When Jian Ghomeshi was a teenager, he knew he'd one day speak to large crowds of people — and he had more than instinct to go on.
"I remember seeing this psychic who told me, 'I see you in front of people, and there's a crowd listening to what you have to say, but I can't tell exactly what it is you're doing,'" said Ghomeshi. "That always stuck with me, because it was creepy and it made sense."
The dream seemed borderline unattainable to a self-described immigrant kid with a funny name growing up in a predominantly white suburb of Toronto. "I remember being twelve-years-old and thinking there's no way I could ever go into media or politics because my nose is too big, my skin's a little too brown, my name's too weird," he said.
Score one for the psychic. Today Ghomeshi, 45, is the award-winning host of the CBC's multi-platform culture-watcher, Q, and an author, journalist, singer, songwriter, and holder of countless other titles that regularly place him in front of large crowds of people. "I felt like this is where I was going to end up the whole time, and in another way, I was scared to almost dare that dream," he said.
Ghomeshi's dry wit and insatiable curiosity — not to mention a name that is now more household than weird ("Not a week goes by without somebody saying, 'I just got a new gerbil and we've named it Jian,' to which I say, 'thank you for naming a rodent after me'") — are becoming increasingly synonymous with the national broadcaster, which is perhaps why he was tapped to host a series of media events launching the CBC's 2013-2014 season across the country last month. "I'm someone who's passionate about learning, passionate about people, passionate about storytelling, and I really love this country," Ghomeshi told WE during the Vancouver event at District 319.
The longtime Toronto resident arrived in Vancouver as controversy swirled around the scandal-plagued mayor of the so-called Centre of the Universe. "I think the morale is one of frustration at not wanting an entire city to be characterized by the municipal mess," said Ghomeshi. "Toronto is a really beautiful place of communities, and some of that gets lost in the stereotypes. And the truth is, those stereotypes are just so tired and done." Alas, the stereotypes followed Ghomeshi around all day: he later tweeted that he was asked about Mayor Ford in every single interview he did during the Vancouver junket.
Ghomeshi's passion extends beyond Toronto to Vancouver, where he lived for a short spell in 2005 and where he regularly returns for assorted CBC and cultural events. "I think that Vancouver is a cultural place, and there is a really strong and powerful artistic tradition here," said Ghomeshi. He recently covered the Museum of Anthropology's Safar/Voyage exhibit for Q. "I think what Vancouver needs to embrace is art and culture is its identity and it doesn't happen without government support."
And the support, said Ghomeshi, must extend to the national broadcaster, which is currently in the second year of three years of funding cuts, with talk of more on the way. "I fear that creating the notion that there's some kind of crisis becomes an excuse to then deconstruct the CBC or euthanize it," he said. "It's amazing that CBC is doing as well as it is now [creatively], but I think we need to be realistic that with more cuts, this thing will start to bleed."
