Source: Now The Details

It's the end of term for two distinguished members of an otherwise anonymous group  known as the CBC Board of Directors.

Trina McQueen and Peter Herrndorf have extraordinary records of service to the CBC as managers and with other media and cultural organizations since leaving the CBC. Unfortunately, even their presence on the board couldn't stop the rampant commercialization now being driven by the present senior management. Sources (digne de foi, as they say in Quebec) tell me that Trina and Peter found their board colleagues to be trying - deeply disinterested in and unfamiliar with public broadcasting values. It must have been a very frustrating tenure.

Appointments to the board of the CBC have always been a prime ministerial perquisite. So it's with some trepidation that we await the announcement of who might fill these two positions.

But here's a thought involving another well-known Canadian institution - Air Canada.

The national carrier seems to have a much more progressive approach to board membership and governance when it comes to board appointments. The unions at the air line are able to appoint a board member of their choosing (when and how did that happen?).

A quick look at the Air Canada board is interesting when compared to the CBC Board. Air Canada has a shortage of women and more non-Canadians. But it does have people whose background appears to be very knowledgeable about the airline industry. It even has a former Parti Quebecois (aka "social democratic") premier of Quebec, Pierre-Marc Johnson as a member.

I'll bet their meetings are a lot more interesting...

In that spirit, Roy Romanow, the former NDP (aka "social democratic") premier of the province of Saskatchewan has been chosen by the unions to serve on the airline's board of directors.

What if the CBC, in a fit of transparency and accountability actually reserved two places on the board - one for a union representative and the other for a public representative?  How would that change the way in which the CBC regards its employees (now with utter contempt) and its audiences (now as consumers, not citizens)?

Nominations gratefully and eagerly accepted.

Rogers Communications Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism at Ryerson University, Toronto. Executive Director, Organization of News Ombudsmen. Advisory board, International News Safety Institute and Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma. Consultant on media ethics. Managing Editor and Chief Journalist at CBC Radio Toronto. VP of News at NPR Washington, DC. NPR Ombudsman. Executive Director, Committee of Concerned Journalists.

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