Question Period (sometimes abbreviated QP) is a Canadian television newsmagazine which airs weekly, currently excluding the summer months, on CTV at 11:00 AM ET in Ontario and east, and 4:00 PM local on stations in Western Canada. It also airs on the CTV News Channel at 5:00 PM EST. The program, which takes its name from the parliamentary process of Question Period, is an interview and panel discussion series on Canadian politics, similar to an American Sunday morning talk show.
Debuting in 1967, it is CTV's third oldest series that is still in production behind W5 and CTV National News. However, the series was suspended from 1996 to 2001 in favour of the similar Sunday Edition with Mike Duffy, a BBS production which aired on most CTV stations and which was ultimately taken over by the network, but was then itself cancelled in 1999. Question Period would be revived in fall 2001, the announcement of which came shortly after rival network Global announced a similar public affairs program, Global Sunday, which also debuted in fall 2001 and ran for four seasons.
Craig Oliver, CTV's chief political correspondent and previously the network's Ottawa bureau chief, was co-host of Question Period throughout its current run until 2012, and previously served as a host during the final years of the program's initial run. In July 2011, CTV announced that former Global National anchor Kevin Newman had been hired to co-host the program with Craig Oliver, with his position starting on August 22, 2011 (his first show aired September 11, 2011). Newman became the program's sole host in September 2012; Oliver remains with the network and now serves as a regular roundtable panelist on QP.
Hosts or co-hosts during the original run included Pamela Wallin and Bruce Phillips. Past co-hosts of the show in its current iteration include Edward Greenspon, John Ibbitson, Mike Duffy, and Jane Taber (through June 26, 2011); Greenspon, Ibbitson, and Taber all co-hosted concurrently with their duties as columnists for The Globe and Mail, which during that period was part of the same media group as CTV. Rosemary Thompson, Graham Richardson, and CTV's current Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife have served in the past as guest co-hosts.
Famous quotes containing the words question and/or period:
“The only trouble here is they won’t let us study enough. They are so afraid we shall break down and you know the reputation of the College is at stake, for the question is, can girls get a college degree without ruining their health?”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“I don’t like to be idle; in fact, I often feel somewhat guilty unless there is some purpose to what I am doing. But spending a few hours—or a few days—in the woods, swamps or alongside a stream has never seemed to me a waste of time.... I derive special benefit from a period of solitude.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)