ScottMcLean.ca

I have to admit the title is a bit misleading.  It should actually read, “McLean one-on-one”.  That’s because on Wednesday I had the chance to have a chat with the Canadian journalism icon himself, Peter Mansbridge.  Of course, I’m not important enough to have him interview me, so I picked his brain instead.

Peter Mansbridge has been a fixture on Canadian television for decades.

You’re probably asking how I managed to score an interview with a Canadian A-lister?  Well, its the same way that any talk show host manages to land most of their interviews: everyone wants to promote themselves (their new movie, their new book, their new show, how cool they are… you get the point).  It seems these days the CBC is in the business of promoting themselves – their image more specifically.  What bettter way to do that then to allow journalists from all across the city to interview their talent in order to provide a bit of publicity for their re-launch.

Here’s the problem, I was at the Excalibur office in North York until 1am trying to get that week’s issue of the paper finished, and still had to go home and prepare questions for my 11am phone interview the next day.  So, I stayed up til 3am diligently putting thoughts on the page, that would become my questions.  After all, if there’s one interview in your life where you want to sound competant it’s with Peter.  Here’s a guy who knows a thing or two about conducting an interview.  Over his 40-year career at the CBC he’s chatted with the likes of world leaders, pro athletes, the most influential musicians, authors you name it he’s talked to them.  He even managed to score an interview with Barack Obama earlier this year.  All the while he makes his interviews sound as if he’s just having a casual chat in his living room.

I had to be down at Queen’s Park that morning to interview a politician following Question Period in the legislature, so I had to do my interview with Peter there as well.  So there I was, sitting at the top of a quiet staricase on the fourth floor, reading over my notes, and sweating profusely in my suit, worrying that I’d get sweat puddles through my blazer. 

Something that’s important to understand is that usually when you interview important people over the phone they have PR people coming out the wazoo, so you have to get transferred a hundred times before you actually reach the person you want to talk to, and then your time is extremely limited.  This often happens with politicians, and sadly enough it even happens with the York University President (who I guess must be kind of a big deal).

So, when the phone rang at exactly 11:07am on Wednesday morning I picked it up expecting to be speaking with his publicist.  I pressed the green button to answer the call hardly before even waiting for it to ring once, “Scott McLean”, I said.

And as if he were jumping out of the TV screen at me and into my ear, Peter’s unmistakably calm, smooth, barritone voice said, “Hi Scott, it’s Peter Mansbridge.”

And here’s where it all becomes a blur.  I had rehearsed the beginning phone call in my mind a hundred times over so as to sound as calm and professional as I could.  After all, I wanted to leave a good impression on the most famous person working for the broadcasting corporation I hope will one day be my employer.

I didn’t record the first few seconds of our conversation, and it’s probably better that I didn’t, because then I would have to remember even more vividly how I probably sounded like a 12 year-old schoolgirl who had just run into Zac Efron.  After I told him how big of a fan I was, and he explained that he’s not such a big shot that he can’t dial his own phone numbers I settled down and asked my questions.

I wasn’t surprised that a guy who has interviewed so many knows a thing or two about being interviewed himself.  The first thing that struck me is that he’s not a politician.  He never once sounded like he was in a rush at all, and he sounded nothing but genuine the entire way through.  I didn’t have a watch to gauge my ten-minute time limit, and when I got off the phone with him, I looked and saw 16:51 flashing on the screen of my Blackberry.

The CBC's Nancy Wilson hosts CBC News: Today

I spent the rest of the day attending the CBC launch presentation, and was lucky enough to interview Harry Forestell, Nancy Wilson, Evan Solomon and CBC’s vice-president Richard Stursburg.  I wish I had of had more time with each of them – especially Solomon because I sort of got cut short on my time with him.

You can pick up Wednesday’s Excalibur for a transcription of my interview with Peter Mansbridge, as well as a story on CBC’s new look that will feature quotes from all of the talent I mentioned above.