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Bernard Ostry, OC, public servant (born 10 June 1927 in Wadena, SK; died 24 May 2006 in Toronto, ON). He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1988.
Education
After studying history at the University of Manitoba, Bernard Ostry launched an academic career at the universities of London and Birmingham in England. There, in collaboration with H.S. Ferns, he published The Age of Mackenzie King: The Rise of the Leader (1955, 1976), a critical and controversial study of the former prime minister (see William Lyon Mackenzie King).
Career Highlights
Bernard Ostry returned to Canada in the late 1950s, working for the CBC from 1960 to 1968 as a broadcaster and subsequently as an administrator in the public affairs department. He was then a commissioner on a prime-ministerial task force regarding government information, and one of the authors of its report, To Know and Be Known (1969); this provided a transition for the ambitious and now well-connected Ostry to the top level of the federal government cultural bureaucracy. He was assistant undersecretary of state (1970–73); secretary general, National Museums of Canada (1974–78); and finally deputy minister of communications (1978–80).
His strong views on the importance of the arts and the government's role in cultural life are contained in his The Cultural Connection (1978). In 1981, after a short stay in France with his wife Sylvia Ostry, he moved to the Ontario government, where he served in a series of deputy minister appointments before becoming Chairman and CEO of the Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVOntario), the province's public television service, from 1985 to 1991. He was also a member of the board of governors for the Canadian Council for the Arts (1977–82, 1986–91) and Director and later President (1990) of the Association for Tele-Education in Canada (ATEC) (1985–91).
He is associated with numerous boards including: Writers' Development Trust (1985), the Children's Broadcast Institute (1987–91), the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (1987), the Festival of Music of Canada (1988), Canadian Native Arts Foundation (1990), the National Ballet School (1990) and the Marshall McLuhan Centre on Global Communications (1990). From 1991 to 1993, Ostry was chairman of the Shaw Festival Board.
Honours
Bernard Ostry was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1988.
