Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Peter Mansbridge: Toronto Mike'd #929

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

Mike chats with Peter Mansbridge about how he scored the best broadcast journalism job in the country without a high school diploma, his professional relationship with Hockey Night in Canada, his final interview with Gord Downie, his role in Zootopia, and much more.

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Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. I recently had Ron Sexsmith on the show. Peter Mansbridge. Peter, nice to meet you. Hey, Mike. I've been looking forward to this. I recently had Ron Sexsmith on the program, and he tells me you're down the street. Like, could you literally, like, walk out your front door in Stratford and wave hi to Ron Sexsmith? Yeah, I'd have to have long arms, but he's not far.

You know, he's sort of down the street and around the corner. He's got a great place. We've got a great place. And he's kind of a newbie to Stratford. Right. I mean, he's only been there for, I don't know, five or ten years. How long have you been in there? I've been there 20.

20 years. Yeah, at least 20, actually. A little more than that now. Is there a more, because I know Ron's going to hear this, is there a more underappreciated talent on this planet than Ron Sexsmith? Probably not. He is amazing, right? And, you know, he's a great musician,

and he's recognized that way by some of the biggest names in the business around the world right he's also a funny guy i mean if you follow him on twitter you know what i mean you know he does crazy stuff he's a punny guy you mean a very punny guy so so much love to ron sexsmith but i also want to shout out your wife cynthia because i also went to to Michael Power High School. So I'm a fellow graduate of the same high school as your wife. She's still got, she's got a brick from Michael Power. When she, when they were knocking it down, whenever that was, I don't know, 10 years ago. Right. She went to the construction site and got one. So she's like, she's never lost her Michael Power roots.

Well, so I'm a, i'm a titch younger than your wife but when i would be for example in the drama class uh there would be pictures well your your wife and her sister uh there'd be photos on the wall of like these great dramatic arts graduates of michael power like almost like a shrine to the theales. Yeah, no, they've been very, you know, successful and continue to be so. You know, Jenny's doing a TV series. Cynthia's still on stage just doing a thing with the Kerner Hall in Toronto. So, I mean, she's busy. Say hi for me, will you?

I absolutely will. And one more, before we get into this, uh, fantastic book that you've, uh, you've written called Off the Record, which I did find out had nothing to do with Michael Landsberg, you know, uh, just, it's just called Off the Record. But I want to ask you, because I know you, uh, of course you worked at the CBC for many, many years, and that means you worked with Neil MacDonald. And I guess I'm wondering in a roundabout way if that alliance ever led to you meeting Norm MacDonald. I did. Neil asked me to come down for one of the Washington Press Club dinners, you know, sort of an evening with the president once a year.

It used to be, the White House Correspondents Dinner. And this would have been, oh, 15 years ago, at least. And they always have a big-name comedian as part of the dinner. And it was Norm's turn. And Neil wanted me to be there, and I absolutely wanted him. I'm a huge Norm MacDonald fan, had been for years, remain so now even though he's gone. But so we went, and we had a good time, and obviously I met Norm. And it's funny because I've always found Norm MacDonald's humor very Canadian. Like, you find Macdonald's humor very Canadian.

Like, you find it funnier if you're Canadian than American. And, you know, a lot of Americans love Norm Macdonald. But I always found him funnier. And I thought it was because there was kind of a Canadian streak there. You know, almost by being extremely normal, it was really funny. Um, and he, um, he knew how to pull that off. Yeah. I found him to be, uh, just maybe because I'm Canadian, but I, uh, and you said it yourself, Americans thought he was funny too, but there was something unique. I just think there's no one on the planet that struck my funny bone as hard as

Norm MacDonald. And, you know, Neil is that way too. I mean, Neil's great correspondent. He's retired now, but you know, he saw the world and covered it for us. And before us, he was working for the Ottawa citizen. And that's where, you know, I kind of, well, a number of us discovered Neil Macdonald but I was really big on on the fact that we should hire him we'd done a trip together him working

for the citizen and me working for the CBC around Mark Garneau's first launch into space so we were in Florida and in Texas and I got to know there's a lot of sitting around waiting when you're covering a space launch, especially in those, in that area in the early eighties. Right. And, uh, uh, so we spent a lot of time sitting around, uh, talking and laughing and Neil's had that same kind of dry humor that his brother, uh, had as well. Well, if, uh, if Neil's listening, my condolences, my sincere condolences there.

Right. And Peter, it's interesting hearing you talk about Mark Garneau's first launch and that we've, this is where we've come. Mark Garneau, and now we're waiting for William Shatner's first launch. I was talking to Chris Hatfield on my podcast today about it.

And, you know, it is kind of crazy, right? The guy's 90, he about it and you know it is kind of crazy right the guy is 90 he's 90 on the you know he's closer to 91 than 90 right and he's trained for like three days you know Chris Hatfield who's you know a fighter pilot and all those other things but but trained for years to get ready for his moment in space. Now, this really is a moment. I mean, you'll only be up there for a couple of minutes, really, in terms of actual space. But still, you know, the whole Star Trek thing and the influence that had on all of us.

