[2] Nichols' childhood was spent in Red Deer, Alberta, where she graduated from Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School[3] in 1962.
[4] In 1992, Nichols was posthumously inducted into the school's Hall of Fame, contemporaneously with fellow graduates Roland Michener (former Governor General of Canada) and James L. Foster (former Member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly), among others.
[4] In her youth, Nichols was a nationally ranked speed skater, who was an alternate to represent Canada at the 1960 Winter Olympics.
[2] During this period, she developed a reputation as an astute critic of the government of British Columbia, irrespective of which political party was in power.
[1][6] She was a close associate of fellow journalists Allan Fotheringham, Pamela Wallin (as of 2009, a member of the Senate of Canada), Hugh Winsor, John Sawatsky and Jack Webster.