July 19, 2021 • 56 mins
Welcome to the 100th and final episode, at least for a while, of Mostly Money.
I wanted to have a special guest for this send off show, and I don’t think I can top who offered to help me out. You know when people say, our next guest needs no introduction? That is actually true in this case. He is a Canadian icon. A broadcasting legend. This guy walks into a room and time stops. And let me tell you, it really is an honour that the one and only Peter Mansbridge is my special guest today.
With 50 years at the CBC, culminating in the top job, anchor of The National for many of those years, he’s seen a lot. I wanted to ask him a bit about what life is like inside a major network news department, but I also wanted to tap into the stories behind the stories of some of the big financial events in Canada - past elections, and budgets, the story behind how the GST was introduced, and more.
This ties in nicely as he has a new book available for pre-sales, releasing October 5th, 2021 titled "Off the Record", in which Peter tells you the stories behind the biggest stories of our lives. I've already ordered my copy, and I just know I'll be hearing Peter's distinctive voice in my head as I read it, and I can't wait.
LINKS:
New book - "Off the Record"
Peter's website - ThePeterMansbridge.com
Twitter account - @petermansbridge
Instagram - @thepetermansbridge
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Peter Mansbridge (00:00):
I was a smoker in the 80s when I started
(00:03):
anchoring and I used to have acigarette going during the show
it'd be sitting just off camerain you know an ashtray. And
every once in a while I'd hearthe director would say to me
through my your move thecigarette, the smokes, you know,
wafting into the shot.
Preet Banerjee (00:28):
Welcome to the 100th and final episode, at
least for a while, have mostlymoney and wanted to have a
special guests for this send offshow and I don't think I can
talk who offered to help me out.
You know, when people say ournext guest needs no
introduction. Well, that isactually true. In this case. He
is a Canadian icon, abroadcasting legend. When this
(00:50):
guy walks into a room, timestops. And let me tell you, it
really is an honor that the oneand only Peter mansbridge is my
special guest today with 50years at the CBC culminating in
the top job, anchor of thenational for many of those
years. He's seen a lot. And Iwanted to ask him a bit about
(01:11):
what life is like inside a majornetwork news department. But
also wanted to tap into thestories behind the stories of
some of the big financial eventsin Canada, past elections
budgets for story behind how theGST was introduced and more.
Without further ado, the one andonly Peter mansbridge.
(01:50):
This is mostly money. And I'myour host Preet Banerjee. And on
the show today, I have the mostimpressive guest that has ever
been on this podcast andapologies to all previous guests
who are listening. But no onecan talk this guy. During his 50
years at CBC Peter mansbridgeanchored coverage of basically
(02:11):
every single big news event, youcould imagine the fall of the
Berlin Wall, the 911 terroristattacks 13 Olympic Games every
visit by the Queen since 1973Royal weddings to rule of
funerals, and he's covered everyfederal election since 1972. And
anchored all 10 since 1984, evenafter retirement came back as a
(02:35):
special contributor for the 2019election. Now...
Peter Mansbridge (02:40):
Now I feel really old I feel really old
breed after all that
Preet Banerjee (02:45):
I don't know if you know this, but you actually
are really old
Peter Mansbridge (02:50):
That's true.
Preet Banerjee (02:54):
He's conducted in estimated This is mind
blowing 15,000 interviews withthe who's who of the world. And
I'm so delighted to have him asa guest on the mostly money
show. Peter, welcome to theshow.
Peter Mansbridge (03:10):
Hey Preet, thank you for this, you know,
you know, I've been a big fan ofyours for a long time. And it's,
it's nice to be on the otherside of the microphone for
change.
Preet Banerjee (03:20):
Well, you know, it's not intimidating at all. I
mean, this is my 100th episode.
And as I was prepping, I'mthinking wow, 100 episodes now,
I'm not a prolific podcaster byany stretch of the imagination,
but I was very proud of the factthat I've gotten to 100
episodes, I wanted a superspecial guest. I made the call
to you. Then doing my prep, Ithought, Wait a second, this
guy's done 15,000 here. Oh, God,I feel like such a schmuck in
(03:44):
comparison.
Peter Mansbridge (03:47):
It's It's funny, you know, when you when
you start adding them up, thetotal gets, I think it's upwards
closer to 20,000. Now, but they,you know, they add up pretty
quick and over 50 years.
They really add up fast. Yeah,no kidding. And you know, some
of them are worth remembering.
Most of them are not worthremembering.
Preet Banerjee (04:11):
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's
interesting. With so many Imean, these are all better than
every interview Preet Banerjeehas done.
Peter Mansbridge (04:19):
I doubt it. I doubt it very much. I don't know
about you. But what I've foundin my in my interviewing time,
is that the ones you tend toremember obviously, you remember
the kind of celebrity interviewsthe the big names, you know,
President Obama, you know, theyou know, presidents of various
(04:41):
countries and prime ministersand, and you name so
Preet Banerjee (04:44):
many that you can't even
Peter Mansbridge (04:45):
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you remember those, butthe ones that actually really
make a difference where youthink you've actually learned
something, and your audience haslearned something, or often with
those who aren't the celebrityinterviews Because for the most
part, they kind of repeat thesame thing to whomever is
interviewing them. Whereas thethe the non celebrities are
(05:06):
usually people who have neverbeen interviewed before. But
they're they're willing to telltheir story and their to their
stories involving something, youknow, extraordinary that's
happened to them. And you findI've found those people that the
most fascinating really when youget right down to it?
Preet Banerjee (05:25):
Well, yeah, because they don't have the
handlers. Right. And one of thethings that I think a lot of
people have noticed, especiallylately, because now every
interview, every question thatgets asked of a politician, you
can find it in seven differentsocial media platforms,
different news websites, and youcan ask them 30 different
questions, and you'll always getthe exact same answer, even if
(05:48):
it has nothing to do with thequestion. So yeah, no, that's an
interesting observation aboutthe different interviewees. Now
I wanted to sort of give somesome background of how we met.
And it was all because of thebottom line panel on CBC, which
was a panel talking aboutfinance and economics. And I
(06:11):
remember I got an email out ofthe blue from Lera Chatterjee,
who is a producer of that panel.
And she invited me to be on andwhen I came to the set, and the
first time that I met you, Ithink you came into the makeup
room. That was the first time Ireally was like, starstruck,
where I'd like, Man, I'mstarting to feel cotton in my
(06:34):
mouth, I was getting so nervousbefore the lights went on. But
luckily, you carried me. Andthey invited me back for some
reason. And we ended up doingthat panel for about eight
years. And it was the highlightof my career. Because as soon as
the panel aired, my inbox wouldget flooded, my tweet mentions
(06:55):
would get flooded. And I'll tellyou, I'll tell you this funny
story. So my first time I showedup in my suit and tie. And then
after about two years, I'd sentan email to learn, I said, you
know, lira, I don't normallycome across as the suit and tie
guy like, I don't normally weara tie every day, and I try to be
more relatable to the averagehousehold and distill some of
(07:17):
this information to eye level, Ifeel it, you know, wearing a tie
is off brand. You know, do youthink I could maybe not wear a
tie? I was expecting just asimple yes or no, you know,
whatever. And then she shewrites back, and I feel like I
should whisper what she wrote islike, I think you should go for
it. I'm like, wow, this makes itsound like it's a way bigger
(07:38):
deal than I thought it was gonnabe. And so I show up, and I
don't wear a tie. And thatnight. So normally what happens
for the listeners understandingis we pre tape at seven. And the
panel airs at 930 on newsnetwork, and then on the main
channel at about 1030. About1035, I started getting flooded
with emails, and they basicallyall said, Listen, son, if you're
(08:01):
going to be talking with Petermansbridge, you better be
wearing a goddamn tie.
Peter Mansbridge (08:11):
You were at the you were at the front line,
sort of the leading edge of thechange in television and in the
you know, in appearances,because now it's like, perfectly
normal not to be wearing a tie.
Right. Right. Right. And, andyou were sort of right out
there. I can remember when youwalk in the studio that day
without a tie the first time Ithought, jeez, should I offer
(08:34):
him one of my 250 ties in mydressing room? Because he
clearly forgot his will listen,we loved you on that panel.
Because you You brought a commonsense to a lot of the
discussions that we were having.
(08:54):
And you know, it was a great, itwas a great panel and I you
know, I'm you know, I'm sorryfor the fact Yamuna CBC
obviously wanted to change afterI left, and they you know,
they've, they've made a numberof me, you know, great
decisions, but I thought one ofthe decisions that wasn't so
great was that they, theydropped out of things like the
bottom line. And the foreignpolicy panel, you know, those
(09:17):
were great discussion points,and people did rely on them to
get a better sense of the worldthey were living in whether it
was about the economy or foreignaffairs or what have you. But
you were unload luck and lucklaunched your career. Look at
you. Best Selling Author, bestselling podcast, you name it,
(09:38):
you're all over the place.
Preet Banerjee (09:41):
Yeah, I know a lot of people will come on and
they'll say yeah, I'm a nationalbestseller. I think I can make
the claim that a municipalbestseller for sure. I don't
know about national but
Peter Mansbridge (09:50):
it's the big.
Yeah, as you know, the bookbusiness is funny. I mean, you
you try to get on the bestsellerlist. And that's one you know,
one part Have your branding. Andthen if you can get to number
one, even for like half a week,you're always a number one best
selling author.
Preet Banerjee (10:10):
Well, you know, speaking of books, right, one of
the reasons that I had the ideato sort of celebrate my 100, by
asking you was because I sawthat you had just announced that
you have a new book that iscoming out in pre sales are
available now. So before we getstarted, maybe you could just
tease the book a little bit andtell us what is in this book
(10:32):
that is being released? I thinkit's in October, right?
Peter Mansbridge (10:35):
It's an October October 5, called off
the record. And as you know, asyou would know, when you say
you're out for dinner with somefriends or something and you end
up talking about a story youcovered, the odds are the story
you tell it that dinner is notthe one you reported on here,
right, there was something elsehappened about that story that
(10:55):
made it that interesting to you,you would actually bring it up
at a dinner. Well, that's whatthis book is. The book is a lot
of the stories behind thestories that I covered over my
50 years. And the publisher,Simon Schuster wanted to call it
a memoir, but it's not really amemoir. It's it's really a
(11:15):
series of anecdotes, 50 or 60 ofthem, that I weave into a couple
of, you know, more substantivechapters on journalism on the
country. But mainly, it's theseanecdotes that give you a
snapshot into what my life hasbeen like as a journalist who's
(11:37):
traveled around the world and,and obviously, around the
country, and some of the storiesthat I love to tell that I never
told on the air. So that's whatit's about. And I think the
early indications are from thosewho have, you know, done a read
to you know, how they obviouslysense these books out to get
blurbs on them. You know,somebody famous writes something
(11:59):
about the book. They're, they'rereally good, the people seem to
enjoy it. So it'll be out.
