The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Campaign Day 22: What's the Ballot Question?

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

Day 22 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

Thank you. okay Mansbridge, tell us what happened in the French language debate tonight. You've then downloaded the wrong podcast because I'm not going to do that. And there are three reasons why. First of all, I'm just not fluent enough in French to make those judgments. Second, even if I was fluent enough to make those judgments, I think there's something wrong with journalists immediately leaping on at the end of a debate to tell you what you should think about what just happened. You should be telling us what you think happened. So I will not do it for that reason. Doesn't mean I haven't tried that in the past. Doesn't mean I might not

try it again in the future, but I'm going into this feeling that way. I think it's important. I know I can remember when I was hosting our coverage on CBC of the various English language debates over the years, many years of debates, that I always tried hard not to pass judgment immediately unless something was absolutely obvious that had turned the debate one way or the other. And that rarely happened. And I won't go through the history of all those where it did. You know them as well as I do.

But so that's the second reason. The third reason is I've got tickets to the Leafs home opener tonight. So I'll be sitting watching a hockey game as opposed to watching live the debate. I'll watch it later by rewinding the PVR. So that's actually the real reason. Listen, I'm a hockey fan,

and I've been a Leafs fan since I was 10 years old. I'm also a Jets fan in Winnipeg, and at different times I've had season tickets to both those teams. Right now, I have season tickets to the Leafs. And this is the year for the Leafs, right? You've never heard that before. It's been a long wait, but this is the year. So, I'm doing the podcast a little bit early so I can get over to the game,

you know, because I don't want to miss Austin Matthews' first couple of goals because they pound to happen fast. Anyway, enough about hockey. Let's talk about something in terms of the campaign. Simple enough, right? Here's the question I want you to ponder for a moment. What do you think the ballot question is in this campaign? We're more than three weeks into it.

We've got less than three weeks left. Surely there's a ballot question right now. Is there something front of mind for the average Canadian, they're going to make their decision based on the answer they come up with to this question about the ballot. So what could it be? What's yours? Take a piece of paper out and write down what you think it is at this point in the campaign. You know, is it the environment? Is it climate change? Is it healthcare? Is it the cost of education, in particular post-secondary education, and the debt load that we place on our students or our students' families as a result of post-secondary education?

Is it immigration? Is it jobs? Is it the pipeline? There's quite a few possibilities, right? So be honest and write down what you think it is. Because I've got a theory here right now. At this point in the campaign, where we are this week, and that theory revolves around the fact that I'm not sure it's any of those issues.

Perhaps it should be. Arguably, it absolutely should be. But I think at this point in the campaign that perhaps it's not, none of those are the issue. That at this point, the issue, and this is why the country seems kind of divided. Most of the polls suggest an extremely tight race. Virtual tie, I think, the latest Nanos overnight poll for the Globe and CTV.

But that's been kind of commonplace through the polling. A couple of points here or there. A few polls indicating a wider gap. But for the most part, the averages come in around even. What that tells me is at this moment, the ballot question is Justin Trudeau. How do you feel about Justin Trudeau? And that may well be the way you end up voting. You're either for him or you're not for him. If you're not for him, then you look, you have to make your decision based on the variety of other parties and leaders

who are running against him. Now, 2015, what was the ballot question? Think back to 2015. What was it really all about? Most people you'd go to who sort of analyze these things would say the ballot question in 2015 was Stephen Harper. Either voted for him, or you chose which way, which direction to go against him. And that worked out in Justin Trudeau's favor. And when you go back, tick back through the various campaigns of the past,

ballot question often centers around the person who was prime minister at the time. You know, go back 79. Ballot question was about Pierre Trudeau. Joe Clark ended up the beneficiary of that. 84, or sorry, 80, the ballot question was Joe Clark. Do you really want Joe Clark to continue to be prime minister? The answer was no, and they voted overwhelmingly for Pierre Trudeau.

