This question already merits attention following news that Don Newman, the CBC’s Senior Parliamentary Editor, is opting for early retirement and taking a buy-out package as the national broadcaster looks to salvage revenue.

Newman anchors Politics, CBC Newsworld’s daily parliamentary hit of analysis and news, and confirmed he will step down in June.

Commentators are praising the journalist’s 40-year, award-winning career and unanimously lamenting the loss to Canadian political coverage.

From Monday’s Globe and Mail:

•  Susan Delacourt, Toronto Star correspondent in Ottawa: “Don set the standard for daily politics shows on Canadian all-news channels. I don’t know what I would have done without him, and frankly, I don’t know how the parliamentary press gallery will remotely be the same without Don in it.”
• Don Martin, National Post columnist and Politics guest: “CBC’s got massive shoes to fill. This guy is like a walking, talking political history book for Canada.”
• Peter Donolo, former Liberal communications director for Jean Chrétien: “He’s the last larger-than-life authoritative CBC political correspondent. There’s no one who comes close.”

Newman had a particular style – at times stretching the vowels of broadcast to near comic length – and was known for holding panelists, politicians and pundits to point and keeping them to time.

A 2008 lampoon by the Rick Mercer Report hawks a fictionalized DVD box set of Newman cutting of his guests, all who know the ropes and appear to respect his exacting measures.”The bell is ringing,” he often says, stopping guests mid-sentence.

Ian Capstick of MediaStyle.com (and a NDP political adviser) runs the roster of potential replacements, ranging from the go-to heavy hitter, Susan Bonner, to the wild-card, George Strombouloupoulous. He also imagines an ideologically charged format for Politics, which he labels “from left field to the right wing.” Imagine this:

Now, if CBC wanted to really shake up the format I could see Avi Lewis and Ezra Levant taking over the show. Both men have political, production and publishing pedigrees; their political ideologies couldn’t be more opposite. It would be one hell of a show to watch. Perhaps they might be able to show us when the left and right might be able to agree, that is if both of them could stay reasonable.

Capstick has invited readers to make their own suggestions via his blog and Twitter, and the majority of comments are weighty with speculation, insight and opinion.

On Monday, Newman addressed the issue of his retirement on air, calling it a day, “when this reporter becomes something that no reporter should: a story himself.”

“I very much appreciate all the kind comments and good wishes that I have been receiving. But I am going to be here for another seven weeks and there is lot of political news still to report.”

In 1997, the National Press Club awarded Newman the inaugural Charles Lynch Award for outstanding coverage of national affairs. A decade ago he was named to the Order of Canada and last year he received a special Gemini trophy, the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism.