Lloyd Robertson, longtime anchor of Canada's top TV newscast, dies at 92

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TORONTO (AP) — Lloyd Robertson, who served as chief anchor of CTV National News for 27 years and became one of Canada’s most trusted journalists on the country’s top-rated nightly television newscast, has died. He was 92.

CTV News said Robertson’s family confirmed his death Tuesday.

For generations of Canadians, Robertson chronicled many of the defining events of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, from elections and wars to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Robertson joined CTV in 1976 and became chief anchor and senior editor of CTV National News in 1984. He led the network’s flagship evening broadcast until retiring in 2011, ending each newscast with his trademark sign-off: “That’s the kind of day it’s been.”

Before joining CTV, Robertson spent more than two decades at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., where he anchored the national newscast from 1970 until leaving for the rival network in 1976. He later said he left because union rules prevented anchors from writing scripts, choosing stories or reporting in the field.

Robertson later said covering the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and their aftermath was among the most difficult assignments of his career.

“For more than six decades, Lloyd Robertson helped Canadians make sense of the world. For millions of us, he was a familiar face in our living rooms. A reassuring voice in moments of uncertainty. A calm and steady presence through the moments that shaped our nation,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a post on social media.

Robertson was voted Canada’s most trusted television journalist by TV Guide Canada readers for 11 consecutive years.

“I’m not a talking head,” Robertson once said. “I deal in the news every day. I ask questions. I do reports. I analyze. I edit.”

Born in Stratford, Ontario, Robertson began his broadcasting career at a local radio station in 1952 before joining CBC in 1954.

He was appointed to the Order of Canada and inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2007, he became the first journalist inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

After stepping down as chief anchor in 2011, Robertson remained with CTV as a special correspondent. He later received lifetime achievement awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association and the Canadian Journalism Foundation.

Robertson married his high school sweetheart, Nancy, in 1956. They had four daughters.