Back again. 84, ballot question was on Trudeau, even though he'd left. Brian Mulroney won. 93, Brian Mulroney had left, but in many ways, the ballot question was still about Brian Mulroney. Jean Chrétien won. And then he won again, and he won again. Three majorities in a row for Chrétien. Often the ballot question was Jean Chrétien,

and people said, I'm okay with that. So that's where we are, I think, at the moment. The next week, and this is why I wanted you to write it down on a piece of paper, what you think is the ballot question. Because my guess is this time next week, a lot of things will have happened. Obviously, there'll be whatever fallout there is from tonight's French language debate on TVA. Next Monday is the English language debate

carried on all the networks in Canada. And then another French language debate near the end of next week. So when all those are over, there are going to be a lot of different things will have happened. And it's kind of

unpredictable. One issue may have come clearly to the forefront of those issues we tossed out earlier. Or it may still be, you know, Justin Trudeau. Maybe Andrew Scheer. Maybe maybe he'll be the ballot question. Is he ready? Is he as advertised? So, think about that. Keep a record for yourself. What do you think the ballot question is now? And then look at that piece of paper next week and look at it and say, is that still the real reason? You've got to be honest with yourself.

When you walk into that polling booth, what are you actually going to be thinking about? What's going to be the determining factor for you on how you vote? Interesting question. So think about it, talk about it, write it down. Okay. Got to get going soon. That game is about to start.

The old puck is about to drop. But not before the mailbag. I love playing with the control board here. It reminds me of my old days working in Churchill, Manitoba, 1968. I started working at the little radio station, CHFC in Fort Churchill. I did the late night record show. And you were the only one in the station. You had to figure out everything yourself.

You had a control board there. You queued up the records. So this kind of takes me back a bit. Now, mind you, none of the equipment we had there was anything like this little podcast equipment, which are fabulous and rather inexpensive. Anybody can do a podcast. But I can remember in Churchill, my gosh, we decided to start an open line show,

you know, a phone-in show, where I was the host and we did it in the morning and we called it Words with Peter Mansbridge. Day one of the phone-in show, it's Churchill, small town, right? There's only 1,200, 1,300 people there. So you kind of knew everybody. First day, no one called. Not a single person phoned.

I was begging, pleading on the air, but I guess people were a little shy. They didn't want to be recognized. So by day two, the program was called Words and Music with Peter Mansbridge because we'd drop in the odd record. But people started phoning, and it became a fun program to do. And it was the same kind of thing. But the management said, we have to have this program on a delay

in case somebody says a bad word. And we thought, hey, that's right, boss, but this is kind of like a tiny station. We don't have that kind of equipment. And they said, there must be some way we can do it. You just have to record the program and have the record head separated from the playback head on the tape recorder, and you need seven seconds.

He said, well, that sounds easy, but the record head is about a half an inch from the playback head. He said, well, you figure it out. Well, we did by stringing the tape as it passed through the record head, then diverting it away from the playback head and kind of running the tape around the room of the control room before it came back and went from the playback head and kind of running the tape around the room of the control room before it came back and went through the playback head. And that's how we got our seven second delay. Nobody ever called and swore. Man, we were ready in case they did. All right, letters. Just two I'm going to mention tonight.

And the first one comes from somebody you may remember. It comes from Jessica Heron. She wrote a great letter shortly after this podcast started about her concerns about how the election was unfolding and how she could get the issues she wanted to the forefront. Well, I was so impressed with her letter that I passed it on to the producers at the CBC who were doing this face-to-face series that's running this week.

Because I'd done the first face-to-face a couple of years ago, shortly after Trudeau became Prime Minister. We did a face-to-face a couple of years ago, shortly after Trudeau became prime minister. We did a face-to-face. So this one this week has been kind of takeoff of that. Anyway, I passed the letter on from Jessica to the producers, and they loved it too, and they got hold of Jessica. She's in Coal Lake, Alberta, and they brought her in for the face-to-face, and there she was, Monday night, sitting across from the Prime Minister,

challenging him on the issues. So Jessica was kind enough to write. She said, I'll never forget what an amazing day I had touring around CBC, meeting some great Canadians from across the country, and forgetting to sit across from the Prime Minister to voice my questions and my concerns. I also got to hang out in your old office and see areas that I've watched on TV since I was a kid. Jessica, they don't even let me go near my old office.

In fact, I think they changed my old office into some different function. But listen, I'm glad. I'm glad you were on the program. I thought you were terrific. And I really appreciate hearing from you. That's very nice. Safe journeys back to Coal Lake. Okay, the other question, the other letter is quite a long one

from a fellow named Spencer Stinson. And let's see named Spencer Stinson. And let's see where Spencer is from. Go to page two. Blenheim, Ontario. That's just south of Chatham. So Spencer writes, I'm just going to read a couple of lines out of it. You'll get the gist.

