Amanda Lang

Last updated

Amanda Lang
Amanda Lang at Canada Growth Summit.jpg
Amanda Lang at the Public Policy Forum's Canada Growth Summit, in 2016
Born (1970-10-31) 31 October 1970 (age 53) [1]
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Education St. Mary's Academy
Alma mater University of Manitoba
Occupations
Known for
Spouse Vince Borg (div.)
ChildrenJulian Borg
Parent(s) Otto Lang and Adrian Macdonald
Relatives Anthony Merchant (uncle)
Sally Merchant (grandmother)
Vincent Reynolds Smith (great-grandfather)

Amanda Lang (born 31 October 1970) is a Canadian business journalist, and host of Taking Stock, a weekly business news program on CTV, BNN Bloomberg and CP24. [2] Previously, she was the host of Bloomberg North on Bloomberg TV Canada. [3] Lang was formerly senior business correspondent for CBC News, where she anchored The Exchange with Amanda Lang daily on CBC News Network. Prior to her work with CBC, she worked as a print journalist for Canadian national newspapers and was an anchor for CNNfn and BNN.

Contents

Early life/Personal Life

Lang's father is Otto Lang, a Liberal party MP and federal cabinet member during the 1960s and 1970s. Lang's stepfather, Donald Stovel Macdonald, was also a federal Liberal Cabinet member. [4]

Lang is one of six siblings, including her identical twin sister, Adrian. She is an avid reader, runner and cyclist. [5]

She attended St Mary's Academy, a private Catholic girls' school in Winnipeg, Manitoba and later studied architecture at the University of Manitoba. [4]

Journalism career

Early Career

Lang began her journalism career in print at The Globe and Mail in the InfoGlobe unit. [6]

She then moved to the National Post (then Financial Post) as their New York correspondent.

Switch to television

She got her start in television with what was then RoBTV (now BNN) in 1999, in New York, before moving to CNN in 2000 where she reported from the New York Stock Exchange for American Morning , and anchored programs on CNN's then-financial network, CNNfn.

In 2002 she returned to CTV and RoBTV, before anchoring Squeezeplay with Kevin O'Leary and The Commodities Report in 2003.

Lang left SqueezePlay and BNN in July 2009. [7]

Move to CBC

In 2010 Lang and O'Leary moved to CBC and launched the Lang & O'Leary Exchange. Upon O'Leary's departure in 2015, the show was rebranded as The Exchange with Amanda Lang.

While at the CBC, Lang's coverage ranged from the Occupy Movement, [8] to the high-profile NSA leak by Edward Snowden, [9] to questions of increasing wealth inequality. [10]

In 2010, Lang was nominated for a Gemini award in the category of Best Host or Interviewer in a News Information Program or Series. Other nominees she won the award over include Heather Hiscox of CBC News Now and Erica Johnson of CBC News: Marketplace. [11]

During her time at CBC Lang also worked as Senior Business Correspondent reporting for the National.  

Her book, The Power of Why, [12] came out in 2012. Already touted as Peter Mansbridge's successor on The National , [13] [14] the 42-year-old Lang made Toronto Life's 2012 '50 Most Influential People in Toronto' annual list. [15]

Bloomberg

Lang became a host of Bloomberg TV Canada's Bloomberg North in early-2016. [16] Following the September 2017 wind-down of the network, Bell Media hired Lang once again for Business News Network (which had announced that it would become a co-branded franchise of Bloomberg Television, BNN Bloomberg), where she now co-hosts Bloomberg Markets as part of a co-production arrangement for the program. [17]

Community Involvement

Chair, Covenant House

Lang served as a member of the board of directors at Covenant House from 2017 to 2024, including as board chair.

Covenant House is the largest agency in Canada serving homeless and at-risk youth, working to provide care for young people who have experienced homelessness and sex trafficking. The charity has supported more than 100,000 young people since its founding in 1982. [18]

During Lang’s board tenure, the charity expanded its support of education around human trafficking and undertook a major strategic review of its priorities. [19]

Munk School

Lang is a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, which primarily offers master’s degrees in global affairs and public policy. [20]

Writing

In 2012, Lang published her first book, The Power of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success. In the book, she argues that curiosity can be harnessed to drive innovation and change not just in business, but in our personal lives. The book received positive reviews with high-profile individuals like Peter Mansbridge and David Chilton offering praise. [21]

In 2013, the book was shortlisted for the National Business Book Award. [22]

In 2017 she published her second book, The Beauty of Discomfort: How What We Avoid Is What We Need, where she argues that successful people tend to embrace and seek out discomfort. She illustrates this theory with stories of a wide range of successful individuals including business leaders and professional athletes. [23]

