The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Campaign Day 15: Podcast From The Plane Part 2

Episode Date: September 25, 2019

Day 15 of Canada's 2019 Federal Election. | Thank for subscribing and for submitting a rating and review! * TWITTER @petermansbridge | INSTAGRAM @thepetermansbridge ** https://www.thepetermansbridge.com/ *** Producer: Manscorp Media Services

And hello there, it's Peter Mansbridge with the latest edition of The Bridge. This on the Wednesday of week three of the election campaign. You hear all that noise in the background? That's because once again I'm on an airplane. So I apologize for the noise. I'll try to keep things short tonight keeping that in mind last night I was on the flight going from Toronto to Vancouver tonight I'm on the flight going from Vancouver back to Toronto it's an Air Canada flight flight 121 I believe we're traveling at 41,000 feet. We just passed over the Rockies, and we're now into the foothills in Alberta.

Spectacular view. Never get tired of looking down at the Rockies, or for that matter, anywhere in the country. 41,000 feet. You know this, of course, right? That when you fly from west to east, you are at an odd number level in terms of the height and when you fly from east to west, you're at an even number. So, last night, as it turned out, I was flying 40, 000 feet. Tonight, I'm flying at 41, 000 feet and you can imagine why they do that, right?

It's called separation. And because we're going west to east, we're traveling much faster than we did last night because, as is normal, we've got the winds in our favor. So we're traveling at over 1,000 kilometers an hour, or 650 miles an hour. And it's minus 76 outside this window. So I'll keep the window closed. All right, enough about airplane talk. I love airplanes. I love air travel.

I've never not liked it. All right, I was in Vancouver giving a speech to the Union of BC Municipalities, a great group of 1,000 people, various mayors and councillors from across British Columbia, dealing with the kind of issues that people in those roles have. I have a lot of admiration for anybody who gets into politics, puts themselves forward for public service in that area, whether it's at the local level, provincial or federal, that they're willing to put themselves in front of their neighbours and friends and constituents,

say what they believe, run the risk of losing, They're willing to put themselves in front of their neighbors and friends and constituents, say what they believe, run the risk of losing, and run the challenge of winning. So I had a lot of time for public servants, and I know that they sometimes wonder about us in the media because we're chasing them down all the time, but that's part of accountability as well. Nevertheless, great audience, fun talking to them about a variety of different things. They wanted to know what I was noticing in the election campaign, but most of all they want to know about my 50 years in journalism and how the media operates, some of the interviews that I've done, all those kind of things. So it was a good time had by all. I also noticed

by glancing around the room and they're telling me, this is an organization that's over 100 years old and obviously over that time they've become much more diverse, more women in roles, still predominantly men, but more women, more younger people, more Indigenous people. I've met a number of Indigenous leaders, one of whom is a mayor now in one of the BC communities. And that's great to see. The young people, it's their time. A couple of them talked to me about that promise earlier this week by Jagmeet Singh to lower the voting age to 16. They say they've got things to say, they've got things to add. Greta Thunberg isn't the only young person in the world who wants to challenge others to listen to the concerns of young people. And they're also talking, speaking to Greta Thunberg, as the climate action demonstrations will hit this part of the world coming this weekend. They wanted to make a point of saying they will be out in force and in

big numbers in Vancouver on the weekend. So we'll wait and watch how that works out. On the campaign trail today, I wish I could tell you more. But as you can tell, I've either been in the air or in a room speaking myself to people. And so I haven't been, you know, I've taken a quick glance at things on the campaign, and there's nothing that I can kind of add to what you probably already know. But what I do know is that I've got some great questions came in last night,

and I'm going to handle three of them in a moment, because they deal with issues that I know many of you are interested in because I've received other mail over time on this same front. So let me take a quick break. When we come back, we'll do the mailbag time. And lots of really good letters once again have come in. And let me thank you and take this opportunity to thank you for all the mail you send. Most of them are questions, but every once in a while, just tell me that you're enjoying the podcast and share with me how you listen to it. Some of you listen to it as you're, you know, walking to the bus stop in the morning.

