The Ben Mulroney Show - Good morning with Ben! Speeding up transit and a Jane/Finch community hero

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

GUEST:  Kelly Aizicowitz/ABC Toronto GUEST:  Zara Arrindell, First-Year York University Student and Community Advocate and Program Founder If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Benjamin William Hastings, known for his powerful worship songs heard around the world, including so will I and gratitude. Share the wonder of Christmas with friends and family at Roy Thompson Hall. Tickets are on sale now at Salvationist.ca slash Christmas. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Happy Hump Day, everybody. It is Thursday, the 10th of December, 2025. And, you know, this week I have been a little bit, I've forgotten things all over the play.

I forgot my AirPods at home. They are at my home, not Brad Smith's home. I forgot my glasses on Monday. I forgot my, these things yesterday. So I had to wear the big cans yesterday. Very uncomfortable. But I think I'm getting, I think I'm getting everything together. Just in time for midweek.

I hope everybody had a great night. Listen, before we start sort of, I want to. to, before I say hello to everybody, just wanted to say hello to everybody listening and you may be at home and you may be getting ready to go to work. If you are, please be careful. We're expecting about 10 centimeters of snow by tonight. And if you're north of Queen Street right now, you're probably seeing more snow than we are down here by the water. It's, but it's like a slow burn all day. You're not going to see, it's not going to be a massive dump all at once. It's just going to be coming down all day. If you have not gotten your winter tires put on,

on your car. What are you waiting for? Mother Nature has told us winter starts, winter started already. You know, like we're not, we're not getting that southern Ontario winter where it's a green Christmas and then New Year's rolls around and that's when we start getting light dustings. No, no, no. She's decided it's game on. And so, um, be careful today. It's going to be, it's going to be messy. And also Environment Canada is issuing a freezing drizzle warning as well. I see conditions. This is not just that beautiful, soft bed of snow. No, this is the dangerous stuff. So please, please, please be careful.

Also, don't forget, there's no speed cameras anymore anywhere near schools. Well, no, but that's not the point. Amy Siegel, it's actually trying to, it's actually, yeah, that's Amy Siegel, everybody. Hi. I was trying to point out that Amy got a new ticket? No, no, it's not worth, guys, stop putting words in my mouth. I've got points to make here. I was trying to point out that the roads are dangerous.

Not everybody has their winter tires on. and there's nothing preventing people from speeding in school zones. So let's be careful as kids are walking across the street going to school. That's all I was trying to say. But we're also, we are helping to make the streets safer by the fact that we have Amy in here. Yeah, every workday, every workday, we are doing a public service by keeping Amy indoors as long as possible. Because there's not an infraction on the road that she looks at every rule is like a dare. Challenge accepted.

Oh, the speed limit is 40. We'll see about that. You say I can't park in this public park? We'll see about that. How do you know? How do you know what I do? Yes, it says public park. Anyway, welcome to the show.

Thank you, everybody. Amy, welcome. How are you today? I'm great. Yeah, good. Intrepid producer, Mike Droulet, still feeling okay? Still feeling good. Although, pass it on to my beautiful daughter.

Oh, yeah, my wife and daughter have a fever today. Yeah. Apparently the flu for kids is super bad this year. real, real bad, and I'm just hoping for the best, but we had I don't know, we're, I think we hopefully we've dodged it. Yeah. But knock on wood.

A technical producer, Dave Sbargala. How are you? Technically, how are you today? Technically, I'm okay. I see some movement in the news booth. I think we got some breaking news on the storm. But first, let's check the death count from the killer's storm

bearing down on us like a shotgun full of snow. Well, Kent, as of now, the death count is zero. but it is ready to shoot right up. Oh, my God. Damn you snow! Thank you, Kent Brockman. I don't remember that. I love that.

The death count is zero, but it's ready to shoot right up. Simpsons. Yeah, it's ready to shoot right up. Damn you snow. I love it. Technically, I'm good, thank you. I'm glad to hear it.

I have this policy with my kids and they think that I'm heartless, but if I sense that they're getting sick, I don't go anywhere near them. You're not getting a hug. You're not getting a kiss on the forehead. You know, like none of that stuff. I'll show you my...

Kind of hard. No, I can't get... I have to be here. Do you do the thing? Can you just like put your mouth across and then just... No, no, no. They know I love them. They know I love them.

