“I’m thinking I might skip a little bit off the top, and then saunter,” Ben Mulroney told his employer’s breakfast show today while stretching for his lap in the Olympic Torch Relay. And where better to do his part than Baie-Comeau, Quebec, the birthplace of Brian Mulroney? After all, this was the worst nightmare groused about when the network announced that 27 of their on-air personalities would get a turn with the torch in place of regular townsfolk. Naturally, Ben was given a minute on Canada AM to emphasize his bona fides in the town, where his grandfather was a paper mill electrician. Weeks of hype leading up to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver are not only an opportunity for Canada but, as Ben succinctly put it, “CTV as a broadcaster want to put our best face forward!” Just like whatever led to him getting a byline in the weekend Globe and Mail, apparently not wanting to indulge the young Mulroney’s alleged opinion on politics — subject of his Sun Media column before the days of Canadian Idol — dispatched him to rate five new gourmet burger bars in town. (“Four downtown restaurants near my work, and one more uptown, because I needed to visit my sister.”) Well, at least the Toronto section editor made a point of having Ben write like he talks: “Tight, flavourful patty — check. Warm, melted cheddar cheese — check. Thick-cut, crispy bacon — check. And a sweet and toasted bun that kept the mouth-watering combination intact throughout my entire meal — checkity-check check check.” Lest you think his ubiquity will be torched by CTVglobemedia anytime soon, recall how Ben so spitefully reacted last spring to criticism of his hosting a weekly countdown show on the pop radio stations they own across the country: “I’m not going to stop doing my job, so if you’ve got a problem with it, I’m going to make it really hard for you to avoid me.”