Year Born: 1945
Taylor, Carole (1945- )
Born in Toronto in 1945, Carole Taylor graduated from Weston Collegiate in 1964. While a student at Victoria College at the University of Toronto, and having recently been named Miss Toronto 1964, she was invited to be a co-host with Johnny F. Bassett of CFTO-TV Toronto’s After Four, a show for teenagers that was later seen on the full CTV Network. She later appeared on several other CFTO shows, including Toronto Today, Topic, and her own Carole Taylor Show.
This exposure eventually earned her a major network television job, when she was chosen to be one of the first two hosts of CTV’s Canada AM, which debuted on September 11th 1972. She shared co-hosting duties with former CBC weatherman/chalk-tosser Percy Salzman, but after a year the early-morning hours got too much to take. Luckily, CTV’s well-established series W5 just happened to be looking for a new host, and in 1973 Carole became the first woman to move into that high-profile chair. She also did several reports from the field for W5, from such trouble spots as Honduras, Chile (during the revolution) and Israel, where she covered the Yom Kippur War.
She stayed with W5 until 1976, when marriage to Vancouver mayor Art Phillips took her to the west coast, and to new broadcasting opportunities. Over the next ten years, she hosted several CBC television series, including Pacific Report, Authors, Scene from Here, and Vancouver Life.
Carole entered politics in 1986, when she was elected to Vancouver City Council, where she served for four years, while continuing to do occasional television appearances, including shots as guest panellist on CBC’s Front Page Challenge.In 1990, she left politics but stayed in public life as chair of the Vancouver Port Authority, and later of the Canada Ports Corporation and the Vancouver Board of Trade.
In May 2001, Carole Taylor was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and it was in July of that year that Prime Minister Jean Chretien appointed Carole Taylor as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She served in that capacity for nearly four years, before resigning the Chairmanship in March 2005 in order to return to politics. Following her resignation, it was announced that she would be seeking the Liberal nomination for the riding of Vancouver-Langara, in the May 2005 B.C. election.
She was elected to serve the constituency of Vancouver-Langara, and became the Province’s Minister of Finance on June 16th 2005. She later became Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council.
In 2009 she decided not to run again for office, and in September of that year she joined the Vancouver Office of law firm Borden Ladner Gervais, as a senior adviser on public policy. corporate governance, and economic and trade matters.
Carole has served on the Boards of Ontario Place, Rogers Cable, HSBC Holdings, Canadian Pacific Ltd., the B.C. Children’s Hospital, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the TD Financial Bank Group, BCE (Bell Canada Enterprises) and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her charitable activities have included work with the Heart Foundation, The United Way, S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House. She holds Honorary Doctorates from Simon Fraser University, the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and B.C. Open University.
In June 2011, Carole Taylor was appointed Chancellor of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, for a three-year term. In January 2016, she was appointed as a special advisor to B.C. Premier Christy Clark, at $1 a year.
Written by Pip Wedge –