In Celebration of
Ellen Barbara Vanstone
August 1, 1955 - October 31, 2025
Hundreds of people loved Ellen Vanstone not least because she was the funniest person most of them had ever met. Born in Winnipeg to Irene, a nurse, and Doug, a credit manager, she grew up in a busy, lively home with her older sisters Valerie and Dianne and younger brothers Jay, Michael and Lindsay.
A natural athlete, she rowed with the Winnipeg Canoe Club and played volleyball at the University of Winnipeg. She was also a natural-born writer: At age 10, she told Dianne that she was “compiling a dossier” on someone.
She moved to Toronto to study journalism at Toronto Metropolitan (then called Ryerson), and bounded into jobs at every major newspaper and magazine, as an editor and a multiple-award-winning writer. In 1999, she segued to a successful television writing career, co-creating the long-running hit Rookie Blue, as well as working on, among others At The Hotel, Diggstown and Departure. Later she became a story editor, mentoring the next generation of screenwriters. With her ex-partner, the graphic designer Art Niemi, she had a brilliant, wonderful daughter, the musician Eliza Niemi. As a mother, Ellen’s superpower was that she could defuse any cranky situation with humour. She also endlessly supported Eliza’s creativity, attending most of her performances; they understood and appreciated one another as artists. Eliza’s friends grew into some of Ellen’s best friends, which is only surprising if you didn’t know her.
Everyone wanted to be around Ellen, including her nieces and nephews, in whose lives she was always involved. She was a fascinating combination of fastidious and mischievous. She believed in punctuality and good manners – one of her many gigs was writing an Urban Etiquette column in the Toronto Star – but she was also sexy as hell and cut loose with the best of them. She could swing a baseball bat and sew a seam as straight as Yonge Street; she hand-made hilarious birthday cards and rarely failed to give her hair an extra trim the minute she got home from the salon.
During the Covid pandemic, she moved back to Winnipeg to spend time with family and got herself a black labradoodle, Sally (named for her favourite TV writer, Sally Wainwright), a gentle giant twice her size whom she loved whole-heartedly. In Winnipeg, she also received a bleak diagnosis, metastatic melanoma. She moved back to Toronto where she participated in several cancer studies – not for herself, but for those who come after her. Goddamn, she was brave. She remained funny until her last moments; her book about her cancer experience; Is This a Funny Story?, will be published soon.
She died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones: Eliza and Eliza’s great friend Bren; Dianne and her daughter Ruth; Jay (whose wife Kaneena and their children Alec and Miles were unable to attend); Michael and his children Jakab, Clare and Leo, as well as his partner Casey; Lindsay (whose daughter Rena was unable to attend); and her dear friend Cathrin. (Ellen’s parents and sister Valerie predeceased her.)
All are welcome at her book launch celebration this coming spring with details to follow. For those lucky enough to call themselves her friends, the world will never again have quite the same spark.
Written by dear friend Johanna Schneller.
A natural athlete, she rowed with the Winnipeg Canoe Club and played volleyball at the University of Winnipeg. She was also a natural-born writer: At age 10, she told Dianne that she was “compiling a dossier” on someone.
She moved to Toronto to study journalism at Toronto Metropolitan (then called Ryerson), and bounded into jobs at every major newspaper and magazine, as an editor and a multiple-award-winning writer. In 1999, she segued to a successful television writing career, co-creating the long-running hit Rookie Blue, as well as working on, among others At The Hotel, Diggstown and Departure. Later she became a story editor, mentoring the next generation of screenwriters. With her ex-partner, the graphic designer Art Niemi, she had a brilliant, wonderful daughter, the musician Eliza Niemi. As a mother, Ellen’s superpower was that she could defuse any cranky situation with humour. She also endlessly supported Eliza’s creativity, attending most of her performances; they understood and appreciated one another as artists. Eliza’s friends grew into some of Ellen’s best friends, which is only surprising if you didn’t know her.
Everyone wanted to be around Ellen, including her nieces and nephews, in whose lives she was always involved. She was a fascinating combination of fastidious and mischievous. She believed in punctuality and good manners – one of her many gigs was writing an Urban Etiquette column in the Toronto Star – but she was also sexy as hell and cut loose with the best of them. She could swing a baseball bat and sew a seam as straight as Yonge Street; she hand-made hilarious birthday cards and rarely failed to give her hair an extra trim the minute she got home from the salon.
During the Covid pandemic, she moved back to Winnipeg to spend time with family and got herself a black labradoodle, Sally (named for her favourite TV writer, Sally Wainwright), a gentle giant twice her size whom she loved whole-heartedly. In Winnipeg, she also received a bleak diagnosis, metastatic melanoma. She moved back to Toronto where she participated in several cancer studies – not for herself, but for those who come after her. Goddamn, she was brave. She remained funny until her last moments; her book about her cancer experience; Is This a Funny Story?, will be published soon.
She died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones: Eliza and Eliza’s great friend Bren; Dianne and her daughter Ruth; Jay (whose wife Kaneena and their children Alec and Miles were unable to attend); Michael and his children Jakab, Clare and Leo, as well as his partner Casey; Lindsay (whose daughter Rena was unable to attend); and her dear friend Cathrin. (Ellen’s parents and sister Valerie predeceased her.)
All are welcome at her book launch celebration this coming spring with details to follow. For those lucky enough to call themselves her friends, the world will never again have quite the same spark.
Written by dear friend Johanna Schneller.