Gord Martineau Gets Lifetime Achievement Award
Posted April 27, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
He was born in Montreal, started his career in Halifax, came back to La Belle Province, and at one point even wound up in Detroit.
His career has taken him around the world from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and from the Philippines to Thailand.
He’s covered the Quebec independence referendum, was there when the nation said goodbye to its most famous figures – like Pierre Trudeau – and its most tragic ones, like Cecilia Zhang and Holly Jones.
He’s brought the sorrow (the 911 attacks in New York) and the joyful (New Year’s Eve at Nathan Phillips Square and the Blue Jays’ World Series wins) to viewers.
But Toronto is the place Gord Martineau has long called home and faithful viewers of Citytv have watched as he reported on the town for more than three decades.
Now after all those years of reporting the news, Gord is finally making some of his own, winning the Radio and Television News Directors’ Lifetime Achievement Award, the industry’s highest honour.
If you’ve watched him for any length of time, you know it’s well deserved.
But if you’ve been lucky enough to work with him, you’re also aware it’s long overdue.
“He’s an intelligent man, he’s a man who cares. But at the centre of Gord’s success and what he’s meant to us is his professionalism,” points out Citytv V.P. of News Programming Stephen Hurlbut.
“He was so good at what he did, we looked good. And we’ve built an entire news organization and style on that professionalism.”
Anne Mroczkowski has been by his side at work for almost all those years. His wife Sharon and his two children have been there at home.
Both relationships have stood the test of time.
“What an achievement and you certainly deserve it,” Sharon assures. “I love you.”
Anne has seen him at his best. But there was one thing that really stood out.
“Fatherhood especially made Gord a better man and a better journalist,” she observes. “His stories had a richness, a depth, a dimension of warmth and empathy that were very, very new.”
And they continue to be very, very ‘news’.
“I think he’s just getting better,” suggests Hurlbut. “I’m really excited about what’s going to happen.”
But after 30 years – and as the RTNDA acknowledges, a lifetime of achievement – Gord isn’t resting on his laurels. Because after all, the next big story may happen tomorrow.
When it does, you can be sure he’ll be there to tell you all about it.
To see a gallery of Gord over the years, see below.
