CTV News Anchor Patricia Boal Named Alumna of the Year
Posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2021
Every year, Algonquin College celebrates the incredible achievements of its alumni through the Alumni of Distinction Awards. These awards honour the extraordinary contributions our graduates make to the community while achieving career success. Here is a closer look at the Alumni of Distinction – Alumna of the Year Recipient Patricia Boal.
Co-anchor, CTV News at 6 p.m.
Journalism – Print, Class of 1994
Journalism wasn’t on her mind when Patricia Boal began her post-secondary education at McGill University in pursuit of an English degree. “I took that thinking, study what you love and get the best marks you can for your undergrad. Then you can move on to a degree that will take you on a career path. My plan was to follow the English degree by going to law school.”
But like many journalists before her, Boal started writing for the school newspaper and fell in love with the trade. The chance to go anywhere, ask anyone anything, was irresistible. “I’m naturally curious about a lot of things, and as a fairly shy person this opened doors for me to explore.”
As her studies progressed, she began to wonder if journalism was actually the career she wanted. But she still wasn’t sure, and when she graduated she came back to Ottawa and got a summer job with the federal government.
“At the end of the summer, they offered me a full-time job and I turned it down,” Boal says. “The money was good and it was nice to be asked, but I knew it wasn’t a good fit.”
Algonquin College’s print journalism program looked like it might give her a chance to determine if news was the profession for her. “Algonquin offered me a wonderful program, very practical, and it opened a lot of doors. The fact that the teachers in the program were working in the industry was a huge bonus. I ended up getting a job through one of them. Attending the College was exactly the right step I needed to take to start a career.”
During her studies she discovered the appeal of other media. She studied photography, which she found interesting. Then there was broadcasting, both TV and radio. “I was very young. I didn’t even think that people had jobs in radio. At the time I just liked to listen to it and enjoy the Top 40.”
But instructor Steve Winogron began to convince her a radio career had potential. She did mock newscasts and other related class work, in addition to her print journalism, TV and photography studies, and found it rewarding. When the time came to choose an internship, she had a choice: she could work at the Ottawa Citizen, her intended destination, or at local radio station CFRA.
“I felt there was a real buzz to radio work,” Boal says. It didn’t hurt that she was told part-time work would be available if she wanted it at the station after the internship. “The fact there was a job down the line in Ottawa was a big deal. So I took this detour into broadcasting and found I just loved everything about it. It was the best possible move for me, and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t entered the program and met Steve.”
She became a general assignment reporter, covering a little bit of everything: crime, courts, and council and committee meetings at City Hall. She provided coverage of the sensational Paul Bernardo trial and was in Montreal in the run up to the 1995 Quebec referendum. She was reporting when the ice storm hit Ottawa in 1998, and identifies that as the most exciting reporting she did in this period.
“Those days were really long and I had a one-year-old at the time, so it wasn’t easy to juggle work and home life. But it was fulfilling. There was no social media then. Radio was a real lifeline for people. Not only were you reporting the news of the day, you were also telling people where they could find generators and wood for their woodstoves and the like. The work was relentless and exhausting, but you went home feeling that you were having a real, positive impact on people’s lives.”
When a new opportunity arose to work the sidelines at the then-Ottawa Rough Rider games, she volunteered.
“I thought I’d love to give it a try. It was something I’d never done. The energy of covering live sports is its own special thrill. It’s so spontaneous. You just learn to not have a script and go with the flow. I love that and I did that for the last year or last two years the Rough Riders existed as a team.”
While still at CFRA, she began doing spots for Rogers TV and then started freelancing for The Score. Her habit was to say yes to any interesting opportunity that came her way. “This business is changing all the time and saying yes to job offers has worked out really well for me.” She has enjoyed some dream jobs on the sports beat over the years, including coverage of the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, in London in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
She moved on to other freelance gigs and then covered weekend sports at CTV Ottawa. When the chance came to take on a late-night anchor position in November 2013, she once again said yes. “I had to think about it a little bit. I loved sports reporting – there’s nothing like talking about fun and games for a living! But I appreciated that the station was taking a chance on me as a news anchor, which is a really wonderful role to take on.”
Today her role as co-anchor of CTV News at Six has become close to Boal’s heart. Among other major events, she has participated in live coverage of the floods in 2017 and 2019, and coverage of the tornados that hit the area in 2018. She speaks enthusiastically about the CTV team of producers and multi-skilled journalists who work diligently to produce strong local news programming. She has words of praise, too, for her evening co-host, Graham Richardson. “Graham and I get along incredibly well, which is important. You’re working as a team together most of the day, and he’s made it really easy. I feel blessed to have a colleague who I can also call a close friend. We’ve been anchoring the show together for almost five years now, and honestly it’s been a blast.”
As she looks forward, she says she is encouraged by the next generation of broadcast journalists who are entering the field today with all the drive and inquisitiveness brought to her work after her Algonquin experience. “They are coming out of school so keen to succeed: they’re super-bold and smart and they work incredibly hard. It’s a great field to be in and I’m impressed with them all every day.”
For more event details and information about the Alumni of Distinction event visit our website.
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