Submarine company taps former news anchor Peter Mansbridge to voice ad

A man walks past an ad for military submarines in the downtown core near Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA — South Korean firm Hanwha Oceans has tapped former TV news anchor Peter Mansbridge to voice an ad as it looks to secure a multi-billion-dollar procurement contract from Ottawa.

Peter Mansbridge, the former voice of CBC’s The National, can be heard in a video posted to Hanwha’s YouTube page last week pitching the submarines as proven and reliable.

Hanwha Oceans is competing with German submarine manufacturer TKMS for a contract to supply Canada with up to 12 new submarines.

Mansbridge, who now hosts a podcast called The Bridge, says that since he left daily news almost a decade ago, his company has branched out into strategic communications.

He says he works with a number of companies and institutions and that he donates a “significant portion” of the proceeds from his work to universities and charitable organizations across the country.

Over the past few months, Hanwha ads promoting its KSS-III submarine have been popping up all over Ottawa as part of the shipbuilder’s efforts to make itself a household name in the nation’s capital.

With files from Craig Lord.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press