Robert Fulford

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Alternate use: see Robert Fulford (croquet player) for the English croquet player.

Robert Fulford, O.C., (born February 13, 1932) is a Canadian journalist, a magazine editor, and an essayist. He was born in Ottawa and lives in Toronto.

Robert Marshall Blount Fulford began his career in journalism in the summer of 1950 when he left high school and went to work for The Globe and Mail as a sports reporter. Subsequently, Fulford rose to various editorial positions at the newspaper before working as a columnist for The Toronto Star (1959-1962, 1964-1968 and 1971-1987). From 1968 until 1987, Fulford was the editor of Saturday Night magazine during a period that many consider the more than century-old but now defunct magazine's golden age. He then went on to work as a columnist for the Financial Times of Canada (1988-1992), The Globe and Mail (1992-1999) and the National Post (1999-). Fulford worked as the co-host of the Realities TV show on TVOntario (1982-1989) and for the CBC radio show Morningside (1989-1993). In 1999, Fulford delivered the Massey Lecture, Canada's venerated annual series of public lectures. In 1984, Fulford was awarded the rank of Officer of the Order of Canada.

In his 1988 entry for The Canadian Encyclopedia, Douglas Fetherling describes Fulford's politics as being on "the more conservative end of the liberal spectrum". He strongly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and is a fervent supporter of the State of Israel. He has been critical of the Liberal Party of Canada's platforms, but often adopts non-partisan stances.

Fulford is also a wide-ranging critic of literature, art and films. He has written extensively about the Canadian abstract art group Painters Eleven, its members (particularly William Ronald, Tom Hodgson, and Harold Town), and the Saskatchewan abstract artist Mashel Teitelbaum, and famously attacked Canadian auteur David Cronenberg's film Shivers.^[1]

Fulford is married to writer and producer Geraldine Sherman, with whom he has two daughters, one of whom, Sarah, has followed in his footsteps into journalism and is currently editor in chief of Toronto Life magazine.