I had a week of my family yelling at me Big Daddy germs, thanks to you. Yeah, BDG, baby. And yeah. Yeah. It was horrible. Speaking of my kids, yesterday, my son, John, went on a field trip to Queens Park.

And the funny thing is, two days ago, two nights ago, he tells me this. And I said, you do know that your aunt. Caroline is a member of Doug Ford's government. Like, that's where she works. He goes, yeah, I was like, have you let her know? He said, no. I was like, oh, come on, man.

Help yourself here. So we called her, and Caroline was so excited that she organized a whole thing where I think she referenced the school that was watching and the class it was watching. And then they got to meet Doug Ford. I think, I believe in his office. It was in his office because I saw a portrait of his brother, his late brother on the back wall. And so John got a lot of brownie points for that. But not before, not before he called me up in a panic.

Getting a lot. He had no idea where he was going. And so I sent him a map with like a, I dropped a pin and sent him a map. And he calls him back and he's like, I'm nowhere near that. And he said, they're not going to let me in. I said, they're going to let you in. You're just, your, my sister works there. She'll hold the door open for you.

Anyway, it worked out. It was great. Very happy that it happened. Thank you to my sister. You also said, it's the big building in the middle of the street. Big building in the middle of the case. You literally have to drive around it if you're trying to go anywhere in that north or south. Anyway, he made it there very happy.

Are Brian and John in separate classes? Yes, yeah. Did they separate them on purpose? Well, no. Now it's because it's high school, they have different classes, right? No one has the exact same schedule. But we did, we tried every permutation earlier on. Like we put them, we had fundamentally, we didn't have a problem with them being in separate classes or them being in the same class.

but at one point one of them was in a class with all their friends and the other was in a class with none of their friends and so we call I asked the principal as it can help me out

like just come on put like one it this is it can't be feast or and famine and it was very the principal was very nice and set them both up

all I know that is if I had a twin I would have been hell on teachers I would have been messing with them I would have mess with so many people if you had well right now see they have that

alpaca haircut and John is really John's is quite significant. It's quite significant. Brian's is a little more easier to handle. And they used to, it used to be hard, very hard to tell them apart. And then as they got older, their teeth allowed me to tell them apart. But now that they both have braces, that's going away.

And their voices are both getting deeper and they dress almost exactly the same way. Oh, come on. Yeah. So it's really hard to tell them part. I used to do this one thing with them all the time where I'd look at one. I'd say, hey, you, where's the other one? That's how I would, where's the other one? And now, now, and we're in the exact same place now.

Are you 100% certain that Brian is Brian? No. That you didn't mess them up at some point of birth? No, I'm not. They were born, they were so small when they were born. I think there were four pounds, four ounces each, that the bracelets that identified them at the hospital kept falling off. So it's entirely possible that Brian became John and John became Brian,

but it's also equally possible that we flipped them back. Yeah. And then again, and again and again. But Brian feels like a Brian and John feels like a Brian. So even if we flip them, the right decision was ultimately made. So that's a, hey, listen, if anyone is going to take a trip and they were going to go on Air Transat and the fear of a strike was worrying you about your trip, Air Transat and 750 pilots have reached a last-minute tentative deal.

So the chaos that was going to ensue today at the airport seems to have been avoided. They've prevented a strike that could have shut down the operations as of today. And look, it looks like they got a lot done. The agreement modernizes the 2015 contract with better pay, job security, and scheduling flexibility. So that's good. That's good. I will say I was listening to some of the people at the airport, when the pilots went into a legal strike position. And these people were saying, you know, yeah, they may go on strike, but I need my vacation.

So I'm going to go on vacation. And I'm just going to hope for the best. And it's those people that, you know, global news would call later on and say, hey, are you stranded? What do you have to say? And they say, well, I didn't know. I didn't know. Now I'm stuck in Punta Kana. And which is not a bad place to be stuck.

But they never look back at the decision they made to go on. vacation knowing that there was a strike. Anyway, all that to say, very happy that people's well-deserved and probably costly vacations, a costly and that relative to how much money we used to have, if you're taking a vacation, it's costing you a lot of money. So here's to you being able to enjoy your time over the holidays. Very glad that they got that done. We did not get to the TTC running exceptionally slowly, but we will be talking about that soon. As a matter of fact, up next, could there be a way to speed up the trains? Apparently there is. Anything has to be better than what we're currently dealing with.

Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney Show marches on. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights, now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows. rides and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's Kindest Community, celebrating Acts of Kindness Nationwide, with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community

and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at Canada's Wonderland.com. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Yeah, there's a new level of expectation on the TTC with the arrival of the Finch LRT. But overall, the LRT is running far slower and below expected performance than anybody wanted. The end-to-end trips are taking between 49 and 56 minutes. That's going about 11 to 13 kilometers an hour.

Think about that. Versus the originally promised 33 minutes, which would be 20 kilometers an hour. And that's largely due to red lights and what they're calling soft opening operating limits to avoid, I guess there are Ottawa-style LRT failures. Olivia Chow is promising action. but let's instead focus on solutions. Instead, let's focus on solutions. And for that, we are joined by Kelly Isaacovits from ABC Toronto.

Kelly, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, Ben. Okay, so how bad, how bad is it out there for the TTC? I mean, it's pretty bad. And, you know, there are a couple of things that we need to unpack here. First of all, if we look back, shovels were in the ground for the LRT in 2019. and the original completion date was 2023. So we are already behind schedule.

And when you think about that, six years later, that speed and priority for a new LRT wasn't even considered. Yeah. Just shows total mismanagement at the highest levels of City Hall and is really indicative of a decade of decline under the current and former mayor of Toronto. Now, before, I should have level set off the top. but give us in a sentence or two what ABC Toronto is.

Sure. ABC Toronto is a not-for-profit organization. We are concerned citizens who believe that Toronto must become a highly livable city. We look at the last decade of decline and think that that needs to be turned around. And the way that we see that happening is with generational and wholesale change at city council. Now, modern TTC streetc cars have a maximum design speed of 70 kilometers an hour. So when people hear that we're going 13 clicks, they're wondering, what are they missing? And over the course of planning and building and testing these new systems, why did no one highlight, oh, you know what?

We're going to have a problem here. And obviously, when you're above grounding, you have to share the road, I get it. You're going to, you know, if all of a sudden there are cyclists and there are pedestrians. and there are cars that you have to factor into it and intersections. Yes, things are going to get slower. But generally speaking, I don't think anybody thought things would be this slow right off the jump. No, nobody did. But this is indicative of how the mayor's office and city council manages the issues facing the city.

They jump from crisis to crisis. And, you know, unfortunately, this is what happens when you're guided by ideology rather than good planning. And as you mentioned at the top, ABC Toronto or a better city of Toronto has been talking about speeding up our streetcars and transit system. We put out a policy paper a few weeks ago, and our plan would reduce trip lengths by 22 to 32 minutes on average. Okay, well, that sounds like something, that number sounds like something everybody should be listening to. So what are some of these solutions that you're putting forth? For sure. There's, you know, nothing that we are putting forward is rocket science. All of this has been implemented in other cities that have much faster transit systems than we do. So off the bat,

the first thing is smart traffic lights. So why are we not using technology so that streetcars can trigger a green light when they arrive and are ready to go? Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, look, if your goal is to prioritize, make it so that it is the best, option for people to leave get out of their cars and join join the the TTC revolution then showing people if you're sitting in traffic and all of a sudden you see a streetcar go by you exactly then that that that's that's the best advertising right you're in traffic and the street cars moving yeah exactly the other piece to this is fewer unnecessary stop we have a lot of unnecessary stop what constitutes an unnecessary stop so it

It's just a much smaller distance between stops. There actually are international best practices that reduce the number of spots that are too close together. And so what we want to do is lengthen the spacing between stops so that you're not constantly, you know, when I take the Gerard Street car, for example. Give me an idea, give me an idea of what you're talking about because I'm, I would, you know, I take the young line. That's about it on the subway. So give me an example of unnecessary stops or stops that are too close together. Yeah. So if I'm on the Gerard street car line, there is a stop at Gerard and Greenwood.

