Never a Backward Step

{{Infobox film

| name = Never a Backward Step

| image =

| caption =

| director = Donald Brittain
Arthur Hammond
John Spotton

| producer = Guy Glover

| writer =

| starring = Roy Thomson

| narrator = Michael Kane

| music =

| cinematography = Martin Duckworth
Peter Hennessy
Paul Leach

| editing =John Knight (music and sound)

| studio = National Film Board of Canada

| distributor =

| released = {{Film date|1966}}

| runtime = 57 minutes

| country = Canada

| language = English

| budget =

}}

Never a Backward Step is a 1966 documentary film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada and directed by Donald Brittain, Arthur Hammond and John Spotton.{{cite web |title=Never a Backward Step |url=https://www.nfb.ca/film/never_a_backward_step/ |website=onf-nfb.gc.ca |publisher=National Film Board of Canada |access-date=20 April 2023}}Robert Fulford, "Donald Brittain: Filmmaker needed an outsider's touch". The Globe and Mail, December 9, 1992.

It is a profile of Canadian press magnate Roy Thomson,[http://www.northernstars.ca/awards-archive/ "Canadian Film Awards 1949-1979"]. Northern Stars. whose single-minded attention to business brought him riches, power, and a baronetcy. A native of Timmins, Ontario, Thomson had a tremendous career as publisher, television magnate, financier, and owner of 200+ newspapers in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., including The Times. It was Thomson who coined the phrase "a permit to print money" (now normally heard as "license to print money") after he'd purchased Scottish Television.

The filmmakers followed Thomson for a few days and captured the many sides of this very ordinary Canadian who, by dint of hard work and luck, became one of the most powerful men in the world.{{cite web |title=Never a Backward Step |url=https://cfe.tiff.net/canadianfilmencyclopedia/content/films/never-a-backward-step |website=cfe.tiff.net |publisher=Canadian Film Encyclopedia |access-date=20 April 2023}}