What's on Ian Hanomansing's Now or Never list?

Ian Hanomansing has been a CBC reporter since 1986. From reporting on the Exxon Valdez oil spill to covering seven Olympic Games — he's done it all.

This week, he started a new gig as a co-host of The National. 

In honour of the new National, we've invited each host to take our Now or Never list. We started things off by assuring Ian he shouldn't feel tense or anxious about all the stuff he was about to reveal. His response: "OK, now I feel tense and anxious." 

What is one thing you did as a kid that you would love to do now? 

Just aimlessly having so much free time in the summer. I think back to when I was a kid growing up in Sackville, N.B. — no cable TV, no internet, just lots of time.

We were out on our bicycles, playing all sorts of sports. I was terrible at every sport but I played a lot of them. We invented board games. We would get bored and then create our own.... One is a hockey game called Big League Manager that a friend and I got the NHL rights to use 10 years ago. We sold it in stores. It was a hobby more than a business.

Who is one person that you need to thank right now?

There's a guy in Amherst, N.S., Geoff DeGannes, who a long time ago, back in 1979, hired me just coming out of high school to work at a radio station. I was just a kid — 17 or 18 years old.

Every job I've had you can trace back to that, especially with this new assignment. I think about who I was when I was 17, how I would never have imagined that I would have the job I have now. His hiring me definitely opened the door, made it possible. 

What is one thing in your life that you can't bring yourself to throw out?

I have some T-shirts back in Vancouver that are, in some cases, more than 25 years old and have never been worn. They are commemorative T-shirts from major stories and events that I covered. A couple of them are from the Hong Kong hand over in 1997, and the Exxon Valdez spill — the hotel we stayed at in Valdez put out a commemorative T-shirt, not celebrating the oil spill but sort of marking the occasion. 

And I bought those thinking they would have some collectible value at some point. Now they sit in plastic in my chest of drawers. Yet I can't quite bring myself to throw them out. 

What is one physical challenge you want to try this year?

I'm overdue to do the Grouse Grind on the North Shore mountains. It's a set of steps, a trail. My kids have done it lots of times. It's kind of a rite of passage for people who consider themselves fit. The first time you do it is quite intimidating. I should have done it while I was in Vancouver. I haven't. That would be a great thing to try and achieve in the next year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear Ian's full interview with Now or Never, click the 'listen' button above.