Percy Saltzman

Percy Saltzman, CM (1915 – January 15, 2007) was a meteorologist and television personality best remembered for being the first weatherman in Canadian television history.

As a pioneer in weather forecasting, he was the first Canadian to present the weather in satellite and radar images and to give road reports and forest fires. He also hosted numerous public affairs programs on CBC and, in 1969, along with Lloyd Robertson, he hosted ten days of coverage of the first moon landing for CBC Television.

Born in Winnipeg, his family moved to Neudorf, Saskatchewan to operate a general store. In 1925, they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia where he studied at King George Secondary School and the University of British Columbia.

He was the eldest of four children of Solomon and Elizabeth Saltzman. His father and mother had immigrated to Canada from Ukraine in 1911. He was a good student and won the Governor-General Lord Willingdon's Silver Medal for coming in first in the province in his final high school exams.

In the 1930s he was a political activist and once shared a stage with Stafford Cripps at a Vancouver socialist rally. Saltzman maintained his left-wing convictions into later life. His son, Paul, said of him "(h)e came out of the Depression in Western Canada and that kind of skewed his values. He was an armchair socialist, but that didn't translate into action."

After their Vancouver grocery store failed, Saltzman's parents moved to Los Angeles along with his youngest brother, Kenneth Saltzman and he rarely saw them. His junior brother, Morris Saltzman remained in Vancouver until his death in 1988. For his activism in bringing different religious and cultural factions to respect one another and work together, Morris received the Order of Canada several years before Percy was so honoured.

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