The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Smoke Mirrors and The Truth -- Will the Vaccinated Be Separated From The Unvaccinated?

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

When the government talks about how those who choose to remain unvaccinated will have to live with a different world of access to the rest of us what does that mean?    Bruce and I discuss that.  Also, does an attempt to dump the Green Party leader have an impact on a possible election race later this summer?

and hello there peter mansbridge here and you are just moments away from the latest episode of the bridge it's bruce anderson time that means it's wednesday smoke mirrors and the truth all right bruce anderson before we go anywhere, there is a demand, an overwhelming demand on the part of listeners to The Bridge. They want to know what's happened to those radishes. Have we got radishes yet? Can we see radishes yet? I've eaten the radishes that we've made. And then every night after that, Peter, I stand in that dry, dry,

dusty field and I shake my fist at the sky and I ask for rain and it hasn't come. And so we're just about to plant a second crop of radishes, which I'm sure are going to be better because they won't have to have dealt with the frost that we had at the beginning of the season. And here's the big news. I'm going to go this morning and pick up. I don't know why it's called this. It's called a trash pump. It's terrible branding. Like the pump should change its name, but it's called a trash pump.

And I'm going to put a hose in the creek and the trash pump is going to spread water all over our patch. And the next month is just going to be amazing, just amazing. And there's going to be lots of pictures and great stories. But the last month has been about shaking my fist at the sky. Okay, so what you're telling me is that the first crop was a failure. No, the first crop was a small crop. It was tested by frost. Arugula came through fantastically.

Lettuce has been plentiful, but we're struggling with beans and beets and carrots. And we're going to see if this trash pump and a little bit of sunny, warmer weather is going to help. I think it will. I didn't realize this. This really is a multi-product farm that you have. I remember you telling us about arugula as well as the small radishes. I don't think we're going to feed the world or anything, but I do think that we're going to feed a few people who live near us.

Anyway, that's kind of fun to think about. But, you know, July has got to be better than May was. And in the world of the pandemic, I'm sure July is going to be better than May was. And so I'm feeling optimistic. There was a little bit of rain this week, too. What does a trash pump cost? This trash pump, this is a Honda. I think it's a four-stroke engine.

I don't know anything about any of that. I used to have a four-stroke engine Honda, which i rode on the highways of southern manitoba i'm not going to put wheels on this you're not going to get to ride it but i will take video and show you the trash pump in action it's about 400 bucks and i was so excited when they, when we went to stage, whatever it is the other day and the doors to the trash pump store open, because I've been looking for a water solution for a while and I couldn't get in. And now I'm in and I bought it and I'm going to go pick it up. Well, I agree with you. They should have a better name than trash pump. Cause it sounds like you're going to be putting trash on your radishes to make them grow yeah yeah or it's garbage but it's shiny and new and it should be called something better

oh okay i don't leave it out there right before we talk about the other business like you've got news too you're going to buy a new suit you told me and i'm excited about this shopping excursion for you like what what are you looking for in a new suit that you don't have in the 500 suits that i know are in your closet i'm looking for one that'll fit yeah i've got uh you know a little kind of pandemic weight issue here and i've i've discovered that the the suits and i you know i don't have 500 but i i have a few left over from the, uh, the old days and they, um, I are a little tight. So I, I've got to, uh, I, I've got to look around for, um, for something new. And now

pandemic weight is a problem for a lot of people. I don't know about you, but it certainly was for me so i've been on for three weeks now i've been on a no carb diet and i'm pretty uh you know i'm pretty proud of the results so far i'm down about eight or nine pounds depending on which scale i use so i i tend to be at the one that's where i'm down nine pounds the friendly scale the friendly scale but um i have yet to see any real significant change and i just found out yesterday you'll be interested to know this that when you start losing weight everybody assumes okay i'm gonna lose weight and my waist is going to tighten up and that's not the way it works it eventually gets to your waist but there's kind

of a tearing system of of of where it happens first and it happens in the uh you know in the in the upper chest it happens uh in a variety of places including your face before it gets down to your waist wow you think your butt is smaller and it no not yet but it apparently it's like 16 weeks before it gets to your belly that's a long time of not having any pasta or i'm on a different program that just sounds like a miserable way to live but good for you for doing it I just decided I'm going to grow my hair bigger so the rest of me looks smaller and I did that already I did that already it doesn't work all right let's get to the business at hand let's get to the business at hand um yesterday uh the minister of Procurement, it's actually titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement, was on the podcast.

And I thought it was a really interesting discussion about where we are in situations. There are a couple of things came up that I think are worth pursuing a little bit. You know, I was trying to get at how are you going to deal with people who choose, and it's their right, not to have a vaccine. And yet, you know, there are issues about the impact that has on the public health system, both in practice and in cost. Eventually, what she ended up saying is, listen, those people are going to have to be prepared to live in a different world of access than the rest of us,

which can mean the federal government doesn't have a lot of control over that. They certainly have some control over air travel and how you get on planes and this and that and the other thing. But the private sector seems to have most of that control, whether it's getting into concerts or sporting events or shopping centers or what have you. And I'm wondering, because I know you've been involved in some of the discussions with different levels of these groups, whether it's the public sector or the private sector.

