Barbara Joan Higgins (born September 21, 1962) is best known in Southern Alberta for her 21 year career as senior anchor, writer and producer of the 6 o'clock news for CTV

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. After a 26 year career as a journalist, Higgins left her post at CTV in July 2010 to run for public office in the Calgary mayoral election.

Biography

Barbara Joan Higgins was born September 21, 1962, in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. She graduated from

Ross Sheppard High School Ross Sheppard High School or École Ross Sheppard (SHEP or Ross Shep) is a secondary school, high school located in a northwest neighbourhood of Coronation Park, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The school colours are Colombia blue and navy blue, a ...

in 1979 and enrolled in Business Administration at NAIT. After two years of study in Business Administration, she transferred to NAIT's Radio and Television Arts. Higgins worked with both

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

and CTV affiliates in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

. She moved to Calgary in March 1989. On July 23, 2010, Higgins announced her intention to run as a candidate for mayor in the 2010 Calgary civic election to be held that October. She subsequently described herself as a

fiscal conservative In American political theory, fiscal conservatism or economic conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, an ...

with a heart. Her campaign

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

focused on setting the tone at

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

and empowering civic employees to develop solutions to address Calgary's $60-million budget shortfall. Higgins placed third behind

Naheed Nenshi Naheed Kurban Nenshi (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian politician who has served as the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP) since 2024. He previously served as the 36th List of mayors of Calgary, mayor of Calgary for Mayoralty o ...

and

Ric McIver Richard William McIver (born August 28, 1958) is a Canadian politician who has represented Calgary-Hays in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta since 2012. A member of the United Conservative Party (UCP), McIver is the current Speaker of the L ...

, accumulating over 90,000 votes, just over 25% of the total votes cast. According to her website, after leaving journalism and politics she works as a wellness counsellor and somatic therapist.

Awards and honours

*Winner of 'Best News Series' from the Radio and Television News Directors Association for her 3-part series on Calgary firefighter Greg McDougal's battle with the Workers Compensation Board. *Winner of the 'Best of Festival' award at CanPro and winner of 'Most Inspirational' award at the Alberta Motion Picture Industry Association (AMPIA) for her documentary ''Running on Empty''. *Queen's Diamond Jubilee Award. *Peter Legge Philanthropy Award. *UNICEF Volunteer of the Year Award. *City of Calgary White Hat Award. *Two time winner of Calgary's Top 40 Under 40

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Higgins, Barb 1962 births Living people Canadian television news anchors People from Edmonton Journalists from Alberta Canadian women television journalists