From his job at an airport in Churchill, Manitoba, to being described by CNN as the “president of Poland,” at the funeral of Pope John Paul II, CBC journalist and news anchor Peter Mansbridge described some of his memories of 41 years of journalism to a crowd in Goderich Monday morning.

Mansbridge, who was a guest of the Rotary Club of Goderich and CKNX, has recently written a book about his career called ‘One on One’, was described by Goderich Mayor Deb Shewfelt as “the last man I watch before I turn in.”

Mansbridge was also presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship by the Rotary Club for contributing $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation.

With his speech proceeded by the singing of ‘O Canada,’ Mansbridge said Canadians used to be shy about signing the anthem, but it was changing, such as Saturday night in Toronto when his wife, Cynthia Dale, sang the anthem at the Air Canada Centre and was joined in for her performance by the audience.

Mansbridge said he got his start in journalism while working at the airport in Churchill, when one day, with the flight announcers busy, he was asked to announce a flight and a CBC radio manager told him he had a great voice and asked if he wanted a job.

After 41 years, Mansbridge said he had been extremely lucky and has broadcasted from every part of the country and almost every continent.

One of the highlights of his career, said Mansbridge, was interviewing American President Barack Obama in February, who, although busy, took the time to bring a Canadian who worked at the White House into the interview room to meet Mansbridge who told him, “my mother loves you.”

Some of the stories Mansbridge shared with the audience had a common theme, such as broadcasting from Sri Lanka after the Tsunami in 2004 and finding three Canadian nurses who had flown to the country on their own to do what they could.

Mansbridge also spoke of being in the Netherlands for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the country and seeing a woman holding her son up during a march of Canadian veterans.

Asked why she was there, the woman said “’I want him to know what a Canadian is.’”

Mansbridge said most of his career, Canadians have been asking, “what is a Canadian? She knew,” and added that she and other Dutch people, along with their children have not forgotten the Canadians who liberated the country, with thousands of them still in cemeteries there.

Another country Mansbridge said he has spent a lot of time in recently is Afghanistan, and that he understands “to a degree,” the danger Canadians serving there are facing. He added though that there are more than just military personnel there, such as a woman he met who was born in Afghanistan but fled with her family in the early 1990s and came to Canada.

After going to university, Mansbridge said the woman could have gotten a well paying job in Canada, but chose to return to Afghanistan to teach woman what their rights are and what is possible in a free country.

Mansbridge described all of the people he had spoken of as examples of what it means to be Canadian. “We care and others see us as a caring people. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t care,” he told the audience.