Steve Paikin

Steven Paikin is a Canadian journalist and author. He is also Ontario’s public broadcaster. Currently, he hosts the program “The Agenda with Steve Paikin.” He was born on June 9, 1960 in a Jewish family.

There is not a lot know about his personal life, he is married to Francesca Grosso, a Canadian health care consultant as well as author of the “Navigating Canada’s Health Care System”. Francesca has worked for various high profile jobs. From 2000-2003 she was the Director of Policy for Ministry of health where is represented the department on all policy related issues. She oversaw a team of 8 policy advisors and led the policy agenda for the minister. After working as the Vice chair Board of Directors for Walrus Foundation she is currently a Member Board of Directors at Patients Canada, an organisation aiming at improving patient experiences in healthcare.

Though the actual date of their marriage is not published anywhere, the couple has been married for a long time and there never has been any controversy of some kind of affair or divorce. They have a 20 year old son Zach Paikin. Zach is a liberal activist and a political commentator. In 2003, Zach was a candidate for the National Policy Chair of the Liberal Party of Canada. Steven’s cousin Harry Paikin was a former Hamilton School Trustee for 30 years as well.

Professionally, Steven graduated with Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in 1981 followed by his Master’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University. As a part time job during his graduation, he worked for the University of Toronto’s weekly “The Newspaper” as the Sports Editor. He started his TV career as an anchor and correspondent for CBLT. He also hosted a daily news program as well as a current affairs program for CBC News. At the same time he was also doing some private radio and other print media jobs.

In 1992, he started working at TVO, which, in turn, led him to host the political series “Between the lines” until 1994. Diplomatic Immunity, a weekly foreign affairs show was established by Paikin and also co-hosted. His big day came when TVO decided to launch “The Agenda with Steve Paikin” which brought him much fame as well as criticism for being sexist. He was also selected as the moderator 2006, 2008 and 2011 Federal leaders debates, and in 2007, 2011 and this year 2014 for the Ontario provincial leaders debates.

Other than being an anchor and journalist, Steven has also invested some time to produce a few documentaries for TVO like “Return to The Warsaw Ghetto” which got him international recognition.  He was also awarded for his documentary presentations at the China’s Shanghai Film Festival. Paikin has also published 4 books till 2007. The books he wrote are namely Public Triumph, Private Tragedy, The double life of John P. Robarts and the new game. Finally, it won’t be wrong to say that after 25 years of experience in journalism and around 14 years of anchoring and hosting, he is regarded as one of the most influential broadcasters around.

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