The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Celebrating A Million -- Thanks To All Of You!

Episode Date: October 28, 2020

It's a potpourri day with lots to catch up on.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of The Bridge Daily. It's hump day on week 33, Wednesday. We love Wednesdays. Figure we've got a really great start on the week and we know it's really not that long before we get to the weekend for whatever those mean anymore we're positioned in yet another week that has

that's bordered by huge stories on the one hand we have the same story we've been riding for 33 weeks now and that of course is the pandemic. And it's odd, right? You know, you hear different phrases used to describe the same thing. Right now, we're going through, according to some, the third wave. Others, it's the second wave.

Others, it's the end of the first wave. Well, let's all agree that no matter what wave it is, it's not a good one. And we're seeing really difficult numbers in, well, across Europe, certainly in many parts of North America and South America. Those are kind of the major hotspots right now. And in our country, we're seeing numbers that we haven't seen since March and April. In the United States, they're seeing numbers they haven't seen ever. And it is bumping up against the other story that we are witnessing, and that of course is the

election in the United States. And the world is watching that one. The world is fascinated by what's going on in the United States. Fascinated may be the wrong term. A lot of people are scared of what they're witnessing going on in the United States. Well, one way or the other, we're going to know next week. I still think we're going to know on Tuesday night, but I could be wrong. It could be days, if not weeks, before it's clear exactly who the winners are on Tuesday night. Well, for most of the last week, we've dwelt on that story, on the U.S. election, with special

guests, and we've had some wonderful reaction from those of you who have been listening. And we're going to keep doing that. Friday night, we've got a very special program planned. I've got a good indication that Monday night might be pretty special too. But tonight, I'd like to focus on our other story, on COVID, because there's some catch-up to do here. We've brought in a couple of things. We talked a little bit last night before the special guest,

Ambassador Heyman, who was in Aspen, Colorado, the former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, who I thought was amazing in what he told us about the impact of that US vote that's living outside of the US right now and the impact it could have. But we also talked a little bit about masks last night and some of the new studies coming out on mask usage. And tonight, it's kind of one of those potpourri nights. I've got a bunch of

different things to talk about, but, you know, we can't lose sight of this story. And I know none of you are losing sight of it because I get your mail. But as I said, we'll be back to the U.S. election, certainly on Friday. We'll see about tomorrow. What I'm thinking of doing tomorrow is catching up on some of your mail. Reach into the old mailbag and pick out a few of your comments and questions and thoughts that you've been sending in

over the last couple of weeks because we have missed the mailbag portion of our broadcast podcast in the last little while. So I'm thinking of doing that. We'll see. Got a few balls in the air, as they say, and trying to keep them all from falling down.

Now, before I get to the potpourri for tonight, let me mention this to you. Those of you who follow me on Instagram and Twitter will know that shortly after 7 o'clock this morning I did a posting that I'm quite proud of. And it relates to something that happened between midnight and 1 o'clock in the morning this morning. Basically, it happened overnight.

And that was we passed the 1 million mark in downloads for the Bridge Daily. We started, as some of you will recall, as a little podcast, a little podcast that could in the Canadian election campaign last year. And we did it every day for whatever that was, 35, 36 days. And then we retreated to once a week, sometimes once every couple of weeks. And then when COVID started, I just thought, my gosh, you know, we need to be more frequent for this. Thinking, of course, that we'd be dealing with something for a month or two.

Well, here we are 33 weeks later, and we're still going strong. We've mixed it up a little bit with the U.S. election, but nevertheless, we've got what appears to be a pretty dedicated audience group out there who are enjoying what they're hearing. They're being challenged by it, they're being humoured by it sometimes, they're being emotional about it sometimes, and they've been angry about it sometimes. So you've had the mix of emotions, right? But passing the one million mark, I mean, I don't really understand what a lot of this means

in terms of the terminology for podcasts, and different people argue different things about what it all means. But the one million mark sounds pretty good. It must mean something. It means people have downloaded it up to a million times since we started. Well, we're past. We're already into the really early numbers after you pass the million mark. And that's pretty impressive.

So we'll take that, you know, from what the different podcast distributors say. That's, you know, that kind of places you in the top one-tenth of one percent of podcasters in North America. Now, there are some who, you know, have had tens of millions, hundreds of millions in at least one or two cases of their podcasts downloaded. So we got a long way to go. And I'm not sure how far we're going to go and how long we're going to go, but it's kind of important that we're doing it right now. Anyway, enough babbling, enough patting myself on the back

and patting you on the back for supporting us over this last year through your interest in listening, because that is the only support that we get here at the Home of the Bridge Daily. Willie chugging along on doing a lot of the technical help. And Bruce Anderson, who in the middle of August said, Peter, you know, let's do something once a week, and came up with the name The Race Next Door to focus on the U.S. election. And I thought, eh, maybe.

