Gordon Sinclair - CFRB and Front Page Challenge

CFRB and Front Page Challenge

Following the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid in 1942, Sinclair was asked by Red Foster, a news broadcaster at Toronto radio station CFRB, to provide some narration for a broadcast on Canadians at Dieppe. Sinclair ended up writing the story as well as reading it on the air, and continued to contribute brief reports to the station. Several months after he started, his radio work came to the attention of his bosses at the Star, which had a policy prohibiting its reporters from regularly writing reports for other outlets. Once again, Sinclair was fired.

In February 1943, he formally joined the CFRB team, becoming part-owner of the station the following year. He would continue to be associated with CFRB for over 40 years until his death.

He returned to the Star in 1949—this time as a freelancer—for one final international tour, which included his coverage of the end of the Berlin Blockade. He remained a contributor to the paper, writing a radio and TV column, until December 1962.

In 1957, Sinclair also began a career in television, as a panelist on the CBC Television series Front Page Challenge. He would hold that position for 27 years until his death. While Sinclair was often controversial, he caused an uproar in 1969 when he asked Canadian Olympic swimmer Elaine Tanner if menstruation interfered with her training.

Sinclair was a vocal opponent of water fluoridation (calling it "rat poison" in 1958), the singing of God Save the Queen, medicare and taxes. Although he was raised as a Methodist and taught Bible class as a youth, Sinclair became a forceful critic of religion and the church. "I had 31 years of being a Christian, and it was enough," he said in 1969.

Sinclair had invested his earnings in the Depression-era stock market and was independently wealthy by the end of the Second World War. In 1960, he boasted that he earned more than $50,000 a year. By the end of his life, Sinclair reportedly had liquid assets of more than $2 million. He bought a Rolls-Royce in 1961 and drove it for 11 years.

Sinclair's autobiography, Will the Real Gordon Sinclair Please Stand Up was published in 1966, followed in 1975 by a sequel, Will Gordon Sinclair Please Sit Down.