November 1, 2025 - November 5, 2025
NOVEMBER 1-5 – ONTARIO REGION – ELECTIONS: ONLINE/PHONE VOTING – WATCH FOR YOUR INDIVIDUAL CODE IN YOUR EMAIL OR BY CANADA POST WHEN WE GET CLOSER TO THE VOTING PERIOD.
ONTARIO ELECTIONS – NOMINATIONS ARE OPEN
Here’s the link to the nomination form: https://form.jotform.com/251395095495064
Nominations will be accepted until September 30th.
CANDIDATES
For the position of President
Barbara Saxberg
I have been active in the PNA since 2018, serving first as a Chapter president, then Ontario Region Vice-President and currently, as Region President. I’ve also served on several chapter, region, and national committees.
When I debated about whether to run again for Region president, my partner asked me a question I have asked other members many times: does the PNA matter? And of course, the answer is yes. After all, where would we be without the PNA? So, I am submitting my name to stand once more for Ontario Region President, and I hope you will support me.
For this next term of office, I want to focus on encouraging more of you in to help out with the work of making the PNA a strong, credible voice for CBC retirees and making sure that when the time comes to step down, there are members ready and willing to step up and take the torch.
There is much work to be done within the PNA and some of my work will also, I hope, continue at the national level as a member of the National Board of Directors where I currently chair the advocacy committee, the communications committee, and the bylaws committee.
Before retiring, I spent most of my CBC career in network radio and was an active member of the CMG.
On a personal note, my family says I’ve reached matriarch status… I’m a mom, a grandma, a sister, an auntie, and partner to a wonderful guy. And from time to time, I’ve been known to work as an actor. Barbara – Answers to questions
For the position of Vice-President
Talin Vartanian
PNA members elected me as secretary to the Ontario Board of Directors in 2022, and (through an internal shuffle) I became Vice President last year. In March of 2023, I volunteered to create a new, greatly improved edition of the PNA Ontario newsletter Livewire, and have been the editor and principal writer since.
For 43 years, I worked as a CBC Radio journalist, producing some of the most popular programs on the network, including Morningside, As It Happens, and The Sunday Edition. I created Canada Reads, the annual CBC Radio program that turns books into bestsellers, and produced the program for its first six seasons.
I’m also known as Citizen Talin, a feisty consumer advocate, appearing first on CBC Radio (on the national program This Morning and the regional show Fresh Air) then on the CBC TV program Marketplace.
In addition to volunteering for the PNA, I sit on the Board of Directors of Unlock Democracy, which is fighting for electoral reform, and work as a writer and editor through my website
https://www.editortalin.com/
I don’t describe myself as retired, I’m rewired. Talin’s answers to questions
For the position of Treasurer
Mike Darley
I had the pleasure of joining the Ontario Board in January 2023, stepping into the vacant role of Toronto Director. Before I could fully settle in, a new opportunity emerged: in September, the Board elected me as Secretary. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to work closely with our long-serving Treasurer, Ben Daube, who generously mentored me and shared the deep knowledge he gained over 12 years in the role. It’s been a period of continuous learning — and applying that knowledge to serve our members.
Serving on the Board has been a genuine joy and a rich learning experience. Like many, I once imagined retirement would be all leisure and no responsibility. But that’s not how we’re wired. I believe staying healthy and fulfilled means staying engaged — learning, challenging ourselves, and surrounding ourselves with talented people. The Board offers all of that, and I hope my contributions have made a meaningful difference.
The Treasurer’s role involves initiating and tracking payments and reimbursements, tracking cash inflows, maintaining accurate financial records, and contributing to Board decisions. Planning future revenues and expenses always ensures our commitments can be met. I’m ready to take on these responsibilities with diligence and care.
My professional background includes over 35 years at CBC, primarily in the Sales (Media Solutions) department. For the last 26 years, I served as Senior Manager of the Advertising Standards department, leading a team that ensured CBC’s advertising complied with industry regulations, guidelines, and internal policy. Mike’s answers to questions
For the position of Secretary
Sheyfali Saujani
I was a Toronto-based CBC radio producer from 1989-2019. I worked at several programs, network and local, including:
Metro Morning, Infotape (later Radio Syndication), As It Happens, Quirks and Quarks, This Morning and Cross Country Checkup. In retirement, I’ve done more community choir singing, hiking, kayaking, card-playing, some history courses, plus lots of reading. Shefali’s answers to questions
For the position of Toronto Director
Lise Lareau
I am among the first to serve in the relatively new position of Toronto Director of the Ontario Region. I am running again to further develop the position and to build on the work our team has done in Toronto through the past 5 years or so. I am very proud of the ‘schmoozefest’ events we’ve held at Noonan’s Pub and the connections we made among Toronto members to get out the vote to authorize the pension surplus distribution.
Before this stage of ‘pensioner life’, my career was in television news. I started at CBLT in the local news heyday of the 1980s and moved to what is now News Network where I either assigned reporters or produced hourly newscasts. For a decade in the early 2000s, I served as president of the Canadian Media Guild. (I am especially proud that I set a precedent by returning to work at CBC after my intensive years at the Guild, mostly to show managers and CMG members alike that it can be doneJ)
In addition to my work at the PNA, I am a graduate student in labour studies at McMaster University, where my thesis will focus on the impact of precarious work on workers in the later stages of their lives. I am also a co-chair of the Family Advisory Committee at Kerry’s Place Autism Services, where my sister lives as a full-time resident.
Susan Helwig
When I took on the post of Toronto Director four years ago, I had been a member of the PNA for more than ten years. During that time, I benefitted from membership but had little knowledge of how the PNA was managed.
Joining as a new volunteer proved to be an eye-opener. The leaders of the PNA are responsible, astute and hard working. The results they achieved in delivering new pension sharing payments to members are remarkable on a national scale. Once inside, I could see firsthand how significant that achievement really is.
As a Toronto Director, I have been privileged to learn how the PNA is represented across Ontario with regional groups that serve their own members in separate ways. As a whole, directors take care to spend members’ dues wisely and to consider ethical values in making decisions.
In seeking to be re-elected as a Toronto Director, I look forward to joining this team once again. I will also continue working with others to continue Legacy Interviews, an oral history project, which records interviews with CBC retirees about their careers to create a permanent historical collection.
In my own time at the CBC, from 1974 to 2004, I worked mainly in radio news in Toronto, at The House program in Ottawa, and as Senior Producer of The World at Six. I also worked several years in television news as assignment editor at The National.
I welcome your support in the upcoming election.
Ben Daube
I worked for nearly 25 years as a Production Assistant, Assistant Director, and Studio Director across almost every television department. I started in local news, followed by Marketplace with Dodi Robb, Joan Watson, and George Finstad. I then joined Agriculture & Resources with Doug Lower and Eric McCleery, where I had the opportunity to produce and direct mini-documentaries that took me across the country. From there, I moved into Sports, travelling with the Blue Jays almost every weekend, and later contributed to The Disability Network and documentaries with Mark Starowitz.
For the past nine years it’s been an honour to serve as Treasurer of the Ontario PNA. Having nominated an excellent successor, I now look forward to continuing to contribute wherever I can as a Toronto Director.