October 5. I was very lucky.
Last year, I wrote a book withMark Begich called extraordinary
Canadians, which was a look at17 Canadians who have faced
certain challenges in theirlives. And, and come out the
(12:23):
other end really well, thatthose book that book have
actually turned out to be anumber one national bestseller.
So hopefully, with any luck, go,this one will be somewhat the
same.
Preet Banerjee (12:38):
I have a feeling no luck will be involved
whatsoever. I am definitelygoing to make the pre sales and
I'm sure you will probably presell more books than I've ever
sold when my books have been onsale.
Peter Mansbridge (12:52):
But your books do extremely well as they
should.
Preet Banerjee (12:56):
Alright, so I wanted to bring you on. And of
course, this podcast is calledmostly money, which I think is
apropos because it's mostlyabout financial stuff. But it
doesn't have to be specificallyabout finances. But I did want
to sort of talk to you aboutsome of the big events,
financial events that havehappened in your career covering
(13:17):
the biggest events in the world.
And before we get get started,there's two things I want to do.
One is I want to share with youa comment that the listener sent
in ahead of this recordingbecause they knew that you were
going to be a guest. And thenAnd then second is also to talk
about your origin story, whichI'm sure you're sick of telling,
you know how you werediscovered. So you know, the
Coles notes is fine. But I had alistener who sent in a comment.
(13:41):
This is from listener Claire.
And she said one of the greatjoys in her life, was working
alongside the great Tonymansbridge.
Peter Mansbridge (13:55):
Yes, Tony was great. I remember Tony. I
patterned myself after Tonywatching how he did things and
yes.
Preet Banerjee (14:09):
So that that's kind of an inside joke. That was
Claire Martin, who was a chiefmeteorologist or senior
meteorologist at CBC for a longtime and pink
Peter Mansbridge (14:23):
wall. Did you know that Pink Floyd the wall
the video she was in she was inyou know that's I do vaguely
remember this? Because I knowClaire personally, and someone
had told me that story shehates. I used to bring it up
occasionally on the air and shehate me for it saying that, but
(14:45):
it's true. And if she's gonnacall me Tony, I need to remind
everybody about things.
Preet Banerjee (14:52):
Well, I'm going to include that clip because
there is a clip of Claire, youwere throwing it to Claire and I
guess she As the meteorologist,she's talking to, you know,
local anchors as well as theNational acre. And I think she
would just been talking to TonyParsons. And so when you threw
to place it all thanks, Tony.
And then I remember coming backto the studio, you held up a
(15:13):
sign that was either it's eithersaid, Peter, to reminder what
your actual name was, or Tony,
Claire Martin (15:23):
Peter, back to you. Thanks very much, Peter.
Thanks very much, Peter.
Thanks very much, Tony.
Beautiful day for the beautifulgame in three parts. Tony, oh, I
keep calling you the wrong name.
Preet Banerjee (15:35):
She was mortified by that.
Okay, so for people who don'tknow, you were discovered
because of your voice. Is thatcorrect?
Peter Mansbridge (15:45):
Yeah. The Coles notes version is pretty
simple. I dropped out of highschool. So, you know, I never
went to university, I ended upand after, you know, I'll keep
it short. I ended up inChurchill, Manitoba, working for
an airline called trans air. AndI was basically a baggage
(16:05):
handler occasional ticket agent.
And I was 19 years old. And oneday, they were really busy at
the counter, and they asked meto announce the flight over the
PA system, which I did trans AirFlight 106. Thompson upon
Winnipeg now already forboarding. Gate, one only had one
gate, church.
Preet Banerjee (16:28):
Why did they number it?
Peter Mansbridge (16:30):
Just because it sounded really good. Yeah, it
sounded like, Hey, we're a bigairline. And there was a guy in
the terminal building who cameover and said, hey, you've got a
really good voice. Have you everthought about being in radio?
And I said, I've never thoughtabout being a radio. He said,
I'm the manager, the CBCnorthern service station here in
Churchill. I have a shift lateat night. I can't get anybody to
(16:53):
work it everybody I approachthat is not interesting. Would
you be interested? I said, Sure.
I mean, there wasn't exactly alot to do in Churchill at night.
Other than what you can imagineyou do at night in Churchill.
And so I worked during the day atranslator, and I worked in the
evening at the CBC for about ayear until they decided to offer
(17:13):
me a full time job. At whichpoint, I switched the news
because I was terrible at me. Iwas a DJ that first year. But
they didn't have a newscast. SoI said, I think we should have a
newscast. And they agreed. Andlet me start one with no
training, no idea of what to door anything. But that's, that's
(17:34):
what we did. And that's how itstarted. So it was a total
fluke. But as, as is the case,in so much of life, it's you
know, every once in a whilesomething will come your way.
It's pure luck. But it's whatyou what you do with it. How you
how you make it work for you.
Preet Banerjee (17:58):
Yeah, well, you definitely took that opportunity
and make the most of it as yourcareer you were 50 years at CBC.
I mean, you're the guy. Likeyou're the guy of news, when
people think about, you know,anchors. When did you discover
and I'm, I'm guessing here, I'mmaking the assumption here. When
(18:20):
did you discover your passionfor covering politics? Because
it seems like you really enjoycovering politics. When did that
transition happen from you know,hosting that that radio show to
them becoming a parliamentaryreporter.
Peter Mansbridge (18:36):
You know, I grown up in a family that we
always talk politics around thedinner table. At night, we
always had supper together. Mydad was always home for supper.
We grew up in Ottawa andpolitics in the late 50s. And
early 60s was a prettyinteresting game in in Ottawa.
And so we talked about it a lot.
So I there was always part of methat was interested. But after I
(18:57):
left church, I went to Winnipeg,and then Winnipeg to Regina,
this is all with the CBC anddifferent roles and they offered
me a job as parliamentarycorrespondent in Ottawa. And I
didn't really want to go,because I like their wide open
spaces and more generalreporting than then being kind
of pigeon holed in one area,which was political. But within
(19:19):
two weeks of being an Ottawa, Ithought, My gosh, I love this.
This is great. And, and so it'sbeen a part of me ever since
being interested in in politics,and you know, I have a podcast
now competing with yours. Wecall it a competition. Yeah,
(19:39):
it's a competition and there'sobviously is a lot of politics
in it and there will be a lotmore this summer and fall as we
head into a likely election.
Preet Banerjee (19:53):
Yeah, and when you started covering you know,
the the political beatEventually, you worked your way
to the anchor desk, and you'recovering. And in fact, you were
the editor in charge of the newsfor CBC. So when that started
when you first got the call tosay, hey, do you want to anchor
(20:15):
the national? You know thatfirst time? Did you have any
nerves about it? Or were youseason at this point? To the
point that you're like, yeah,this is a great opportunity. I'm
champing at the bit to do this.
What did it feel like for you?
Because from the outside lookingin, it feels like, there's
nothing like, you know, you'd belike Teflon, nothing would phase
(20:39):
this guy. But what's it reallylike? What was it really like
for you at that time? At thebeginning? Well, first
Peter Mansbridge (20:45):
of all, you know, I, when I was even back
when I was in Churchill, I usedto dream that my goal was to
read the national that I wantedto be the chief correspondent of
the CBC. And I never toldanybody because they would have
laughed at me. But that was mygoal. And I set out a pattern
(21:08):
and kind of agenda of differentjobs that I would have to get to
first before I could get to thisone. So anyway, it comes along,
and I first newscasts. The firstnational that I did was on a
Saturday night in, I thinknovember of 81, I think. And I
(21:30):
was in there filling in forGeorge McLean, George McFly and
I was a great voice from backthen. And he was away on
holidays or something I came in.
And my heart was pounding allday at the thought of doing and
then when I was sitting in thechair, waiting for the 11
o'clock, which was what time wewere on in those days. To come,
(21:51):
I was sure that if anybody waslooking at me, they could see my
heart pounding through my suitjacket. So I was pretty nervous.
And it slowly that got away,what I've always found is
there's always a bit of nerves,no matter what the broadcast is,
at the very beginning. And ifyou get through those first 10
(22:14):
seconds, and you know, thingsare, things tend to be okay. But
I learned that from you know, Iwas co anchoring sort of the
color guy on the 72 electionbroadcast out of Winnipeg,
Manitoba. So that was thefederal election, but we had
these local inserts. And themain anchors a guy, a fella by
(22:34):
the name of Bill guest who was aterrific bit of a legend icon in
in Manitoba broadcasting. And hewas sitting there and I was the
young kid from Churchill, whowas sitting beside him. And, you
know, we come up to 30 secondsfor air and I was feeling pretty
nervous. And I look over at billand he looked great from the
(22:57):
waist up. But his hands wereunder the desk, and they were
just shaking. And I can see themshaking. And I looked at him. I
said, Bill, you're not nervous,are you? And he looked at me. He
said, Listen, kid, today, you'renot nervous. For a big show like
this. Today, you should get outof the business. I always
remembered that. And you know,he was right. And bingo, you
(23:17):
never would have known itwatching him. He was like, cool
as ice. But it gets the gets theenergy going inside. And and you
recognize that what you're doingis important. So you better do
it. Right.
Preet Banerjee (23:35):
We know this is fascinating, because this ties
into kind of, you know, withyour book The what happens
behind the scenes. And so I knowthat one of your favorite movies
is anchorman. And add during thetime of the bottom line panel
was around the time that AaronSorkin showed the newsroom was
(23:58):
on. And I want you to give yourtake on and I know anchorman is
a comedy but in terms of thethings that they got right. Or
in the newsroom for people whodon't have a view to see what
happens. You know, behind thecameras and all the people
involved in the flurry ofactivity leading up to the show
(24:21):
like the stress. Can you talkabout what it's like in a
newsroom and how accurate thenewsroom was? Or if there's
anything that from the anchormanthat people say or you would say
to people you have no idea howbeing on accurate that one thing
is you think that's a joke, butthat actually happens?
Peter Mansbridge (24:38):
Yeah, I wouldn't say that. I thought
anchorman was very funny movie.
But that's kind of the end ofit. You know, it probably
relates in some area to thetruth in certain certain not all
but certain local stations. Imean, it's a carry on from The
(24:58):
old Mary Tyler Moore Show whereTed Knight was a bit of a you
know, he was just a face and avoice. And not too many smarts
and they made fun of him all thetime. And that was the case in
some local operations,especially in the States, but in
(25:18):
some in Canada as well. AaronSorkin shows the newsroom as
opposed to the old newsroom showthat used to be on CBC many
years ago. Aaron Sorkin show isa pretty good reflection of what
happens and the tensions thatexists within within a major
network newsroom. Because it isstance and the responsibility
(25:40):
and the accountability that goeswith it is is serious. And you
know, when when when thingshappen and big stories hit.