Some of you listen to it while you're riding your bike. Others listen while you're, you know, in the weight room or wherever you may be. So it's great to hear all of that. I appreciate it. Okay. Let letters today. There's some good ones here. You know, there were a number of the parties promised pharmacare this week. Benison Smith from Yellowknife writes, This is not the first time a national pharmacare plan has been discussed during the Canadian federal election. How, if at all, have partisan discussions around Pharmacare evolved over the years you've spent covering election cycles? Well, they've been a constant, I'll tell you that much, Benison. In fact, Pharmacare has been one of those things that Canadians have been promised

by various administrations for a long time. It goes back, I think, to at least the 1940s, when they started promising that they would look at the issue of pharmacare. I mean, we have a great health care program, but pharmacare is, you know, most people would consider it part of health care. Well, the provinces kind of gave up by the 60s and started instituting their own versions of pharmacare. And that's where you have that kind of patchwork of drug plans across the country, where some provinces cover drugs, others don't, some cover certain drugs which others don't.

And that's a real problem when you're trying to come up with a national program. So on the table again this time around, and believe me, this isn't the first time, and if you get kind of puzzled and frustrated by all this, you have a right to be, because pharmacare promises have been a constant in Canadian life. Let's see whether this time something happens with the promise. Somebody else wrote, and I'm really sorry, I can't seem to track down the email. Somebody else wrote and said, you know, it's great to hear these promises.

And they used Pharmacare as an example. They said NDP promised it, or Green Party promised it, and their pricing on it came out today at $27 billion. So that figure was tossed out, $27 billion. But what this writer wanted was some context. What does that actually mean in terms of the overall budget? That's a really good point. All these promises should be given in a percentage of what the overall budget is. I mean, this year the overall projected budget, I believe, is $350 billion. So you take that $27 billion PharmaCare program, what would that represent?

Well, it's a good chunk, a good chunk of the overall budget. It's less than 10%, but still, it's a big chunk of that money. So anyway, a good question. Alright, let's move on here to grab another question. Um, You ever get that message pop up when you're trying to get your emails and it says, this message is not being downloaded from the server.

This is like right after you just read it a couple of minutes ago. So let me try a different way of finding the same message. Okay. Here's one from Wade Tebow. First off, thank you for doing this podcast. Faithful listener, listening to your podcast from last night. You're talking about the promise talked about lowering the voting age to 16 many years ago during a year-end special of ad issue i remember that where viewers could ask questions i submitted this exact question to the

panel it was not well received i remember andrew coin stating it was a ghastly idea andrew would never say that yeah I think he did. Anyway, the question that is being asked here eventually, he points out Andrew said that and I was more supportive of young people, which is kind of you to say. And listen, so was Andrew. He's supportive. He just thought 16 was a stretch. I'd be fascinated to see what he thinks now, because times change. Anyway, then he goes on, you know, kind of

long, this is Wade Thiebaud from Kentville, Nova Scotia, goes on with a fairly lengthy rant, he calls it himself, about how memes are used on social media and how some people are sharing what are clearly cropped pictures and, you know, in effect, fake stuff. And what can be done about it? And I said, well, you know what? What can be done about it is you ignore it

when it's clear to you that it's fake or that it's being doctored. You can challenge these people, but I don't think it's worth it. Most of these people who are involved in stuff like that are just trying to bait you into an argument. I just ignore it. But here's the other point you raise, Wade. How do we engage more youth like Greta Thunberg to take action? well, you engage them by pointing to Greta and saying, look, she's an example of what you can accomplish, how you can make a difference. And so I would use that. I would tell you, you can make a difference too, maybe not on a global stage like Greta,

but certainly on a local level. Okay, last letter for today comes from Kevin Smith, Worthy Lake. Kevin's letter is basically this. Are all younger, you know, is it more general that younger voters vote Liberal and older voters vote Conservative, and why is that? Well, in a very general way, that's the case, but, you know, there are lots of younger people who vote conservative and lots of older people who vote liberal but the thinking has always been

the older you get the more liberal you were as a youth the older you get you become more traditional in your your ways what you believed as a young person, you tend to keep believing. Well, times change, and so you're regarded as a conservative for not changing your ways. You're conserving the old. Now, that's a very basic understanding of your question, but we'll try that. Anyway, I'm getting the hook here from our good friends at Air Canada, and I want to thank you for listening.

The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. That's where you can find us. Don't be shy. Write The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for listening tonight. We'll talk to you tomorrow.