And it's kind of neat to watch it happen. And, you know, fingers crossed, it'll be, it'll just be another moment. You know, I, I opened off the top telling you that I went to the same high school as your wife is like that small world story, but here's another one. So I produce a podcast for the legend that is Ralph Ben-Murgy and much like yourself, Peter, and we're going to talk about your book off the record. Ralph's got a book coming out too.

I have an advanced copy I've been reading, just looking to see where does he mention me. I'm still looking. I'm still searching. He said it to me too, and I read it. I think it's a really good book because Ralph, as you know, has been through a lot in his life. I still remember when he first came to the CBC and was starting to do stuff.

And you could tell this guy was a mega talent and handled the right way. And him handling fame the right way, it could launch him into a heck of a career. Well, there were challenges there. And some of them he met, and others he was unlucky with. But it's a really good book because he's very honest with everything that happens to him in his life so far.

Well, I brought it up with you because I happen to know you wrote something that I think it shows up on the back of the book or something. Like it doesn't actually show up in the PDF I have, okay? But if you buy the book, there is some Peter Mansbridge content, I think, that you had read it and what you thought of it. And it's just such a's a small world because yeah, Ralph Benberg, by the way, also, of course, had his yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck years.

That's actually tough to say. I know you're the professional speaker here, but yuck, yuck years. And where he would work with Norm MacDonald back in the early 80s. So just a little teaser for people that Ralph's back on the show next week. And I'm going to be asking him about Norm as well.

That's great. And he'll have some, I'm sure, pretty amazing stories to tell, especially from an era where most people know nothing about and few lucky people got to see. But Ralph will tell those stories. Right. Now, Off the Record is the name of your new book, and it's available. Wait a minute. So we're finally getting around to my book now? Are you sure there's no other books you'd like to talk about first? Yeah, there are a few actually. Hold on here.

I recommend Of Mice and Men. It's a pretty good book as well. But while you're in the bookstore looking for Of Mice and Men, you might see Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge. So just so we talk about this off the top, and then we'll revisit it at the end. Where would you like people to pick up a copy? Like if you had a preference as to where somebody picks up off the record, where would you like them to pick up your new book? Pretty well anywhere.

I'll be happy no matter where they pick it up. I mean, obviously, listen, we, you know, we like to promote your independent book store. The one that's probably not far from where you live, maybe around the corner.

These people take gambles every year on books. You know, it's a, it's a tough business book selling. There's no guarantees. It's just like writing books. There are no guarantees. it's just like writing books there are no guarantees but anyway you know your independent bookseller any of the online thing it's so easy now to get stuff yeah you know you never have to leave your house and for a pandemic that's been great not so great when it's not a pandemic, you know, I mean, getting out is part of living. We all, we all miss that. We are all anxious to get back to doing it. Well, forget leaving your house, Peter. You don't have to leave your bed anymore. So anyway, this is your order of the day here.

Before I get to the great questions that listeners have submitted for Peter Mansbrick, the great order of the day is to pick up your smartphone if you're lying in bed listening to this and order this, do this, order the Peter Mansbridge book off the record, which we're going to talk about in this episode. And then let's order Ralph Ben-Murgy's book, I Thought He Was Dead. How's that? A twofer right there. Right. And there's another book out there, since we mentioned his name already,

and that's, you know, Chris Hatfield, which just this week he launches his first attempt in the world of fiction, which I've always wanted to get in. I mean, we worry so much in my business about facts, as we should. But to write a novel and not have to worry about checking the facts is not a bad thing. But anyway, Chris has written a new book called The Apollo Murders. And it's based on some true elements of space history.

And then he's added his own touch. But I'm sure it's going to do well as well. All right, Peter. So I have some, you know, again, key questions sent in by FOTMs. But I'm going to open with, it might be obvious, you might have been asked it several times already today, but I'm going to ask how exactly does a ticket agent for Transair at Churchill Airport in Churchill, Manitoba, without a high school diploma, end up as chief correspondent for CBC News and anchor of the National from 1988 to 2017.

How exactly does that happen? You know, every once in a while I have to explain this to journalism students who think that I went straight from the baggage counter in Churchill, Manitoba into the anchor chair of the National. It didn't quite work that way. I mean, you know, the short story is I was 19. You're quite correct. I didn't get through high school. And then I was in the Navy for a little bit. That didn't work out too well either. And then I was bouncing around Western Canada, ended up in Churchill, Manitoba, working

for a little airline called Transair. And I was doing mostly kind of baggage handling and freight and cargo movements. But one day the ticket agents at the counter asked me to handle the announcement in the PA, the public address system in the terminal building. And so I did. I went up to the microphone, Transair, flight 106 for Thompson-LePont, Winnipeg, now ready for boarding at gate one. And as I like to say, we only had one gate. It was a very small airport.

But it sounded good. It sounded like the big boys in Winnipeg. That's just the way they did it. So I did that. And everybody rushed towards the gate, except one guy who came the other way right towards me, and he said, hey, you've got a good voice. Have you ever thought about radio?

