Daniel Lessard

Daniel Lessard was born in 1947 in Saint-Benjamin in the Beauce region of Quebec. After his seminary school studies, he launched his career in journalism in private radio in 1969 before joining CBC/Radio-Canada (Ottawa) in 1972.

In 1979, Lessard was named national correspondent on Ottawa's Parliament Hill. Assigned to cover Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney, he witnessed the principal political events of the last few decades, from the patriation of the Constitution to peacekeeping missions abroad, leadership conventions of Canada's political parties, the constitutional negotiations of Charlottetown and Meech Lake, Quebec's referendums on sovereignty, and several general elections.

After becoming a broadcaster and a co-host of the morning show at the new Ottawa station of RDI, CBC/Radio-Canada's French news network, Lessard was appointed bureau chief for Parliament Hill in 1998. He also sat in for the newscaster of Téléjournal/Le Point. In 2005, he began hosting Les Coulisses du Pouvoir (the Corridors of Power), a television program dedicated to political commentary.

Lessard retired in June 2011 after 39 years at CBC/Radio-Canada. He published his first novel, Maggie, in September of the same year. He is married to Debra Brown and has two sons: Christian and Charles-Adrien.