We are delighted to see the rehabilitation of Evan Solomon proceeding apace.
The disgraced televisual celebrity, as readers will recall, was expelled from the CBC last year amid revelations in the Toronto Star that he secretly brokered the sale of objets d’art to clients who appeared on his Corpse blatherfest, Power and Politics.
Among the swells Solomon courted was Mark “the Guv’” Carney. The former Bank of Canada supremo had been a guest on P&P; both lived in the same Rockcliffe neighbourhood and went on morning jogs together.
Another patron, RIM founder Jim Balsillie, appeared on P&P and he purchased numerous art pieces from Solomon’s partner, art dealer Bruce Bailey.
The Star revealed that over a two-year period, Solomon trousered some $300,000 in commissions on art sales.
This was all too much, even for CBC brass, and Solomon went for the high jump.
But after several months doing penance on SiriusXM, the agile prat has again landed like a ninja, scoring a sweetheart deal with Bell Media to host the afternoon drive show on CFRA Radio.
Solomon’s new gig was made possible by Lowell Green’s recent sacking (retired to glue factory, shurely?!—ed.), which freed Green’s whopping salary (shurely not $180K?!—ed.) (shurely that’s enough ‘shurelys’?!—ed.), some of which was used to seduce Solomon.
But don’t expect Evan to stay long with ‘RA’s pissant drive show. He’s got a heavily mortgaged home in Rockcliffe to pay off and social appearances to keep up, so he’s eyeing a triumphant return to the national stage via CTV News.
Conveniently for Evan, Bob Fife recently fled CTV News for the Globe and Minion, leaving a vacancy at the network’s Ottawa bureau, which is now desperate for star power and for someone—like Evan—who could do talkbacks with national news host Lisa LaFlameout.
(Ironically, it was Lisa’s boyfriend, Michael Cooke, editor of the Toronto Star, who was responsible for the story that got Evan fired from CBC last June.)
Naturally, Evan’s ambitions don’t stop at the bureau level. He’s also been telling friends that he’d look pretty cool in the host’s chair on CTV’s Question Period.
Unfortunately, the weekly show is currently presided over by Fife, although nobody expects that détente to last, particularly if the Globe continues to heavily promote Fife’s QP connection, and if he breaks a big story in a Saturday Globe, after the Friday pre-tape of the program.
Plus, the Globe doesn’t really have much skin in QP, it’s part of Fife’s past with CTV.
And waiting in the wings…E. Solomon.
What do you mean about the Globe not having much skin in CTV’s Question Period? Gloria Galloway has been a regular on that show in recent years.
How’s the Corpse lifer going to survive on the air 4 hours without 8 or 9 producers?