As a student at Victoria College, Steve Paikin found his footing in journalism as sports editor of The Newspaper and by calling Varsity Blues hockey and football games on U of T Radio.
That footing carried him through a career hosting The Agenda with Steve Paikin on TVO for 19 seasons, until the series ended in June 2025. He still hosts The Paikin Podcast, co-hosts #onpoli on TVO and appears weekday mornings on Citytv's Paikin on Politics, and has moderated nine federal and Ontario leaders' debates.
To the extent that I’ve grown up, I did a lot of it at Vic.Steve Paikin
Paikin has written 13 books, including biographies of Bill Davis, John Robarts and John Turner, and is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of Ontario. In 2025 he received the King Charles III Coronation Medal and the Public Policy Forum's lifetime achievement award for journalism.
Now he returns to Victoria University for a three-year term as Chancellor beginning July 1, 2026, succeeding food activist Nick Saul. He presides at Convocation, confers degrees, sits ex officio on the Board of Regents and chairs the Victoria University Senate, with a formal installation to follow in the fall.
Victoria University president Dr. Rhonda N. McEwen and Board of Regents chair Keith Thomas welcomed the appointment. For Paikin, a former chancellor of Laurentian University who also holds honorary doctorates from McMaster, York and Toronto Metropolitan University, it is, in a sense, a homecoming to the college where he grew up.
Reported from Award-winning journalist and alum Steve Paikin appointed Chancellor of Victoria University, by Not stated (originally published by Victoria University) (U of T Alumni News, March 24, 2026).
More from the original reporting: alumni.utoronto.ca/news/steve-paikin-appointed-chancellor-victoria-university