{"id":43466,"date":"2025-08-04T01:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43466\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T01:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:21:07","slug":"philanthropist-and-former-ontario-lieutenant-governor-hilary-weston-dies-at-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43466\/","title":{"rendered":"Philanthropist and former Ontario lieutenant-governor Hilary Weston dies at 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Hilary Weston at the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust for Nonfiction Gala at the Toronto TELUS Centre for Performing and Learning in November, 2012.Della Rollins\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Hilary Weston, an Irish-Canadian businessperson, philanthropist and writer who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario from 1997 to 2002, has died at the age of 83.<\/p>\n

Ms. Weston\u2019s family confirmed her death in a statement on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur mother lived with unwavering devotion to her family and a belief in the power and importance of community and service,\u201d said her son, Galen Weston Jr., who is the chairman and former president of Loblaw Companies Ltd.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrilliant, brave, compassionate, and beautiful, she brought a touch of music to everything she did \u2014 in her decades of public service, philanthropy and her remarkable business career.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer greatest joy was the life she created for her family and friends \u2014 filled with warmth, love and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to public office, Ms. Weston was the deputy chair of Holt Renfrew from 1986-1996 and participated in the charitable activities of the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.<\/p>\n

The Westons are one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in the country, best known for their connection to the Loblaw grocery chain.<\/p>\n

Her late husband, W. Galen Weston, known as Galen Weston Sr., died in 2021 at the age of 80. The couple was married for 55 years.<\/p>\n

As Ontario\u2019s Lieutenant-Governor,<\/a> Ms. Weston focused on issues related to youth, women and volunteerism.<\/p>\n

In 2003, she was awarded<\/a> the Order of Canada which is given to recognize outstanding achievement, dedication to community and service to the country.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ms. Weston reads the speech from the throne at Queen’s Park in April, 1999.Kevin Frayer\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Rideau Hall said at the time that Ms. Weston served with grace and distinction, and she was only the second woman appointed to this position.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlways seeking to improve the quality of life for her fellow citizens, she has been actively involved in numerous charities and not-for-profit organizations throughout her private and public life,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Weston\u2019s passion for the arts, education, health research and volunteerism culminated in recent years with the creation of the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation.<\/p>\n

Since 2021, the foundation has committed close to $150-million to charities impacting healthcare, education, women, refugees and the environment in Canada, Ireland and the U.K., her family said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Weston\u2019s daughter, Alanna Weston Cochrane, said her mother loved a challenge and brought an innate creativity and style to everything she did.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was her vision, coupled with her enormous capacity for hard work, that made her a great female leader,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Hilary Weston at the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust for Nonfiction Gala at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-43466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}