There's a lot of activity in ournewsroom and a lot of action
when something goes wrong. As inthe case of the first year of
(26:04):
the newsroom when they you knowthere was issues surrounding the
sourcing. That's a huge problemwithin a newsroom and and you
challenge each other and that'sall part of the process of
accountability. So I thoughtSorkin's portrayal of what
(26:25):
happens in a major networknewsroom was pretty accurate,
you know, a few things getpicked over but for the most
part I was really good. And therelationships that develop in a
newsroom all of that was all youknow, a very accurate in my
view, portrayal of what happens.
Preet Banerjee (26:51):
Yeah, and of course it's you know, it's a
it's made for TV, there's somesome dramatic licenses that are
taken. So you're suggestingthat, you know, there's a scene
where mill will McAvoyaccidentally eat some edible
marijuana brownies before goingon the air he's completely baked
so you're saying that's neverhappened to you
Peter Mansbridge (27:09):
know that happened quite often. I don't
recall that ever happening butyou know I was there long enough
that smoking was smokingordinary cigarettes was
perfectly all right in thenewsroom guys used to smoke
cigars and pipes and all thatstuff. And I was a smoker in the
(27:31):
80s when I started anchoring andI used to have a cigarette going
during the show it'd be sittingjust off camera in you know an
ashtray and every once in awhile I'd hear the director
would say to me through my yourmove the cigarette the smokes
you know, the wafting into theshot. There were there were that
was that was a potential Bravo.
Oh, wow. Yeah. But Wow. No, Idon't think so
Preet Banerjee (27:56):
wild even think about today. Oh,
Peter Mansbridge (27:59):
I you know, they I can never, never got
baked, ready for a show. Butmaybe I should have tried that
on some show. Never had.
Preet Banerjee (28:16):
Okay, so. So now I want to ask you about a couple
of news items that you wouldhave covered in your career,
just to get a sense. And you cango as wide and deep or not as
you want on any of these issues.
But when it comes to the federalbudgets. There's two things I
want to ask you. One is can youexplain to people what is the
budget lockup procedure forjournalists covering the budget?
(28:39):
And why is that Institute in thefirst place?
Peter Mansbridge (28:45):
Well, it's sort of a hangover from the from
the past, things have changedsomewhat in today's world. But
the whole idea behind thelockout was the, to give a
chance for journalists tounderstand, you know, what was
in this sometimes three 400 pagedocument, and what some of these
(29:06):
measures actually meant. Andthey were locked up because they
didn't want them, you know,running out and spilling the
beans on the air before,especially before the markets
closed at four o'clock. Andthat's where I budgets are
usually right after fouro'clock. And but, you know, that
was the main process. So it gotmore and more sophisticated as
(29:29):
time went on. When I when I wasdoing budgets in the in the 70s.
It was pretty straightforward. Alock up, it would run four or
five hours. There would be acouple of people in there who
were available for briefings onas to what, what certain things
meant and the reporters wouldline up in there today, or at
(29:50):
least the last time I wasinvolved with one, you could you
could go in there with yourexperts with your pre banner
G's, who would also you know,look at the document. And, and
help you frame questions for foreither during the briefings that
were taking place in the lockupor afterwards for the interviews
(30:12):
with the finance ministry. Andso you had a pretty good idea
when you came out as to, youknow, how to best describe this,
you know, complicated stuff toan audience who were interested
in knowing how they would impactthem, but by doing so in in such
(30:34):
a way that they'd understand,which is always a challenge with
with budgetary items. It was badenough that the reporters half
the time didn't understand thesome of the stuff, but then to
have them being the the peoplewho were explaining it to
consumers. That was always achallenge. And some budgets are
(30:55):
bigger than others, you know,like I, you know, I remember the
ad budget with McCracken andAlan McKenna was the finance
minister was the National EnergyProgram was in there. And, you
know, trying to figure that oneout and realizing it was gonna
cause a huge national unitycrisis with Alberta. And then
(31:16):
again, two years later, afterthat, McGann brought in a budget
that was dealing with a form ofwage and price controls, with
limits on both wages and pricesthat were lower than the
interest rate was at the time.
So I mean, it was, it was areally challenging time to try
(31:37):
to explain these issues, and forconsumers to try and figure out
what the heck was going on. Imean, people are so used to low
low interest rates right nowthat they have no idea what it
was, like 30 years ago wheninterest rates, I mean, I
remember getting a mortgage at12%. And thinking, I got a deal.
You know, because they wereended up going as high as like,
(32:02):
1819 20% interest rates onmortgages, which is the, you
know, the big fear right now,the inflation is starting to
track higher, and how high couldit go on? What impact could it
have? I mean, God forbid, weshould ever face interest rates
like that before, but there's alot of people who are right on
(32:23):
the edge in terms of whatinterest rate they are paying on
their mortgages. They gotta bereally careful
Preet Banerjee (32:31):
when you talk about contentious budget,
budgets, period. So you know, inthe 80s, in the National Energy
Program, another one that Ithink would have been
contentious, and maybe you cangive us the background of what
was going around this time wasthe introduction of the GST in
1989. And so now, it we take itfor, you know, as it is
(32:52):
accepted, yes, we have this GSTthat we have to pay. But when it
was introduced, I think if youask someone today, you know,
like, say someone under 35, aword to ask them, who do you
think introduced it? which partyDo you think introduced it? And
where do you think theopposition came from? I didn't
know if that would line up withwhat actually happened back
then. So can you walk throughthe introduction of the GST?
Peter Mansbridge (33:16):
Well, it's interesting because it kind of
flew under the radar in manyways at the time. First of all,
it was one of those things thatnobody could understand, you
know, GST replaced another tax,which was similar, but wasn't
called the GST. And where themoney ended up going was, was
perhaps a little different. Butthe thing that was happening
(33:39):
through 88 when the GST wasintroduced in Parliament the
main topic of conversationwasn't the GST it was free trade
bill. Right. That's what we hadall the attention. And this did
kind of slip under the radar.
There were some who were whowere upset about it. It was
introduced by the Mulroneygovernment. I think Mike Wilson
(34:02):
was the finance minister at thetime. And the liberals, under
john Turner, were so focused onfree trade, they didn't really
get into the debate around theGST from what I recall, because
I can remember, you know,Turner, and I had a really
(34:22):
fascinating relationship over2030 years. And, and I liked the
guy a lot. I learned a lot fromhim. But I can remember in 88,
they tried to dump him in themiddle of the campaign and I, I
broke that story. And it wasvery controversial, but it never
affected our relationship. And Ican remember after the campaign,
(34:44):
because he made a comeback inthe debate in ADA. It looked
like it was going to lose almostevery seat the liberals add they
ended up winning 80 which wasdouble what he'd won in 84 and
small running. But anyway, I canremember saying to him at Lunch
afterwards. Why didn't you pushthe GST? You needed a second
front, you'd made the case on GEon free trade. It basically won
(35:05):
that debate and scared the hellout of the conservatives and
Mulroney. And if you'd open up asecond front on GST, it was a
natural. He said, just didn'tjust thought I had to just keep
going after free trade. So I wassitting there as an issue, and
then it kind of people, youknow, were mad about it, but
(35:28):
they accepted it. And thenHarper was smart enough to
realize, if I promised to dropthe rate, that's going to be a
winner. For me, and it was in2006 election. It's one of those
arguments about politics thatthe simpler you make the
promise, the more impact it canhave you remember Doug Ford with
(35:52):
bucket beer. And Harper with theI'll drop the the GST rate one
point or two points. And peopleunderstand what that means. No,
yes. They don't need a degree inclimatology to understand the
carbon tax issue. Right. Sothat's, that's the little I
(36:15):
recall about that time that itkind of slipped under the radar
wasn't the issue that it couldhave been, perhaps should have
been, and might have made adifference in that campaign, the
ADA campaign, it came in toeffect January 1 89. So people
weren't actually dealing withit. In the campaign, like
(36:36):
consumers, they didn't have toworry about it. It was something
off in the distance. But thenwhen the distance arrived, that
they got it or, you know, rightbetween the eyes.
Preet Banerjee (36:51):
Yeah, I was doing a little bit of reading up
on it, because this was, at thetime I would have been 12. So I
wasn't covering or even thinkingabout, you know, the business
news at the time. So I had toread up on on this history a
little bit. And it seemed likeit was quite a contentious thing
behind the scenes, because itwas originally proposed that as
a 9% tax. It was proposed by theMulroney government. And it
(37:18):
ended up that the liberalcontrolled senate refused to
pass it. And then I think theyended up filibustering until I
think Mulroney brought in eightmore senators to get the thing
passed. It just seems like whata fascinating thing that happens
(37:38):
behind the scenes. And like yousaid, most people probably
didn't sort of tune into that asmuch because the talk of the
town was all free trade freetrade Free Trade Agreement.
Yeah. Which was a hugeundertaking, certainly through
that 88 election.
Peter Mansbridge (37:53):
That was that was what the talk was about
after the election. As you gotcloser to implementation date on
GST and unneeded Royal Assent.
Then you saw all that activityin the Senate and was raised
something to watch.
Preet Banerjee (38:08):
Now, speaking of elections, the election night
coverage is that like the SuperBowl for a news broadcaster?
Peter Mansbridge (38:20):
I think it is I've always, you know, I grew
up, I you know, I can remembersitting there this is long
before I ever thought I'd be endup in journalism, but I can
remember, you know, watching 58,the election, the deef sweep of
58 watching the limitedtelevision coverage that existed
then through elections in 63 and65 and 68. Through the 60s, a
(38:44):
heavily dominated electionscheduled during those years and
and it was the big deal it wasthe broadcast that defined
people defined networks and theywould throw everything at it
their big budget nights becausethere's a lot involved in in
(39:06):
trying to cover an electionnight and and you know, you have
you're taking a huge gamble onhow well your your computers and
your graphics presentation andall that are going to work
enormous pressure over theexecutive producers who were
involved in those you mentionedLaura earlier as the person who
found you she's she's theexecutive producer of cbcs
(39:28):
election coverage for the lastcouple of elections and
including whatever it's gonnahappen this year.
Preet Banerjee (39:37):
The conversation with Peter mansbridge continues
in just a moment. Now, asregular listeners know, during
the mid show segment, I work myway through all the listener
comments. I am sorely behind andI won't be able to give everyone
a shout out as this may be thelast episode for the show. But I
just wanted to thank you all forspending your time with me over
(39:59):
these 100 episodes means a lotto me. Now, I may relaunch the
show again after a short break.