And I want to say maybe about 50 or 100 feet down there's a stop at a side street. No way. Wait, no, hold on. It stops about 100 feet later. Come on. I'm not kidding. And this is endemic across the street car. line. It's not, I don't think it is unreasonable to ask people to just have to walk a little

bit further so that the streetcar isn't constantly stopping. Okay. You know, every, every 50 or 100 feet. But that is, that's one example that I experience when I take the Gerard streetcar into the downtown core. All right, what else you got? Something about modern switches. What, for, what, what are switches and why does Toronto have old ones? Well, the switches really, these are the things that guide and tell the street cars when, you know, when they're able to go. And so the ones that we have are manual. They are eight times slower than newer ones. And so there has been a discussion about switches, you know, I think I've been listening to this discussion about switches for a very long time. We know what the solution is. Let us install modern ones to speed up those signals

for street cars to go. Yeah. We need speed. And let's not. Why are we slowing them down? Because we're not upgrading our system. Yeah, yeah. We've also talked about dual safety officers and fare inspectors to cut down on, you know, people not paying their fares. Everybody must pay their fair share. And then automated traffic enforcement that keeps cars from blocking street cars and, you know, get them out of the streetcar.

lanes and allows those streetcars to move faster. Have you, has ABC Toronto costed out all of these proposals? We have. And I mean, there's a net benefit to the city in 110 million in new revenue after implementation. And quite frankly, the other thing that I think for transit riders, which is really important, is hundreds of hours a year back. Yeah, for sure.

And they're alive. Instead of showing up to work harried. and worried about being late or having to rush, you know, from the streetcar stop or the subway to go get your kid from daycare, you know, let's take that stress and that anxiety away from transit riders by actually making the system move at the speed of a modern city. Well, Kelly, I'll tell you what is mind-numbingly obtuse in this whole thing is we've always been told that this investment in in in in in the tc and in public transit was to get people out of their cars which would then in turn and we want people out of their cars because they are uh their lives

are being diminished by gridlock and what we've done is we've created artificial gridlock on the tc we are we've created a slower system if i were sitting on the tc and and and i know and i knew which i now know that i'm spending an additional 30 minutes on it every day, sorry, one way that I wouldn't have to spend. One way. One way. So an hour a day, I would ask myself, why am I doing this? I could just as easily take my car and I, and at least in my car, I can scream to high heaven when traffic isn't moving. But now I'm going to be sitting here in induced congestion. Like, there's nothing that should be slowing it down. And so it's, it's unbelievable to me that as we are trying to get people out of their cars,

We have not, top of mind, thought consumer first, customer first, taxpayer first, experience first. Well, exactly. And this is where the mayor needs to actually lead the city because it's not just the time that you're spending sitting in gridlock or on a streetcar that's not moving. You know, there is an investment of $3.7 billion from taxpayers. And it feels like, it should feel like a reasonable request to say, we have spent all of this money. We want world-class transit. But then you actually have to work to make that happen.

And, you know, I thought her response yesterday was beyond the pale. Kelly, Isaacovitz, thank you so much, ABC Toronto. We appreciate it. Thanks so much, Ben. All right, could the Fever World Cup spur the growth of soccer in our school system? We have an idea to float next. Whether it's a pair of running shoes or a new car. You check how well something performs before you buy it.

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All right, we want to talk. We'll talk about the World Cup for just a quick second. And there are a lot of people that are hoping, big fans of soccer, as a grassroots sport, it's already taking off really significantly across North America. They're hoping that this World Cup in North America will act as almost like a continental Carter effect. That having the exposure to the highest level of sport in our backyards will lead to an explosion of enthusiasm and interest in soccer and allow for the next generation of soccer players to take root and to thrive. That's the hope.

But hope is not a strategy. A strategy would be finding a way to incorporate soccer in a more organic and more deeply rooted way in our school system. And so to talk about that, and perhaps the missed opportunity here in the city of Toronto, we're joined by Zara Arrendel, first year York University students. Zara, welcome to the show. Hi, good morning. Thank you so much. All right. So the Toronto Catholic school boards have high-performance athlete-focused schools. I did not know that.

But there is a gap that exists right now. There's a gap within the Catholic District School Board and within the sports at the elementary school system. So what's the, give me a snapshot of the schools and the relationship with soccer today and what you think needs to happen in order to get us to a place where these schools have, as part of their curriculum, a robust soccer program that could, if they happen to have a world-class athlete in their midst, not do anything to muck it up. Well, first, we really have to thank Mr. Tony Buschelia, who is, the principal that started the first of its kind high-performance athletic school that has this. No other school in the Toronto Catholic District School Board has anything like this,

so he's really started this and has opened it up. And the bridge that we need to create for the elementary students is really a program, especially within the Jane of Hitch community, where you can start playing and start having that like, sorry, I'm so passionate about this project so it's just like... Of course. Like, you need to have something at the elementary level

that can prepare them for high school. Sure, yeah. And look, for those who would say, who would poo-poo this idea and say, oh, look, we don't know, you know, the chance of these kids going pro is so insignificantly small. we shouldn't be focused on that.

