After more than 45 years on the air, Norman Fetterley is retiring from broadcasting.
When Norman started as a teenager on CJRN radio in Niagara Falls, Lester Pearson was still Prime Minister and Trudeaumania was about to take hold.
When Norman made the jump to television in Thunder Bay in 1972, a young man named Stephen Harper was about to start high school and join the Reach for the Top team.
Norman covered the Trudeau years on Parliament Hill, then Clark, Turner, Mulroney, Campbell and right up to Chretien. He filed stories principally for CFCF-TV (CTV Montreal) then CFTO-TV (CTV Toronto) before finding his permanent home at CTV Ottawa.
Norman travelled the country and the world – playing a significant role in history’s first draft, from a Canadian perspective.
Norman didn’t go to university, but few in the news business are more educated. He is a bookworm and a history buff with a sparse writing style. His scripts always had a unique flare, but never wasted the viewer’s time.
Norman loved to sprinkle his stories with references to Diefenbaker, Churchill, Shakespeare and occasionally Elvis Presley.
Norman has been CTV Ottawa’s “go to” in house Royal expert for decades. He also has a deep knowledge and understanding of Canada’s role in the most important conflicts of the last century.
That passion for our culture and history, a memory for what has come before and what is important, is impossible to replace.
From pen and paper, to typewriter, to a reluctant embrace of computers and smart phones, no matter what the form, you knew a Norman Fetterley story when you heard it or saw it.
Everyone at CTV News thanks him for giving so much to broadcasting and to this station.
Norman looks forward to more books and more time with his wife Elizabeth and daughters Jessica and Emily. And the odd good stiff drink.
