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Amanda Lang
I am... A featured person
My profile
Amanda Lang is the co-anchor of SqueezePlay, a national program
covering business and politics, which airs nightly on Business News
Network. She is also a columnist for Canada's premier business
magazine, Report on Business, where she profiles the passions of
Canada's business elite. She is uniquely positioned as a commentator
on current business news and trends, and also as an observer of North
America's political scene.
Amanda grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Ottawa, Ontario. She studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for The Globe and Mail, where at the age of 23 she edited a monthly newspaper called The Classroom Edition. Subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she was a technology reporter before being named the paper's New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched Business News Network (in 1999) and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor. As the New York Stock Exchange correspondent for CNN, she interviewed everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs to heads of state and rock stars. She returned to Canada in 2002 to re-join BNN and CTV. Amanda lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
Interview
AisB: What music are you listening to / art are you checking out these days?
AL: I love books. I’m always interested in the latest / best work by Canadian authors – Recent favourites; Camilla Gibb and Joseph Boyden – the kinds of books that take you over… I’m on the board of the Writer’s Trust of Canada, and while I’ve always been an avid reader and lover of fiction, it’s inspired me to particularly lookout for great authors close to home.
Here’s a link: www.writerstrust.com
AisB: Why should people, especially youth, vote?
AL: Because it's the only way to be heard! Not voting is like holding your breath – it hurts nobody but yourself. Sometimes I wish it were illegal not to vote…even if that seems harsh. It’s so fundamental to a properly functioning democracy that it’s frustrating when people get disengaged. Politics is already dominated by a powerful minority – the only way to change it is to make ourselves part of the process.
AisB: For you, is there a connection between art and democracy? What is it?
AL: Absolutely there’s a connection: it’s called freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom from tyranny, and at the highest level, an understanding that art shouldn’t only be tolerated, but celebrated as our most honest expression of how we, collectively, are living. Imagine a world without art – it would be like living without your conscience.
AisB: Why do you care about community, when it is so easy not to?
AL: Because it’s so much easier to care! It’s the oldest principle going – if we take pride of ownership in something, we make it better, and we reap the rewards of its success. It’s a beautiful virtuous circle. There may be a limit to how much we can do for each other – but there is no limit on how engaged we can be, mentally and spiritually, in the idea of making life just a little better for our neighbours.
AisB: What do you look for in a politician? What do you expect from your MP?
AL: Honesty. Humour. Life experience. I want someone who wants the job, but doesn’t live for it. Who gets that his job isn’t just to express his own vision – but to get to the bottom of what his constituents want, and express that. Even if he personally might not agree.
Amanda grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Ottawa, Ontario. She studied Architecture at the University of Manitoba, before becoming a journalist. Her first job in journalism was for The Globe and Mail, where at the age of 23 she edited a monthly newspaper called The Classroom Edition. Subsequently Lang joined the Financial Post newspaper, where she was a technology reporter before being named the paper's New York correspondent. In New York she made the leap to television, where she first was part of the team that launched Business News Network (in 1999) and before long wound up at CNN as a reporter and anchor. As the New York Stock Exchange correspondent for CNN, she interviewed everyone from Fortune 500 CEOs to heads of state and rock stars. She returned to Canada in 2002 to re-join BNN and CTV. Amanda lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
Interview
AisB: What music are you listening to / art are you checking out these days?
AL: I love books. I’m always interested in the latest / best work by Canadian authors – Recent favourites; Camilla Gibb and Joseph Boyden – the kinds of books that take you over… I’m on the board of the Writer’s Trust of Canada, and while I’ve always been an avid reader and lover of fiction, it’s inspired me to particularly lookout for great authors close to home.
Here’s a link: www.writerstrust.com
AisB: Why should people, especially youth, vote?
AL: Because it's the only way to be heard! Not voting is like holding your breath – it hurts nobody but yourself. Sometimes I wish it were illegal not to vote…even if that seems harsh. It’s so fundamental to a properly functioning democracy that it’s frustrating when people get disengaged. Politics is already dominated by a powerful minority – the only way to change it is to make ourselves part of the process.
AisB: For you, is there a connection between art and democracy? What is it?
AL: Absolutely there’s a connection: it’s called freedom. Freedom of expression, freedom from tyranny, and at the highest level, an understanding that art shouldn’t only be tolerated, but celebrated as our most honest expression of how we, collectively, are living. Imagine a world without art – it would be like living without your conscience.
AisB: Why do you care about community, when it is so easy not to?
AL: Because it’s so much easier to care! It’s the oldest principle going – if we take pride of ownership in something, we make it better, and we reap the rewards of its success. It’s a beautiful virtuous circle. There may be a limit to how much we can do for each other – but there is no limit on how engaged we can be, mentally and spiritually, in the idea of making life just a little better for our neighbours.
AisB: What do you look for in a politician? What do you expect from your MP?
AL: Honesty. Humour. Life experience. I want someone who wants the job, but doesn’t live for it. Who gets that his job isn’t just to express his own vision – but to get to the bottom of what his constituents want, and express that. Even if he personally might not agree.
