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Bruce Phillips

1930 – 2014

Canadian journalist

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About Bruce Phillips

Lived 1930 – 2014 (aged 84). Bruce Phillips was a Canadian journalist.

James Bruce Ross Phillips (June 6, 1930 – December 6, 2014), known professionally as Bruce Phillips, was a Canadian television journalist and civil servant. He was best known as the Parliament Hill bureau chief of CTV News, and host of the political talk show Question Period, from 1968 to 1985. He later worked for the Portage la Prairie Press, the Calgary Herald, Canadian Press and Southam News. He was Southam News' Washington, DC correspondent in the 1960s before joining CTV in 1968.

He left CTV in 1985 to become press officer for the Embassy of Canada to the United States, and was succeeded in his parliamentary bureau role with CTV by Pamela Wallin. After two years in Washington, in 1987 he became Director of Communications in the office of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In 1990 he was named as Privacy Commissioner of Canada; although the Liberal caucus in both the House of Commons and the Senate tried to hold up the appointment on the grounds that Phillips was too close to Mulroney to credibly serve in a non-partisan watchdog role, he was ultimately approved in 1991. He held the position until his retirement in 2000, having received a two-year extension to his term by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, approved unanimously by the House of Commons and the Senate. During this time he succeeded in persuading Parliament to pass the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which extended Canadians' privacy rights to the private sector. He was succeeded as privacy commissioner by George Radwanski.

He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009.

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Important facts

Birth century
Occupation
Nationality
Awards
Officer of the Order of Canada
Also known as
James Bruce Ross Phillips

People in Bruce Phillips's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Bruce Phillips's

Frequently asked questions

Who was Bruce Phillips?

Canadian journalist

When was Bruce Phillips born?

Bruce Phillips was born on 6 June 1930.

When did Bruce Phillips die?

Bruce Phillips died on 6 December 2014.

What was Bruce Phillips's occupation?

Bruce Phillips was a journalist.

What nationality was Bruce Phillips?

Bruce Phillips was Canadian.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Bruce Phillips

· Wikidata: Q28921564

· DBpedia: Bruce Phillips (journalist)

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Bruce Phillips. https://biography.guide/bruce-phillips/

MLA: "Bruce Phillips." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/bruce-phillips/.

Chicago: "Bruce Phillips." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/bruce-phillips/.

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