A veteran journalist and advocate for the physically disabled was named Ontario’s new lieutenant-governor on Tuesday.
By Meagan Fitzpatrick, CanWest News Service
Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 – David Onley was appointed to the role by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who praised Mr. Onley’s community service.
“David Onley is a respected author, broadcaster and tireless champion for persons with disabilities. Through this work, he has demonstrated the qualities needed for such an important position,” Mr. Harper said in a statement. “He has loyally served the province and his country in a number of roles, and I’m confident as lieutenant-governor, he will continue to do so.”
Mr. Onley was chosen to replace James Bartleman, who leaves the job on July 31 after a four-year term.
Ontario Lieutenant Governor David Onley, a highly praised journalist and disability advocate
The new lieutenant-governor told Toronto’s CP24 station that he received the surprise phone call from Mr. Harper while driving home from work last week.
“I just had reached the top of the Don Valley Parkway trying to get home and there was no place to pull over,” he said. “And when the prime minister of your country calls, all you can try to do is stay in the same lane, avoid any fender-benders and have a meaningful conversation, which I did.”
Mr. Onley said it was “a distinct privilege and a distinct blessing” to be asked to take on the job.
Stricken with polio as a child, Mr. Onley was one of Canada’s first on-air personalities with a physical disability when he joined Citytv in Toronto in 1984 as a science and weather reporter.
In his long career he has also been an education reporter, a science and technology reporter as well as a news anchor and producer.
The married father of three boys is also the author of Shuttle: A Shattering Novel of Disaster in Space.
Mr. Onley’s resume boasts several honours and distinctions including an induction in the Terry Fox Hall of Fame and his name is also in the Hockey Hall of Fame as the winner of the King Clancy Award from the Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons, an organization in which Mr. Onley is very active.
Video clip copyright CTV News, allowed use in a news story under the Canada Copyright Act Section “29.2 Fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting does not infringe copyright if the following are mentioned: (a) the source; and (b) if given in the source, the name of the (i) author, in the case of a work, (ii) performer, in the case of a performer’s performance, (iii) maker, in the case of a sound recording, or (iv) broadcaster, in the case of a communication signal.” Featured image -CityTV.
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