Terence "Terry" Dollard Corcoran (born November 6, 1942) is columnist and comment editor for the Financial Post section of the
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
-based ''
National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
''.
Biography and works
Born in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...
, Corcoran received a
Bachelor of Journalism
The Bachelor of Journalism (B.J.) degree is a degree awarded at some universities to students who have studied journalism in a three or four year undergraduate program. In the United States, some schools that do not award the B.J. degree instead c ...
degree from
Carleton University
Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning Worl ...
in 1969. After working for the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' in 1969, he joined the ''
Ottawa Journal
The ''Ottawa Journal'' was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1885 to 1980.
It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the ''Ottawa Evening Journal''. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from th ...
'' where he worked until 1971. From 1972 to 1974, he was a reporter and business editor for ''
The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press (CP; french: La Presse canadienne, ) is a Canadian national news agency headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Established in 1917 as a vehicle for the time's Canadian newspapers to exchange news and information, The Canadian Pr ...
''. In 1974, he joined the ''
Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'' where he worked as a business writer (1974–1976) and financial editor (1976–1978).
After traveling in Asia, he became associated editor of the ''Financial Times of Canada'' in 1978. He was appointed managing editor in 1980, executive editor in 1983, and was editor from 1984 to 1987. From 1987 to 1989, he was Associated Editor of the ''
Financial Post
The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". '' The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...
''.
From 1989 to 1998, he was a business columnist for ''
The Globe and Mail''. From 1998 to 2000, he was hired by
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer.
His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Cana ...
as an editor for the ''Financial Post''.
In 1983, he was awarded the National Business Writing Award for Excellence in Editorial Writing and for Business Reporting and Writing in 1976. With Laura Reid, he co-authored the 1984 book ''Public money, private greed: the Greymac, Seaway, and Crown Trusts affair'' (Collins, ).
Corcoran is featured in the 2010 Canadian documentary film ''
Water On The Table'', where he debates
water rights
Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentio ...
issues.
Long-contested defamation of Andrew Weaver
On February 6, 2015, Corcoran, along with three other columnists of the ''National Post'', the former Publisher, Gordon Fisher, and the ''National Post'' itself were found by B.C. Supreme Court Judge Emily Burke to have defamed B.C. M.L.A. Andrew Weaver in several columns authored in 2009 by implying he was "untrustworthy, unscientific and incompetent". Weaver was awarded $50,000 by the Court. The judge also "ordered the Post to remove the articles from its electronic databases, withdraw any consent given to third parties to re-publish the columns, and publish a full retraction online." The National Post appealed the ruling. It was overturned in 2017 on the basis that the original trial judge was in error having taken a "combined approach" to the four articles by three different authors, noting that "there was no case made at the trial of a conspiracy or concerted action by the authors".
And again overturned in 2020. A new trial date is to be set.
Politics
Charlie Smith, writing an opinion piece in the political blog for ''
The Georgia Straight
''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...
'', states that Corcoran takes a
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
viewpoint.
He was characterised as a "conservative commentator"
in
Maclean's
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
.
References
External links
''National Post'': Terence Corcoran profileAnti-Kyoto position quoted in Linda Diebel's book ''Stéphane Dion: Against the Current''(via CTV News)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Corcoran, Terence
1942 births
Living people
The Globe and Mail columnists
Canadian male journalists
Canadian newspaper editors
Carleton University alumni
Canadian columnists
National Post people
Montreal Gazette people