Stratford native Lloyd Robertson dies, 92
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CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
“Good night and good luck.”
“And that’s the way it is.”
While American families in the U.S. would hear those venerable news anchor sign-offs from the likes of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, respectively, Canadian families were privileged enough to hear another:
“And that’s the kind of day it’s been.”
That phrase was used by the legendary broadcaster and news anchor Lloyd Robertson during his tenure as CTV’s senior news anchor from 1984 to 2011. Combined with his time at the CBC, Robertson was a staple of Canadian news for 41 years, a trusted voice broadcasted within homes across the country.
According to reports from his former stomping ground CTV, citing confirmation from his family, Robertson passed away Aug. 4 at the age of 92.
Robertson was born in Stratford in 1934. According to his memoir, The Kind of Life it’s Been, he first became interested in broadcasting when he was 12 years old. Soldiers from the Perth Regiment were returning home from Europe and Robertson heard commentators from the local radio station CJCS broadcasting their march.
“I was always fascinated by the radio – the box in the corner sitting there – and I think, for me, I just kind of caught the bug,” Robertson told Rebecca Shreiber, a guest writer for the Times, in a 2024 interview. “ … From the time I was about five years old, I was asking my father, you know, how do the voices get in there and who are those people and where do those wires go? And he did his best to answer those questions, so I developed a passion for it.”
He got his start in the industry at that very radio station, working at CJCS from 1952 to 1954.
After moving on to various radio jobs, including getting his foot in the door with the CBC, he got his first television job at the Winnipeg CBC station in 1956. He worked at other stations across the country over the years, before he anchored for the CBC’s flagship show The National from 1970-1976. He joined CTV in ’76.
Over the course of his career, Robertson reported on many world- and nation-changing moments: Expo 67, the moon landing, Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope and 9/11 to name only a few.
On the playful side, in 2018, Robertson cheekily came out of retirement for an impromptu live report of a collision on the Don Valley Parkway, after CP24 reporters handed him the microphone. Robertson, ever the news-man, expertly walked viewers through his own crash.
“And that’s how it goes sometime, Steve,” Robertson said next to his front-less car. “Just a little accident.”
Robertson was a “proud son of Stratford and Perth County,” in the words of Perth-Wellington MP John Nater, in a memorial post on his Facebook page.
“Over the years, I would cherish the times when I would answer the phone and hear that familiar and reassuring voice on the other line; sometimes wanting to chat about politics and sometimes wanting to catch up on 'our Stratford,'" Nater wrote. “He was even kind enough to join me for a special online story time where he read a children’s book for the community.
“To his wife Nancy and their daughters, I offer my deepest sympathies and our collective thanks for sharing Lloyd with us every evening as he brought us the news. … To you Lloyd, we say thank you.”
Nater was not the only one remembering Robertson on Tuesday. Tributes poured in from across the nation.
“I always enjoyed to chatting with Lloyd about international and Ontario politics whenever he was back in Stratford,” MPP Matthew Rae wrote. “My thoughts and prayers are with Nancy, their daughters, and the entire family. Thank you for sharing Lloyd with a nation.”
“For more than six decades, Lloyd Robertson helped Canadians make sense of the world,” Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote. “For millions of us, he was a familiar face in our living rooms. A reassuring voice in moments of uncertainty. A calm and steady presence through the moments that shaped our nation.”
As a “proud son of Stratford,” his neighbours can see Robertson’s presence across the Festival City today. From the Lloyd Robertson Garden in front of city hall to the many organizations supported by the Stratford and Perth County Community Foundation, of which Robertson and his wife Nancy were honourary patrons.