David Onley

David Charles Onley, O.Ont ( born June 12, 1950 in Midland, Ontario) is a former Canadian television journalist and presenter. Since 2007 he is the incumbent Vice Governor of the Province of Ontario and as such represents the head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, at the provincial level.

Biography

Onley grew up in Scarborough. At the age of three years, he contracted polio and has been from the neck down partially paralyzed. In 1975 he completed his studies in political science at the University of Toronto. He then began to study law at the University of Windsor, but the study stopped. For several years he was unemployed and wrote at this time the novel Shuttle: A Shattering Novel of Disaster in Space on a fictional space shuttle disaster.

The book was a bestseller in 1982 and the increased attention enabled Onley a media career. He first hosted a weekly science program on radio station CFRB and moved in 1983 to CKO. In 1984, he began to moderate weather broadcasts at the television station Citytv, and was the first Canadian television presenter with a visible physical disability. From 1989 to 1994 he hosted on Citytv news in the morning program until 1999 he headed the Science Department. He then moved to the television station CityPulse24 and moderated the science magazine home page.

In addition to his professional activities, Onley dedicated to the needs of disabled people, in particular for the easier accessibility to public buildings. 2005, he was named the provincial government of Ontario as Chairman of the Commission on accessible building. On a proposal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper Governor General Michaëlle Jean appointed him on 10 July 2007 as Vice- Governor of the Province of Ontario, the oath was followed on 5 September 2007.