Peter Mansbridge
Encyclopedia
Peter Mansbridge, OC
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...

 (born July 6, 1948), a Canadian broadcaster and news anchor, is the CBC News Chief Correspondent and anchor of The National, CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

's flagship nightly newscast. Mansbridge has received many awards and accolades for his journalistic work including an honorary doctorate from Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University is a primarily undergraduate Canadian liberal arts and science university situated in Sackville, New Brunswick. It is located about a half hour from the regional city of Moncton and 20 minutes from the Greater Moncton International Airport...

 where he is serving as chancellor until December 2013.

Early life

Mansbridge was born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and raised in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, where he attended Glebe Collegiate Institute
Glebe Collegiate Institute
Glebe Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Glebe neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Glebe Collegiate Institute has approximately 1,500 students; students and sports teams are referred to as "Gryphons".The school offers many...

, but dropped out before graduating. He served in the Royal Canadian Navy
Royal Canadian Navy
The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 in 1966 and 1967 and studied at Trinity College School
Trinity College School
Trinity College School is a coeducational, independent boarding/day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than 2 years prior to Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for grades 9 to 12 and a Junior School for grades 5 to 8.Among its...

 in Port Hope
Port Hope, Ontario
Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

.

Newscasting career

While working at Churchill Airport
Churchill Airport
Churchill Airport is located east southeast of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.Churchill Airport serves the town of Churchill and the surrounding region. Although it is a small domestic airport, it handles a relatively high number of passengers throughout the year as it is a major destination for...

 in Churchill
Churchill, Manitoba
Churchill is a town on the shore of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada. It is most famous for the many polar bears that move toward the shore from inland in the autumn, leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" that has helped its growing tourism industry.-History:A variety of nomadic...

, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 in 1968, Mansbridge was recruited to work for a local radio station by a radio executive who heard his voice make a flight announcement (Mansbridge's regular job was as a baggage handler). From there, he moved to CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...

's northern service, still in Churchill. In 1971 he moved to Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba to continue as a reporter for CBC Radio and while there in 1972 began as a reporter for CBC Television.

In 1975, he became The National's reporter for Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, and in 1976 he became parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa. Following a decade of political coverage, Mansbridge had become a substitute anchor for Knowlton Nash
Knowlton Nash
Cyril Knowlton Nash, OC, O.Ont , commonly known as Knowlton Nash, is a journalist, author, and former long-serving senior anchorman of CBC Television's flagship news program, The National...

 and in 1988, was reportedly being recruited by U.S. broadcaster CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 for a prominent position. Nash, in fact, voluntarily gave up his position as anchor later that year, specifically so that Mansbridge would be promoted to anchor and remain in Canada.

During his tenure at the helm of CBC's flagship newscast beginning May 1, 1988 (as co-anchor of CBC Prime Time News from November 1992 to fall 1995, and as sole anchor of The National otherwise), he has covered Canadian news stories including federal elections, party leadership convention
Leadership convention
In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader.- Overview :...

s, the Meech Lake Accord
Meech Lake Accord
The Meech Lake Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada negotiated in 1987 by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and ten provincial premiers. It was intended to persuade the government of the Province of Quebec to endorse the 1982 Canadian Constitution and increase...

 negotiations, the Charlottetown Accord
Charlottetown Accord
The Charlottetown Accord was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendum on October 26 of that year, and was defeated.-Background:...

 and its referendum, the 1995 Quebec referendum
1995 Quebec referendum
The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should secede from Canada and become an independent state, through the question:...

, floods in Manitoba in 1997
Red River Flood, 1997
The Red River Flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997, along the Red River of the North in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Southern Manitoba. It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826...

, ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in 1998, the six days in September 2000 that marked the death and state funeral of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the 2003 blackout across much of Eastern North America and the death and state funeral of Jack Layton
Death and state funeral of Jack Layton
On August 22, 2011, Canadian New Democratic Party leader and Leader of the Opposition Jack Layton died after a bout from an unspecified, newly diagnosed cancer. Prior to his recent diagnosis, Layton led his party to gain a historic rise in seats during the 2011 federal election...

. His coverage of the blackout was notable because the normally clean-shaven Mansbridge had grown a beard
Beard
A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck of human beings. Usually, only pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. However, women with hirsutism may develop a beard...

 during his summer hiatus (as he did every summer), and the news of the blackout broke with no time for him to shave. Thus, Canadian viewers saw a bearded Peter Mansbridge reporting on the events of that day.

He has also anchored coverage of many world events, both in the studio and on the scene. In the studio, he anchored coverage of the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

, the War in Kosovo
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...

, and the events surrounding September 11, 2001. He was on the air live when the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

 began and anchored coverage of it. On the scene, he anchored coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...

