OK. So it wasn’t Slawko Klymkiw. But it’s not like anyone else crystal-balled who the new executive director of Telefilm was going to be.

Wayne Clarkson is an excellent choice to take the reins of the public funding agency. As good a choice as there is. For one thing, Clarkson is not, like some of his predecessors, an Ottawa mandarin committed only to executing policy. He’s one of the industry. He’s passionate and has devoted his life to promoting the film and TV industry through his various roles as head of the Festival of Festivals (now the Toronto International Film Festival), the Ontario Film Development Corporation (now the Ontario Media Development Corporation) and the Canadian Film Centre.

Clarkson’s signature is that virtually every organization he heads up becomes stronger during his tenure. Witness the growth of the Toronto film festival between 1978 and 1985 into one of the world’s top film festivals. Likewise, as executive director of the OFDC, Clarkson is widely credited for recognizing and nurturing many of Canada’s top filmmakers, including Atom Egoyan, Patricia Rozema, Bruce McDonald and Don McKellar. From the time he took over at the CFC in 1991, Clarkson oversaw the center’s expansion into what is today Canada’s top training ground for film, TV and new media talent. All three disciplines are central to Telefilm’s mandate, as well. CFC grads are now the very same people turning to Telefilm for help in getting their film, TV and interactive projects off the ground.

Few executives in the country can boast a lifetime of experience that speaks so directly to the task at hand.

But the challenges for Clarkson now are on a different plane altogether from anything he’s previously faced. Past successes, particularly at the OMDC and CFC, came at a time when the industry was growing at a rate that would blow off all but the most secure hairpieces.

The industry is now, by all accounts, in an equally sweat-inducing nosedive.

Certainly the problems facing the industry are not Clarkson’s and Telefilm’s alone. Faltering foreign production is not their problem – not directly, anyway.

But Clarkson takes over a Telefilm that has done little to boost public interest in English-Canadian film and TV, despite many bold proclamations in recent years that a solution is just on the horizon.

In his new role, Clarkson will have to balance the demands of many disparate constituents. Those working at odds include a powerful group of motion picture distributors that believe it’s only a matter of time before Telefilm’s focus on genre-style features pays off at the box office, versus English-Canadian filmmakers – many Clarkson’s good friends – concerned that Canada’s well-established reputation for auteur filmmaking is being sold down the river for fleeting box-office bucks.

Likewise, Quebec producers have not been shy to complain when they feel Telefilm policy to boost production in English Canada is undermining French production, as they did recently over what they say is an attempt by Telefilm to undercut their fair take from the Canada Feature Film Fund performance envelopes.

And the tighter the market gets, the louder the struggling voices calling for a solution. Clarkson is stepping into one heck of a noisy place.

It says here that he’s up for the task.