30 Facts About Gary Bannerman

Gary William Bannerman was a broadcaster, writer and corporate communications consultant based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the author of several books.

Gary Bannerman's books focused on history, passenger shipping and, most recently, wasteful spending in the health care industry.

Gary Bannerman's father "Bill" was a salesman who spent most of his career with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, for many years the company's regional manager for Atlantic Canada, based in Moncton, NB.

Gary Bannerman was followed in the family by brother Ross and sisters Wendy and Karen.

Gary Bannerman graduated with honours from Moncton High School in 1965.

Gary Bannerman was accepted into the Canadian Army's Regular Officer Training Plan and attended Le College Militaire Royale du Saint-Jean, near Montreal, the only bilingual college of Canada's three military universities, transferring the next year with ROTP to the University of New Brunswick.

Gary Bannerman became certain that engineering would not be his career although university was still in the plans.

Gary Bannerman had always been a prolific writer: letters, essays, school newspapers, club newsletters and wherever a need presented itself; and he had always had a keen interest in government, politics and news of any description.

Also that month, arriving from England to reside just a few blocks away from Gary Bannerman's apartment was Patricia Walrond, an artist, photographer, professional secretary and world traveller.

Gary Bannerman gained employment in Vancouver as secretary of a respected arts organization Jeunesses Musicales, which organized concert tours of performers across Canada and Patricia would subsequently become secretary to the Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

The daughter of William Eric Walrond, a Lloyd's of London underwriter and broker, and Rosemary, Patricia would soon add a creative dimension to a succession of Gary Bannerman's writing and business pursuits.

Gary Bannerman first approached Lynch and the Southam News boss - by then a national icon - told Bannerman to take his pick of any Southam newspaper coast to coast and he would endeavour to get him placed.

When he advised Lynch that the Vancouver Province would be preferred Gary Bannerman insisted upon just one prerequisite from any new employer: the role must be full-time political reporting, a beat position.

In 1970, reclaiming the cities was "in" and Gary Bannerman soon evolved the City Hall beat into a column on Urban Affairs, writing about developments nationally and internationally.

When Gary Bannerman privately introduced himself to the legendary Bennett, a NB native himself, and advised that his brother Russell Bennett had been one of his teachers in Moncton High School, Bennett somewhat adopted the new arrival.

Gary Bannerman's departure was a crisis for the CKNW broadcasting battleship, creating a serious challenge to the station's preeminence.

Gary Bannerman looked in that direction again and discovered Bannerman at The Province, who had quickly become prominent in Vancouver and who had established a track record for investigative reporting.

Gary Bannerman had always been intrigued by news talk radio and welcomed the challenge.

Gary Bannerman began in 1972 as a reporter for "The Investigators" and by 1973 he was the principal host.

An inveterate traveller, Gary Bannerman has done interviews and documentaries from around the world, including coverage of the 1973 Middle East war.

Two of the libel actions required nominal out-of-court settlements and twice he was fined: in one instance Gary Bannerman was held in contempt for violating a ban of publication of evidence in a major underworld drug case; and, in another he was fined under the Broadcast Act for conducting an on-air political poll on an election day.

Gary Bannerman had consistently been on the side of responsible native leaders throughout both his newspaper and broadcasting career.

Gary Bannerman was quick to apologize, but the Nisga'a people of the BC north and the Musqueam Band filed a formal complaint with the national broadcasting regulator.

Gary Bannerman conducted precedent-setting remote broadcasts from behind the walls of prisons, and, on three separate occasions in 1975, he negotiated violent hostage taking incidents.

The Gary Bannerman program was consistently at the centre of British Columbia activity: among the highlights were the redevelopment of Vancouver's historic neighbourhood, Gastown; a central role in winning final approval for a convention centre on the waterfront, what is the national icon Canada Place; support for and coverage of the World's Fair Expo '86; major power developments and the extraordinary achievements of BC Ferries, BC Hydro and BC Rail.

Gary Bannerman's view was always that it is impossible to do exposes of fraud involving one business while accepting cash from a competitor to publicly endorse their product.

Gary Bannerman refused to do this, standing behind contract provisions that gave him the power over program content.

Gary Bannerman warned that the station's attempt to "dumb-down" programming would ultimately have disastrous impact on both the integrity of the product and its place in the market.

The name for the company was suggested by CKNW's programming genius, the late Hal Davis, who used that title for a daily editorial Gary Bannerman delivered during his first years at the station.

Gary Bannerman has served on several Boards of Directors over the years, both publicly traded and private companies.