And I said, no, I never thought about radio, as a matter of fact. And he said, well, I'm the manager of the CBC station here, and I can't find somebody to work late night shift. This was 1968, remember. Right. And if you want it, you can have it. So I said, sure. And I started the next night. I stayed at Transair during the days and worked at night at the CBC. And that's how I got started. And they never asked another question. I mean, if there was a human resources department at the CBC

in 1968, they didn't come anywhere near Churchill nobody asked me about my my schooling anything they just thought hey there's a live body who's willing to work late night shift and so I uh that's how I started and I you know spinning records which I was terrible at but I loved the whole idea of of talking into a microphone and connecting with people. And so I was always interested as a kid growing up in what was going on around me. I was curious. I loved the news. And so I started a newscast.

They didn't have one at Churchill. And one thing led to another, and one job movement after another. And it was Churchill to Winnipeg to Regina to Ottawa, a little bit overseas, Toronto. And the first 20 years was all reporting. And then I started anchoring in 88. And the rest, as they say, is history. And again, off the record, that's the book you're buying your loved one

for the holidays this year, off the record. And it's not the Michael Landsberg story. This is the Peter Mansbridge story. And it's really, you know, it's a collection of, you know, people said, is it a memoir? And I said, no, no, no, don't call it a memoir because that sounds like a near-death experience, you know, that as I'm heading out, you know,

I sort of hand this manuscript over and say, there it is, there's everything I've ever done. And now I'm gone. That's not what this is. This is a, you know, it's a look at some of the things that have happened in my career and are still happening, because I'm still working in a, on a number of different ventures. Right. And, you know, and how they relate to journalism and how they relate to the story of Canada. And, you know, and how they relate to journalism and how they relate to the story of Canada. And, you know, some of them are fun. I don't know whether you've actually read it, Mike, but, I mean, some of them are fun and funny.

Others are emotional. They all tell you a little bit about journalism and about the country. So, and, you know, obviously a little bit about me. What would you say is the most significant news story that you've covered during your time there as head anchor for the CBC? Well, I guess 9-11 defined a lot of things about us as a people, and not just as Canadians, but as a, as a people. Um, so I was pretty significant, but for me, you know, as a, you know, I was in the studio for 44 hours straight and on 9-11 and

then, you know, over the next couple of days. Uh, but I, but the key is I was in the studio. Like I never left the studio. I was calling the shots on a huge story, but I wasn't at the story. So I've always given the edge to places where I've actually been at the time the story was happening. So aside from 9-11, the biggest

story that I was probably on scene for was the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 because that was a significant shift in the world in terms of history. And I, you know, I remember clearly those couple of days. It happened on a Thursday night. I was in Ottawa then, but by the time I got to Berlin, it was the Saturday, and we were doing weekend shows. But that whole weekend, those whole four or five days, you know,

there were celebrations around the wall. The wall was coming down. People were, you know, pulling it down, you know, with axes and hammers and chisels, and they're bare hands. And we were there to record it and to watch it and to talk about it live on air. So that was huge. You know, that was a huge story to be involved in.

But there have been dozens more, both in Canada and in different parts of the world. I was in Afghanistan a couple of times. I was in Iraq, Middle East many times, China, Russia. I mean, I've been a lot of places. But Canada is, you know, I wasn't born here. I wasn't raised here. But Canada has defined my life, my career,

and it's still as exciting for me as it's ever been. I was just up in the Arctic a couple of weeks ago. I'm shooting a documentary on Arctic sovereignty and climate change. And, you know, I get this enormous thrill out of any travels to the north. It is my, you know, of a lot of favorite places in Canada, it's probably the most favorite for me. Okay, this begs the question, Peter, because you're very active. You've got the show on SiriusXM, which is a podcast.

And, you know, you just explained to us there, you were up shooting this documentary feature. I got to ask, why retire in 2017 from the greatest news gig in the country when you really are not retired at all? I've been doing anchoring for 30 years and it was know it was it was time not just for me but for um the broadcast for an injection of new ideas and new blood and and and a new age i mean i'd always maintained that i wouldn't do the national with a seven in front of my age so i i was out at 69 and a bit so I was out at 69 and a bit and so and I was comfortable you know it was hard at the time but only for a couple of weeks I got over it very quickly and I've had just you know I do a lot of different things now but I do them at my pace you know I do the podcast you mentioned I do them at my pace. You know, I do the podcasts you mentioned. I do documentaries, two significant documentaries a year,

like one hour in length. I, you know, I write books, obviously. This is the second one in a row. Hopefully this one is as successful as the one last year, which was the number one. And I, you know, I teach a little bit at the U of T, lecture at the Munk School, sit on a couple of boards, give speeches. You know, it is, it sounds like a lot when you rattle

them all off. But as I said earlier, you know, I do it at my pace. I decide how much I want to do and when I want to do it. So no regrets? Oh, no, none. I, i you know i've never had any regrets you know throughout my career on the professional side of uh no regrets i you know things have worked out so well for me and when i consider that it really did start that way you know hauling bags um that it's kind of yeah i use i still have to pinch myself every once in a while to realize where I came from and how lucky I've been. And how would you say that Adrian Arsenault and Andrew Chang are doing? I think they're doing great.

I mean, you know, Adrian has been a friend of mine for, I remember when she arrived in the building almost 30 years ago as basically a copy clerk, an editorial assistant. She used to bring scripts into the studio for me, right? Right. But you could tell even then this person was like extremely talented as a young person, very inquisitive, had her own way about doing things. And when she started reporting, that became very clear.

