Ben Meisner (June 3, 1938 April 2, 2015). Meisner was born in

Maryfield, Saskatchewan Maryfield ( 2016 population: ) is a village in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within the Rural Municipality of Maryfield No. 91 and Census Division No. 1. The village lies south of the intersection of Highway 48 and Highway 600 and i ...

in 1938, the youngest of the four children of William Meisner and Anna Wolowska. In the early 1950s he moved to Winnipeg, where he worked as an office boy for the

United Grain Growers The United Grain Growers, or UGG, was a Canadian grain farmers' cooperative for grain storage and distribution that operated between 1917 and 2001. History In 1917, the Grain Growers' Grain Company (GGGC) merged with the Alberta Farmers' Co- ...

. He began his career in broadcasting at radio station CKDM in the 1950s in

Dauphin, Manitoba Dauphin () is a city in Manitoba, Canada, with a population of 8,457 as of the 2016 Canadian Census, with an additional 2,388 living in the surrounding Rural Municipality of Dauphin (RM), for a total of 10,845 in the RM and city combined. The ci ...

. Eventually, he settled in

Prince George, British Columbia Prince George is the largest city in northern British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 74,004 in the metropolitan area. It is often called the province's "northern capital" or sometimes the "spruce capital" because it is the hub city for ...

, and became known as the "Voice of the North". Meisner hosted the Meisner Program on radio station CKPG for more than twenty years. He was known for his sign-off "and that's one man's opinion". After leaving radio in the fall of 2004, he launched an independent online news site, www.250News.com. In the 1990s, Meisner became a prominent opponent of the Kemano Completion Project, which he argued would damage salmon stocks in the Nechako River. In 2003, he was one of the principal organizers of a huge rally in Prince George for improvement of health care in northern British Columbia which led to the creation of the Northern Medical Program at the

University of Northern British Columbia The University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) is a small, research-intensive public university in British Columbia, Canada. The main campus is located in Prince George, with additional campuses located in Prince Rupert, Terrace, Quesnel, and ...

. Meisner's honours included a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Radio and TV News Directors' Association of Canada, the

Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal The Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du jubilé d'or de la Reine Elizabeth II) or the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal was a commemorative medal created in 2002 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ...

in 2002, and Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. In 2010, the Province of British Columbia appointed him as a non-lawyer Bencher to the

Law Society of British Columbia The Law Society of British Columbia is the regulatory body for lawyers in British Columbia, Canada. Purpose The society's primary mandate under the ''Legal Profession Act'' is to uphold and protect the public interest in the administration of ...

, to represent the public's interest on the BC Law Society's Board of Governors. The Law Society of British Columbia honoured him with the distinction of the title of Lifetime Bencher status in late March 2015. While on an ice fishing trip to Manitoba in the spring of 2015, Meisner fell ill and was transferred to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which claimed his life in the early morning of April 2, 2015.

References

External links

250 News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meisner, Ben 1938 births 2015 deaths Canadian radio personalities People from Prince George, British Columbia