It’s not easy to overcome shyness, especially when your job is to inform and entertain an audience of thousands of people. But Sylvia Kuzyk, arguably Winnipeg’s most recognizable television personality, knows firsthand just how difficult that challenge can be.

Kuzyk, who is celebrating her 34th anniversary at CTV Winnipeg this year, admits she was so shy as a child she never imagined a career in television. In fact, the possibility never entered her mind.

“Never in a million years would I have seen myself on TV,” says Kuzyk, who began her career at CTV in 1974. “I was so intensely shy I would’ve been appalled to see myself on television.”

Every night, Kuzyk delivers the daily weather forecast with such warmth and sincerity it is not surprising that she continually attracts the largest viewing audience in Manitoba. She is just as down-to-earth and genuine off the screen as she is on it.

Jeff Bollenbach, news director at CTV Winnipeg, says viewers have such a bond with Kuzyk they’ll call the station when they feel she’s been wronged – even if it’s something that’s part of the job.

“Sylvia does a lot of (live hits) outdoors and obviously people have a connection with her,” Bollenbach says. “She has such affection for the community and after she has returned (from outside) we’ll get calls from viewers complaining about putting Sylvia out in the cold weather.”

When Kuzyk first began her television career at the tender age of 23, she didn’t know she’d become a fixture in the lives of Manitobans. She also didn’t expect that so many families would tune in each night to watch her daily weather forecast at six o’clock.

“I still feel honoured and humbled to be welcomed into so many living rooms every day,” she says. She found it difficult just to talk about herself for the Winnipeg Women interview and openly admits she hates watching herself on television. “I don’t take it for granted. I have met so many amazing people.”

The eldest of five children, Kuzyk was born in Berlin, Germany, to Eva and Gunter Schoch. She was just three years old when the family moved to Canada and settled in Winnipeg.

“We were a very young family in a new country. We didn’t know the language,” she says.

Her father studied landscape architecture in Germany but Berlin was in ruins after the Second World War and there were no opportunities for him to work at his craft, Kuzyk says. He did gain his credentials in Winnipeg and went on to design many of the city’s greenspaces. He was also the director of the city’s parks department for years. Although he is now retired, he remains active with the Canadian Association of Landscape Architects, and Kuzyk says she is extremely proud of her dad’s accomplishments.

Before moving to Canada, Kuzyk’s mother, who was 21 at the time, was studying to be a fashion designer, and was apprenticing with a fashion house in Berlin. Kuzyk says she let go of her career aspirations to raise five children. “Her family was everything,” she says.

“As a girl she had seen and experienced horrors during the war, as did many young people who lived through that time in Europe,” Kuzyk says. “Although she didn’t talk much about her early experiences I think she carried the scars with her through her life.”

Kuzyk’s “biggest fan” – her mother – passed away in 2004.

“Losing my mom taught me that we really need to cherish each of our loved ones,” she says. “I don’t miss a day telling someone important to me that I love them.”

Kuzyk is herself a parent, to daughter Vanessa and step-daughter Lara, with whom she is very close, and has been in a relationship for 17 years with her partner, clinical psychologist Glen McCabe, who is a professor at the University of Manitoba.

When Kuzyk was young she aspired to be a nurse and got her first job working at Riverview Health Centre, formerly King George Hospital, as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).

As fate would have it, Kuzyk joined a community theatre group to take a stab at acting. It was a decision that would ultimately shape the next phase of her life.



“I found that theatre helped me get over my shy inhibitions and it allowed me to express myself in a creative way,” she says.

It also led her to the studios of CTV, where she got a small part in a documentary drama being filmed at the station. It was there she learned of the weather anchor job and applied. Kuzyk would become the first woman on television news in Western Canada.

“I was amazed that I got the job. I surprised myself when I got it,” she admits.

Kuzyk, who moves across the screen with such ease and confidence, claims she was on pins and needles the first time she walked in front of the camera.

“On my first day I was so nervous. It was so awful. I thought I couldn’t do this. I wondered if the audience would like me. I tried to imagine, who does the audience want to see?”

However, her theatre training helped her ease into the role and she eventually learned to relax. But her parents never let her forget how proud they were of her accomplishments, even if her mom’s enthusiasm left her blushing with embarrassment. “When we’d meet people my mom would say, ‘this is my daughter from TV… you might recognize her.’”

Throughout the years Kuzyk has been active in the community through a number of charitable organizations. Through her involvement – be it hosting an event or serving on boards – she has been able to meet many people.

“These people make me feel so humbled. We make such a connection with members of the community,” she says. “I’ve realized how important local television news can be for some people”

She specifically recalls one viewer who called regularly to say hello and later realized she had been in an accident and now was a quadriplegic.

“I was her only connection with the outside world,” Kuzyk remembers. “I visited with her in the hospital and we became friends. Despite what happened to her she never complained. She was such a positive person. That made an impact on me. It was so inspiring to me.”

Kuzyk’s dedication to her community is recognized by everyone she works with, as well as by those who have since left the station.

Steve Vogelsang, a former news director and sports anchor at CTV Winnipeg, recalls co-hosting a show called Reel Review with Kuzyk. He says it was their mutual love of movies that made them a dynamic duo.Kuzyk never lost her cool – even in heated debates or if she didn’t agree with what Vogelsang was saying.

“When I really got to know Sylvia I realized her taste in movies differed from mine,” he says. “I also had a way of communicating that was different from hers. I was brash and aggressive and one time I know I was driving her crazy because I was bad-mouthing a movie she liked, but did she ever get mad? No.”

Although many know Kuzyk in her role as weather anchor, most don’t know her on a personal level. What makes her tick? What kind of things does she do in her spare time? When Kuzyk isn’t at work she likes to kick back at her cabin at the lake, which she calls “a piece of tranquility.” What people also don’t know is that she loves the outdoors, hiking and surrounding herself with nature.

“(The lake) is a place to recharge my batteries. We like to sit outside with coffees and watch the wildlife, meditate and contemplate life.”

While away she likes to read books by some of her favourite authors, which include John Irving and Margaret Atwood, and she often finds herself reading books about Buddhism.

“When I need to escape the horrors of some of the news stories I hear every day, nothing calms me more than the Buddhist philosophy, which focuses on love, compassion and living in the moment you are in,” she says.

Kuzyk doesn’t see herself stepping away from her current situation anytime soon but when she does she’ll look back at a city and community that has given back so much. And through it all, she still remembers a line by her favorite CBC broadcaster, the late Barbara Frum, which continues to resonate with her.

“She talked to heads of state and people all over the world about serious issues,” Kuzyk remembers. “But she said, ‘And yet while I’m doing this, deep down I still feel like a child.’”

Kuzyk continues: “I still carry that residual shyness with me. I think we all still carry the essence of who we were as children – the soft core that can be vulnerable.”