It’s not just the Quebec government that pushed through some labour deals just before Christmas. This week both CTV and Global filled their vacant Quebec City bureau chief positions.
Au revoir Montréal, bonjour Québec! Happy and proud to report I am the new Quebec City Bureau Chief @CTVMontreal. #qcpoli #polqc #assnat
— Maya Johnson (@MJohnsonCTV) December 18, 2015
Maya Johnson (CTV News photo)
CTV’s choice is Maya Johnson, who has been at CTV Montreal for a decade now, and was working on Quebec politics while the position was vacant following Max Harrold’s move back to Montreal (he’s now an assignment editor at CTV Montreal). The choice was, frankly, obvious and you wonder what took them so long.
As a result of the Bell Media cuts, Johnson’s Montreal reporter job won’t be filled.
Hopefully this will give CTV’s Quebec City bureau the kind of stability it hasn’t seen since John Grant held the position.
Raquel Fletcher (Global News photo)
Global News, meanwhile, went with Raquel Fletcher, who was the anchor of Focus Saskatchewan at Global TV in Regina. Before that she was at CTV Regina. Fletcher was born and raised in the rectangular province, which means she’ll have a steep learning curve in Quebec City. But she won’t be the first child of Saskatchewan who’s now reporting on Quebec.
Fletcher’s career path is similar to that of Global Montreal morning host Camille Ross, who worked at CTV in Yorkton and Global in Regina.
Fletcher succeeds Caroline Plante, who was hired by the Montreal Gazette this summer.
The National Assembly is recessed for the holidays and resumes on Feb. 9. That gives these reporters a bit of time to get settled in their new positions.
Daigle heading to London
Thomas Daigle (CBC photo)
Not to be outdone, there’s staffing news at CBC as well. Thomas Daigle, originally from Quispamsis, N.B., but based for several years now in Montreal, will be the new CBC News correspondent in London.
Daigle, 28, worked at CJAD, Global Montreal and Radio-Canada Acadie before joining CBC Montreal. He was named the anchor for weekend newscasts when CBC Montreal added them back to its schedule, then he was moved to the National Assembly and eventually into the position of national reporter in Montreal.
Good for both of them and especially happy for Maya, but I thought Max Harrold did a good job, did he get homesick for Montreal cuisine,etc ??
He wanted to move back to Montreal.
Maya will do much better job than Max. She is clear and concise on her reports especially when she is live.
Max always seems to be searching for his words, “um” being one if his most used words.
Congrats to Thomas Daigle. Well deserved and a nice guy. CBC Montreal loses a good reporter. Good luck.
Maya Johnson will only be based in Quebec City for CTV Montreal, when The National Assembly is in session(that’s only about 7 months a year?)? She anchored the CTV Montreal latenight newscast last night. You say, Maya’s reporter job won’t be filled. You know CTV Montreal recently added a freelance reporter? During most of Maya’s decade at CTV Montreal was she a freelancer?
I find more often that not, Global Montreal & CBC Montreal are often beating CTV Montreal in reporting local stories, that require digging(even if Global Montreal & CBC Montreal have lesser resources). There’s almost no journalism in CTV Montreal sports coverage & they often out of touch(absolutely nothing last night on very likely Drogba leaving the Montreal Impact from several sources).
The position is permanently based in Quebec City.
CTV Montreal has made use of several freelancers over the years. That’s not related to Maya’s job.
“Several sources” doesn’t make something true. CTV has been covering Drogba, but isn’t going to report on every rumour about his future.
Several sources reporting the same thing, & this is definitive that he’s leaving. Also RDS was reporting yesterday, the Montreal Impact are already making plans to search for Drogba’s replacement.
Since neither he nor either team has announced this, I don’t see how it can be qualified as “definitive”.