Canada’s News Anchor Speaks at Algonquin College Speaker Series

Posted on Friday, November 26th, 2021

Peter Mansbridge has interviewed more than 20,000 people over his distinguished career in television journalism, but none of those interviews was tougher than asking questions to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. During an Algonquin College Pembroke Campus virtual speaker series presentation, Mansbridge described the interview as a “disaster.”

It came after Thatcher had left office and she was promoting a new book that she had written about her political life. “She kept accusing me of not reading her book, which I had, but the interview went nowhere,” said Mansbridge as he responded to questions from a large audience about his career.

The long-time interviewer told the crowd that after the interview had ended, “The Iron Lady” as she was often referred to because of her tough reputation as one of the world’s most prominent leaders, offered to sign his copy of the book. “”At the end, I said thank you and the cameras and the lights were turned off. She looked at me and, for the first time in the 45 minutes we were together, she smiled and said, ‘Peter would you like me to sign your copy of my book?’ The signed book has remained in Mansbridge’s home library ever since, but Mansbridge said he doesn’t think he has ever taken it off the shelf.

Mansbridge described his interview with Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip as emotional. It was one of the last interviews that the musician granted as he battled terminal brain cancer. “It stuck with me. He knew he was dying and yet he had decided he was going to devote the last year of his life to encourage Canadians to work out a relationship between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples. Gord was passionate about it until the day he died,” Mansbridge said.

For 30 years, Mansbridge was the face of CBC television news. He took over the anchor chair of The National after Knowlton Nash graciously stepped aside to spend more time writing books, but Nash did it because Mansbridge was being courted by American television. Nash had been a mentor to Mansbridge and didn’t want to lose him to CBS news which was offering a very lucrative contract and so he gave up the highest profile position in the CBC news department to ensure Mansbridge stayed with the network. By that point, Mansbridge had already spent 20 years with the CBC as a reporter.

Over an illustrious career, Mansbridge covered stories around the world. Most of his time was spent in the CBC’s News headquarters in Toronto, but when big stories broke such as the war in Afghanistan or the 2004 deadly tsunami in Thailand that killed almost 230,000 people, Mansbridge was on the front line bringing the news back to Canadians.

He also branched out across the country, paying particular attention to climate change and its impact on Canada’s artic region. He convinced the CBC to spend a week in the Northwest Passage to show Canadians what was happening. Very few Canadians will ever to get to see what Mansbridge has witnessed in Canada’s far North, a place he calls “beautiful.”

Mansbridge also tiptoed into the future of the monarchy when responding to a question about the Royal Family, calling Queen Elizabeth a remarkable person, noting the first time he covered a story about the Queen was in 1970 when she visited Churchill. “ For most of us she is the only Monarch we have ever known. That is suddenly going to change in the next few years. How we are all going to relate to that, I’m not so sure. She has seen a lot. She is not perfect. When we lose her, it is going to be a very different world. Will the Monarch, the Queen of England, be the Queen of Canada? Those are decisions we are going to have to make in the years ahead,” Mansbridge questioned.

Mansbridge has recently released a book on his life and journalism career called “Off the Record.” In his book he shares how his career in journalism started In Churchill, Manitoba when he was overheard making passenger announcements into a microphone at a small regional airport by a local radio station manager and was hired on the spot because “I had a good voice” according to the station manager. His early work in reporting in private radio was noticed by the CBC and he was soon working for Canada’s public broadcaster. Mansbridge retired in 2017.

Among the audience for the speaker series presentation were several Algonquin College journalism students who had the opportunity to ask for advice on how they can best set their goals and objectives in a competitive industry that Mansbridge says need to re-examine how its builds trust with Canadians. Mansbridge called trust the most important element of covering news stories, adding “we need to focus on being transparent in explaining how we cover the news.”

At the end of the presentation, it was announced that Mansbridge had donated $3,000 to Algonquin College to support students in financial need through bursaries. Mansbridge is one of several high profile speakers who have participated in the College’s virtual speaker series over the past several months. Ron MacLean of Hockey Night in Canada will make an appearance on Tuesday, November 30 at 7 pm as part of Pembroke’s Hometown Hockey Festival the weekend of December 4-6th.

 

 


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