Conflict of interest controversies

NDP

In 2011, Lang hosted a panel on CBC's The National where she was assigned to determine the credibility of then NDP leader Jack Layton's election platform. It was not disclosed to the viewing audience that Lang's brother was, at the time, running against Layton for the Liberal Party in the riding of Toronto—Danforth. CBC's Ombudsman reported that, “There was nothing problematic about Lang’s reporting in the campaign,” however the report raised concerns about perceived conflicts, stating that, "it was not possible to compartmentalize Lang's reporting on NDP policy from Layton's qualities as a leader and credentials to be supported as a candidate. Any of her campaign reporting even indirectly intersecting with the Liberals or NDP could have been perceived as conflicted." [24]

According to the Ombudsman’s response, Mark Harrison, the executive producer of The National, noted that, “the feature in question did not focus on Layton, but was a broad segment on how the NDP was going to finance its promises.” He also noted that “the reporting decision was not Lang’s, but the program’s senior editors.” [25]

Manulife and Sun Life

In December 2014, media website Canadaland reported evidence that earlier that year Lang had provided favorable CBC coverage to two companies, Manulife and Sun Life, without disclosing to viewers that each company had recently paid her for speaking engagements. [26] Lang’s speaking engagements were disclosed on the CBC’s website. [27]

Royal Bank of Canada

In January 2015, Canadaland ran stories noting that Lang participated in the coverage of the Royal Bank of Canada during its temporary foreign worker program scandal, including interviewing the then-CEO of the bank Gord Nixon, while having done speaking engagements at RBC sponsored events, promoting her own book, which featured a back cover endorsement from Nixon without disclosing she was in a relationship with a board member of the bank. [28]

In the wake of the RBC stories, George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian , wrote on 20 January 2015, "It amazes me that [Lang] remains employed by CBC." [29] John Doyle, a columnist for the Toronto The Globe and Mail , wrote on 23 January "It's time for Lang to get down off her high horse and go away. This is about the CBC's reputation, not hers, which is already in tatters." [30]

On 22 January 2015, the CBC announced it had banned on-air talent from accepting paid speaking engagements. [31] Later that day, Lang conceded in a piece in The Globe and Mail that she should have made on-air disclosures about her connection to RBC and stated that she agreed with the speaking engagement ban. [32]

Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor-in-chief of CBC News, launched an investigation of Lang's reporting on RBC that analyzed her coverage since 2013. The review showed no evidence of bias. Ms. McGuire also noted that, according to an external review conducted by Cormex, a media research firm, Lang's coverage of the banking sector showed "no evidence of partiality." [33] [34]

Barrick Gold

Toronto's NOW Magazine reported on 16 January 2015, that Lang "came to the defence" of Barrick Gold, a mining company that had employed her ex-husband, in an on-air CBC segment. [35]

During this CBC segment, Lang’s guest, Jon Allan of Occupy Canada accused Barrick Gold of committing crimes in Tanzania. Lang interrupted him to disclose that her then husband had worked at the company and invited another panelist to debate Allan. [36]

Publications

Filmography

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
2011-2012 George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight Herself4 episodes
2013 CBC News: The National Herself - Senior Business Correspondent2 episodes
2013-2014 The Lang & O'Leary Exchange Herself - Host131 episodes
2018 The Marilyn Denis Show Herself2 episodes
2022 Question Period Herself - BNN Bloomberg2 episodes
2023 Power Play with Vassy Kapelos Herself - Host of BNN Bloomberg's Taking StockEpisode: "Fall Economic Statement"
2022-2023BNN Bloomberg's Taking StockHerself - Host22 episodes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toronto-Dominion Bank</span> Canadian bank and financial services corporation

Toronto-Dominion Bank, doing business as TD Bank Group, is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The bank was created on February 1, 1955, through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank, which were founded in 1855 and 1869, respectively. It is one of two Big Five banks of Canada founded in Toronto, the other being the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

CBC News Network is a Canadian English-language specialty news channel owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). It is Canada's first all-news channel, and the world's third-oldest television service of this nature

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jian Ghomeshi</span> Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, and producer

Jian Ghomeshi is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and former CBC personality. From 1990 to 2000, he was a vocalist and drummer in the Thornhill-based folk-pop band Moxy Früvous. In the 2000s, he became a television and radio broadcaster. He hosted, among others, the CBC Newsworld program Play (2002–2005), the CBC Radio One program The National Playlist (2005–2006), and the CBC Radio One program Q, which he co-created and hosted from 2007 to 2014, until he was fired by the CBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Bank of Canada</span> Financial institution

Royal Bank of Canada is a Canadian multinational financial services company and the largest bank in Canada by market capitalization. The bank serves over 20 million clients and has more than 100,000 employees worldwide. Founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, it maintains its corporate headquarters in Toronto and its head office in Montreal. RBC's institution number is 003. In November 2017, RBC was added to the Financial Stability Board's list of global systemically important banks.

The RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to a writer who has not yet published his or her first book. Formerly restricted to writers under age 35, the age limit was removed in 2021, with the prize now open to emerging writers regardless of age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Boyden</span> Canadian writer

Joseph Boyden is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. He is best known for writing about First Nations culture. Three Day Road, a novel about two Cree soldiers serving in the Canadian military during World War I, was inspired by Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. Joseph Boyden's second novel, Through Black Spruce, follows the story of Will, son of one of the characters in Three Day Road. The third novel in the Bird family trilogy was published in 2013 as The Orenda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin O'Leary</span> Canadian businessman and television personality (born 1954)

Terrence Thomas Kevin O'Leary, sometimes called Mr. Wonderful or Maple Man, is a Canadian businessman, investor, journalist, and television personality. From 2004 to 2014, he appeared on various Canadian television shows, including the business news programs SqueezePlay and The Lang and O'Leary Exchange, as well as the Canadian reality television shows Dragons' Den and Redemption Inc. In 2008, he appeared on Discovery Channel's Project Earth. Since 2009, he has appeared on Shark Tank, the American version of Dragons' Den.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BNN Bloomberg</span> Canadian specialty TV channel

BNN Bloomberg is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by Bell Media. It broadcasts programming related to business and financial news and analysis. The channel is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in Downtown Toronto.

The Exchange was a Canadian business news television series which aired weekdays on CBC News Network, with an overnight rebroadcast on CBC Television, from October 26, 2009 to September 9, 2016.

<i>Dragons Den</i> (Canadian TV series) Canadian television reality show

Dragons' Den is a Canadian television reality show based on the internationally franchised Dragons' Den format which began in Japan. The show debuted on October 3, 2006, on CBC Television, and is hosted by Dianne Buckner. Aspiring Canadian entrepreneurs pitch business and investment ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing business financing and partnerships. The show also has a Quebec-only spin-off called Dans l'oeil du Dragon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Brown (journalist)</span> Canadian journalist

Jesse Benjamin Brown is a Canadian journalist, media personality, and businessperson. In 2013, he founded the Canadaland podcast that grew into a podcasting company.

Bloomberg TV Canada was a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Channel Zero. It was a localized version of the U.S. financial news channel Bloomberg Television; its programming was largely identical, but also featured opt-outs for domestic programs covering Canadian business news.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosemary Barton</span> Canadian political journalist

Rosemary Barton is a Canadian political journalist, currently serving as the chief political correspondent for CBC. In this role, she anchors her own Sunday morning news show, Rosemary Barton Live, hosted the "At Issue" segment on The National, and leads special coverage for the network including during elections, breaking news and national emergencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadaland</span> Canadian news site and podcast network

Canadaland is a Canadian digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing a network of podcasts. The company was founded by Jesse Brown in 2013. The original podcast covers Canadian media and media criticism. Subsequently, new shows have been added to the network covering a range of topics from current affairs, art and culture, cooking, medicine, and Canadian politics.

Ellen Roseman is a Canadian writer, journalist and lecturer specializing in personal finance and consumer issues. She currently writes a column handling consumer complaints for the Toronto Star and teaches at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto. She has been an editor and columnist for the Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. She is the author of a number of books and co-author with Phil Edmonston of The Canadian Consumers’ Survival Book. She lives in Toronto, Ontario and is married to Edward Trapunski. She has two children.

Rachel Parent is a Toronto-based activist for issues related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods, and especially government regulation in regard to food labeling. She is the founder of the non-profit Kids Right To Know and the associated website.

Tanya Talaga is a Canadian journalist and author of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She worked as a journalist at the Toronto Star for over twenty years, covering health, education, local issues, and investigations. She is now a regular columnist with the Globe and Mail. Her 2017 book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City was met with acclaim, winning the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize for non-fiction and the 2017 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Talaga is the first woman of Anishinaabe descent to be named a CBC Massey Lecturer. She holds honorary doctorates from Lakehead University and from Ryerson University.

Kathleen "Katie" Patricia Taylor is a Canadian business executive who is the chancellor of York University. She was the chair of the board of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) from 2014 to 2023, and is the first woman to chair the board of a major Canadian bank. Taylor became chair of the board in January 2014, having served on the board since 2001; she previously chaired the human resources and corporate governance committees, and served on the audit and risk committees.

