The departure of Richard Stursberg, head of CBC English services, was announced on Friday 6 August 2010 and within hours he was the top trending topic on Twitter in Canada — ahead of the entertainment names, Emma Watson and Megan Fox among them, that normally occupied the Canadian trend list. For a public broadcaster whose governance rarely reaches a mass audience, an executive change generating that volume of discussion was itself the story.
No reason was given for the exit. Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, said in a statement that the corporation was “in the midst of developing a new strategic plan that will guide CBC/Radio-Canada through the next five years”, making it “the opportune time to bring new leadership to English Services and to ensure alignment of the senior team on the future of the public broadcaster”. Kirstine Stewart, general manager of CBC Television, took over on an interim basis.