But what I've come to realize in my own life, because my sister has, her children are all high performance athletes, all of them, three out of the four. The other one is just a genius in other ways. But what I've noticed about sport, if done properly with young kids, is it will inculcate in those kids a work ethic, an idea of teamwork, the idea of respecting rules, the idea of being a leader,

the idea of pursuing excellence, the idea of sacrifice, you know, getting up early and doing and working towards a goal. All of that stuff is applicable far beyond the pitch. And I've noticed in their lives, they have become the best versions of themselves because they had sport at a high level in their lives. Exactly. And it's like sports with an elementary school, it's tournament-based. It's not based off of developmental skills, really working on the skills that you need to, improve on the sport that you want to play.

So why aren't we, why, why isn't this something that is getting going? Why, what's the hurdle? The real hurdle is, is that there's so many teachers and a lot of the time they cannot do it. Yeah. And it's hard because you can't expect them to be able to make it work, but we also have to do it for the student athletes that are within our school. There are so many children that are so, miss like they're just not getting the opportunities that they should because of the area

that they live in because of the fact that their teachers can't do it or they don't have the resources to yeah yeah and so something needs to change okay so let's talk about that something because you're talking about a gentleman before who has this plan and has this program and it was pitched to the catholic board yes okay had that go so in my senior year as i just as you did say I am a first year student. So last year I had gone to my now former principal and teacher. And I said to them, I'm like, elementary schools aren't getting the same advantages that we are when it comes to sports.

They get maybe a month of practice and then they have one tournament on a date and then it's season's over for that. Yeah, sure. Why not have them be able to play a sport for being for as long as we would get to? Normally when we're in high school, we get to play a sport for anywhere from two months to four months on time all year. Yeah, yeah. And it's so unfair for us to be able to do that and then expect elementary students coming into high school to be okay with that because they're not used to it. Now, you just graduated from high school so you know the students.

Did you know anyone in your circle of friends or at your school who you could look at and say, you know what? that person would have been better off with that pathway through sport. Someone who maybe, you know, was lacking a little discipline or was lacking the idea of camaraderie or somebody who maybe, you know, let's be honest, some people, some kids, some kids don't have a happy home life. And an hour spent on, with teammates practicing is an hour they don't have to be in a toxic home. So to me, that's a net benefit. Did you know any kids like that? Of course.

The amount of kids I know, the amount of teenagers I know, that even myself, that wish we could have. And that's our goal with this program. We want to cultivate the student athletes from as young as possible. Yeah. Yeah. And reminding people, it's not. We don't believe that we did when we were growing up. Yeah.

And reminding people, it's not just about trying to get somebody to go pro. Like, yes, the chance of even the best players. in elementary school going pro. For every LeBron James, you know, there are thousands of kids who will never come close to even playing Division I basketball. It's not about that. It's about what they learn along the way. And we've got to be brutally honest.

I mean, the Jane and Finch area and the kids that live there probably need more programs to keep them on track than elsewhere in the city. And for that reason alone, it would be interesting to invest in a program like this. So the idea was pitched to the Catholic school board. And you didn't tell me how it went? So it is hard. When you're pitching to the school board, it's hard because you have so many logistics. And a lot of the time, it's so hard for students to go to the school board and really advocate for themselves

because when you're there and you're doing that, a lot of the time they look at you and they're like, we don't know if this will really be able to work because it's students coming to you. So you have to look at them and you have to be like, okay, if you're not going to listen to me, I'm going to have to go to someone else that you will listen to. Yeah.

So as I said before, I went to my former principal, Tony Bichelya, and I went to a former teacher, Mario Pilegi. And I went to them and I said, I'm like, you guys need to put your money where your mouth is. I need your help. I know you guys can do it, and I need you guys to do it. And from there, we've done it. So you, yeah, so keep on.

Sorry. And it's like, we have so many things going on in our area. Like last week, there was a major lockdown. Yeah. And parents just want to know that their kids are safe, and there's somewhere where they don't need to worry about that. Sure. Yeah. Being involved is something that is so important.

