Leslie Roberts

Leslie is the co-anchor of the News Hour at 6pm with Anne-Marie Mediwake, and the Anchor of News Hour Final, the GTA’s only 1-hour local newscast at 11pm. Leslie joined the Global Ontario team in 2001.

In 2002, Leslie and the team at Global Ontario were chosen as "Canada’s Best Newscast" by the Radio & Television News Directors of Canada (RTNDA). And most recently, a special edition of News from the Neighbourhood on Hospitals in the GTA garnered the team a 2008 Ontario Association of Broadcasters’ (OAB) Community Service award, an honour that recognizes the television station which has made the greatest single or ongoing contributions to their respective communities.

Growing up in a family of journalists/broadcasters and having a mother who was an assistant to a federal MP, it was not unusual to have both journalists and politicians at Leslie’s dinner table. He was definitely not the only one in his family with the media "bug".

Leslie’s great-grandfather, John Roberts founded a Montreal tabloid newspaper. His grandfather, and namesake Leslie, was a Canadian historian who served as a special advisor to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and later was Montreal’s CJAD Radio’s editorialist. His father, Bill, was CJAD’s morning man for 20 years before becoming a radio talk show host and later, news director. Leslie’s uncle Grant worked for the Globe and Mail and the Montreal Star, while his brother Rob is night editor at the National Post.

While still in school, Leslie interned in a radio newsroom after class and at age 18, found himself covering the 1980 Quebec referendum, interviewing the likes of Rene Levesque and Pierre Trudeau. He made the jump to television in 1985, when he was hired as a medical reporter and spent 12 years at CTV Montreal. There, he hosted his own morning show, Montreal AM Live, and served as one of four hosts on the syndicated travel show, “Travel Travel.”

In 1995, Leslie was called down to New York City where he hosted an info-tainment show called A Current Affair and then moved on to work at a Fox News affiliate, WNYW. Three years later, he returned to CTV Montreal as a full-time anchor. In 2000, he joined Global Quebec as news director and co-anchor of the evening news.

In 2007-2008, he also hosted his own weekday morning radio talk show on Canada’s number one talk radio station, Newstalk 1010 CFRB.

Leslie is also very involved in the community, sitting on several charity boards, supporting many causes and hosting many charitable events. He also co-hosts the beloved Santa Claus Parade with Global’s Susan Hay.

When he’s not working or hosting a community event, Leslie is spending time with his daughter, Lauren, seeing movies, visiting art galleries, enjoying the GTA’s diverse cuisine and keeping busy with the latest addition to his family, a Goldendoodle puppy, Max.