It has been 20 years since Peter Mansbridge became the anchor of CBC’s flagship news program, The National.  He replaced Knowlton Nash who stepped down after reports that Mansbridge was about to jump to an American network.

Mansbridge has been the respected and credible face of CBC News, an especially calm and knowledgeable performer during major breaking news events and election coverage.  What I’ve always found baffling is that he is such a mediocre interviewer.  This is evident as he moderates the National’s At-Issue panel and is magnified further on Mansbridge One on One, where he fumbles around trying to frame succinct, coherent questions.

Check out this hilarious takeoff of Mansbridge by Colin Mochrie:                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKV9JMDib98

Mansbridge got his start with CBC in 1968 after someone from the Corporation heard his dulcet tones on the public address system at the Churchill, Manitoba airport.  He was working for Transair at the time. (Mansbridge was a national reporter in Saskatchewan in 1975.)

A student in my media class presented a weekly program on the local CBC station while Mansbridge was working there.  Sally McCallion would pop into the CBC Churchill studios to host a 15-minute feature about the family.  Mansbridge was on the other side of the glass in the control room operating the equipment. McCallion who did the program for five months says about the only thing she can remember about Mansbridge is that he had more hair then.

What she does remember particularly well were the Polar Bears that inhabitated the area around Fort Churchill and who often came into the community.  On Halloween, residents would surround the community with their vehicles, turn the lights on and watch for bears, making sure none ventured inside where costumed children were going door to door.