So we tried it a couple times, and you guys loved it. And so thanks to Bruce as well for that idea, as we keep plugging along, and we've still got at least another week to go with The Race Next Door and some special editions coming up. All right. Let's talk about some other things. Well, here's one that will transition us from U.S. election to COVID. As you know, because we've talked about it a number of times,

and as I'm sure you've watched at least one or two of them, the debates, presidential and vice presidential debates that have been going on in the U.S. And in the New York Times, Roger Cohen wrote a piece because he studied all of the debates, not in terms of who won or lost, not in terms of who yelled and screamed the most, but in terms of what they actually talked about, and more importantly, what they didn't talk about.

And he's got quite the list. So in the New York Times, Roger Cohen writes, the absence of the following topics at all those debates. Topics that, you know, you could argue over the last four years have been kind of up front in our minds for different reasons. Well, here they are. No mention of Syria, human rights, drones, democracy, inequality, dictatorship, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Africa, or even a single African state, South America, terrorism, multilateralism, authoritarianism, and the Great alliances. So Cohen argues that this is indicative

of the shrinking of the American mind, which leads to a dangerous denial of classical American values and suggests just how far we have fallen. Now, it's rare that a debate would be focused exclusively on a foreign issue. We've seen that happen. 2004, there was a lot of talk in that debate about Iraq and Afghanistan.

And you go back into the last century, and there are definitely times when foreign issues were top of mind and blunders were made and mistakes were made by various presidential contenders on the way they handle some of those questions. But this time, as Cohen points out, nothing going. Nothing going on a lot of really important areas in the debate that centers around various issues on the planet. So I found that an interesting list. All right.

What do we talk most about when we talk about COVID-19 when we're not sitting there praying for a vaccine or better therapeutics? We're talking about masks, right? We're talking about masks and whether or not there should be a national mandate in this country, in Canada, or in the United States, where there are national mandates, where mask use is extremely commonplace. In many parts in the Far East, they were wearing masks before this pandemic hit

because it's just become a way of life from past epidemics. Here's your mask story for today. Taking the strong step of giving an update from the very top, the CEO of Delta Airlines sent a memo to employees noting that the airline has added the names of 460 people to its no-fly lists. You know those, they're usually that list, these new 460 additions, these people are on there because they refuse to comply with a requirement to wear masks during flights. ABC News also shared that the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA, a union representing more than 50,000 members, implored the federal government to mandate that passengers wear face coverings on all flights,

noting at the time that more than 350 flight attendants had contracted COVID-19 and some had died. So, masks in the airline business, and what's at stake for employees of those airlines. Now, last week, we talked a little bit about, because, you know, I like to follow the airline business, we talked a little bit about what seemed to be a resurgence in at least the use of airports, because the numbers by the safety people and the security people who handle the check-ins at the major North American airports, especially in the States, showed an upward tick. I think they had more than a million on one weekend or one day two weeks ago,

which was the first time since March they'd had that many people go through the security system. And to them, that indicated, well, you know, maybe we're finally, slowly coming out of this. Maybe not so soon. National Geographic great magazine and more than just pictures

National Geographic and Morning Consult which is a really good polling agency in the US they've come up with a new survey that says 13% of people surveyed, and this is not an insignificant poll, are 2,200 people done. That's a big number. I know, it sounds funny, right? This is in the U.S., a country of 335 million, and we're saying 2,200 is a lot of people.

Well, it is because most polls, it is for a poll because most polls you look at are less than 1,000 people. And that's why their margin of error is higher than a poll like this of 2,200, which has probably a margin of error. I'm just guessing here because I don't see it included in the piece. But it's probably somewhere around 2%, 2.2%, somewhere in there. Anyway, 13% say they'd be willing to fly now or before the end of the year. That's just 13%. That means 87% are saying they're not willing to go yet on an airplane. 24% say they probably maybe would

just possibly take a flight next year in 2021. That's only 24%, one in four people saying even next year. Three out of four are saying they wouldn't go. Those aren't encouraging numbers if you're in the airline business. So don't hold your breath waiting for masses of North Americans to start flying again. A third of those respondents have no idea when they'll next go anywhere on an airplane. So the airplane business, which is partly connected to the business of business, but also connected to the business of tourism.

And here's an interesting little tidbit for you. You'd think if there's anywhere that might be safe for tourists, you'd think of really remote, a place only the most fit would end up going to, given what lies ahead for them, would be Kathmandu in Nepal. Right? The base of Mount Everest. That's why people go to Nepal.

They go to see Mount Everest or one of the other huge mountains in that immediate area. Well, Nepal has temporarily suspended access to the world's highest mountain after a local man became infected with COVID-19. Now, it doesn't say Kathmandu, but that person is probably very close to Kathmandu. Flights into Nepal have been suspended for now.