Armine Yalnizyan is a Canadian economist and columnist. In 2012, the CBC described her as one of Canada's "leading progressive economists". She was a senior economist with the progressive Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives from 2008 to 2017. She appeared regularly on CBC TV's Lang and O'Leary Exchange, CBC Radio's Metro Morning, and contributed regularly to the "Economy Lab" at the Globe and Mail. She is currently a fellow with the Atkinson Foundation focused on the future of workers in a period of technological and demographic change. Her work focuses on "social and economic factors that determine our health and well being", and the care economy. She contributes bi-weekly business columns to the Toronto Star.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janice Fukakusa</span> Canadian businesswomen and executive

Janice R. Fukakusa is a Canadian business executive and current chancellor of Toronto Metropolitan University. She was both the chief financial officer and the chief administrative officer of the Royal Bank of Canada for 8 years. Following her retirement from the bank in 2017 after a 31-year career, she was appointed to 15 corporate, non-profit or government boards. She was notably the Canada Infrastructure Bank's founding chairperson, a position she held from 2017 to 2020.

References

  1. ↑ Lang, Amanda (31 October 2012). "Birthday post" . Retrieved 16 September 2015– via Twitter.
  2. ↑ "Taking Stock with Amanda Lang". www.newstalk1010.com. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  3. ↑ "Bloomberg TV Canada". Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 Burnside, Chelsey (Summer 2012). "The Amanda Lang Exchange". Ryerson Review of Journalism. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Bradshaw, James (15 August 2014). "CBC's Amanda Lang: The accidental business expert". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  6. ↑ The Power of Why Archived 9 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine , Chapter 3, page 5 (e-book)
  7. ↑ "Lang leaps to CBC". Playback. 28 July 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  8. ↑ VeritasNewsNow (20 March 2014). Occupy Canada Featured on CBC's The Lang and O'Leary Exchange . Retrieved 11 June 2024– via YouTube.
  9. ↑ CBC News: The National (18 February 2015). "Citizenfour" | Oscar-winner Laura Poitras on Edward Snowden . Retrieved 11 June 2024– via YouTube.
  10. ↑ Matt Hudson (22 January 2014). Kevin O'Leary says, "I'm wonderful to see it happen" . Retrieved 11 June 2024– via YouTube.
  11. ↑ Burnside, Chelsey (1 May 2012). "The Amanda Lang Exchange | [] Review of Journalism : The School of Journalism" . Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  12. ↑ The Power of Why, Harper Collins Canada, 2012 http://www.harpercollins.ca/books/Power-Why-Amanda-Lang/ Archived 9 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ "Shinan: The Lang of it". National Post. 11 December 2012. Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  14. ↑ Houpt, Simon (13 October 2015). "Amanda Lang leaving CBC". The Globe and Mail . Toronto. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "50 Most Influential 2012: a ranking of Toronto's top tycoons, backroom operators and supersize egos". Toronto Life. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  16. ↑ Gallant, Jacques (15 October 2015). "Amanda Lang to host new show". Toronto Star. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  17. ↑ "BNN to rebrand as 'BNN Bloomberg' through new Bell Media-Bloomberg Media partnership". BNN. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  18. ↑ "Our Impact". Covenant House Toronto. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  19. ↑ "Strategic Plan". Covenant House Toronto. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  20. ↑ "Amanda Lang | The Munk School". munkschool.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  21. ↑ Lang, Amanda (9 October 2012). The Power Of Why: Simple Questions That Lead to Success. Collins.
  22. ↑ Award, National Business Book. "Chrystia Freeland wins National Business Book Award". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved 11 June 2024.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  23. ↑ TEDx Talks (2 April 2018). The Beauty of Discomfort | Amanda Lang | TEDxQueensU . Retrieved 11 June 2024– via YouTube.
  24. ↑ "Conflict of Interest". 5 July 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  25. ↑ LaPointe, Kirk (August 2012). "Office of the Ombudsman Annual Report 2011-2012" (PDF). CBC. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  26. ↑ "Amanda Lang took money from Manulife & Sun Life, gave them favourable CBC coverage". 22 December 2014. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  27. ↑ Craig, Sean (22 December 2014). "Amanda Lang took money from Manulife & Sun Life, gave them favourable CBC coverage". CANADALAND. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  28. ↑ "Amanda Lang tried to sabotage a CBC story that scandalized RBC, who paid her". 11 January 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  29. ↑ "Our 'impartial' broadcasters have become mouthpieces of the elite". The Guardian . 20 January 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  30. ↑ Doyle, John (23 January 2015). "CBC's Amanda Lang problem should end with this: Resign". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  31. ↑ "Amanda Lang Fallout: CBC On-Air Talent Barred From Taking Paid Speaking Gigs". 22 January 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  32. ↑ "Public Trust Matters More Than Speaking Fees". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  33. ↑ "Amanda Lang leaving CBC". The Globe and Mail. 13 October 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  34. ↑ Nagler, Jack (March 2015). "Journalistic Review: Conflict of Interest and CBC News coverage of RBC and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program" (PDF). CBC. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
  35. ↑ "Conflict of Interest". 16 January 2015. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  36. ↑ Saunders, Sakura (16 January 2015). "Amanda Lang and Barrick Gold - NOW Magazine". NOW Toronto. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.