But right now, I have just a fewtoo many projects on the Guild,
many of those are actuallywrapping up by the end of 2021.
But I may enjoy some downtimefor a bit, and then sit down to
give a think about what I wantto do with the podcast in any
future content creation. Now,stay subscribed to the podcast,
(40:21):
if you are subscribed. And if Ido relaunch it, you'll be the
first to know. And if I don'trelaunch it, well, you're not
going to notice anything. BeforeI get back to the interview with
Peter, I should point out thathis laptop died at this point in
the interview. And he switchedto a different computer which
had a different microphone. Sothe audio quality changes a bit.
(40:42):
And you know, the voice like hisheat, sound good talking into
it, tin can with a string. And Idon't know about you, but I
really miss hearing his voice ona regular basis. But you know
what, there's a solution forthat, you can subscribe to his
podcast, the bridge. And nowback to the conversation with
(41:03):
Peter mansbridge.
Peter Mansbridge (41:21):
I'll just think it's the most important
night of a any broadcasters newschedule is the election, you
define yourself as a network.
The people who are, you know, inthe front row of your news
coverage, they define STEMcareers are made or broken on
election nights. And, you know,it's more than just people it's
(41:42):
resources, and if the networksdon't put behind their people,
the kind of resources they needfor an election night. In other
words, money. You know, it candamage you and I fear at times
that some of the networks don't,you know, have forgotten that or
think that we've passed that,that that's, that's a sort of,
(42:05):
you know, a part of our past asopposed to a part of our present
or future. I think the mostimportant night in a cycle is
election night, it's whendemocracy plays its role in in
our society. And this decisionof the people is, is paramount.
And we should be there to helpguide through to the finish line
(42:28):
in terms of coverage.
Preet Banerjee (42:33):
And I know that, you know, it's been a few years
since you anchored. You know,the news, let alone the election
in the last federal election inCanada, you came as a special
contributor. What was it? Whatwas it like being not the anchor
that night?
Peter Mansbridge (42:53):
Well, I you know, it's hard to get used to
that role. It's also liberatingin a sense, because they wanted
me there was an analyst and BobRay and I were sitting together
and people were set up to looklike those Muppets in the
theater. But, but it was funbecause I you know, I got drawn
to certain experiences I had todo explain what I thought about
(43:18):
the way things were unfolding.
So I enjoyed that. But uh, youknow, obviously, it wasn't the
same as the anchoring. RosieBurton did a terrific job as
anchor that night and, you know,time moves on and I, you know, I
understand accept them.
Preet Banerjee (43:33):
And do you feel that you will come back with,
you know, in an analyst role doyou feel that you have, like you
said, you're much more liberatedin what you can say, do you feel
like there's a significantchange versus being the anchor?
Peter Mansbridge (43:49):
Sure. I mean, you're everybody's anchor, when
you're the anchor, that's,that's what it's supposed to be
you know, and say on electionnight, any party, any party, any
supporter of any party shouldfeel comfortable with you. In
that role in terms of your youknow, you're not one sided or
bias, you're just telling thestory. As an analyst you can,
(44:12):
you can show a little more kindof flair about what you think
about certain things. And I'veenjoyed doing that with the
podcast. I still hold back, youknow, a fair amount but uh, but
I have I have moved on from mymy anchor position in terms of
what I end up saying and doing.
Preet Banerjee (44:33):
Now. Now, speaking of your podcast, there
is I don't think it's every daybut you have a smoke and mirrors
edition of the podcast. Is thatcorrect? Can you explain what
that is?
Peter Mansbridge (44:44):
Well, we're trying to do is separate the
smoke and mirrors from thetruth. Right. And so every
Wednesday and through thesummer, that's the only one I'm
doing. I'm doing one day a weekuntil the elections called and
so we do smoke mirrors and thetruth with Bruce Anderson, who's
a longtime friend of minepollster, he's worked for all
the parties at one time oranother, especially the
(45:07):
conservatives and the liberals.
And so he has a wealth ofexperience. And we tried to, you
know, talk in that general senseof, you know, separating what's
true from what's just, you know,or they're trying to pullo pull
the wool over your eyes on somethings. And we try to explain
(45:28):
that and we have a lot of fundoing it.
Preet Banerjee (45:34):
But you know, it's, it's such a, it's so
enjoyable to listen to the twoof you banter and talk about
things because there's such awealth of experience between the
both of you, and like you said,Bruce is experienced being a
pollster and working for bothsides of the aisle. And in your
experience with, you know, fivedecades of coverage. Phenomenal.
(45:55):
So for anyone who's listening,you know, I really highly
recommend Peters podcast. Okay,the last thing I have to ask you
about is Trump. And that is onlybecause you know, as of late,
you know, he just made anappearance and it looks like he
is looking to build support forgetting the the party's
(46:18):
nomination for the nextelection. And I think some
people thought, No, Trump's donenow. But does he ever go away?
Does his influence in politicsever change at this point?
Peter Mansbridge (46:30):
You know, I I've been a believer all along
that he will go away, that thelast person the republicans
really want is Donald Trumpagain. Now you run that up
against the fact that you know,there are a lot of people still
believe in anything, he says, nomatter how bizarre or unhinged,
(46:56):
it may sound. And those are thepeople who are sick and tired of
what they perceive as the normalkind of BS that's come out of
Washington for decades. And, andthey believe in conspiracy
(47:17):
theories and a lot of otherthings, because they've been put
in the position of having tobelieve them, because they feel
they haven't been served in anyreasonable way. In the past.
Now, I think what surprised usis that there are more of those
people than we ever thoughtthere were. I mean, that the guy
(47:38):
could get whatever it was 70million votes in the last
election, considerably less thanBiden, but still a hell of a lot
of votes. does tell yousomething. Now, I think the
republicans are going to gothrough hoops to try and figure
out a way that he isn't theirrepresentative, I guess, if
(48:00):
they're hoping anything, so heends up in jail. Before before,
more that he ends up ruined orbroke as a result of the various
actions that are being takenagainst his companies. But I,
you know, I don't know I'vegiven up making predictions. I
(48:21):
never thought he could win thenomination, let alone the
presidency in 2016. I canremember being at his
inauguration. And I was inWashington, and when I I covered
that in the within 24 hours, hewas lying about the crowd size.
(48:45):
All the people he said out, Ithis is crazy. You know, I mean,
no, like crowd size, who cares?
But if this is this guy'sPresident of the United States
if this is an indication of whatit's going to be like, and I
tweeted, on, I was fly fly toWashington on 6am flight on the
Sunday morning. He wasinaugurated on the Friday, I
flew out on the 6am. On theSunday morning, I wrote
(49:07):
something like you know, I'venever felt so unsettled as I
pass over the White House. In away when a president is people
lie. And I use The L Word lie. Iyou know, it crumbles. Oh, you
know, an important pillar ofdemocracy. And I took so much
(49:29):
heat on that by calling it alie. Right, including from the
CBC. Really? You're not supposedto say anything, Peter,
certainly not. Know what, I'msorry, this, this is a rageous.
Anyway. It was six months or ayear before the mainstream media
(49:54):
in the sites started using The LWord. They You know, covered it
up and they felt they couldn'tsay lie now it's like lying is
in every sentence attributedhome thing about Trump. But we
saw it right from the beginning.
And quite frankly, we saw itthroughout the guy's career. You
(50:15):
know, I, you talked to morebusiness people, and I do but
I've talked to a number ofbusiness people in Toronto, who
were involved a different levelswith Trump on a projects that he
was doing in Canada, and theyall backed away from it said,
there's nothing about this guy Ican trust.
(50:40):
And I don't want anything to dowith him. And this was, you
know, the this is based onevents before he ran for the
presidency. And I rememberhearing those stories early on
and thinking man, can thatpossibly be true? And, you know,
if it's true, why isn't anybodyin the states figure this out
yet? So I listen, I'll tell youone thing about Trump. You know,
(51:06):
he always used to say if I lose,or if I'm gone, you guys in the
media gonna miss me?
Unknown (51:13):
Is Right. Yeah.
Peter Mansbridge (51:16):
He was right.
They miss him. And they'refinding it awfully hard to do.
Just your basic normallegitimate stories ago
government. Clown show going on.
Right. Listen, they certainlylisten.
Preet Banerjee (51:35):
Well, you know, I'll tell you. We miss you.
anchoring the news? I certainlydo. But I know that people can
get their hit of Petermansbridge on his podcast. At
the end of every episode on thispodcast, everyone gets a
commercial. unabashedly promoteanything that you want. We
talked about your book in yourpodcast, but feel free to talk
(51:56):
about those again or anythingelse that you want to promote
the floor is yours.
Peter Mansbridge (52:01):
Well, I listen, I would promote
information, real hard, trueinformation. And I would try to
encourage people to demand it oftheir their information sources
and make them accountable. Callfor more transparency on the
part of all journalisticoperations in terms of the way
(52:22):
they're doing their jobs and thedecisions they make. On a
personal note, obviously, Iwould like people to listen to
the bridge when they're finishedlistening to Preet Sprott
podcast. And you can find out onany podcast platform on or on
Sirius XM channel 167. Canadatalks. They buy the rights to
(52:44):
the podcast, so it's up on theirnormal, you know, satellite
radio service before it is thenpushed out on as a podcast the
same, the same program. Verysuccessful book last year in
extraordinary Canadians that Iwrote with my friend, Mark
Bowditch, which reached numberone as a national bestseller and
(53:05):
this fall, October, as Preetmentioned, I'm coming out with
my new book called off therecord, which is more personal.
And I think, I think if you'reinterested in the kind of the
behind the scenes stories aboutnews, you'll get a lot of them
in here plus my own thoughtsabout about journalism in
general, and where we are today,in that profession, and also my
(53:31):
thoughts about Canada and thechallenges we still face because
of anything. The last few monthshave reminded us that we're not
there yet. We're a greatcountry. There's a lot of good
about it. But we're not where wewant to be and, and we need we
need help and a push to getthere. So that's my that's my
(53:57):
free promo.
Preet Banerjee (54:00):
Well, Peter, it's it's been an absolute honor
for me to have you on thispodcast. I look forward to
sharing some stories off therecord over over a tipple maybe
some whiskey at your place inScotland. I think it is right.
So I'm going to be I'm going tobe across the pond as well for
the next couple of years. Sohopefully we can Yeah, share a
(54:23):
few drinks. But yeah, thank youagain, so much. highlight of my
career was being on the bottomline panel for eight years and
meeting and working with you.