Very few people I've seen who work as hard as Adrian. Andrew, I don't know as well. I met him a couple of times when he was in Vancouver and he was anchoring the local show there. Hoover and he was anchoring the local show there. But in terms of the journalism, I mean, Adrian's like miles ahead of most people I know, including me. Well, let's, let's take you back.

You were talking about the Berlin Wall in 89. Let's take you back one year earlier. I guess this is when you become the head anchor at CBC taking over for Knowlton Nash. Now, the story that's been reported many times, but now that I finally have, you know, Peter Mansbridge on the line, I'm going to ask about it. Is it true the story that we hear is that you got an offer from CBS in the States

and to keep you in this country, to keep you in Canada, Knowlton Nash retired so you could assume the anchoring duties. Now, I was going to say the moose's mouth because I'm going to get into that later, but is that story accurate? Yeah, the broad sweep of that is accurate. Knowlton didn't retire. He still, he wanted to mix his life as a very successful author. He wrote a lot of books. And, you know, which were a mixture of biographical and historical. And he wanted more time to write, but he also didn't want to leave broadcasting. So basically what we did is we traded responsibilities.

I took over the weekday. He ended up grabbing the weekends. So he was still around for a while in terms of broadcasting. But it's true, what spurred it all was an offer from, you know, a major offer from CBS to anchor one of their network shows. Now, you never, again, you just explained to us, no professional regrets from yourself. But, you know, when you look at somebody like, let's say, Peter Jennings, for example, like, I mean, that sounds pretty alluring. Like, you never had that moment where, let's go for it and see what happens down south.

Well, I had lots of those moments in my career. I mean, listen, I was in Churchill for three years before I had the opportunity to move out. And, you know, and I really want to do this. I mean, you know, I'm kind of a big fish in a very small pond right now. Do I want to be a small fish in a bigger pond? So, you know, you're faced with that all the time in your career. So at the moment of the CBS offer, I was going, you know, until Knowlton decided to do what he decided to do.

And then I was confronted with, hey, you know what? My whole time at the CBC, and at that point it was 20 years, has been dreaming of the opportunity to have this job, which is now right in front of me. And, you know, it's, as far as I was concerned, the best job in Canadian television journalism, if not Canadian journalism total, versus what was a very good job, a very high-paying job,

considerably higher paying than what I would make at the CBC, although, let me underline, I wasn't selling pencils to live. While I was working at the CBC, they paid me a lot of money in Canadian terms. But the American thing was huge in money. But it was morning television. And it wasn't necessarily interviewing presidents and prime ministers. But it could be, and this is not in any way to slight any of these professions,

but sitting there in the morning interviewing, you know, cooks and jugglers and, you know, actors, I've got to be careful here because I'm married to one. But, you know, it wasn't the same. Plus the CBC had been the place that had taken me from nowhere and given me all these incredible opportunities and trained me to be what they were now placing in front of me. And so when it came all down to that, I was fine with the decision, totally fine. I still have a lot of good friends in the States, and Peter Jennings was one of them. But I've got other correspondents who I worked with over time

in Canada who've successfully made the transition to the States. Others who went to the States and decided, you know what, I'm not keen on it and came back. And that's fine too. Everybody makes their own decisions. And it's not just in broadcasting, but in all kinds of professions have that opportunity. Now I feel bad because my next guest is a juggler. And you've got... Yeah, well, but try to not tell her or him what I just said. I hope they don't listen to this one.

Diamond Dog is a listener of the program and Diamond's got a great question for you, Peter. Ask him about how he used to do news updates in the intermission before overtime of a playoff game and then disdainly, and this is Diamond Dog's words, disdainly threw it back to hockey night in Canada. He always looked annoyed that the airing of the newscast was delayed. Oh, I was annoyed whenever the newscast was delayed,

but that didn't mean I'm not a hockey fan. I've got season tickets to the Leafs and the Raptors, and all those nights where I'd be delayed, what was I doing while I was waiting? I was watching the hockey game. But that wasn't the point. The point was that I didn't blame the Hockey Night in Canada crew. Many of them are very good friends, close friends of mine,

including Ron, who's a longtime friend of mine, Ron McLean. Of course. But what I blamed was the CBC. I never understood why, as the nation's public broadcaster, they were the worst network in the world for delaying their most important program, their flagship program, the news, the national, for a couple of months a year.

It didn't make any sense to me. It didn't make any sense to me. It didn't make any sense to me this past summer. And I never would have. I would have screamed bloody murder from the highest rooftop when they bounced the national right off the schedule for two weeks during the Olympics so they could cram more commercials into sports programming. Now, that just shows to me a total lack of commitment

to news and current affairs by the nation's public broadcaster, who when they ever do surveys, and they do them, what's most important to Canadians about the CBC? News and current affairs always finishes first. And yet, they don't protect it. So that always used to bother me. So if I had a look of disdain, it wasn't about Hockey Night in Canada or the game, unless the Leafs were losing, getting crushed.

But that never happens, does it? No comment. I have become pretty good buds with Dave Hodge, who comes on every single year to kick out his favorite songs of the year, and he's a great FOTM. But it's just funny. It's kind of like the reverse of Dave Hodge, where Dave Hodge was pissed because they were not going to continue

with the overtime. Yeah, that was a strange one. I was there that night. that was a strange one like i was there that night that was a saturday and uh so i was there when dave threw the pen across the studio floor in fact i tried to find that pen because i thought it'd be worth a lot of money um but uh yeah i don't know how that unfolded that night i mean it was a bizarre thing of time zones. It was an afternoon game as opposed to an evening game. There was something weird about it.

