Stu Keate

James Stuart Keate (October 13, 1913 – March 1, 1987) was a Canadian journalist who rose through the ranks to become publisher of the Victoria Times from 1950 to 1964 and the Vancouver Sun from 1964 until his retirement in 1979. He also served as president of The Canadian Press and the Canadian Daily Newspaper Publishers Association. He was elected to the Canadian News Hall of Fame in 1974.

Early life Keate was born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1913, the son of William Lewis Keate, a timber broker on Vancouver Island. After high school, Keate attended University of British Columbia, where he began his journalism career writing for the student newspaper Ubyssey.

Journalist After he graduated in 1935, Keate worked as a sportswriter for The Province, and then became a feature writer for the Toronto Star. He met and married Letha Meilicke in 1939, and they had two children, Richard and Kathryn.

Following the war, Keate worked for Time and Life, first in New York, and then as bureau chief in Montreal. On one assignment, he tried to track down Louis St. Laurent, then the Prime Minister of Canada, for an interview. When no one answered his knock at St. Laurent's home in Quebec City, he let himself in and left a note for St. Laurent on the front hall table.

Publisher: Victoria Daily Times In 1950, Canadian newspaper magnate Max Bell, through his company FP Publications, bought control of both the Victoria Colonist and the Victoria Times. Although Bell merged many of the business and production functions, he left the two newsrooms separate. He created the post of publisher in each newsroom, and hired Stu Keate to be the first publisher of the Victoria Daily Times.

The Sommers Scandal In 1955, a storm erupted in the BC Legislature when Gordon Gibson, a member of the Liberal opposition, accused Robert Sommers, Social Credit Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, of improperly awarding a forest management contract to E. P. Taylor's British Columbia Forest Products (BCFP). Keate and the Victoria Daily Times added fuel to the scandal with many articles exposing the close relationship between Sommers and BCFP, including the acceptance of gifts and services. As the scandal continued to grow, Sommers rose in the Legislature on February 27, 1956, and delivered a blistering attack on Keate, calling the continual stream of stories, "the most dirty and slanted coverage in the history of B.C., principally by Mr. Stuart Keate, the publisher of the Victoria Times." He was sentenced to five years in jail and served 28 months.

Publicity events Under Keate's management, the Times sponsored several publicity events.

In 1955, Keate came up with the idea of creating the world's tallest free-standing totem pole, financed by the sale of 50-cent shares. The 127 foot 7 inch (38.73m) pole was subsequently carved by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Mungo Martin, his son David, and Henry Hunt. On the day of the unveiling in Beacon Hill Park in June 1956, the Victoria Daily Times published a 14-page "Totem Souvenir Edition" that listed the names of more than 10,000 people who had bought 50-cent shares, including Winston S. Churchill and Bing Crosby.

Publisher: Vancouver Sun In 1964, Max Bell asked Keate to move to Vancouver to became publisher of another FP Publications newspaper, the Vancouver Sun. When Keate took the helm, he characterized the Sun as "yeasty and aggressive, but nonetheless erratic and strongly partisan." He set out to temper this, writing in his memoirs that "The challenge was nothing less than a complete change in its character and personality."

Mediator: This Hour Has Seven Days dispute In the spring of 1966, a dispute arose between the CBC and the Toronto Producers' Association concerning the popular but controversial investigative news television program This Hour Has Seven Days. The program was known for ambushing prominent politicians and asking them hard-hitting questions. One of the most well-known of these was the unscheduled interview Larry Zolf conducted on the front doorstep of former federal Minister of Defence Pierre Sévigny concerning the Munsinger Affair. Concerned about the show's approach to the news, the CBC directors fired hosts Patrick Watson and Laurier LaPierre in April 1966, just before the end of the TV season, but without consulting with the program's executive producer Doug Leiterman. The resultant uproar resulted in a federal parliamentary committee being convened, and Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson invited Stu Keate to act as a neutral mediator to resolve the dispute.

The CBC directors immediately reaffirmed the firing of Watson and LaPierre, while admitting that the way the two were fired had been a mistake. (Two months later, the dispute heated up again, Leiterman was fired, and This Hour Has Seven Days was cancelled.) 1983: Awarded with Honorary Doctorate of Laws, University of British Columbia 2020: Inducted into Business Laureates of British Columbia Hall of Fame