Mike Wise
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Mike Wise is a reporter for the CBC.
Mike Wise has had a life-long interest in politics and the media. He combines both with his job as the Queen's Park correspondent for CBC Television, a position he has held since 2002.
He has covered the blackout of 2003, the SARS crisis, World Youth Day, as well as numerous leadership campaigns and provincial and federal elections. His work has appeared on The National, Canada Now, CBC Radio, and CBC Newsworld.
Mike is also a trained CBC video-journalist. Equipped with his own video-camera and gear, he shot his own daily stories for six years. From 1997 to 2000, he covered local arts and entertainment for the CBC in Toronto, focusing on covering local music, theatre and the Toronto International Film Festival.
He is married to Iona Macritchie.
[edit] Education
Mike's two decades long involvement with the CBC began at the age of 17 as a High School co-op placement and continues to the present day. One of his first responsibilities was working on the 1988 federal election broadcast, even though he wasn't legally old enough to vote.
He graduated in 1994 with an honours degree in Political Studies from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.
During his undergraduate years, Mike was a valued staff member of Studio Q: Queen's Student Television, and served as Executive Producer during the 1993-94 Season.
[edit] Current CBC Projects
[edit] Making the Grade
His latest project is Queen's Park: Making the Grade, an ambitious project to expose high school students to the inner workings of the provincial government by encouraging them to develop their own private member's bills, and lobby to get them passed.
Queen's Park: Making the Grade is currently an ongoing series on CBC News at Six. It challenges Ontario students to learn more about the political process, by getting involved in the political process.
In Fall of 2005, CBC News followed the efforts of dozens of schools as they came up with ideas for private member's bills. The CBC received over 100 suggestions and took those to the three parties at Queen's Park.
After reviewing five bills that were developed by various students, they agreed to bring forward 3 of them, one for each party. In the spring of 2006, these bills were introduced, and called for a special second reading debate.
All three student private member's bills were debated on May 10, 2006. After three hours of discussion, the chamber filled with cabinet ministers and backbenchers, and a vote was taken. Each bill passed with unanimous support. All three were referred to a committee hearing for review.
The bills are already succeeding in inspiring change. As a direct result of the ideas raised in Bill 95 (the bill promoting student rights on the job) the ministry of labour changed the poster it requires all businesses to put up in the workplace. The ministry is now making a special effort to inform young people of their labour rights.
There have been developments with the other bills as well. Bill 93, which calls for nutritional standards in high school cafeterias, continues to attract letters of support from public health units across the province. And the students behind Bill 96, which requires high schools to improve their recycling facilities, have managed to do that at their own school. Georgetown District Secondary School recently purchased enough new recycling bins to bring the school into compliance with the proposed law. Recycling at the school has gone up 9-fold!
Reporter Mike Wise files regular reports on the series, detailing the progress of the bills every step of the way.
