Here is the news on Lloyd Robertson — he was a class act all the way.
The veteran news anchor had a ring side seat to history, covering everything from Expo ’67 to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. He brought Canadian news viewers the moon landings, the Quebec referendums, and countless reports on dozens of presidents and prime ministers.
At 41 years, the Stratford, Ont., native brought national audienes the news longer than anyone else ever in North America. He died August 4 at 92 years of age.
Robertson’s final newscast as anchor in September of 2011 drew over 2.1 million Canadian viewers. No regular newscast in Canada since then comes close. He was routinely votes “Canada’s Most Trusted News Anchor” in annual TV Guide Canada reader polls.
I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing the Order of Canada recipient several times. When he retired in 2011, he told me about one of his toughest assignments – covering the World Trade Center attacks during 9/11.
Robertson was in bed when the call came from producer Dennis Macintosh. “Turn your TV on and get the hell in here!” Robertson recalled hearing at the other end of the phone. He scrambled his way to CTV’s network headquarters in Agincourt Ont., and stayed at the anchor desk for the next 14 hours.
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His 2012 autobiography, “The Kind of Life it’s Been,” was published a year after his retirement as chief news anchor. He worried his book might not have enough sizzle.
“My life isn’t as exciting as some of my colleagues who’ve had six wives and been in and out of drunk tanks,” he jokingly told me. Robertson and his wife Nancy, high school sweethearts, were married for 70 years. “I’ve led a straighter life because it was the only way to do the job.”
In 1952, Robertson started out as a CJCS radio reporter in his hometown of Stratford, Ont. He was on TV a few years later, reporting from Winnipeg and Ottawa. By 1967 he was part of CBC’s national news team. By October of 1970–right around the time of the October Crisis–he was on the CBC anchor desk.
Seven years later, CTV came calling. Robertson was involved in a CBC union dispute (he wanted to write and edit his own news copy) and jumped to the private network, a gutsy (and financially rewarding) move at the time. An erroneous Globe headline that he would jump back led to what Robertson calls “a messy weekend.” He shared the CTV news desk for seven years with Harvey Kirck, logging 35 years in total anchoring for CTV.
Add his CBC years and that’s 41 years as a national network news anchor (and nearly 60 as a reporter). Nobody else comes close. In comparison, CBS News anchor Dan Rather clung to that American network’s anchor desk for 24 years; contemporaries Peter Jennings (another Canadian) at ABC and Tom Brokaw at NBC served for 22 years each. Earlier, Walter Cronkite at CBS put in just less than two decades.
Rather’s final year, however, was bleak as he dodged charges of bias. “That was not the way to go out,” remarked Lloyd at the time of his own retirement. Robertson was 77 at the time he gave up the anchor chair, and remained a familiar face on CTV for years after, mainly as anchor of the popular current affairs program W5.
Back when I was covering television at The Toronto Sun, I would occasionally kid Robertson on his senior status. One time I wrote that Robertson had been called back for pyramid duty. Another line was crossed when I suggested in print that Lloyd and former Ottawa bureau chief Craig Oliver were turning into the Stadler and Waldorf of election coverage. This was, of course, a reference to those cranky old hecklers up in the balcony on The Muppet Show. The next morning I received an email from Robertson: “Watch it or I’ll sick Peter Worthington and Bob MacDonald on you!” These were, of course, two Sun legends down the hall from me who were probably older than Robertson and Oliver.
And with that move, he held me in check and gained my undying respect and admiration. His snappy retort led off my TV column the next day.
That was the remarkable thing about Lloyd: he had a playful side, did not hold grudges and had thicker skin than most. Every time I encountered him at a CTV Upfront it was like running into an old friend.
Even talking to him on the phone was a treat. First, there was that famous voice to get past. “What is the view tonight in Brampton, Bill?” Everything he said sounded that much more important.
He laughed whenever I brought up the news parodies where the late Joe Flaherty used to do his straight-laced version of “Floyd” Robertson on SCTV.
“I loved it,” says Robertson. “They were great guys, I got to know them a bit. Eugene [Levy] later asked me to come on and do a bit with him–Earl Camembert and Floyd.” As one of the most well-known faces in Canada, Robertson was also a frequent guest on The Royal Canadian Air Farce. As a Farce fave, he was once serenaded by Lloyd clones on one of the troupe’s popular New Year’s Eve specials.
One time I was asked to come to CTV’s Agincourt studios to comment on some television headline, perhaps the start of a new season. Back then, the network would send a limo to pick you up. The driver was a lady who had picked me up in the past.
“I’ve got a message for you,” she told me as I got in the Lincoln Town Car.” She then played me a video she had recorded – from Lloyd, who had ridden with her earlier.
“Bill, this is Lloyd Robertson, I just wanted to wish you a smooth ride this morning…” it began. I don’t remember the rest of the message, or if it ended in some ribbing. I just remember how cool it was to get a shout out from Lloyd Robertson, one of the nicest men you’d ever want to meet.
Condolences to his family, friends and decades of viewers.
