Mansbridge enjoying life after The National
Peter Mansbridge says he’s enjoying the new pace of his life away from the CBC flagship news program The National, but he has no plans to give up work.
After accepting the Canadian Screen Award for lifetime achievement on Sunday, the former anchor said he’s got some projects in the works and pointed to the ongoing success of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, 88, who recently earned his second Oscar nomination for All the Money in the World.
“I know I’ve always looked at lifetime achievement awards as, ‘OK, that’s it, he’s done, we’re not going to see them around again,’ right? Well, Plummer is a perfect example of, ‘Don’t make that judgment,’” Mansbridge, 69, said backstage. “Here he is a year later, nominated for an Oscar and he’s still working hard. I’m not quite as old as Chris Plummer and I still feel I’ve got quite a few years ahead of me doing a different work.”
That work includes freelancing on documentary projects for the CBC and something with the German public broadcaster ZDF.
“We’re doing a co-pro together,” Mansbridge said of ZDF. “I can’t really talk too much about it other than to say that it’s going to be significant and it’ll be a production that will be seen hopefully around the world.”
Mansbridge stepped down from his role as anchor and chief correspondent last July after nearly three decades with the program.
He admitted that he doesn’t miss the daily routine as much as he thought he would.
And he said he is watching the new instalment of The National, hosted by Ian Hanomansing, Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton and Andrew Chang.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not watching The National as much as I used to watch The National, because I’m on the road a lot. I do a lot of travelling. I do a lot of speeches,” Mansbridge said.
It’s a challenging time for journalism with many things changing, he added, noting consumers relate to their news differently these days and consume less of it through television.
“Everybody is trying to adapt and The National is no different,” Mansbridge said. “So it’s a much different kind of show when I was there a year ago and it’ll be different a year from now, because they’re trying to adapt to a changing landscape, just like everybody is, just like print is.”