Peter Mansbridge (54:33):
That's very kind of your pre and you know, I
enjoyed doing those and you werealways a mainstay on it. So good
luck and in the challenges addand I'll be listening
Preet Banerjee (55:00):
Well, that is it for mostly money. I would love
to stay in touch though you canvisit my website Preet Banerjee
calm and subscribe to my emailnewsletter. I haven't published
content there for a while. Butwhile the podcast might be
ending the website will berelaunching in 2022, maybe a
little bit earlier, as they dofeel the urge to start blogging
(55:20):
again. Maybe I have to thinkabout that. In any case, I will
continue to create morefinancial content in different
media at the very least. So ifthat is of interest, please do
sign up and when I do have stuffto share, you will be the first
to know until then it's been anhonor and a privilege.
I was a smoker in the 80s when I started
(00:03):
anchoring and I used to have acigarette going during the show
it'd be sitting just off camerain you know an ashtray. And
every once in a while I'd hearthe director would say to me
through my your move thecigarette, the smokes, you know,
wafting into the shot.
Preet Banerjee (00:28):
Welcome to the 100th and final episode, at
least for a while, have mostlymoney and wanted to have a
special guests for this send offshow and I don't think I can
talk who offered to help me out.
You know, when people say ournext guest needs no
introduction. Well, that isactually true. In this case. He
is a Canadian icon, abroadcasting legend. When this
(00:50):
guy walks into a room, timestops. And let me tell you, it
really is an honor that the oneand only Peter mansbridge is my
special guest today with 50years at the CBC culminating in
the top job, anchor of thenational for many of those
years. He's seen a lot. And Iwanted to ask him a bit about
(01:11):
what life is like inside a majornetwork news department. But
also wanted to tap into thestories behind the stories of
some of the big financial eventsin Canada, past elections
budgets for story behind how theGST was introduced and more.
Without further ado, the one andonly Peter mansbridge.
(01:50):
This is mostly money. And I'myour host Preet Banerjee. And on
the show today, I have the mostimpressive guest that has ever
been on this podcast andapologies to all previous guests
who are listening. But no onecan talk this guy. During his 50
years at CBC Peter mansbridgeanchored coverage of basically
(02:11):
every single big news event, youcould imagine the fall of the
Berlin Wall, the 911 terroristattacks 13 Olympic Games every
visit by the Queen since 1973Royal weddings to rule of
funerals, and he's covered everyfederal election since 1972. And
anchored all 10 since 1984, evenafter retirement came back as a
(02:35):
special contributor for the 2019election. Now...
Peter Mansbridge (02:40):
Now I feel really old I feel really old
breed after all that
Preet Banerjee (02:45):
I don't know if you know this, but you actually
are really old
Peter Mansbridge (02:50):
That's true.
Preet Banerjee (02:54):
He's conducted in estimated This is mind
blowing 15,000 interviews withthe who's who of the world. And
I'm so delighted to have him asa guest on the mostly money
show. Peter, welcome to theshow.
Peter Mansbridge (03:10):
Hey Preet, thank you for this, you know,
you know, I've been a big fan ofyours for a long time. And it's,
it's nice to be on the otherside of the microphone for
change.
Preet Banerjee (03:20):
Well, you know, it's not intimidating at all. I
mean, this is my 100th episode.
And as I was prepping, I'mthinking wow, 100 episodes now,
I'm not a prolific podcaster byany stretch of the imagination,
but I was very proud of the factthat I've gotten to 100
episodes, I wanted a superspecial guest. I made the call
to you. Then doing my prep, Ithought, Wait a second, this
guy's done 15,000 here. Oh, God,I feel like such a schmuck in
(03:44):
comparison.
Peter Mansbridge (03:47):
It's It's funny, you know, when you when
you start adding them up, thetotal gets, I think it's upwards
closer to 20,000. Now, but they,you know, they add up pretty
quick and over 50 years.
They really add up fast. Yeah,no kidding. And you know, some
of them are worth remembering.
Most of them are not worthremembering.
Preet Banerjee (04:11):
Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, that's
interesting. With so many Imean, these are all better than
every interview Preet Banerjeehas done.
Peter Mansbridge (04:19):
I doubt it. I doubt it very much. I don't know
about you. But what I've foundin my in my interviewing time,
is that the ones you tend toremember obviously, you remember
the kind of celebrity interviewsthe the big names, you know,
President Obama, you know, theyou know, presidents of various
(04:41):
countries and prime ministersand, and you name so
Preet Banerjee (04:44):
many that you can't even
Peter Mansbridge (04:45):
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, you remember those, butthe ones that actually really
make a difference where youthink you've actually learned
something, and your audience haslearned something, or often with
those who aren't the celebrityinterviews Because for the most
part, they kind of repeat thesame thing to whomever is
interviewing them. Whereas thethe the non celebrities are
(05:06):
usually people who have neverbeen interviewed before. But
they're they're willing to telltheir story and their to their
stories involving something, youknow, extraordinary that's
happened to them. And you findI've found those people that the
most fascinating really when youget right down to it?
Preet Banerjee (05:25):
Well, yeah, because they don't have the
handlers. Right. And one of thethings that I think a lot of
people have noticed, especiallylately, because now every
interview, every question thatgets asked of a politician, you
can find it in seven differentsocial media platforms,
different news websites, and youcan ask them 30 different
questions, and you'll always getthe exact same answer, even if
(05:48):
it has nothing to do with thequestion. So yeah, no, that's an
interesting observation aboutthe different interviewees. Now
I wanted to sort of give somesome background of how we met.
And it was all because of thebottom line panel on CBC, which
was a panel talking aboutfinance and economics. And I
(06:11):
remember I got an email out ofthe blue from Lera Chatterjee,
who is a producer of that panel.
And she invited me to be on andwhen I came to the set, and the
first time that I met you, Ithink you came into the makeup
room. That was the first time Ireally was like, starstruck,
where I'd like, Man, I'mstarting to feel cotton in my
(06:34):
mouth, I was getting so nervousbefore the lights went on. But
luckily, you carried me. Andthey invited me back for some
reason. And we ended up doingthat panel for about eight
years. And it was the highlightof my career. Because as soon as
the panel aired, my inbox wouldget flooded, my tweet mentions
(06:55):
would get flooded. And I'll tellyou, I'll tell you this funny
story. So my first time I showedup in my suit and tie. And then
after about two years, I'd sentan email to learn, I said, you
know, lira, I don't normallycome across as the suit and tie
guy like, I don't normally weara tie every day, and I try to be
more relatable to the averagehousehold and distill some of
(07:17):
this information to eye level, Ifeel it, you know, wearing a tie
is off brand. You know, do youthink I could maybe not wear a
tie? I was expecting just asimple yes or no, you know,
whatever. And then she shewrites back, and I feel like I
should whisper what she wrote islike, I think you should go for
it. I'm like, wow, this makes itsound like it's a way bigger
(07:38):
deal than I thought it was gonnabe. And so I show up, and I
don't wear a tie. And thatnight. So normally what happens
for the listeners understandingis we pre tape at seven. And the
panel airs at 930 on newsnetwork, and then on the main
channel at about 1030. About1035, I started getting flooded
with emails, and they basicallyall said, Listen, son, if you're
(08:01):
going to be talking with Petermansbridge, you better be
wearing a goddamn tie.
Peter Mansbridge (08:11):
You were at the you were at the front line,
sort of the leading edge of thechange in television and in the
you know, in appearances,because now it's like, perfectly
normal not to be wearing a tie.
Right. Right. Right. And, andyou were sort of right out
there. I can remember when youwalk in the studio that day
without a tie the first time Ithought, jeez, should I offer
(08:34):
him one of my 250 ties in mydressing room? Because he
clearly forgot his will listen,we loved you on that panel.
Because you You brought a commonsense to a lot of the
discussions that we were having.
(08:54):
And you know, it was a great, itwas a great panel and I you
know, I'm you know, I'm sorryfor the fact Yamuna CBC
obviously wanted to change afterI left, and they you know,
they've, they've made a numberof me, you know, great
decisions, but I thought one ofthe decisions that wasn't so
great was that they, theydropped out of things like the
bottom line. And the foreignpolicy panel, you know, those
(09:17):
were great discussion points,and people did rely on them to
get a better sense of the worldthey were living in whether it
was about the economy or foreignaffairs or what have you. But
you were unload luck and lucklaunched your career. Look at
you. Best Selling Author, bestselling podcast, you name it,
(09:38):
you're all over the place.
Preet Banerjee (09:41):
Yeah, I know a lot of people will come on and
they'll say yeah, I'm a nationalbestseller. I think I can make
the claim that a municipalbestseller for sure. I don't
know about national but
Peter Mansbridge (09:50):
it's the big.
Yeah, as you know, the bookbusiness is funny. I mean, you
you try to get on the bestsellerlist. And that's one you know,
one part Have your branding. Andthen if you can get to number
one, even for like half a week,you're always a number one best
selling author.
Preet Banerjee (10:10):
Well, you know, speaking of books, right, one of
the reasons that I had the ideato sort of celebrate my 100, by
asking you was because I sawthat you had just announced that
you have a new book that iscoming out in pre sales are
available now. So before we getstarted, maybe you could just
tease the book a little bit andtell us what is in this book
(10:32):
that is being released? I thinkit's in October, right?
Peter Mansbridge (10:35):
It's an October October 5, called off
the record. And as you know, asyou would know, when you say
you're out for dinner with somefriends or something and you end
up talking about a story youcovered, the odds are the story
you tell it that dinner is notthe one you reported on here,
right, there was something elsehappened about that story that
(10:55):
made it that interesting to you,you would actually bring it up
at a dinner. Well, that's whatthis book is. The book is a lot
of the stories behind thestories that I covered over my
50 years. And the publisher,Simon Schuster wanted to call it
a memoir, but it's not really amemoir. It's it's really a
(11:15):
series of anecdotes, 50 or 60 ofthem, that I weave into a couple
of, you know, more substantivechapters on journalism on the
country. But mainly, it's theseanecdotes that give you a
snapshot into what my life hasbeen like as a journalist who's
(11:37):
traveled around the world and,and obviously, around the
country, and some of the storiesthat I love to tell that I never
told on the air. So that's whatit's about. And I think the
early indications are from thosewho have, you know, done a read
to you know, how they obviouslysense these books out to get
blurbs on them. You know,somebody famous writes something
(11:59):
about the book. They're, they'rereally good, the people seem to
enjoy it. So it'll be out.
October 5. I was very lucky.
Last year, I wrote a book withMark Begich called extraordinary
Canadians, which was a look at17 Canadians who have faced
certain challenges in theirlives. And, and come out the
(12:23):
other end really well, thatthose book that book have
actually turned out to be anumber one national bestseller.
So hopefully, with any luck, go,this one will be somewhat the
same.