But anyway, it was another very odd decision, so we call it that, by the hires up at the CBC who make those kind of calls. Now, as I recall in my conversations with Dave about this, it was a compounding thing because he and Bob Cole had been watching curling earlier in the day. I think whatever the curling championship is where the provinces play each other,

and I'm showing my ignorance. Breyer. Breyer. I apologize to all the Breyer fans. But there was Newfoundland was playing, I guess. That's Bob Cole's home team there, and they left him. He was the representative for Newfoundland more than a few times. He's a great curler, Bob Cole.

I got to brush up on my curling. That's on my to-do list. Hurry hard. Hurry hard. I always think of make the final. Yeah yeah shout out to another fellow fotm okay but but what i remember is that i guess cbc had left curling which irked dave and bob cole and then when they were watching and then to later that same day to leave the overtime game of a hockey game uh i guess that was like a final straw hence Hence the pen flip. By the way, somebody I

spoke to, and I'm not sure if it was, might have been Paul Romanuk. I gotta look into my archives and remember who exactly it was. But somebody who was in the room that night claims they picked up that pen. And they kept that pen. So I have that somewhere in the archives here. I have to dig it up.

Maybe I'll put together a special feature on the pen flip with various accounts. There's probably a lot of people who claim they have that pen. If you go to eBay right now, there's several pens that Dave Hodge flipped. The number of people who swear that they

were, you know, in the dome for the bat flip for Bautista. I was there, actually. You were there. Or the Joe Carter home run for the World Series in 93. I was there. But it seems that if everybody was there at either one of those events,

they would have been record crowds. The one I hear a lot. You're right. You're absolutely right. And I hear those two a lot, too. But the one I hear is that first Blue Jays game in 77, I guess it was April 7th, 77 or something. I've heard personally now heard from about a hundred thousand people who are

at the exhibition stadium that day. So I wasn't, but I had a ticket for that game and I still have that ticket still intact. Right. Did you frame it? It is framed as a matter of fact. And I, but I had like a couple of days before the game,

I was, I had to go to Europe on an assignment. And so I, I missed the game, but held onto the ticket. Yeah. Doug old hit two homers that night. Yeah.

Now one thing about Hawking and Canada is that is that the revenues generated by Hockey Night in Canada for the CBC helped pay that great Peter Mansbridge salary. Until the time of the Rogers deal. Well, that's where my next question is, and I want to dedicate this question to Matt Layden, who always has a question about Rogers media and sports. How did you feel personally when CBC lost Hockey Night in Canada to Rogers? Well, listen, I can say what I want about

whether it disrupted the national schedule, which it did, but Hockey Night in Canada was an important pillar of the CBC in terms of funds and how we paid for stuff. So losing that was a big deal. However, we lost it fair and square. It was fair. I don't know how square it was.

I think it was kind of a botched negotiation on the part of the CBC. But nevertheless, we lost it. Rogers got it. And at that point, we should have punted and said, fine. Because now we still run the games, but we get no money for it. Right. Zip. Right.

Now we just give it to Rogers. We get to run promotion on some of our primetime shows. You see them at the crawl across the bottom of the screen. Anyway, I, you know, the CBC was worried, oh, my God, we've got nothing to fill all those programming hours. Well, create something. It's supposed to be a creative organization. But they didn't, And they haven't.

No, good point. And David Schultz, who's been on the program to talk about this negotiation, says, yes, CBC wasn't even in that negotiation. That was Bell Media versus Rogers Media

with near identical deals on the table. But I guess it was too rich for, at least the CBC felt it was definitely too rich for their blood. But you're right. Why?

I'm with you, man. Punt. You know, it's fine. You lost it right. Why? I'm with you, man. Punt. You know, it's fine. You lost it fair and square. Who knows how square you said. But bottom line is that all that, you know, schedule space devoted to hockey when you don't get any of the revenues, it's an interesting, curious decision.

Yeah. I think we were in it for a while, but I think the CBC had alienated the NHL on a number of fronts on the way they handle those negotiations. But you're right. At the end of the day, there's no way the CBC could have come up with whatever gazillion billion dollars that the Sportsnet... Five-something. And what would the outrage be like if they found

out cbc spent five billion dollars on sports yeah plus we didn't have five billion to spend like i mean right just didn't have it right and apparently well i won't get into that but hey that's the good stuff. The books on that deal explain it pretty well. About the money and the lack of it. Toronto Mic'd

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This is awesome. You can buy one, get one 50% off. Go to chefdrop.ca. The promo code is F-O-T-M-B-O-G-O. Use it and let them know you heard about them on Toronto Mic'd. Stickeru.com, that's where I get all my decals and toronto mike stickers fantastic business uh out of liberty village but they're online so you can you can utilize their services from anywhere in the world ridley funeral home they.com. If you're looking to buy and or sell in the next six months and you're in the greater Toronto area, I urge you to speak with Mike Majewski. Go to realestatelove.ca to speak with Mike. And last but not least, McKay's CEO forums have a fantastic new podcast called

the CEO Edge Podcast. I post new episodes on torontomike.com every week. I urge you to subscribe and listen. Now let's get back to Peter. Hey, you mentioned the promos that CBC can run on these Saturday Night Leaps vs. Habs tilts. One of the shows they might promote on the bottom there would be Murdoch Mysteries. And I have a great question from Cam Gordon. He says, cue for the bridge. By the way, do people, do your friends call you the bridge? Like, could I start calling you the bridge?

