Sue-Ann Levy

Sue-Ann Levy (born 1956 or 1957) is a Canadian writer and political columnist. Her columns are distributed by Postmedia Network media company in Canada.

Levy is the niece of municipal lobbyist Jeffrey S. Lyons. She was hired by the Toronto Sun in the 1980s when Lyons's friend, Paul Godfrey, was its publisher, and went on to become 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 appeared as a regular guest on The John Oakley Show on Talk 640 until 2018. She was previously a panelist on CBC Radio One's local Toronto afternoon drive show Here and Now, as well as an occasional commentator or panelist over various cable news channels.

Early life and education

Levy grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, the daughter of an accountant. 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 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.

At the Sun

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 some city councillors, whom she goaded with derogatory nicknames.

Levy was criticized in 2018 for two columns which alleged that immigrants and refugee claimants temporarily residing at the Radisson Hotel Toronto East were slaughtering animals in the hotel's public bathrooms. This assertion was based entirely on questionable on-line reviews of the hotel posted to TripAdvisor and Expedia, with no indication that Levy visited the hotel to interview staff and guests. Levy's columns were widely circulated online by alt-right commenters on 4chan and Reddit, as well as sites such as Infowars. Two days later, a woman attempted to burn down the hotel.

Politics

In 2009, Levy was the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario'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.

Ontario provincial by-election, September 17, 2009: St. Paul's Resignation of Michael Bryant
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Eric Hoskins	13,192	47.60	+0.17
	Progressive Conservative	Sue-Ann Levy	7,851	28.33	+1.79
	New Democratic	Julian Heller	4,677	16.88	+1.14
	Green	Chris Chopik	1,515	5.47	-2.87
	Libertarian	John Kittredge	161	0.58	+0.05
	Special Needs	Danish Ahmed	95	0.34
	Independent	Marius Frederick	84	0.30
	Freedom	Paul McKeever	61	0.22	-0.04
	Independent	John Turmel	52	0.19
	Independent	Rajendra Rama	24	0.09
Total valid votes			27,711	100.00
	Liberal hold		Swing		-0.81

Personal life

Levy is Jewish and an openly gay conservative. She came out publicly in 2007 and married her wife Denise Alexander in 2009.