Friday 18 September 2009

30 - Doug Fisher

Updated 19/09/09
Doug Fisher
, a Canadian parliamentary news institution since the 1960s, died this morning, a day before his 90th birthday.

When the Toronto Sun was launched in November of 1971, Doug Fisher was on the op-ed page reporting from Ottawa. He would write for the Sun for another 35 years before retiring at 86. (You can read his final column here.)

An online Toronto Sun story by Ian Robertson says two of his five sons - including Matthew, a former Sun columnist - carry on in his journalistic footsteps.

News reports say at Fisher's request, there will be no funeral or memorial service.

Doug Fisher became a household name to several generations of Canadians dating back to 1963. while still an MP.

Ian's story says: Paid only $10,000 a year as an MP, Fisher accepted an offer in 1963 to be a syndicated freelance columnist with the Toronto Telegram, forerunner of the Toronto Sun.

His syndicated columns were in newspapers across the country and he was a regular on television. His columns gave small town Thomson newspapers a lot of credibility, as they did at the feisty new Sun.

"Doug was one of the most important people we had when we started the Sun, because he gave us credibility," Sun founding editor Peter Worthington, still a columnist with the chain's anchor paper in Toronto, said today in Ian's story.

Other memories of Doug Fisher:

Peter Worthington column

John Geddes, macleans.ca

Norma Greenaway, Canwest News Service

In Loving Memory, dougfisher.ca

Sandra Martin, Globe and Mail

From cbcnews.ca

Memories of Doug Fisher can be e-mailed to TSF

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