Or is that too... People did call me, Strombo used to call you the bridge? Like, could I start calling you the bridge? Or is that too... Some people did call me, Strombo used to call me the bridge. And that's actually how I came up with the name for the podcast. I decided to do that. A couple of people suggested it to me, but Strombo was the first one

to use that term. Well, I'm no Strombo, but I will read Cam's note here, which is question for the bridge. Did he meet Ed Asner? So let's back up here. You were in a Murdoch Mysteries holiday special, and I'm assuming Ed Asner was also in this special?

If he was, I didn't see him. But you're right, I did do a Murdoch Mysteries, a Christmas special a few years ago, and it was fun to do. I mean, they're a real professional operation. Ed Asner, if he was in a Murdoch Mysteries, it wasn't that one. But he did a show with Cynthia. He did a show with my wife. Sure.

It was kind of a musical Christmas special a few years ago, and he was great. And they maintained their relationship and, in fact, did another show just a few months before his death. Wow. Which was an audio-only show. Well, it was done by Zoom. So they were all, and this was for, I think it was for a theater in Barrie.

And Ed Asner was in L.A. or Connecticut. I think Connecticut, I think that's where he was living. And they did it together. LA or Connecticut where I think Connecticut, I think that's where he was living. And, um, and they did it, they did it together and it was, uh, it was great. I have a, uh, a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, which means I've seen, uh, a certain animated movie, uh, many, many, many, many times. And I'm actually going to play for you, Peter, uh, about a 20 second clip from this movie. Cause we have to talk about this, many, many times. And I'm actually going to play for you, Peter, about a 20-second clip from this movie because we have to talk about this. But here we go. More bad news in this city gripped by fear.

A caribou is in critical condition, the victim of a mauling by a savage polar bear. This, the 27th such attack, comes just one week after ZPD officer Judy Hopps connected the violence to traditionally predatory animals. Meanwhile, a peace rally organized by pop star Gazelle was marred by protest. Go back to the forest, predator!

I'm from the savannah! Zootopia is a unique place. Peter Mansbridge, meet Peter Moosebridge. Mm-hmm. Yes, it was that few seconds that vaulted that film to Academy Award winning status and a Golden Globe.

Right. If that scene hadn't been pulled off the way that actor, that voice actor, pulled that off, I don't think they would have won those awards. And what great voice acting. It sounds nothing like you.

All right, so let me ask, okay, for those who don't know, for those who don't have young kids, this is the 2016 Walt Disney movie Zootopia. And the character we heard that sounded an awful lot like Peter Mansbridge is actually a moose named Peter Moosebridge. And I got to ask, because it's basically you playing yourself as Peter Moosebridge, but how does like Disney become aware of Peter Mansbridge? How did that role come to be? I need to know. Well, you know, airports have played such a big part in my life. It's kind of crazy, actually.

The number of things that have happened to me as a result of airports, obviously the hiring back in 1968. But it was in 2015, I was getting on a flight heading to Vancouver. I was going through the security at Pearson. I had a speech in Vancouver, and I was heading through, and suddenly I hear this voice saying, hey, Peter Mansbridge. Vancouver and I was heading through and suddenly I hear this voice saying, hey, Peter Mansbridge. And I turn around and it's this guy there, very nice business person. The guy says,

my name's Greg Mason. I'm the vice president of Disney and we were just talking about you in a meeting. And I said, oh yeah. And he said, no, no, serious. Our next big animated feature, the last one had been frozen. He said, our next big animated feature, the last one had been Frozen. He said, our next big animated feature is called Zootopia, and we want to create this role in it for you called, at that point they didn't have a name, they came up with Peter Moosebridge, but they said it's a moose, a television actor, and you'd be perfect for it. That's how it all started. We had to go through a bunch of weird negotiations

because the CBC doesn't let their journalists do anything like this. I said, it's a kid's thing. Come on. I said, there'll be hundreds of millions of people will see this. What are you talking about? I said, we've got like a 50-year history with Disney. Anyway, they eventually caved in, and, you know, they said you can't earn any money.

And I said, well, I don't want money. In fact, you see that thing there, and you can see, your audience can only hear, but you can see my little studio here in my office. That thing on the wall, that's the check. Disney had to pay me something for union rules, so they gave me a check for $1. US. It's a lot more than just a dollar.

But anyway, I had it framed and put up in my office here. I never cashed it. Here, I'll tell you what, right as soon as we say goodbye, I'm going to do a screen capture of us posing. And if you want, you can point to the dollar check and then people can see the photo tied to this entry on torontomic.com. We'll do that. I like this question from Chris. Chris says, can you ask him why he changed the theme song on the bridge? I love the old one. It was very upbeat.

