[3] He was born on January 3, 1931, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to anglophone parents,[2] but grew up in a francophone community attending l'Academie Roussin in Pointe-aux-Trembles.
As a young man, he also attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, returning to Quebec in the 1950s and 60s to cover the Quiet Revolution for the anglophone press.
As an anglophone and a political moderate, Frank Howard was sympathetic to Quebec grievances without supporting separatist goals.
[4] At the Gazette, and later at The Globe and Mail, Howard broke many important stories in English Canada including the infamous "Vive le Québec libre" speech by Charles de Gaulle as well as covering other seminal moments in Quebec history, such as the founding of the Parti Québécois and the nationalization of Hydro-Québec.
In 1969, Howard was recruited by the Canadian federal government under Trudeau for work in the Department of Communications (he became Director of Information under Eric Kierans).