John Lindsay, who will turn 87 in April, has lived a life and then some.
He has had several careers, three marriages, called a half dozen cities home, and has been a hardworking volunteer in this community since he moved to Sudbury in 1966.
"If I was a building, the city would probably tear me down," he joked recently during our interview over Tim Hortons coffee. He was referring to our shared passion for reusing heritage buildings instead of tearing them down to create parking lots.
"When I moved here, I thought Sudbury had so much potential" to be a liveable city, said Lindsay, who in the past several decades is best known as a watchdog on how Sudbury politicians and bureaucrats spend taxpayers' money.
The former broadcaster and civil servant is not so optimistic now, but he doesn't see himself as a critic.
Rather, he said he is a passionate community booster who suggests alternatives to what he considers needless or ill-advised spending.
"Any comments I make now, in what I think is a creative positive manner, is to encourage more rational thinking with respect to civic endeavours.
"I know a lot of people think I'm a Sudbury critic, but I have always been a supporter."
Lindsay received a volunteer award from the city in 2015 and a Queen's Jubilee Volunteer Award in 2022.
Born in Toronto in 1936 during The Depression, Lindsay's father served in the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. Like all Depression-era kids, he grew up being frugal. He learned about responsibility as a young boy when his dad was overseas. A stint in army cadets taught him about community service.
Lindsay regrets not learning to skate or ski as a child, but remembers his good friend Chuck Platte "was crazy about radio and took me on occasion to the local radio station to see the disc jockeys at work. Chuck had us set up a 'play' radio station and we did 'shows.' He was the announcer, and I was the operator."
Playing radio put him on a path to a career in broadcasting.
When he was still in his teens, Lindsay had his own Saturday night show on CHWO, the local radio station in Oakville.
Blessed with "good pipes," a deep speaking voice, Lindsay had a stutter when he was a child.
"My mother worked with me with different drills such as 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers', " to help him with elocution.
Later, he would practise his elocution replicating CBC Radio announcers' mid-Atlantic accent, a blending of English and Canadian pronunciations.
Lindsay was able to keep his part-time radio gig while attending teacher's college. But after spending a year in a one-room rural school, he gave up teaching and auditioned for a full-time radio job with the Thomson chain. He was sent to Timmins.
"Going to Timmins was a bit of culture shock for an urban, uptight Oakville boy. It was like going to the Wild West. It was very culturally diverse. It was a rough and ready mining camp. Restaurants were open 24 hours a day. There were more people on the street at midnight than six o’clock at night.
"I lived in the Empire Hotel for a dollar a day and ate in local restaurants for about a dollar a meal. My pay was $57 a week, a few dollars more than what my starting pay would have been as a teacher."
In 1958, Lindsay was one of the first people hired at CJCN, the new television station in Grand Falls, NB.
"There were only six employees. It was a little bit like 'WKRP in Cincinnati' (popular television show from 1978 to 1982). It was really fun.
"Nothing is more fun than TV. Especially in the days before videotape. Everything was live. Any mistake you made, everyone knew about it."
One of Lindsay's early mentors in broadcasting was Don Jamieson, a popular Newfoundland radio and TV personality and politician, who was a federal cabinet minister in the 1970s.
"Jamieson told to me question everything a politician has to say," he said.
In the mid-1960s, now married and a father, he pursued a better paying and more secure job with the federal government.
"I was hired to work as an employment counsellor. I applied for this type of work as it seemed to offer more security and possibility for advancement and a pension. As a father with a family, I felt it was more responsible. I was posted to Sudbury, so it meant moving again."
He worked during the day as a civil servant, but moonlighted as an voiceover announcer.
"I did voice work for CKSO (commercials) and the same for CHNO. There must have been a shortage of 'talent' for this sort of thing.
"Then when I was asked to do news and some programs on CHNO, my (radio) name Jack Richmond was coined. Shortly after I devoted all my available time to CHNO – the stations were very competitive back then.
"For a while, when I was a single parent, in the morning I would get the kids to the babysitter, then race to the CHNO station — located on Elm Street across from the courthouse — and read the 8 a.m. news, … then go to the office at 8:30, then at 5 go back to the station to do commercials and voice tracks.”
When CHNO's sister station, CJMX, opened, he began doing more voice-tracking. The low-pitched voice of Jack Richmond was heard on the airwaves close to 70 hours a week.
He did most of the remote broadcasts from local stores on weekends and was responsible for community programming with talent shows. He hosted the “Music for a Sunday Morning” show for more than 25 years.
At one point, Lindsay's three sons, David, Bruce and James, all worked with their dad at the radio station.
David, who inherited his father's deep voice, just retired from KISS 105.3, formerly CJMX.
"He started at the age of 13, Rogers Broadcasting gave him an award for being one of the longest employees," said Lindsay.
Daughter Sheilanne is a talented violinist who has played with symphony orchestras in London and Kitchener.
This man likes to keep busy. He was a volunteer for the local cable television channel for more than 15 years.
Lindsay married his third wife, Linda Cartier, 29 years ago on New Year's Eve. They have a blended family of six children and six grandchildren.
After retiring from Employment and Immigration Canada, he joined Cartier at Financial Decisions Inc. and the Academy of Financial Divorce Specialists.
Longtime residents of Minnow Lake, the couple purchased the historic Barry family home on Bellevue Avenue and converted it into offices.
His community service record is long and varied.
He was chair of the Rainbow District School Board and has led numerous organizations, including Friendly to Seniors Sudbury, Sudbury Arts Council, the Sudbury Symphony board, and the Minnow Lake Community Action Network.
The Minnow Lake group worked with the city to establish bike lanes and walking trails.
Concerned about environmental issues, and in particular the quality of lake water, he is a dedicated member of the Minnow Lake Restoration Group.
He has created several websites that promote the city and has been involved in numerous initiatives that celebrate Sudbury such as the Blueberry Festival.
Currently the chair of the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), Lindsay is writing a memoir for his family and friends. And it keeps getting longer as each year passes.
"Biggest surprise of old age: Feeling generally not old, as least at this writing," he said in the memoir. "A few aches and pains, including arthritis, but still (I) think the same, curious that I don’t look the same. How much time left? Good question. Who knows? But it does make me think about what I may want to do before I go."
Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. Journeys is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.
