Sue-Ann Levy
Quick Facts
Biography
Sue-Ann Levy (born 1956 or 1957) is a Canadian writer. She is a political columnist for the Postmedia Network media company in Canada. Levy was hired by the Toronto Sun in the 1980s and was the newspaper's long-time City Hall columnist. Her writing now focusses primarily on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (Queen's Park), the seat of the Government of Ontario, as well as municipal and social issues. She is the author of the book Underdog: Confessions of a Right-Wing Gay Jewish Muckraker (2016) and also appears as a regular guest on the John Oakley Show on Talk 640, was previously a panelist on CBC Radio's local afternoon drive show "Here and Now", as well as an occasional commentator or panelist over various cable news channels.
Levy is the niece of the late Jeffrey S. Lyons, a Toronto lawyer and prominent municipal lobbyist who is best known for having been implicated in the MFP scandal at City Hall. She is Jewish and an openly gay conservative who has been married to Denise Alexander since 2009.
In 2009, Levy was the Progressive Conservative's by-election candidate in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's, placing second with 28.33% of the vote behind the Liberal victor, Eric Hoskins.
Levy grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, the daughter of an accountant. She earned a journalism degree from Carleton University in 1978. After graduating from Carleton, Levy worked as an aide to Ontario Progressive Conservative cabinet minister Frank Drea before returning to school to earn an MBA from the University of Toronto in 1985. She then worked in public relations but left in order to enter journalism as a reporter for the Bracebridge Examiner, before being hired by the Toronto Sun in 1989.
Levy became the Sun's newspaper's City Hall columnist in 1998 and covered the mayoralties of Mel Lastman, David Miller, and Rob Ford before being moving on to Queen's Park. In 2004, the Ryerson Review of Journalism surveyed city councillors and found that Levy was "rated lowest among the 18 city hall reporters for accuracy, fairness and knowledge". Levy made a reputation as the press gallery’s "most unapologetically conservative chronicler of local politics." She created enemies among leftist city councillors, whom she goaded with derogatory nicknames.