When I was growing up in a foster home in Stratford, Ontario - Lloyd Robertson was growing up only a few homes away from mine. Due to our age difference we did not know each other. I was in grade school. Lloyd was already at SCI. 

Decades later we bumped into each other in a parking garage near Toronto city hall. We had both been doing TV and a great conversation took place about Stratford and how we filled our days - as we each headed up the stairs to our various meeting places. 

Lots of very big smiles about Stratford and the world that surrounded us. 

Lloyd you are one of the really good ones. Good Night and God Speed. 

Lloyd, famous for saying
"And that's the kind of day it's been..."
Here's Lloyd explaining how that came to be:



 

Here's the CBC version of his obit, which includes some remarkable vintage footage of the news legend in action.

Veteran Canadian broadcaster Lloyd Robertson dead at 92 

Their official broadcast video of his passing is here:

Lloyd Robertson's Path To Fame

Lloyd had recently celebrated his 70th wedding anniversary with his Stratford high school sweetheart Nancy Barrett.  First time I saw Lloyd was at the CNE around 1969.  CBLT was broadcasting on and off live all day from the Ex, and he was hosting some of the programming. Also saw him at the Fergus Highland Games as Grand Marshall and he was guest speaker at Conestoga College's Broadcast Awards ceremony.  

Lloyd Robertson was at his best on election nights.  He seemed to be able to speak about every riding and incumbent in the country like he lived there.  His ad-libbing skills came through along with a good sense of humour. 
 
 Best of all he never got flustered or lost his cool on air.  On one election Mike Bullard joined the conversation and took plenty of pot shots at Lloyd, and some comments were pushing the limits.  Naturally everyone in studio was laughing, but nobody more than Lloyd Robertson.  He took all of Bullard's comments and insults with grace and humour, even thanked Bullard for dropping by.

I have one Lloyd Robertson story that came back to me, although I was never lucky enough to meet the man. It happened a few decades ago, when I heard about a job opening at CTV News. I'd never been out to Channel Nine Court before, drove into the main gate and told the guard why I was there. 

He told me to drive into the parking lot and to keep going left - left, left, left - until I saw an open space. That lot seemed giant to me at the time and I kept going "left" until I spotted an open space. So I pulled in. I was about to get out of the car and go in to see the woman in charge of the position, when I happened to look up and saw a sign right in front of my car.

"Reserved for Lloyd Robertson," it read. And I knew I'd better get out of there! 

In the end, I was offered the job but reluctantly turned it down because I had a sick family member to care for and I knew things would only get worse down the road. And it didn't feel right to go through all that time and training just to have to leave in a year. So after thinking about it for 24 hours, I phoned them and thanked them profusely for the opportunity, but declined the offer. 

But hey, at least I didn't force Lloyd to park somewhere else! 

R.I.P. Mr. Robertson. You were one of a kind. And thanks for the temporary parking spot. 

Fellow journalists, including CTV News successor Lisa LaFlamme, Omar Sachedina, Bob Fife, Evan Solomon and more remember their lost colleague. 

Lloyd Robertson tributes pour in from Mark Carney, fellow journalists

Here's a cool spoof of Cancon 1973 style hosted by Lloyd we recently came across. No idea where this would have aired, unless it was produced for a Christmas party:

SpinningWheel wrote:

I guess the last news man holding the torch for me as a child watching CFTO OTA is now 95 year-old Dave Devall.   RIP Lloyd.    A job well done.

Perhaps Devall's greatest talent was being able to write backwards on his see-through maps. 

 

I watched Peter Mansbridge tell this story yesterday. Think of it like this. You are walking down the street minding your own business, then out of the corner of your eye you see Canada's top 2 National News Anchors sitting in the window of one of your favorite restaurants having a something to eat.

It must have been very surreal. Peter said many people stopped just because they could not believe what they were seeing.

On another note, and I know this will never happen,  but if anyone deserves a State Funeral it is Lloyd Robertson. He has done more for keeping Canada balanced than anyone else.

Shorty Wave wrote:

RadioActive wrote:

How appropriate and perfectly ironic that his passing should be the lead story on the news, the very thing he spent his life covering. Sometimes the circle really does get completed. 

 
It was very appropriate for his passing to be the lead story on the news, pretty much everywhere yesterday. Oddly enough, there was absolutely no mention of it in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, none, whereas it was front page news for the Star. Very odd.

You may have missed it - it's easy to do - but the Globe did have the story on Wednesday.

Lloyd Robertson, former CTV News chief anchor, dies at 92

They also had a major remembrance piece from the recently retired Robert Fife.