Preet Banerjee (12:38):
I have a feeling no luck will be involved
whatsoever. I am definitelygoing to make the pre sales and
I'm sure you will probably presell more books than I've ever
sold when my books have been onsale.
Peter Mansbridge (12:52):
But your books do extremely well as they
should.
Preet Banerjee (12:56):
Alright, so I wanted to bring you on. And of
course, this podcast is calledmostly money, which I think is
apropos because it's mostlyabout financial stuff. But it
doesn't have to be specificallyabout finances. But I did want
to sort of talk to you aboutsome of the big events,
financial events that havehappened in your career covering
(13:17):
the biggest events in the world.
And before we get get started,there's two things I want to do.
One is I want to share with youa comment that the listener sent
in ahead of this recordingbecause they knew that you were
going to be a guest. And thenAnd then second is also to talk
about your origin story, whichI'm sure you're sick of telling,
you know how you werediscovered. So you know, the
Coles notes is fine. But I had alistener who sent in a comment.
(13:41):
This is from listener Claire.
And she said one of the greatjoys in her life, was working
alongside the great Tonymansbridge.
Peter Mansbridge (13:55):
Yes, Tony was great. I remember Tony. I
patterned myself after Tonywatching how he did things and
yes.
Preet Banerjee (14:09):
So that that's kind of an inside joke. That was
Claire Martin, who was a chiefmeteorologist or senior
meteorologist at CBC for a longtime and pink
Peter Mansbridge (14:23):
wall. Did you know that Pink Floyd the wall
the video she was in she was inyou know that's I do vaguely
remember this? Because I knowClaire personally, and someone
had told me that story shehates. I used to bring it up
occasionally on the air and shehate me for it saying that, but
(14:45):
it's true. And if she's gonnacall me Tony, I need to remind
everybody about things.
Preet Banerjee (14:52):
Well, I'm going to include that clip because
there is a clip of Claire, youwere throwing it to Claire and I
guess she As the meteorologist,she's talking to, you know,
local anchors as well as theNational acre. And I think she
would just been talking to TonyParsons. And so when you threw
to place it all thanks, Tony.
And then I remember coming backto the studio, you held up a
(15:13):
sign that was either it's eithersaid, Peter, to reminder what
your actual name was, or Tony,
Claire Martin (15:23):
Peter, back to you. Thanks very much, Peter.
Thanks very much, Peter.
Thanks very much, Tony.
Beautiful day for the beautifulgame in three parts. Tony, oh, I
keep calling you the wrong name.
Preet Banerjee (15:35):
She was mortified by that.
Okay, so for people who don'tknow, you were discovered
because of your voice. Is thatcorrect?
Peter Mansbridge (15:45):
Yeah. The Coles notes version is pretty
simple. I dropped out of highschool. So, you know, I never
went to university, I ended upand after, you know, I'll keep
it short. I ended up inChurchill, Manitoba, working for
an airline called trans air. AndI was basically a baggage
(16:05):
handler occasional ticket agent.
And I was 19 years old. And oneday, they were really busy at
the counter, and they asked meto announce the flight over the
PA system, which I did trans AirFlight 106. Thompson upon
Winnipeg now already forboarding. Gate, one only had one
gate, church.
Preet Banerjee (16:28):
Why did they number it?
Peter Mansbridge (16:30):
Just because it sounded really good. Yeah, it
sounded like, Hey, we're a bigairline. And there was a guy in
the terminal building who cameover and said, hey, you've got a
really good voice. Have you everthought about being in radio?
And I said, I've never thoughtabout being a radio. He said,
I'm the manager, the CBCnorthern service station here in
Churchill. I have a shift lateat night. I can't get anybody to
(16:53):
work it everybody I approachthat is not interesting. Would
you be interested? I said, Sure.
I mean, there wasn't exactly alot to do in Churchill at night.
Other than what you can imagineyou do at night in Churchill.
And so I worked during the day atranslator, and I worked in the
evening at the CBC for about ayear until they decided to offer
(17:13):
me a full time job. At whichpoint, I switched the news
because I was terrible at me. Iwas a DJ that first year. But
they didn't have a newscast. SoI said, I think we should have a
newscast. And they agreed. Andlet me start one with no
training, no idea of what to door anything. But that's, that's
(17:34):
what we did. And that's how itstarted. So it was a total
fluke. But as, as is the case,in so much of life, it's you
know, every once in a whilesomething will come your way.
It's pure luck. But it's whatyou what you do with it. How you
how you make it work for you.
Preet Banerjee (17:58):
Yeah, well, you definitely took that opportunity
and make the most of it as yourcareer you were 50 years at CBC.
I mean, you're the guy. Likeyou're the guy of news, when
people think about, you know,anchors. When did you discover
and I'm, I'm guessing here, I'mmaking the assumption here. When
(18:20):
did you discover your passionfor covering politics? Because
it seems like you really enjoycovering politics. When did that
transition happen from you know,hosting that that radio show to
them becoming a parliamentaryreporter.
Peter Mansbridge (18:36):
You know, I grown up in a family that we
always talk politics around thedinner table. At night, we
always had supper together. Mydad was always home for supper.
We grew up in Ottawa andpolitics in the late 50s. And
early 60s was a prettyinteresting game in in Ottawa.
And so we talked about it a lot.
So I there was always part of methat was interested. But after I
(18:57):
left church, I went to Winnipeg,and then Winnipeg to Regina,
this is all with the CBC anddifferent roles and they offered
me a job as parliamentarycorrespondent in Ottawa. And I
didn't really want to go,because I like their wide open
spaces and more generalreporting than then being kind
of pigeon holed in one area,which was political. But within
(19:19):
two weeks of being an Ottawa, Ithought, My gosh, I love this.
This is great. And, and so it'sbeen a part of me ever since
being interested in in politics,and you know, I have a podcast
now competing with yours. Wecall it a competition. Yeah,
(19:39):
it's a competition and there'sobviously is a lot of politics
in it and there will be a lotmore this summer and fall as we
head into a likely election.
Preet Banerjee (19:53):
Yeah, and when you started covering you know,
the the political beatEventually, you worked your way
to the anchor desk, and you'recovering. And in fact, you were
the editor in charge of the newsfor CBC. So when that started
when you first got the call tosay, hey, do you want to anchor
(20:15):
the national? You know thatfirst time? Did you have any
nerves about it? Or were youseason at this point? To the
point that you're like, yeah,this is a great opportunity. I'm
champing at the bit to do this.
What did it feel like for you?
Because from the outside lookingin, it feels like, there's
nothing like, you know, you'd belike Teflon, nothing would phase
(20:39):
this guy. But what's it reallylike? What was it really like
for you at that time? At thebeginning? Well, first
Peter Mansbridge (20:45):
of all, you know, I, when I was even back
when I was in Churchill, I usedto dream that my goal was to
read the national that I wantedto be the chief correspondent of
the CBC. And I never toldanybody because they would have
laughed at me. But that was mygoal. And I set out a pattern
(21:08):
and kind of agenda of differentjobs that I would have to get to
first before I could get to thisone. So anyway, it comes along,
and I first newscasts. The firstnational that I did was on a
Saturday night in, I thinknovember of 81, I think. And I
(21:30):
was in there filling in forGeorge McLean, George McFly and
I was a great voice from backthen. And he was away on
holidays or something I came in.
And my heart was pounding allday at the thought of doing and
then when I was sitting in thechair, waiting for the 11
o'clock, which was what time wewere on in those days. To come,
(21:51):
I was sure that if anybody waslooking at me, they could see my
heart pounding through my suitjacket. So I was pretty nervous.
And it slowly that got away,what I've always found is
there's always a bit of nerves,no matter what the broadcast is,
at the very beginning. And ifyou get through those first 10
(22:14):
seconds, and you know, thingsare, things tend to be okay. But
I learned that from you know, Iwas co anchoring sort of the
color guy on the 72 electionbroadcast out of Winnipeg,
Manitoba. So that was thefederal election, but we had
these local inserts. And themain anchors a guy, a fella by
(22:34):
the name of Bill guest who was aterrific bit of a legend icon in
in Manitoba broadcasting. And hewas sitting there and I was the
young kid from Churchill, whowas sitting beside him. And, you
know, we come up to 30 secondsfor air and I was feeling pretty
nervous. And I look over at billand he looked great from the
(22:57):
waist up. But his hands wereunder the desk, and they were
just shaking. And I can see themshaking. And I looked at him. I
said, Bill, you're not nervous,are you? And he looked at me. He
said, Listen, kid, today, you'renot nervous. For a big show like
this. Today, you should get outof the business. I always
remembered that. And you know,he was right. And bingo, you
(23:17):
never would have known itwatching him. He was like, cool
as ice. But it gets the gets theenergy going inside. And and you
recognize that what you're doingis important. So you better do
it. Right.
Preet Banerjee (23:35):
We know this is fascinating, because this ties
into kind of, you know, withyour book The what happens
behind the scenes. And so I knowthat one of your favorite movies
is anchorman. And add during thetime of the bottom line panel
was around the time that AaronSorkin showed the newsroom was
(23:58):
on. And I want you to give yourtake on and I know anchorman is
a comedy but in terms of thethings that they got right. Or
in the newsroom for people whodon't have a view to see what
happens. You know, behind thecameras and all the people
involved in the flurry ofactivity leading up to the show
(24:21):
like the stress. Can you talkabout what it's like in a
newsroom and how accurate thenewsroom was? Or if there's
anything that from the anchormanthat people say or you would say
to people you have no idea howbeing on accurate that one thing
is you think that's a joke, butthat actually happens?
Peter Mansbridge (24:38):
Yeah, I wouldn't say that. I thought
anchorman was very funny movie.
But that's kind of the end ofit. You know, it probably
relates in some area to thetruth in certain certain not all
but certain local stations. Imean, it's a carry on from The
(24:58):
old Mary Tyler Moore Show whereTed Knight was a bit of a you
know, he was just a face and avoice. And not too many smarts
and they made fun of him all thetime. And that was the case in
some local operations,especially in the States, but in
(25:18):
some in Canada as well. AaronSorkin shows the newsroom as
opposed to the old newsroom showthat used to be on CBC many
years ago. Aaron Sorkin show isa pretty good reflection of what
happens and the tensions thatexists within within a major
network newsroom. Because it isstance and the responsibility
(25:40):
and the accountability that goeswith it is is serious. And you
know, when when when thingshappen and big stories hit.
There's a lot of activity in ournewsroom and a lot of action
when something goes wrong. As inthe case of the first year of
(26:04):
the newsroom when they you knowthere was issues surrounding the
sourcing. That's a huge problemwithin a newsroom and and you
challenge each other and that'sall part of the process of
accountability. So I thoughtSorkin's portrayal of what
(26:25):
happens in a major networknewsroom was pretty accurate,
you know, a few things getpicked over but for the most
part I was really good. And therelationships that develop in a
newsroom all of that was all youknow, a very accurate in my
view, portrayal of what happens.
