What's a Canadian? Ask Peter Mansbridge
Peter Mansbridge, CBC News’ chief correspondent, recently celebrated 25 years as anchor of the broadcaster’s nightly news program, the National.
Yet he admitted to the 400 people who filled Concordia’s D.B. Clarke Auditorium on May 31 that it took three foreign-born individuals to help him find the elusive response to the question, “What is a Canadian?”
Mansbridge was on hand for the sixth annual Reader’s Digest Lecture, which is supported by the Reader’s Digest Foundation of Canada and Concordia’s Department of Journalism.
The iconic newscaster warmly recounted experiences from his tenure at the National.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Mansbridge met an eight-year-old Sri Lankan girl. When she saw Mansbridge’s Canadian-flag lapel pin, she pointed and said, “Canada good.” He learned that the girl had just been vaccinated by three volunteer Canadian nurses at a local makeshift hospital. The Vancouver women had come to the ravaged country at their own expense.
“For the rest of the girl’s life, she’ll always associate Canada with good because of those nurses,” Mansbridge said.
In 2010, Mansbridge was in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, for the 65th anniversary of the city’s liberation from German occupation by Canadian troops. As thousands lined the streets to watch the Canadian Second World War veterans march by, he noticed a young woman holding her four-year-old son.
“I asked why she was there, and she replied, ‘Because I want my son to know what a Canadian is,’ ” Mansbridge said. “For most of my career, that’s what I was trying to answer. Yet she knew. Canadians are ‘those guys who saved us.’ ”
A few years earlier, he was in Afghanistan to report on Canadian forces. He met a woman with the Canadian International Development Agency who was teaching young Afghanis about their new constitution. The woman was born in Afghanistan but fled with her family to Canada when the Taliban came to power in the 1990s.
“She explained to me, ‘I wanted to go back to tell them what’s possible when you live in a free society,’ ” he said. “This was a young woman in love with her new country and wanted to tell her old country the secret to their future.”
Mansbridge also discussed emerging challenges in journalism. “The basics haven’t changed. Journalism is still about telling stories, asking questions and challenging assumptions.”
He also praised the university’s journalism program and mentioned that CBC is home to many Concordia graduates, including Catherine Cullen, GrDip 05, who at that moment was on assignment in Panama.
After the formal part of the event, Mansbridge kindly remained for 30 minutes to chat and take photos with audience members.
The Reader’s Digest Lecture was preceded by the Graduate Diploma in Journalism 25th Anniversary Reunion organized by Advancement and Alumni Relations. Before Mansbridge took the stage at the lecture, Department of Journalism Chair Linda Kay and Concordia President Alan Shepard addressed the audience.
Graduate Diploma in Journalism Director Peter Downie announced that the speaker generously agreed to establish the Peter Mansbridge Award in Television Journalism at Concordia for three years.
Downie introduced his former CBC colleague, whom he first met 25 years ago: “Whenever I hear Peter Mansbridge, I know where I am. I know I’m in Canada.”