Creighton remembered as champion of Canadian cuisine
Respected food writer for CP brought journalist’s eye to substance of people’s lives
With a pen as sharp as her knife, food writer Judy Creighton carved out space in the headlines for everyday Canadian fare.
Over decades working for The Canadian Press news wire, Creighton covered the concerns that hit closest to home with rigour and relentless curiosity, tracking cultural trends and whetting Canadians’ appetites for homegrown cuisine.
In the wake of the 81-year-old’s death last week, journalists and culinary tastemakers are calling Creighton a “beacon” who burst the confines of the “women’s section” to bring meat-and-potatoes issues to the front pages of Canada’s newspapers. Creighton died on May 4 of pneumonia complications at an assisted living facility in Burlington, Ont., according to her family. Peter Creighton said his mother suffered from respiratory issues in her later years, noting that she tested negative for COVID-19 a week before she died.
Born in Vernon, B.C., on Oct. 16, 1938, Creighton got her professional start in the late 1950s as a reporter at a local paper in the B.C. capital. She worked for the London Free Press and the Toronto Star before joining The Canadian Press in 1975 as a reporter-editor.
As the editor of the “family” department, Creighton was tasked with producing fodder for the “women’s section” of newspapers. But Creighton was determined to make the file more than that, said former CP colleague and supervisor Patti Tasko. Creighton met with newspaper editors across the country in an effort to persuade them that female readers were interested in more than just domestic advice, said Tasko.
In a male-dominated industry that dismissed stories outside current affairs as
“fluff,” Tasko said Creighton brought a journalist’s eye to the substance of people’s lives, reporting on parenting with the same diligence and tenacity that one would apply to covering the prime minister. But Tasko said Creighton was first and foremost a “foodie,” years before the term came into vogue.
Her writing was embraced by Canada’s culinary community. University of Guelph food laureate Anita Stewart said Creighton championed Canadian cuisine before most of the country recognized its distinct palate, with many eaters dismissing local delicacies as “secondary” to more exotic flavours. “We looked everywhere else to justify our existence, whereas she believed that what we were doing here was valuable,” said Stewart.