'It was a huge deal,' says Wintario host Faye Dance of the lottery

Faye Dance was fresh out of broadcast journalism school in Toronto when she became the co-host of Winontario — Ontario’s first ever lottery that began in 1975 and is being celebrated this year as part of OLG’s 50 anniversary.

“I was in my early 20s and I graduated from Ryerson (now known as TMU) radio and television, top of my class,” said Dance, 75, of Etobicoke.

“Global Television was brand new. And I thought, ‘Well, I’m brand new.’ And I took the initiative,” she recalled. “I cold-called the president, Allan Slaight, of Global, and I talked to his secretary and I said, ‘I can come Tuesday or Thursday at 11 a.m. to tour your facilities. What is the best?’ And she stammered a minute and she said, ‘Well, I guess Tuesday.’ Everybody thought I was a somebody and I was an absolute nobody.”