Anchorman

The title may be Off the Record, but if you’re looking for major revelations, whether personal or political, you won’t find them here. After fifty years at CBC News and thirty years in the anchor chair, Peter Mansbridge must know where a fair number of the Mother Corp’s bodies are buried and may even have the goods on a few Ottawa politicians. But he is not telling. Instead, readers will find several dozen short chapters of stories and sketches that are rich with self-deprecating wit, pulled together in roughly chronological order. In many ways, this is a reflection on a charmed life.

For years, Peter Mansbridge was one of the most famous people in Canada — recognized as a boyish version of the “girl next door,” a calm and trustworthy nice guy. Each night on national television, he guided us through the first rough drafts of history, from Pierre Trudeau’s repatriation of the Constitution in 1982 to the fall of the Berlin Wall seven years later, from 9/11 to...