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Edward Greenspon (born March 26) is a Canadian journalist and think tank leader best known for his career at The Globe and Mail newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he was the editor-in-chief for seven years. He was also Ottawa bureau chief and founding editor for the Globe's internet site, www.theglobeandmail.com. Since 2016, Greenspon has served as CEO of the Public Policy Forum, a national Canadian think tank based in Ottawa.

Early life

Greenspon was born in Montreal, Quebec. His father, Mortimer Greenspon, was an insurance agent and financial planner, while his mother, Rosalie, was a teacher. Edward Greenspon's first job was as a paperboy for the now defunct Montreal Star. Greenspon's interest in journalism began as the Watergate scandal broke. Inspired by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, he chose to go to Ottawa and study journalism and political science at Carleton University.

Education

Greenspon began his journalism career at Carleton University. While living on campus he worked for the residence newspaper, The Resin. Greenspon broke a story of corruption within the residence student government. He exposed student officials who misappropriated student fees to buy champagne, lobsters, and cigars. The story was soon picked up by the Ottawa Citizen. Later, the disgraced treasurer was denied a job at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) after a background check revealed the article in the Citizen. Greenspon graduated from Carleton in 1979 with first-class honours in journalism and political science. He earned an M.Sc. at the London School of Economics after winning a Commonwealth Scholarship.

After stints in western Canada with the Lloydminster Times, Regina Leader-Post papers and as Prairie bureau chief of the Financial Post, he then went on to study with the assistance of a Commonwealth Scholarship at the London School of Economics in England. He received his master's degree in politics and government in 1985.

The Globe and Mail

Greenspon began working at The Globe and Mail in 1986 as a reporter for the paper's Report on Business section. He soon found himself back in London as the Globe's first European business correspondent.

With the collapse of communism, he spent most of the 1989 to 1991 period in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union covering such stories as the Polish-Solidarity roundtable talks, the Romanian Revolution, German reunification and Ukrainian independence. In 1991, Greenspon returned to Canada and became the managing editor of The Globe's Report on Business section and then deputy managing editor of the newspaper. Following his lifelong fascination with politics, Greenspon became the Ottawa bureau chief and political editor of the paper in 1993, positions he held for most of the next nine years.

In 1996, Greenspon partnered with Anthony Wilson-Smith to write the book Double Vision. The work is a thorough analysis of the first three years, from 1993 to 1996, of the Liberal government led by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Finance Minister Paul Martin and received the Canadian Economics Association's Douglas Purvis Prize for excellence in public policy writing.

In 1999, at the height of a newspaper war in Canada, Greenspon was asked to commute to Toronto to manage the newsroom in the capacity of executive news editor. During this period, he made arguments that The Globe was mising out on the digital revolution and became the founding editor for the Globe's internet site, www.theglobeandmail.com. He encouraged the paper to heavily invest in the soon to be very important internet news market.

In late 2000, he returned to Ottawa as political editor and columnist in time for his third national election campaign and co-wrote a second book called Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset with pollster Darrell Bricker. Greenspon won the Hyman Solomon Award for his contributions to public policy writing.

In 2002, Greenspon accepted a position as the new editor-in-chief of the Globe and moved to Toronto. As chief editor, Greenspon instituted several changes to the paper, including a revamped Report on Business section, more investigative journalism, expanded politics coverage, and a new Science and Technology page. In 2007, he led a major redesign of The Globe that introduced the Globe Life section and one of the first hockey analytics columns, as well as placing a greater emphasis on investigative journalism and web-print integration.

During his tenure, The Globe led every year in the number of National Newspaper Awards and won the Michener Award for Public Service Journalism three times for stories about foot-dragging over introduction of the anti-breast cancer drug, Herceptin, Canadian treatment of Afghan detainees, and the sponsorship scandal, widely believed to have led to the defeat of the Paul Martin Liberal government in 2006. Greenspon's Globe also locked horns with former Brian Mulroney in revealing secret cash payments the former Prime Minister had received from German-Canadian businessman, Karl-Heinz Schreiber. The reports led to a judicial commission of inquiry, which concluded Mulroney had acted in an "inappropriate" manner.

On May 25, 2009, two weeks after Mulroney testified before the Oliphant commission, Greenspon was fired as editor-in-chief by Globe publisher Phillip Crawley. He was replaced by John Stackhouse. He subsequently joined Torstar Corp., as vice president of strategic investments for the division that published the Toronto Star and other media properties. He later became editor-at-large for Canada and globeal managing edior for energy, environment and commodities at Bloomberg News.

Personal life

Greenspon is married to journalism professor and former public broadcaster Janice Neil.They have three children: Bailey, Joshua and Jacob. He has served on university, charity and journalism industry boards.

Greenspon was awarded the Order of Ontario in 2018.

Major works

• Double Vision, by Edward Greenspon and Anthony Wilson-Smith, Toronto 1996, Doubleday Canada publishers, ISBN 0-385-25613-2.
• Searching for Certainty: Inside the New Canadian Mindset, by Edward Greenspon and Darrell Bricker, Toronto 2001, Doubleday Canada publishers, ISBN 978-0385259668.
• Open Canada: A Global Positioning Strategy for a Networked Age, by Edward Greenpson, 2010, Canadian International Council, ISBN 978-0-9866175-1-5 (online)

References

1. ^ Mattos, Melinda (June 23, 2003). "The Scoop on Ed". The Ryerson Review of Journalism. Retrieved February 16, 2017.
2. "Columnists: Edward Greenspon". The Globe and Mail. February 3, 2006. Archived from the original on May 18, 2009.
3. "Doug Purvis Memorial Prize". Canadian Economics Association. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
4. "Hyman Solomon Award | Journalism". Public Policy Forum. Retrieved 2023-07-01.
5. Webster, Norman (May 31, 2009). "Let's hope we haven't heard the last of Dick Pound". The Montreal Gazette. Archived from the original on June 8, 2009.

External links

• The Globe and Mail

• 1957 births
• Alumni of the London School of Economics
• Anglophone Quebec people
• Canadian columnists
• Canadian newspaper editors
• Canadian male journalists
• Carleton University alumni
• Journalists from Montreal
• Members of the Order of Ontario
• The Globe and Mail editors
• Living people
• Jewish Canadian journalists
• Canadian political journalists
• CTV Television Network people