, the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales
Funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
The public funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales started on September 6, 1997 at 9:08 am in London, when the tenor bell sounded to signal the departure of the cortege from Kensington Palace. The coffin was carried from the palace on a gun carriage, along Hyde Park to St. James' Palace, where...

 and Pope John Paul II
Funeral of Pope John Paul II
The funeral of Pope John Paul II was held on 8 April 2005, six days after his death on 2 April. The funeral was followed by the novemdiales devotional in which the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches observe nine days of mourning....

, numerous royal
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

, papal
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

, and U.S. presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 visits to Canada, numerous Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

, and the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama
Inauguration of Barack Obama
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The inauguration, which set a record attendance for any event held in Washington, D.C., marked the commencement of the four-year term of Barack Obama as President and Joe...

. He reported extensively from Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 both 50 and then 60 years after D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...

 and from the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 for the fiftieth anniversary of V-E Day. He also reported from the Netherlands for the sixtieth anniversary of V-E Day.

In 1999, he launched a new program, Mansbridge One on One
Mansbridge One on One
Mansbridge One on One is a weekly TV program of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation featuring CBC’s News' chief correspondent Peter Mansbridge. The program began airing in 1999. -External links:* http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/mansbridge/...

, in which he interviews newsmakers.

With the retirement of Lloyd Robertson
Lloyd Robertson
Lloyd Robertson, OC is the currently the co-host of CTV's weekly magazine series, W5. Robertson previously served as the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV's national evening newscast, CTV News with Lloyd Robertson, until September, 2011, when he retired from the CTV National News...

 of CTV National News
CTV National News
CTV National News is CTV's flagship newscast, which airs at 11:00 p.m. local time on the CTV stations across Canada, and live at 10:00pm ET, with repeats hourly up until 2 a.m. ET on CTV News Channel, CTV's 24-hour cable news television channel, and the previous day's can be seen on the Internet. ...

on September 1, 2011, Mansbridge became the longest-serving active anchor among the big three anchors in Canada, as Dawna Friesen
Dawna Friesen
Award-winning journalist Dawna Friesen ushered in a new era at Global National as its second anchor and executive editor on September 20, 2010.Prior to joining Global National, Dawna served as NBC's foreign correspondent and anchor in London for 11 years...

 had taken over as anchor at Global National
Global National
Global National is the national newscast of Canada's Global Television Network. Dawna Friesen anchors the program's weekday edition from the Global BC studios; Robin Gill currently anchors the weekend edition...

only in 2010. Lisa LaFlamme
Lisa LaFlamme
Lisa LaFlamme is a Canadian television journalist, and currently the chief anchor and senior editor of CTV National News....

 taking over for Robertson also meant that Mansbridge is the only male anchor among the big three anchors in Canada (Mansbridge, LaFlamme, and Friesen).

Personal life

Mansbridge has been married three times. He has been married to Canadian actress Cynthia Dale
Cynthia Dale
Cynthia Dale is a Canadian television actress and stage performer. With a long and accomplished history as a dramatic actor, she is best known for her role as lawyer Olivia Novak in the 1987-94 television drama Street Legal....

 since November 14, 1998. They have a son, William, born in 1999. His previous marriage to CBC colleague Wendy Mesley
Wendy Mesley
Wendy Mesley is a host and reporter for CBC Television's consumer investigation series Marketplace. She is also a frequent back-up anchor for CBC's flagship evening news program The National. She also co-hosts Test the Nation with Brent Bambury...

 (January 6, 1989–1992) became regular tabloid fodder in Frank Magazine as their marriage ended. Mansbridge has two daughters from a first marriage which ended in 1975. He is now currently married and lives in Toronto, ON with his family. He was named chancellor of Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University is a primarily undergraduate Canadian liberal arts and science university situated in Sackville, New Brunswick. It is located about a half hour from the regional city of Moncton and 20 minutes from the Greater Moncton International Airport...

 in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2010.

Awards and honorary degrees

Peter Mansbridge received his first honorary degree in 1999 from Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University
Mount Allison University is a primarily undergraduate Canadian liberal arts and science university situated in Sackville, New Brunswick. It is located about a half hour from the regional city of Moncton and 20 minutes from the Greater Moncton International Airport...

 in Sackville, New Brunswick
Sackville, New Brunswick
Sackville is a Canadian town in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.Mount Allison University is located in the town...

 where he currently serves as Chancellor. On July 1, 2008, he was appointed by Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean is a Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation, from 2005 to 2010....

, Governor General of Canada
Governor General of Canada
The Governor General of Canada is the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...

 as Officer of the Order of Canada, the second grade of the highest civilian honour in Canada. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

 in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2001. He received an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree from Ryerson University
Ryerson University
Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...

 in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 in 2005. He received the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa (LL.D.) from the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...

, in London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...

 on June 9, 2008. He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Windsor
University of Windsor
The University of Windsor is a public comprehensive and research university in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's southernmost university. It has a student population of approximately 15,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate students and over 1000 graduate students...

 in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...

 on June 17, 2010.

External links

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