Anchorman

As I sat eating dinner on 11th Avenue Sunday night I observed the lineup for the final event of this year's festival snake all the way from the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Broadway, down 10th, and down into the alley next to Vij's restaurant. I overhead the table next to me speculating what the attraction could be:

"Well," said the wife "they all look to be the same age group, all look well-educated, maybe it's a Simon and Garfunkel reunion, or perhaps there's some art movie retrospective at the Stanley."

"It's got to be a Humphrey Bogart film, definitely." said the husband.

Not exactly. Actually it was The Bill Duthie Memorial Lecture featuring CBC's Chief Correspondent Peter Mansbridge who was in town to promote his first book Peter Mansbridge: One on One. "Those of you who see me on television already see me reading every night," so instead Mansbridge opted to share some awfully witty anecdotes that included recollections about his interview with President Barack Obama and his visit to the Vatican to cover the death of Pope John Paul II - this story concluded with CNN International mistaking him for the President of Poland. Mansbridge took a graver tone when he spoke about how respected Canada is around the world; how others, in places like Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Netherlands, seem to cherish what a Canadian is and yet trying to get a Canadian to answer that question of themselves is near impossible without deferring to cliches about hockey and how un-American we are. He followed this by lamenting the pathetic state of voter turnout in this country. As a member of the media he admitted that he had to share in some of the responsibility for the growing apathy and cynicism around politics. Media, he urged, need to frame political stories in a way that will engage citizens to become involved in the process. A similar kind of call was made during the Q&A when he was asked about cuts at the CBC. After all, the woman in the audience said, for many Canada and CBC are synonyms. Mansbridge was careful in his response, perhaps more measured than many there were expecting. He said that he first experienced budget slashing just one week after he joined the corporation in 1968 and that the most devastating cuts to the CBC were made under Liberal governments - in particular the Chrétien government. Indeed most poor programming decisions [let it be known that the author of this blog still hasn't gotten over the cancellation of Radio Two's Brave New Waves] are more attributable to internal policies and strategy than they are the direct result of government cuts. Mansbridge challenged the audience by saying that it is up to Canadians to become involved, to let the government and the CBC know how you feel. There is no question that the majority of Canadians believe in public broadcasting, it is more an issue, Mansbridge argues, around whether they believe the CBC is delivering the kind of public broadcasting Canadians want to pay for. When the same person asked if he thinks the CBC could be privatized, Mansbridge quipped, "who would buy it?" 

Afterwards I had a chance to speak with an audience member, Joe, on his way out. (3:50)