Yeah. And, you know, Zara, we talk about it all the time. we talk about it with health care and things like if we can get ahead of a problem, if we can teach people healthy eating habits, then that's going to tamp down on the obesity issue crisis and that will then take pressure off of the health care system. So let's get ahead of the problem. This is something that gets ahead of a problem and why it's not being endorsed wholeheartedly is frustrating.

But Zara, I want to thank you so much for joining us. Keep up the good fight because this is something that absolutely, it's a seed that needs to be planted and needs to find purchase. So thank you very much. Thank you so much. And I do want to say, like, we're the ones that are paying for this, for OSSL right now. And it's like, it's so important for us to make sure that we can have as many children at this program at the OSSL program as possible. Zara, thank you very much.

Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It's so nice talking to you. And when I tell you, I've been watching you on ETs for so long. So it's actually crazy for me to be on your 5,000. talking to you today. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Keep it up. I really appreciate it. And if there's any, ever some news on this front, you let me know. Okay, I will. Thank you so much. All right. We want to hear from you. Tell us about these specialized schools and programs. You have a kid in one of them. Are they effective? Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney Show marches on.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. Quick shout out to our. our previous guest, Zara Arendel, she's a first year at university student who should be studying and instead she is trying to hold the door open for those who are coming behind her. Or as it has been said about Drake, you know, he took the elevator to the top and sent it right back down for those who would come after him. So Zara, congratulations on university. Congratulations on creating the Ontario Scholastic Soccer League. And congratulations on all the work that you're doing for those who are coming up behind you. Okay. So we were focusing on sort of these specific programs within schools and specific schools within our

public school system as well as our Catholic Board school system. And so we want to ask you about all these different types of high performance schools. You know, last year, or earlier this year, rather, we were focused on that art school in Toronto that they had thrown away the admission process by which kids would have to show an aptitude as well as an enthusiastic. for the arts, and they threw that away in favor of a lottery system, which the parents said diluted the value of the school because you were bringing people in, in the name, I think, of equity, diversity, and inclusion, who didn't necessarily even have an aptitude or an interest in the arts. And that was, I think they're still working on that admission, that admissions.

Oh, they're getting rid of it, which I believe based on what I've heard, and I've been to that school, is a good thing. But, you know, if we have these schools, these STEM schools, these art schools, these high-performance athletes schools, don't you think we should do them well? Don't you think that we should actually,

if we're going to do it, let's do it well. All right, who are we taking first here, Mike? All right, we're taking Mike on a line to. Mike, welcome. Hi, Ben. How are you? Congratulations on your show and for all you're doing.

I appreciate, thank you. I'm one of the parents. I'm a single dad and Jane and Finch, And I got a message this morning that Zara was going to be on the program. So all of us parents here that are part of the OSSL wanted to say congratulations to her. It wasn't for her. My son, who cannot afford to play at a rep level. Yep.

If it wasn't for her and grabbing the community together, my son wouldn't have a program to actually be a part of. Right. Yeah. So if you look at the high school that we want to be a part of, which is the James Cardinal McGuigan High Performance School. I ask my son all the time, you want to continue with soccer? Yes, he's getting better, but I can't afford to get the private coaches.

No, of course not. Yeah. So now what's happened, Ben, is that Zara has cultivated, you know, we have a doctor of sports science. We have Ontario certified teachers that give my son tutoring support. Yeah. So, you know, he can't train soccer unless Zara signs off on his homework. And, you know, if we don't create that opportunity where we're disciplined, he's in grade seven.

He's in grade seven, and he loves soccer, and he probably has a, I don't know how good he is, but my guess is. He sleeps in his jersey. That's what I was going to say. Like, if all of a sudden, there was a, there was a power. pathway for him to, you know, to, I don't know, I've seen it happen with hockey, right? A pathway for him through the school system to be up at four in the morning, to be, to be practicing with his team at five, right? You got it.

And he would do it. He would be one of those kids who would do it. Yes. And I'm going to ask you, like, like, I'm sure he has dreams of playing professionally, but even if he doesn't play professionally, do you think that the lessons that he learns as part of a team would benefit him long term? All I could ask for as a father is that he has a sense of belonging and a sense of family. Yeah.

Okay. The sports side of things will always come in fruition. Yeah. So we have professional athletes right in our home area. We have Elijah Roche, who is a represented team Canada at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, was the only U-17 player in Jane and Finch, part of the James Cardinal McGuigan School, that scored its first goal. Oh, wow.