Preet Banerjee (26:51):
Yeah, and of course it's you know, it's a
it's made for TV, there's somesome dramatic licenses that are
taken. So you're suggestingthat, you know, there's a scene
where mill will McAvoyaccidentally eat some edible
marijuana brownies before goingon the air he's completely baked
so you're saying that's neverhappened to you
Peter Mansbridge (27:09):
know that happened quite often. I don't
recall that ever happening butyou know I was there long enough
that smoking was smokingordinary cigarettes was
perfectly all right in thenewsroom guys used to smoke
cigars and pipes and all thatstuff. And I was a smoker in the
(27:31):
80s when I started anchoring andI used to have a cigarette going
during the show it'd be sittingjust off camera in you know an
ashtray and every once in awhile I'd hear the director
would say to me through my yourmove the cigarette the smokes
you know, the wafting into theshot. There were there were that
was that was a potential Bravo.
Oh, wow. Yeah. But Wow. No, Idon't think so
Preet Banerjee (27:56):
wild even think about today. Oh,
Peter Mansbridge (27:59):
I you know, they I can never, never got
baked, ready for a show. Butmaybe I should have tried that
on some show. Never had.
Preet Banerjee (28:16):
Okay, so. So now I want to ask you about a couple
of news items that you wouldhave covered in your career,
just to get a sense. And you cango as wide and deep or not as
you want on any of these issues.
But when it comes to the federalbudgets. There's two things I
want to ask you. One is can youexplain to people what is the
budget lockup procedure forjournalists covering the budget?
(28:39):
And why is that Institute in thefirst place?
Peter Mansbridge (28:45):
Well, it's sort of a hangover from the from
the past, things have changedsomewhat in today's world. But
the whole idea behind thelockout was the, to give a
chance for journalists tounderstand, you know, what was
in this sometimes three 400 pagedocument, and what some of these
(29:06):
measures actually meant. Andthey were locked up because they
didn't want them, you know,running out and spilling the
beans on the air before,especially before the markets
closed at four o'clock. Andthat's where I budgets are
usually right after fouro'clock. And but, you know, that
was the main process. So it gotmore and more sophisticated as
(29:29):
time went on. When I when I wasdoing budgets in the in the 70s.
It was pretty straightforward. Alock up, it would run four or
five hours. There would be acouple of people in there who
were available for briefings onas to what, what certain things
meant and the reporters wouldline up in there today, or at
(29:50):
least the last time I wasinvolved with one, you could you
could go in there with yourexperts with your pre banner
G's, who would also you know,look at the document. And, and
help you frame questions for foreither during the briefings that
were taking place in the lockupor afterwards for the interviews
(30:12):
with the finance ministry. Andso you had a pretty good idea
when you came out as to, youknow, how to best describe this,
you know, complicated stuff toan audience who were interested
in knowing how they would impactthem, but by doing so in in such
(30:34):
a way that they'd understand,which is always a challenge with
with budgetary items. It was badenough that the reporters half
the time didn't understand thesome of the stuff, but then to
have them being the the peoplewho were explaining it to
consumers. That was always achallenge. And some budgets are
(30:55):
bigger than others, you know,like I, you know, I remember the
ad budget with McCracken andAlan McKenna was the finance
minister was the National EnergyProgram was in there. And, you
know, trying to figure that oneout and realizing it was gonna
cause a huge national unitycrisis with Alberta. And then
(31:16):
again, two years later, afterthat, McGann brought in a budget
that was dealing with a form ofwage and price controls, with
limits on both wages and pricesthat were lower than the
interest rate was at the time.
So I mean, it was, it was areally challenging time to try
(31:37):
to explain these issues, and forconsumers to try and figure out
what the heck was going on. Imean, people are so used to low
low interest rates right nowthat they have no idea what it
was, like 30 years ago wheninterest rates, I mean, I
remember getting a mortgage at12%. And thinking, I got a deal.
You know, because they wereended up going as high as like,
(32:02):
1819 20% interest rates onmortgages, which is the, you
know, the big fear right now,the inflation is starting to
track higher, and how high couldit go on? What impact could it
have? I mean, God forbid, weshould ever face interest rates
like that before, but there's alot of people who are right on
(32:23):
the edge in terms of whatinterest rate they are paying on
their mortgages. They gotta bereally careful
Preet Banerjee (32:31):
when you talk about contentious budget,
budgets, period. So you know, inthe 80s, in the National Energy
Program, another one that Ithink would have been
contentious, and maybe you cangive us the background of what
was going around this time wasthe introduction of the GST in
1989. And so now, it we take itfor, you know, as it is
(32:52):
accepted, yes, we have this GSTthat we have to pay. But when it
was introduced, I think if youask someone today, you know,
like, say someone under 35, aword to ask them, who do you
think introduced it? which partyDo you think introduced it? And
where do you think theopposition came from? I didn't
know if that would line up withwhat actually happened back
then. So can you walk throughthe introduction of the GST?
Peter Mansbridge (33:16):
Well, it's interesting because it kind of
flew under the radar in manyways at the time. First of all,
it was one of those things thatnobody could understand, you
know, GST replaced another tax,which was similar, but wasn't
called the GST. And where themoney ended up going was, was
perhaps a little different. Butthe thing that was happening
(33:39):
through 88 when the GST wasintroduced in Parliament the
main topic of conversationwasn't the GST it was free trade
bill. Right. That's what we hadall the attention. And this did
kind of slip under the radar.
There were some who were whowere upset about it. It was
introduced by the Mulroneygovernment. I think Mike Wilson
(34:02):
was the finance minister at thetime. And the liberals, under
john Turner, were so focused onfree trade, they didn't really
get into the debate around theGST from what I recall, because
I can remember, you know,Turner, and I had a really
(34:22):
fascinating relationship over2030 years. And, and I liked the
guy a lot. I learned a lot fromhim. But I can remember in 88,
they tried to dump him in themiddle of the campaign and I, I
broke that story. And it wasvery controversial, but it never
affected our relationship. And Ican remember after the campaign,
(34:44):
because he made a comeback inthe debate in ADA. It looked
like it was going to lose almostevery seat the liberals add they
ended up winning 80 which wasdouble what he'd won in 84 and
small running. But anyway, I canremember saying to him at Lunch
afterwards. Why didn't you pushthe GST? You needed a second
front, you'd made the case on GEon free trade. It basically won
(35:05):
that debate and scared the hellout of the conservatives and
Mulroney. And if you'd open up asecond front on GST, it was a
natural. He said, just didn'tjust thought I had to just keep
going after free trade. So I wassitting there as an issue, and
then it kind of people, youknow, were mad about it, but
(35:28):
they accepted it. And thenHarper was smart enough to
realize, if I promised to dropthe rate, that's going to be a
winner. For me, and it was in2006 election. It's one of those
arguments about politics thatthe simpler you make the
promise, the more impact it canhave you remember Doug Ford with
(35:52):
bucket beer. And Harper with theI'll drop the the GST rate one
point or two points. And peopleunderstand what that means. No,
yes. They don't need a degree inclimatology to understand the
carbon tax issue. Right. Sothat's, that's the little I
(36:15):
recall about that time that itkind of slipped under the radar
wasn't the issue that it couldhave been, perhaps should have
been, and might have made adifference in that campaign, the
ADA campaign, it came in toeffect January 1 89. So people
weren't actually dealing withit. In the campaign, like
(36:36):
consumers, they didn't have toworry about it. It was something
off in the distance. But thenwhen the distance arrived, that
they got it or, you know, rightbetween the eyes.
Preet Banerjee (36:51):
Yeah, I was doing a little bit of reading up
on it, because this was, at thetime I would have been 12. So I
wasn't covering or even thinkingabout, you know, the business
news at the time. So I had toread up on on this history a
little bit. And it seemed likeit was quite a contentious thing
behind the scenes, because itwas originally proposed that as
a 9% tax. It was proposed by theMulroney government. And it
(37:18):
ended up that the liberalcontrolled senate refused to
pass it. And then I think theyended up filibustering until I
think Mulroney brought in eightmore senators to get the thing
passed. It just seems like whata fascinating thing that happens
(37:38):
behind the scenes. And like yousaid, most people probably
didn't sort of tune into that asmuch because the talk of the
town was all free trade freetrade Free Trade Agreement.
Yeah. Which was a hugeundertaking, certainly through
that 88 election.
Peter Mansbridge (37:53):
That was that was what the talk was about
after the election. As you gotcloser to implementation date on
GST and unneeded Royal Assent.
Then you saw all that activityin the Senate and was raised
something to watch.
Preet Banerjee (38:08):
Now, speaking of elections, the election night
coverage is that like the SuperBowl for a news broadcaster?
Peter Mansbridge (38:20):
I think it is I've always, you know, I grew
up, I you know, I can remembersitting there this is long
before I ever thought I'd be endup in journalism, but I can
remember, you know, watching 58,the election, the deef sweep of
58 watching the limitedtelevision coverage that existed
then through elections in 63 and65 and 68. Through the 60s, a
(38:44):
heavily dominated electionscheduled during those years and
and it was the big deal it wasthe broadcast that defined
people defined networks and theywould throw everything at it
their big budget nights becausethere's a lot involved in in
(39:06):
trying to cover an electionnight and and you know, you have
you're taking a huge gamble onhow well your your computers and
your graphics presentation andall that are going to work
enormous pressure over theexecutive producers who were
involved in those you mentionedLaura earlier as the person who
found you she's she's theexecutive producer of cbcs
(39:28):
election coverage for the lastcouple of elections and
including whatever it's gonnahappen this year.
Preet Banerjee (39:37):
The conversation with Peter mansbridge continues
in just a moment. Now, asregular listeners know, during
the mid show segment, I work myway through all the listener
comments. I am sorely behind andI won't be able to give everyone
a shout out as this may be thelast episode for the show. But I
just wanted to thank you all forspending your time with me over
(39:59):
these 100 episodes means a lotto me. Now, I may relaunch the
show again after a short break.
But right now, I have just a fewtoo many projects on the Guild,
many of those are actuallywrapping up by the end of 2021.
But I may enjoy some downtimefor a bit, and then sit down to
give a think about what I wantto do with the podcast in any
future content creation. Now,stay subscribed to the podcast,
(40:21):
if you are subscribed. And if Ido relaunch it, you'll be the
first to know. And if I don'trelaunch it, well, you're not
going to notice anything. BeforeI get back to the interview with
Peter, I should point out thathis laptop died at this point in
the interview. And he switchedto a different computer which
had a different microphone. Sothe audio quality changes a bit.