While the new one seems like a mystery podcast theme song, I realize this isn't important, and I listen to every episode anyway. So that's the main thing. He doesn't miss an episode of the bridge, but can you tell Chris why the theme song changed? Probably I can't give you. Did you know it changed?

I did know it changed. You know, I started this as a hobby, my little podcast. I guess like you started yours. Sure, yes. No money. I wasn't advertising it. Wasn't taking commercials none of that at the beginning so it was all kind of on my hook and so I needed some theme music

and so my son said well you know you can get free music downloaded off the internet and so we did and we you know we we listened to a bunch of stuff. And there's like thousands of tunes there. Yeah, royalty-free music, essentially. Royalty-free, yeah. Nothing from Ron Sexsmith. Right, right, right. So we grabbed whatever that first one was. And then about a year later, we thought,

well, maybe we should try to freshen that up a little bit. Every once in a while, the old one, because I still have it on one of the little buttons on my controller, will pop up and be on the air because I hit the wrong button. So it still kind of appears. But I will take that and I'll keep it in mind. Yeah, maybe Chris wants to return to the old one there. But by the way, the bridge, so you said, is it literally like you're the producer, the host, you're rolling this whole thing yourself

completely independently, the podcast? My son occasionally, you know, I'm not exactly the big on tech and he has to bail me out on occasion. Like next week, I'm going to be in Scotland for a couple of weeks, and I'll be trying to do it from there, which should be interesting. It should be a challenge. We'll see what works.

In theory, I mean, I do recordings all over the world, all over the GTA anyway. If you've got a good Wi-Fi, you'll be great. It's all about securing that Wi-Fi connection. I like this question from Sid. He says, Dan Shulman, speaking of baseball, Dan Shulman once said on Toronto Mic that going bald is far worse than being bald. So he says, could you ask Peter if losing his hair had an effect on him while he was still on the air? Many men, including Peter and Dan, look much better with short hair than with long comb overs.

I hope this isn't too personal, but I thought it would be speaking since Dan did make that comment. I remember him saying that. He says bald is beautiful. I remember him telling me bald is beautiful, but going bald is not fun. Are you suggesting that I've been losing my hair? I think Sid's making that inference, yes. Dan's probably right. You know, when you first realize you're losing your hair,

it does come as a bit of a shock. And you do try to do things to you know maybe it's not going to go any further than it is now and so if i just you know comb this part there or you know powder this you know you never went remember renny levac of course you're probably not old enough oh i am i definitely uh remember but he had a comb over that looked like it started in his armpits. It went up from his armpits. And I thought, I can't do that. I'm never going to be there.

And so I was more influenced by Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau, who didn't seem to care one way or another. Right. He was losing his hair. And so eventually i sort of got over it but it took a while i mean dan's right and one and then you you're just kind of suddenly comfortable with it i mean i still have three hairs on my forehead that i my wife says you know just cut them off i go no no because then i would be bald i think that's homer simpson's hairstyle he's got

that's right but it's funny you mentioned shulman because i was thinking about him the other day and we were driving back down from uh we have a place up in the gatineau hills north of ottawa and my son and i were driving back from there we did know, putting the boat away for the winter and all that. But, you know, I was, Shulman's name came up and I was saying, I remember, I guess it would have been the early 90s when Dan was on, had a show on The Fan. Yes. Yes, indeed. Where it was called, I think it was, was it just called 590 or something before it was the fan? 1430, the fan, and then it became 590, the fan 590.

And I, you know, I'd listen to him and I would say, you know, this thing about broadcasting where some people have it and others don't. And, you know, you never really can define what it is. But you knew the first time I heard Dan Schulman, I said, this guy's got it. He's good. Like, he's really good.

And he was basically just out of university, right? I think he went to Western or somewhere. Yeah, he was going to be an actuary. Right. Well, you know, you could tell. And so I had him, there was some kind of sports issue, and I had them book him for the national to be on the air. And I could tell, yeah, he was nervous.

It was his first, I think, first TV thing. Right. Or one of the first. But you knew this guy was good. And he's, like, so good. good, and he's like so good. He's just like so good. Right. And we're lucky to have him.

Without a doubt, he's chosen to live here. And like yourself, he could have easily chosen to just base himself in whatever, New York or whatever, and just been an ESPN guy. But we still get him here at Colin Jay's games, which is great. Now I'll just get serious for a moment here. Not that we haven't been serious already, but really serious is that recently I had Kevin Hearn on the program. Kevin Hearn, I had him on twice,

but one time I just wanted to speak to him about the secret path and his relationship with, with Gordourd downey and of course that interview we all remember of you and gourd uh it's really the the last time we saw you know an interview with with gourd downey of the tragically hip uh the question is coming from tuesday noon and i'm glad tuesday noon is asking this. He wants to know, how hard was the final interview with Gord Downie? It was a great interview, but also I knew they were good friends. Yeah, listen, of course it was hard because we all knew where this was leading. You know, Gord knew and we knew and the country knew.

