Jeffrey Carl Simpson,
OC (born February 17, 1949), is a Canadian journalist. Simpson was The Globe and Mail's national affairs columnist for almost three decades. He has won all three of Canada's leading literary prizes—the
Governor General's Award for non-fiction book writing, the
National Magazine Award for political writing, and the National Newspaper Award for column writing. He has also won the Hyman Solomon Award for excellence in public policy journalism[1] and the
Donner Prize for the best public policy book by a Canadian.[2] In January 2000, he became an Officer of the
Order of Canada.
Simpson retired from the Globe at the end of June 2016.[3]
Early life
Simpson was born in New York City and moved to Canada when he was 10 years old. Educated at the
University of Toronto Schools, he graduated from
Queen's University in 1971 in History and Political Science. There, he worked for the campus radio station
CFRC and won the university's Tricolour Award in his graduating year. He then went on to the
London School of Economics.
In 1972 to 1973, he worked as a Parliamentary Intern in
Ottawa, where he worked for
Ed Broadbent. Then, he joined The Globe and Mail.
Career
Simpson's career with the Globe began at City Hall in
Toronto and with coverage of
Quebec politics. In 1977, he became a member of the paper's
Ottawa bureau, and eighteen months later he was named The Globe and Mail's Ottawa bureau chief. From 1981–1983, Simpson served as The Globe and Mail's European correspondent based in London. From January 1984 until June 2016, he wrote a daily Globe and Mail column on national affairs.
Simpson is a frequent and enthusiastic participant in regular political debate on radio or television, in French and in English. He has been a guest lecturer at such universities as
Oxford,
Edinburgh,
Harvard,
Princeton,
Brigham Young,
Johns Hopkins,
Maine,
California plus more than a dozen universities in Canada.
Simpson has been a member of the board of trustees at Queen's University; the board of overseers at Green College, University of British Columbia; the advisory board of the Review of Constitutional Studies at the University of Alberta; the editorial board of The Queen's Quarterly, and the Canadian Consortium for Asia-Pacific Security at York University and the University of Toronto. He has been vice-chairman of the City of
Ottawa Library Board.
Simpson is an avid Ottawa Senators fan and in 2011 attempted to convince the team to replace its general manager, referencing his position as the Globe's national affairs columnist on the newspaper's letterhead to demand the change.[5] He threatened to not renew his season tickets, if the team did not fire the GM.