(40:42):
And you know, the voice like hisheat, sound good talking into
it, tin can with a string. And Idon't know about you, but I
really miss hearing his voice ona regular basis. But you know
what, there's a solution forthat, you can subscribe to his
podcast, the bridge. And nowback to the conversation with
(41:03):
Peter mansbridge.
Peter Mansbridge (41:21):
I'll just think it's the most important
night of a any broadcasters newschedule is the election, you
define yourself as a network.
The people who are, you know, inthe front row of your news
coverage, they define STEMcareers are made or broken on
election nights. And, you know,it's more than just people it's
(41:42):
resources, and if the networksdon't put behind their people,
the kind of resources they needfor an election night. In other
words, money. You know, it candamage you and I fear at times
that some of the networks don't,you know, have forgotten that or
think that we've passed that,that that's, that's a sort of,
(42:05):
you know, a part of our past asopposed to a part of our present
or future. I think the mostimportant night in a cycle is
election night, it's whendemocracy plays its role in in
our society. And this decisionof the people is, is paramount.
And we should be there to helpguide through to the finish line
(42:28):
in terms of coverage.
Preet Banerjee (42:33):
And I know that, you know, it's been a few years
since you anchored. You know,the news, let alone the election
in the last federal election inCanada, you came as a special
contributor. What was it? Whatwas it like being not the anchor
that night?
Peter Mansbridge (42:53):
Well, I you know, it's hard to get used to
that role. It's also liberatingin a sense, because they wanted
me there was an analyst and BobRay and I were sitting together
and people were set up to looklike those Muppets in the
theater. But, but it was funbecause I you know, I got drawn
to certain experiences I had todo explain what I thought about
(43:18):
the way things were unfolding.
So I enjoyed that. But uh, youknow, obviously, it wasn't the
same as the anchoring. RosieBurton did a terrific job as
anchor that night and, you know,time moves on and I, you know, I
understand accept them.
Preet Banerjee (43:33):
And do you feel that you will come back with,
you know, in an analyst role doyou feel that you have, like you
said, you're much more liberatedin what you can say, do you feel
like there's a significantchange versus being the anchor?
Peter Mansbridge (43:49):
Sure. I mean, you're everybody's anchor, when
you're the anchor, that's,that's what it's supposed to be
you know, and say on electionnight, any party, any party, any
supporter of any party shouldfeel comfortable with you. In
that role in terms of your youknow, you're not one sided or
bias, you're just telling thestory. As an analyst you can,
(44:12):
you can show a little more kindof flair about what you think
about certain things. And I'veenjoyed doing that with the
podcast. I still hold back, youknow, a fair amount but uh, but
I have I have moved on from mymy anchor position in terms of
what I end up saying and doing.
Preet Banerjee (44:33):
Now. Now, speaking of your podcast, there
is I don't think it's every daybut you have a smoke and mirrors
edition of the podcast. Is thatcorrect? Can you explain what
that is?
Peter Mansbridge (44:44):
Well, we're trying to do is separate the
smoke and mirrors from thetruth. Right. And so every
Wednesday and through thesummer, that's the only one I'm
doing. I'm doing one day a weekuntil the elections called and
so we do smoke mirrors and thetruth with Bruce Anderson, who's
a longtime friend of minepollster, he's worked for all
the parties at one time oranother, especially the
(45:07):
conservatives and the liberals.
And so he has a wealth ofexperience. And we tried to, you
know, talk in that general senseof, you know, separating what's
true from what's just, you know,or they're trying to pullo pull
the wool over your eyes on somethings. And we try to explain
(45:28):
that and we have a lot of fundoing it.
Preet Banerjee (45:34):
But you know, it's, it's such a, it's so
enjoyable to listen to the twoof you banter and talk about
things because there's such awealth of experience between the
both of you, and like you said,Bruce is experienced being a
pollster and working for bothsides of the aisle. And in your
experience with, you know, fivedecades of coverage. Phenomenal.
(45:55):
So for anyone who's listening,you know, I really highly
recommend Peters podcast. Okay,the last thing I have to ask you
about is Trump. And that is onlybecause you know, as of late,
you know, he just made anappearance and it looks like he
is looking to build support forgetting the the party's
(46:18):
nomination for the nextelection. And I think some
people thought, No, Trump's donenow. But does he ever go away?
Does his influence in politicsever change at this point?
Peter Mansbridge (46:30):
You know, I I've been a believer all along
that he will go away, that thelast person the republicans
really want is Donald Trumpagain. Now you run that up
against the fact that you know,there are a lot of people still
believe in anything, he says, nomatter how bizarre or unhinged,
(46:56):
it may sound. And those are thepeople who are sick and tired of
what they perceive as the normalkind of BS that's come out of
Washington for decades. And, andthey believe in conspiracy
(47:17):
theories and a lot of otherthings, because they've been put
in the position of having tobelieve them, because they feel
they haven't been served in anyreasonable way. In the past.
Now, I think what surprised usis that there are more of those
people than we ever thoughtthere were. I mean, that the guy
(47:38):
could get whatever it was 70million votes in the last
election, considerably less thanBiden, but still a hell of a lot
of votes. does tell yousomething. Now, I think the
republicans are going to gothrough hoops to try and figure
out a way that he isn't theirrepresentative, I guess, if
(48:00):
they're hoping anything, so heends up in jail. Before before,
more that he ends up ruined orbroke as a result of the various
actions that are being takenagainst his companies. But I,
you know, I don't know I'vegiven up making predictions. I
(48:21):
never thought he could win thenomination, let alone the
presidency in 2016. I canremember being at his
inauguration. And I was inWashington, and when I I covered
that in the within 24 hours, hewas lying about the crowd size.
(48:45):
All the people he said out, Ithis is crazy. You know, I mean,
no, like crowd size, who cares?
But if this is this guy'sPresident of the United States
if this is an indication of whatit's going to be like, and I
tweeted, on, I was fly fly toWashington on 6am flight on the
Sunday morning. He wasinaugurated on the Friday, I
flew out on the 6am. On theSunday morning, I wrote
(49:07):
something like you know, I'venever felt so unsettled as I
pass over the White House. In away when a president is people
lie. And I use The L Word lie. Iyou know, it crumbles. Oh, you
know, an important pillar ofdemocracy. And I took so much
(49:29):
heat on that by calling it alie. Right, including from the
CBC. Really? You're not supposedto say anything, Peter,
certainly not. Know what, I'msorry, this, this is a rageous.
Anyway. It was six months or ayear before the mainstream media
(49:54):
in the sites started using The LWord. They You know, covered it
up and they felt they couldn'tsay lie now it's like lying is
in every sentence attributedhome thing about Trump. But we
saw it right from the beginning.
And quite frankly, we saw itthroughout the guy's career. You
(50:15):
know, I, you talked to morebusiness people, and I do but
I've talked to a number ofbusiness people in Toronto, who
were involved a different levelswith Trump on a projects that he
was doing in Canada, and theyall backed away from it said,
there's nothing about this guy Ican trust.
(50:40):
And I don't want anything to dowith him. And this was, you
know, the this is based onevents before he ran for the
presidency. And I rememberhearing those stories early on
and thinking man, can thatpossibly be true? And, you know,
if it's true, why isn't anybodyin the states figure this out
yet? So I listen, I'll tell youone thing about Trump. You know,
(51:06):
he always used to say if I lose,or if I'm gone, you guys in the
media gonna miss me?
Unknown (51:13):
Is Right. Yeah.
Peter Mansbridge (51:16):
He was right.
They miss him. And they'refinding it awfully hard to do.
Just your basic normallegitimate stories ago
government. Clown show going on.
Right. Listen, they certainlylisten.
Preet Banerjee (51:35):
Well, you know, I'll tell you. We miss you.
anchoring the news? I certainlydo. But I know that people can
get their hit of Petermansbridge on his podcast. At
the end of every episode on thispodcast, everyone gets a
commercial. unabashedly promoteanything that you want. We
talked about your book in yourpodcast, but feel free to talk
(51:56):
about those again or anythingelse that you want to promote
the floor is yours.
Peter Mansbridge (52:01):
Well, I listen, I would promote
information, real hard, trueinformation. And I would try to
encourage people to demand it oftheir their information sources
and make them accountable. Callfor more transparency on the
part of all journalisticoperations in terms of the way
(52:22):
they're doing their jobs and thedecisions they make. On a
personal note, obviously, Iwould like people to listen to
the bridge when they're finishedlistening to Preet Sprott
podcast. And you can find out onany podcast platform on or on
Sirius XM channel 167. Canadatalks. They buy the rights to
(52:44):
the podcast, so it's up on theirnormal, you know, satellite
radio service before it is thenpushed out on as a podcast the
same, the same program. Verysuccessful book last year in
extraordinary Canadians that Iwrote with my friend, Mark
Bowditch, which reached numberone as a national bestseller and
(53:05):
this fall, October, as Preetmentioned, I'm coming out with
my new book called off therecord, which is more personal.
And I think, I think if you'reinterested in the kind of the
behind the scenes stories aboutnews, you'll get a lot of them
in here plus my own thoughtsabout about journalism in
general, and where we are today,in that profession, and also my
(53:31):
thoughts about Canada and thechallenges we still face because
of anything. The last few monthshave reminded us that we're not
there yet. We're a greatcountry. There's a lot of good
about it. But we're not where wewant to be and, and we need we
need help and a push to getthere. So that's my that's my
(53:57):
free promo.
Preet Banerjee (54:00):
Well, Peter, it's it's been an absolute honor
for me to have you on thispodcast. I look forward to
sharing some stories off therecord over over a tipple maybe
some whiskey at your place inScotland. I think it is right.
So I'm going to be I'm going tobe across the pond as well for
the next couple of years. Sohopefully we can Yeah, share a
(54:23):
few drinks. But yeah, thank youagain, so much. highlight of my
career was being on the bottomline panel for eight years and
meeting and working with you.
Peter Mansbridge (54:33):
That's very kind of your pre and you know, I
enjoyed doing those and you werealways a mainstay on it. So good
luck and in the challenges addand I'll be listening
Preet Banerjee (55:00):
Well, that is it for mostly money. I would love
to stay in touch though you canvisit my website Preet Banerjee
calm and subscribe to my emailnewsletter. I haven't published
content there for a while. Butwhile the podcast might be
ending the website will berelaunching in 2022, maybe a
little bit earlier, as they dofeel the urge to start blogging
(55:20):
again. Maybe I have to thinkabout that. In any case, I will
continue to create morefinancial content in different
media at the very least. So ifthat is of interest, please do
sign up and when I do have stuffto share, you will be the first
to know until then it's been anhonor and a privilege.
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