very genuine, very sincere, pleasant, intelligent, and he has a bit of a naughty sense of humour at times,” he said.
Mr. Onley’s appointment is a “great day for Ontario,” said Mr. Bartleman, who used the role to champion many causes such as aboriginal literacy and mental health.
Given the job doesn’t come with any tangible power, Mr. Bartleman said it’s up to the office holder to use the position to connect with people and talk about issues the government hasn’t been able to make “huge headway” in.
“There is a tremendous moral power associated with the office,” Mr. Bartleman said told Canadian Press in an interview from his home in Perth, Ont. “If lieutenant-governors and governors general confine their role to a purely ceremonial one, the office will eventually be regarded as irrelevant.”
In May, Mr. Harper appointed retired bureaucrat Pierre Duchesne as a replacement for Quebec Lieutenant-Governor Lise Thibault, who came under fire for her expenses. A 2,000-paged itemized account of her spending released by the Department of Canadian Heritage included expenses for 2003 garden party that broke her budget for out-of-town expenses, and a Christmas party costing more than $400 a person.
Last July, Mr. Harper appointed Charlottetown music teacher Barbara Oliver Hagerman as PEI’s new Lieutenant-Governor.
The post was established by the British North America Act in March 1867. Appointees serve as the Queen’s representative in their respective province, and each is charged with ensuring the smooth functioning of the Constitution. The Lieutenant-Governor may act on the advice of elected officials and may exercise the right “to be consulted, to encourage or to warn.”
The Lieutenant-Governor must also ensure the province always has a premier.
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