Whit Grant Fraser (born November 26, 1942) is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster, and author who is the current

viceregal consort of Canada The viceregal consort of Canada is the spouse of the serving governor general of Canada, assisting the viceroy with ceremonial and charitable work, accompanying him or her to official state occasions, and occasionally undertaking philanthropic work ...

Background

Born in Merigomish,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, and educated in

Stellarton Stellarton is a town located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is adjacent and to the south of the larger town of New Glasgow. In pioneer times the area was called Coal Mines Station, and from 1833 until 1889, it was known as Albion Min ...

, Fraser began his career in journalism as a reporter for

CKEC-FM CKEC-FM is a Canadian radio station broadcasting at 94.1 FM in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, owned by the Stingray Group. The station airs a soft adult contemporary format branded as ''94.1 The Breeze''. The transmitter tower is situated on Mount Th ...

New Glasgow New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait. The town's population was 9,075 ...

. He joined

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

in 1967 as a reporter in

Frobisher Bay Frobisher Bay is an inlet of the Davis Strait in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada. It is located in the southeastern corner of Baffin Island. Its length is about and its width varies from about at its outlet into the Labrador Sea ...

and later in

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

. His coverage of the

Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry {{No footnotes, date=April 2009 The Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, also known as the Berger Inquiry after its head Justice Thomas Berger, was commissioned by the Government of Canada on March 21, 1974, to investigate the social, environmental, ...

in the late 1970s expanded his national prominence, following which he worked for a number of years as a national reporter based in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. In 1989 he was one of the final contenders to replace

Peter Downie Peter Downie is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster and academic. For 25 years, Downie worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. On CBC Television, he was best known as the co-anchor of ''Midday'' from 1985 to 1989 and the host of '' Man Ali ...

as host of the network's noon-hour newscast ''

Midday Noon (or midday) is 12 12-hour clock, o'clock in the daytime. It is written as 12 noon, 12:00 m. (for 12-hour clock, meridiem, literally 12:00 noon), 12 p.m. (for 12-hour clock, post meridiem, literally "after noon"), 12 pm, or 12:00 (using a 24 ...

'', but was not selected; instead, he became host of ''This Country'', a six-hour nightly program on the CBC's new all-news channel

CBC Newsworld CBC News Network (formerly CBC Newsworld) is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. As Canada's first all-news channel, it is th ...

which covered regional news from across the country. He left the CBC in 1991 when he was appointed by the federal government as chair of the

Canadian Polar Commission Polar Knowledge Canada is an agency of the Government of Canada under the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada portfolio. It is responsible for monitoring, promoting, and disseminating knowledge of the polar regions, contributing to public awaren ...

, a new federal government agency devoted to territorial and Arctic issues. He briefly returned to television with the

Inuit Broadcasting Corporation The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) ( iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑕᑯᓐᓇᕋᑦᓴᓕᕆᔨᑦ) is a television production company based in Nunavut with programming targeted at the Inuit population of Nunavut. Almost all of its programs are broadc ...

in 1999 as cohost with Jonah Kelly of the special broadcast covering the formal creation of

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

.Jim Bell
"Whit Fraser’s big-hearted memoir looks back on 50 years of service"
. ''

Nunatsiaq News ''Nunatsiaq News'' ( iu, ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᕐᒥ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᑦ, italic=no) is a Canadian weekly newspaper in operation since 1973 based in Iqaluit, serving Nunavut and Nunavik, in Kativik, Quebec, Kativik, Nord-du-Québec. The paper is publ ...

'', January 9, 2019. He subsequently served as chief operating officer of

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, (Inuktitut syllabics: , meaning "Inuit are united in Canada") previously known as the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada (Eskimo Brotherhood of Canada), is a nonprofit organization in Canada that represents over 65,000 Inuit acro ...

in the 2000s.Sutton Eaves, "Inuit group angry at $5m budget cut". ''

National Post The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...

'', February 26, 2005. In 2018, he published ''True North Rising'', a memoir of his work in Arctic communities. In 2021, he was appointed an ''ex-officio'' Extraordinary Companion of the Order of Canada by Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

– a customary appointment for all modern viceregal consorts – and gained the temporary courtesy style of ''Excellency'' upon his wife's assumption of office as governor general. He currently resides at

Rideau Hall Rideau Hall (officially Government House) is the official residence in Ottawa of both the Canadian monarch and their representative, the governor general of Canada. It stands in Canada's capital on a estate at 1 Sussex Drive, with the main b ...

, the seat of the

Canadian Crown The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the founda ...

. In 2022, he published his second book, ''Cold Edge of Heaven'', a historical fiction novel set in

Dundas Harbour Dundas Harbour (Inuktitut: ''Talluruti'', "a woman's chin with tattoos on it") () is an abandoned settlement in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located on Devon Island at the eastern shore of the waterway also named Dundas Harbour ...

and based on some actual events. Platinum Jubilee- Commonwealth Governors-General inside the Cathedral

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Whit 20th-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian journalists 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian radio reporters and correspondents Canadian television reporters and correspondents Canadian television news anchors Canadian civil servants Canadian memoirists Canadian viceregal consorts Journalists from Nova Scotia People from Pictou County Living people CBC Television people Canadian male non-fiction writers Companions of the Order of Canada 1942 births