The Himalayan nation had only recently been inviting tourists back after a six-month suspension. Everest, of course, is a big contributor to Nepal's economy. Here's another... Here's a couple of stories that are kind of business-related as a result of the coronavirus, COVID-19. Do you recall in the middle of the summer, we spanned a couple of shows talking about the impact of big-time professional sports and the amount of money that was involved in the decision-making process

on the return of the NBA basketball, the MLB baseball, last game last night in the World Series, Dodgers win, and the NHL, hockey. Billions of dollars at stake. And billions of dollars that could be lost if those leagues didn't start up again. Because of television revenue, because of the gate receipts. Well, they never got the gate receipts in any of those sports. But they did get some of the TV money.

So a couple of pieces on that. CNBC saying that the early estimates on basketball, and the NBA, because they've crunched the numbers now, while they lost money, they didn't lose anywhere near as much as they might have lost. Because by resuming in the bubble and in the expense associated with having a bubble, canceling a good chunk of the season, having everything happening in one place, Orlando, they protected $1.5 billion.

That's not chump change. We haven't heard from hockey. We haven't heard from baseball, what their final crunch was on numbers, but it'll be interesting to see. CNBC is also reporting that the NBA is looking to 5G and VR, virtual reality, in a post-COVID world, exploring possibilities to enhance courtside seat experience while also being mindful that 99% of their fans never step foot in an NBA arena. So trying to find ways to not only keep their interest up in the sport, but also trying to ensure that, you know,

whether they're at the arena or not, and who knows. I mean, you know, as I've said before, I'm a season ticket holder for the Leafs and the Raptors. And they keep telling us they haven't sorted out what they can do for season ticket holders in the future, so they haven't been charging us. They didn't charge us for the playoffs. They didn't charge us yet for the next season

because they don't know whether there'll be any fans in the arena or not. Well, eventually there will be just at the same time that the Leafs are ready to win it all I mean you can feel it I mean they just they just got this guy Joe Thornton right Joe Thornton is there. And, you know, he's like half as old as I am. So he's just a baby. He's just a kid from St. Thomas, Ontario. Listen to that persistent phone ringing. Hopefully they'll just hang up and realize that obviously I'm busy or I would be answering the phone.

Here's a, this is kind of related because it's about television. You know, television changed so much, right, in the delivery. Just today, I had a new system put in here. I won't bother branding it here right now, but it's a different delivery system for the way I get my television packages. And it's very efficient, seems to be incredibly fast. And that's all great. But the way we choose our television services has changed considerably. And this, once again, is from CNBC reporting that at least three large U.S. media companies

expect the number of U.S. households that subscribe to the traditional pay TV bundle is going to fall about 50 million in the next five years. That's the number of households. The projected decline in subscribers will mean a drop of about $25 billion in cable subscription, revenues from cable subscription. So that's a big, you know, people are switching off. Those traditional ways they got their TV services.

Fewer and fewer people watch regular television the way we grew up watching it. Now it's, you know, I watch Netflix, I watch Crave, I watch Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, Apple. Different world. Okay. Here's the last bit for today. I like this story.

Small business news. Facing business unsustainability due to the pandemic. One of New York's oldest bookstores. Do you like bookstores? I love bookstores. There's a great bookstore in Inverness, Scotland. I can just go in there and sit there and look at lots of old books. And, you know, I always end up buying a couple,

but I just love the feel of that bookstore in Inverness, Scotland. Can't remember the name of it now. I should. But it's comfy. It's relaxing, and you hold some of those old books and you just know they've been held by different hands for decades, if not centuries in some case there.

And you can find old bookstores like that. It's harder to find them now, but you can still find them in some of the big cities. Well, in New York, one of the oldest is The Strand. Well, it was in trouble because of the pandemic, like many small businesses. So it put out a plea to its customers to do some early shopping to pump up its revenues in order to keep it in business.

Well, much to the surprise of the owners, the response was explosive. That's the way the New York Times described it, explosive. As book lovers lined up to buy books and over 25,000 online orders rolled in over a single weekend. Signifying that having a long time community presence and being a community center is a part of being a prized local business. That's a nice story at a time that we're seeing all too many, you know, tragic stories about businesses, some of them longtime businesses,

family-owned places that have been going for 30, 40, 50, 60 years, going under as a result of the pandemic crushing their customer base. Well, at least for the strand, and at least for now, they're going to survive. Thanks to a community that responded to them reaching out and saying, we're going to go under. And a lot of those people who responded, you know, they probably didn't say, oh, I've got to buy a book to keep, you know, whoever the owner is employed. It was more than that.

Obviously, that was part of it, but the bigger issue was keeping that part of the community, part of the history of that community, keeping it alive. Well, take a look around your community because there are probably places that need help in different ways. In your town, in your village, in your suburb, in your big city. All right. Tomorrow, not locked in yet,

but I'm thinking of doing a mailbag. Your letters and your thoughts and your comments. A weekend special on a Thursday. Friday, special guest for the race next door with Bruce Anderson. And we're trying to cook up something special for Monday. So stay with me on that one. All right. That's been the Bridge Daily for this hump day of week 33.

I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.