Those kids, my son and those kids want to be able to live that dream. But the only thing that Zara Juan spent, and I think that the message is, is they want elementary schools to not do tournament-based games. Yeah, yeah. It's not good enough that you play soccer for one day, three teams. Why can't we bring about a September to June leave? Season, yeah, yeah.

Hey, listen, we're going to have to leave it there, my friend. because there are other people who want to jump into the conversation, but I wish you and your son the very best. Thanks, Ben. All right, take care. Who do we have next? We got Jim. Jim, thanks so much for calling in.

Happy Wednesday. Hey, man. How are you doing? Good. You started off the conversation with talking about your daughter's children. My sister's kids, yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that's what I meant.

I can echo that sentiment. I had three kids that played regional and provincial basketball, soccer, and rugby. Okay. And it translates all the way into their academics. Yeah. It teaches them independent. It teaches them to be teamwork.

It teaches them what it's like to actually win something and reward. Yeah. Yeah. And our school board, and we're north of the city, we ran a program like this from about 2010 until about 2017. And it was all based on parent and volunteers. Yeah. So we would have someone from the school with us.

And it's so easy to get someone from the school when they don't have to be a based athlete because they've got someone there to do the teaching. Yeah. Yeah. So what would happen is those schools that had that program excelled. The other schools that didn't excel. Right.

So it became an unfair situation. So the school board kicked us all out. Kick y'all out? Yep. If we can't provide this for all schools, then no school should have it. the kids shouldn't be made to feel that this school is better than that school. It is better. It is. And other schools should strive for it.

This freaking dumbing down of everything and legislating the lowest common denominator. Show the world lead by example and have others strive to attain it. This is freaking nonsense. This is why we're going to lose. This is why we're going to lose as a nation we are going to lose. And when I say lose, pick your poison. We'll lose it sport. We'll lose it business. We'll lose it everything.

That's why we're going to lose. because we don't, we don't offer pathways to the best, to be the best. And that level of excellence is somehow viewed. It is viewed in a derogatory way. You're showboating and showing off there, buddy. You're making the, you're making the, you're making the, you're making the mediocre students feel bad about being mediocre. Sorry, then don't be media, then strive for more.

We're not all going to attain it, but we'll all be better for it by striving to be better than what we are. It's what we used to teach people. And whatever you have in life, strive for more. Strive for more. Participation generation. Yep. Yep.

Okay. Thank you very much. I think I had time for one more call. Let's go to Verinder and Surrey, BC. Verinder, welcome. Hi, Ben. How are you? I'm great, thanks.

Just a monthly phone call to the Ben Maroon. Yes, indeed. Two things, actually. One thing is, you know, when I was, when I was, I started for post-traumatic stress disorder and self-esteem issues growing up, right? Yeah. And things like, you know, and I remember, like, growing up, like, I remember, like, I like chess and I read books, right?

Remember growing up, people who are things like, you know, chess is for nerds. You know, reading is for dorks, right? And not knowing the reward of these things, right? I think we need to get more, build more through the other, good decisions. Yeah. Like chess, like books, taxes, you know, managing your money and showing the reward. What's the reward? Because some people don't do things like go to the gym or reading or quit any shit

because they don't see the big enough reward. Yeah. I just want common sense alone. But I think we need to promote more things like the reward and that you Chess is not for nerds. Books are not for jokes. They were the best decisions you can ever make. Yeah. I want that to. Also, next month is a CPC convention in Calgary. Will you be attending? Oh, I don't know. I don't think so. I don't get an invite. So I don't think so. But thank you for bringing that up. Brenda, I really appreciate it. Thank you for our monthly check-in. And I'll talk to you in January.

All right. Yeah. Listen, this is this is an example of what they did it. They did it with the art school. You know, like that was a place where if you had an interest in an aptitude, it's where that would be fostered and you would grow as an artist. And then there are the social engineers at the school board that decided it was going to be, I don't know, it was going to be anything but that. That's why we're going to lose unless we change tactics. My name is Jordan, and I'd like to invite you to join me on the Canadian Gothic, a podcast covering stories of Canadian crime, mystery, and the offbeat. The Canadian Gothic blends the spirit of late-night talk radio with the depth of a documentary film and applies that approach to both developing stories and historical cases.

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