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Peter Mansbridge (1948-)
Year Born:
Mansbridge, Peter (1948- )
If Knowlton Nash hadn't stepped aside in 1988 as anchor of CBC-TV's flagship news program The National and as chief correspondent of CBC television news, Peter might have followed other successful Canadians south to the United States. If a producer at a CBC radio station hadn't heard Peter in 1968 when the 20-year-old was making an announcement over an airport PA system, Peter would not have been offered a job in broadcasting at all.
Peter was born in London, England but his family emigrated to Canada and he was educated in Ottawa. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy in 1966 and 1967. From there, he went to Churchill, Man. as freight manager for a small airline.
The CBC job offered was as a disc jockey at Fort Churchill, Manitoba. Peter didn't see being a DJ as a long-term occupation and asked if he could develop a local newscast, which the CBC's northern service didn't have. He hadn't been trained in news; he learned by listening to others. Soon he was providing a half hour of news a day and his stories were moving to a larger CBC audience via its southern stations.
In 1971 Peter moved to CBC Radio in Winnipeg and in 1972 he became a local CBC-TV reporter. By 1975 he was covering Saskatchewan for The National and a year later he was covering politics for The National in Ottawa, where he remained until 1980.
His first anchoring job was with Barbara Frum on Quarterly Report, which examined national issues and was heard four times a year. From 1985 until he took over The National, he anchored Sunday Report.
In 1992 the CBC moved The National to Newsworld and inaugurated a 9 p.m. national news show called Prime Time News. Peter initially anchored it with Pamela Wallin, who also had entered broadcasting serendipitously. The partnership ended in an unfriendly parting of the ways between Pamela and the CBC. The CBC later reversed its decision on The National and it reverted to the 10 p.m. time slot.
As well as anchoring The National, Peter hosted the CBC Newsworld interview show Mansbridge: One on One and news specials including federal elections, national leadership conventions, and major national and international news stories - events that made history.
He received a multitude of Gemini Awards from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for broadscast journalism, for anchoring and for best overall broadcast journalist. In 2000 he won the New York Festival gold medal for best news anchor - an international competition. He was also awarded honorary degrees by several Canadian universities and won recognition from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut and Oxford University, England, which invited him to lecture in its distinguished speakers series.
In July 2008, Peter Mansbridge was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
On the September 05, 2016 broadcast of CBC's "The National", anchor and chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge announced that he would be stepping down from his role on July 1st, 2017. He did so following participation in CBC's coverage of Canada's 150th Birthday. Following much speculation, the CBC announced that, starting in November, the National would have not one but four hosts on a nightly basis: senior correspondent Adrienne Arsenault, based in Toronto; political reporter and host Rosemary Barton, based in Ottawa; CBC Vancouver host Andrew Chang, based in Vancouver; and veteran host and reporter Ian Hanomansing, based in Toronto.
Learn more about the personalities involved in Canada's broadcasting history.
The Canadian Communications Foundation.