I find myself surrounded by friends and colleagues who get hooked by one-liners and headlines and don't actually do the full research to make an educated decision. These are not unintelligent people. I am in no means speaking from either end of the political spectrum here. Many voters, including left, right, and center viewpoints, are swept up in this, I believe. Is there anything as an individual you would recommend at a time like this in order to push people or populations to do the work and make an educated decision? Spencer, important question, especially in an era when there's so much kind of fake news out there that's spread around through the Internet, on Facebook and Twitter and you name it.

So how do you make sure you're dealing with an educated electorate? As you say, a lot of these people are smart people. They're not unintelligent people. Well, you have to start from this. You have to believe that people who are going to vote take that responsibility seriously. And to take that responsibility seriously, they really have to understand what's at stake. What are the issues?

What are the people? Who are they? Do you trust them? Do you find them truthful? And to do that, to make those decisions, you have to do some basic research. You can't go on a whim. This is such an important part of democracy, is your participation in how these things unfold. And so, you know, in every riding in the country, all 338 of them,

there are town halls, town meetings, candidates' meetings, candidates' debates. They all happen, or they all should happen. And you have the opportunity to go to any of them. You have the opportunity when people come knocking on your door to challenge them about what they stand for, on the issues that matter to you. And that's how you make up your mind. You know, a lot of these all-candidates meetings by the people who are running in your riding,

those are important. That's going to be your representative in the next parliament. It's not just who's going to lead. It's who's going to be behind the leader. But a lot of these town halls, all candidates' meetings, you know, it turns out there's not a lot of people there,

which is sad. Well, you want people to be in attendance, to listen to what the candidates have to say, and to challenge them, to ask them what they stand for on the issues that matter to you. So I think that's part of this. You know, if your friends, Spencer, are smart people, the next time you hear something coming out of their mouth

that doesn't sound smart to you, challenge them. Say, look, why do you know that? Do you really know that? Does that really make sense? Let's go. Let's go to an all-candidates meeting, or let's sit down and talk about what these different people are saying. They'll have some kind of discussion, debate.

People, you know, I appreciate a lot of people don't have time to go to all-candidates meetings. They've got kids who've got hockey games or basketball games or dance classes or what have you, and so they can't go at night. basketball games or dance classes or what have you. And so they can't go at night. But there are other ways you can do some basic research into what's going on. And I think we owe the system.

We all owe the system that much. Spencer throws in another question at the very end, a real hard-hitting one. What's your best restaurant recommendation in Stratford? My wife and I got engaged there and visit every October for our anniversary. Spencer obviously knows that I live in Stratford. That's where our home is. I'm in Toronto a lot as well. But our home is in Stratford.

And Stratford is known as, you know, per capita, probably best restaurants in the country, I would argue. There's some terrific restaurants in Stratford. It's the home of the Stratford Chef School, and a lot of the great chefs in this country have passed through Stratford at one time or another, and some have stayed and worked in restaurants in Stratford. So I could name any one of many. I love Features Restaurant.

It's right on the main street. Only for breakfast, it's a diner kind of thing. But it's a classic diner. You don't want to go there if you're watching the calories. But you sure want to go there if you want to load up on a great breakfast. Especially if you've just played hockey or watched hockey. It's very popular in the winter features. Lots of good, special dinner places.

You know, most people know because they've seen me around there that I love Pazzo's right on the main street. It has kind of two restaurants downstairs, pizza mainly. Upstairs, a little fancier. I go there a lot. But I'm telling you, you can't go wrong with a good restaurant in Stratford. And I hesitated even mentioning Pazos. I'm not a stakeholder there. I don't have an interest in Pazos,

although I'd love to because it always seems packed. Anyway, Spencer, you're going with your wife to Stratford. You can't go wrong on restaurants. You can't. There's so many four- or five five star restaurants in Stratford and not surprisingly many of them are close to the theatres

so enjoy and enjoy Stratford great community great city 33,000 it's not big small but extremely extremely nice town. All right.

Listen, that's the hot stove league for tonight. I'm heading to the hockey game. Wish me luck. And I will watch the French language debate probably later tonight. And if there's something to say about it, I'll say it tomorrow. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. That's where you should write if you've got some thoughts or questions.

Don't be shy. So I'm Peter Mansbridge. This is The Bridge. Thanks for listening.