The time was running out. And, you know, it was eating away inside him in terms of the cancer was eating away at his brain, among other things. And he was worried about what he would remember during the interview. This was after, you know, he had done the tour across Canada first and then this interview he wanted to do. And he was so worried that he, you know, wrote a lot of things down on his palm of his hand,

including in big letters, my name. And I saw that and I said, Gord, you got to write my name down? We've known each other for 25 years, or whatever it was at that point. And he said, I can't trust my memory. That tour across the country, you'd have to have a teleprompter

for all the words in the music of songs he'd sung for decades, because he was worried that he might forget them. Now, as it turned out in our interview, he had all these things written down on his palm, but he never once looked at any of them. He'd said, I'm going to have to take a break every five minutes, and as it turned out, he never took a break. We went for like an hour, hour and ten minutes.

We went for like an hour, hour and ten minutes. Listen, it was as hard as you might expect for all of us who were there in that room when we did the interview. And he had, as you probably recall, in that last year, he had taken to wanting to kiss whoever he met, whether he'd ever known them before or not. And at the end of the interview, as I was wrapping up, he looked at me and said, can I kiss you? I said, of course.

And so we kissed. And that picture's in the book as well as a a story about what that day was like and some of the moments involved in in our relationship um i mean we weren't good friends i don't want to leave that impression um but we were friends we had seen each other off and on for, you know, a couple of decades. And I'm far richer for that experience of having known him and followed what he'd hoped to see happen in his country and what he thought we all needed to work on and we still need to work on it.

I'll leave the last question here to Michael McMillan. Michael writes, how do we stem the tide of shrinking? He's missing some words, so I'm going to film in here. How do we stem the tide of the shrinking media sector and loss of reporter jobs? What's needed to make this industry grow and thrive? So just a light little question to close on, Peter. You've got a couple hours. It's a really good question.

The media is going through a huge transformation in the landscape of how we operate, not just the different venues and platforms, but on our relationship with those who obviously matter to us in terms of our future, in other words, our audiences, whether they be viewers or listeners or readers or online people and what they believe. And I think part of the future for all of us is going to be sorted out when the landscape clearly sorts out. But how successful we are at that point

is going to depend on that relationship between us and the consumer. And whether we're trusted or not. Now, it seems simple to say that. But it is the crux of it. Like, journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. We've all said that for centuries. for centuries. But in the last 20 years, that pillar has crumbled a little bit. And it's based around this whole issue of truth and trust. And when your audience looks at you and says, why should I believe you? You've got to figure out a way of answering that

and conducting your business in such a fashion that they don't need to ask it. And I think we're at kind of a crossroads on that right now. And we could start by being a lot more transparent about how we do our work, you know, how simple as how you decide what's news and what isn't news, how you decide what should lead a program or be the banner story in a newspaper, how you determine who should get anonymity when you're dealing with sources and who shouldn't and why should anyone.

Because those are the kind of questions they ask and they're not seeing the answers anywhere. And if you're going to get them back on side, you've got to be able to do that. You've got to be able to answer those kind of basic questions. So, Peter, you've got 13 Gemini Awards. You're an Officer of the Order of Canada. You've got the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal,

and now you've appeared on Toronto Mic'd. I know, and I would rank those in the reverse order you just gave, because really, I've waited a long time to be called by you for Toronto Mic'd, and it kind of hurt, actually. When I look at the list of your previous guests and I'm not on it and some of them are, I go, that's really not fair. I'm glad we could rectify that.

And again, I urge all the listeners to check out Off the Record. Wherever you buy your books, pick up Off the Record to learn more of these stories. Again, there's some heavy stories, some hard-hitting stories, and there's some lighter fare. But thanks for doing this, Peter.

This was an absolute pleasure for me. And for me as well. And thanks to your listeners. And that brings us to the end of our 929th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Peter is at Peter Mansbridge. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Chef Drop is at Get Chef Drop. McKay's CEO Forums are at McKay's CEO Forums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home is at Riday CEO forums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. Sticker U is at Sticker U. Ridley Funeral Home is at Ridley FH. And Mike Majeski of Remax Specialists Majeski Group is at Majeski Group Homes on Instagram.

See you all next week. Rosie and Gray Yeah the wind is cold But the smell of snow Wants me to dance And your smile is fine And it's just like mine And it won't go away Cause everything is Rosie and Gray Well you've been under my skin

For more than eight years It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears And I don't know what the future can hold or will do For me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you Oh, you know that's true because everything is coming up rosy and green. Yeah, the wind is cold

but the smell of snow won't speed a day. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away because everything is rosy and gray Well I've been told that there's

a sucker born every day But I wonder who Yeah I wonder who Maybe the one who doesn't realize there's a thousand shades of grey Cause I know that's true Yes I do I know it's true

Yeah I know it's true How about you? All that picking up trash And then putting down roads And they're brokering stocks The class struggle explodes And I'll play this guitar

Just the best that I can Maybe I'm not And maybe I am But who gives a damn Because everything Is coming up rosy and gray. Yeah, the wind is cold, but the smell of snow warms me today. And your smile is fine, it's just like mine, it won't go away.

Because everything is rosy and gray. Well, I've kissed you in France and I've kissed you in Spain. And I've kissed you in places I better not name. And I've seen the sun go down on Sacré-Cœur. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Roam Phone. Roam Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls. Visit RoamPhone.ca to get started. And your smile is fine and it's just like mine and it won't go away.

Cause everything is rosy now. Everything is rosy and everything is rosy and gray. guitar solo