And I'm wondering what you're hearing. I mean, are we heading towards that kind of a situation where there will be different classes, really, of access depending on whether or not you've been vaccinated? I think there will be some of that. I don't know how long it will last for, Peter. I think that the point that Minister Anand was making that I think is an important one

is that this isn't really going to be a question of governments deciding to prohibit people from doing certain things. Obviously, there's been a fair bit of that in the context of how we keep breakouts from happening and the controls on the border and the controls around travel and that sort of thing. So there will be some things where government establishes the guardrails in terms of vaccination and what you can or can't do. But I think a lot more of the pressure that will exist towards those who choose not to be vaccinated will be pressure exerted by parents of kids who go to the same school as your kids or people in businesses where you want to go and do what you want to do, but others don't want to do it if there's a risk that there's too many unvaccinated people. So I do think that that

kind of peer pressure, the local discussion, not so much by fiat of government, but by social persuasion, that's going to be a thing. And it's natural that it will be a thing. I think so many people came through this pandemic and felt like, I'm going to do the things that I need to do to protect myself, and I'm going to keep an eye on other people and what I need to do to protect them. And you expect that in return. I think there's going to be tensions between people who have been vaccinated, fully vaccinated, and those who say, I don't need to because other people went ahead and got the

shot. I think there's going to be some tensions about that. There'll probably be some unvaccinated people who will be asking government to protect their rights, to prevent businesses from excluding them from certain activities and that sort of thing. And that'll be a bit of a dilemma for people in politics, to be honest. But I think everybody's hope right now is that so many people get vaccinated in Canada that we have a really small version of this problem. And the numbers look to me like that can be the case. One last thing, Peter, there was an example that I saw yesterday that you may have seen of a show that is opening on Broadway with Bruce Springsteen in it.

And the fine print on the ticket indicated that you could only get into this show in July, I think it is, if you were vaccinated with one of the FDA approved vaccines, which means not AstraZeneca. Now, I think they're going to change that because it means that they can't have anybody from the UK and a lot of people from Canada. And I think Broadway does kind of understand that they get tourists into these shows. But it's a good example of the kind of thing to come. Yeah, there are a number of things at play that are really interesting to watch. If that's going to be the example that some Canadian companies and businesses follow. I mean, also on Broadway, Hamilton, you've seen it. I've seen it.

Spectacular. Like, it's just a great, great show. The fellow who wrote it and starred in it, Lin-Manuel. What's it, Lin-Manuel? I'm sorry? Lin-Manuel Miranda? Miranda, yeah. Lin-Manuel Miranda.

I think he said that no performers will be allowed in Hamilton unless they're vaccinated. Now, that's not universal on Broadway, at least not yet. And there are rumblings in the Canadian theatre area on the part of actors, some actors in particular who are saying hey you know i want to know that everybody on that stage is vaccinated and theater companies are kind of resisting that because of the things you suggest about the the kind of battles they may end up getting into. But I guess one of the areas is trying to determine, and you suggested it, is just like how many people are we talking about here who are going to have chosen for one reason or another not to be vaccinated? Now, the numbers, one of the numbers that

the minister dropped yesterday was that by the end of july 80 percent um of canadians uh who are of age who are allowed to be vaccinated will be vaccinated now that's a pretty big number and and a lot of people who were responding to that interview i mean there was you know there were those who never listened to a thing that was said and respond to it and then there were those who actually listened to it and responded to it and some of those uh were the ones i take seriously were wondering about that 80 number and how how real is that well as you said and as she said things are really moving fast here. In terms of the population that is allowed to have a vaccine right now, 12 and over, 12 years of age and over,

75% have received at least one dose already, right like now. But as we noted yesterday, that second dose number is much lower. So it's around 14% are fully vaccinated. In other words, have had both doses. So she's saying in the next, what's end of July, six weeks away, seven maybe, that the overall number on fully vaccinated, 12 years and older, is going to be 80%. That's a lot of vaccines.

I mean, they're coming into the country at a huge rate, millions. She's brought in millions in her team. And they're going to keep coming in during that period. But do you buy that 80% figure? You're the guy with numbers. You like to crunch the numbers. Is that possible? Yeah, there's two parts to this equation. Obviously, one is how many doses will be available. And she has definitely, with her team and with the mandate of the Prime Minister,

has procured more than enough vaccines for that to happen. And I think that there were skeptics about whether or not companies were going to live up to their contracts and deliver those vaccines in a timely fashion. And basically, with one or two, pardon me, very small exceptions, what happened has been that companies have outperformed the contracted timetables, delivered more doses to Canada for one reason or another. But I think one of the reasons clearly is, and I heard that minister talk on this Faster Together meeting that I had the other day. And one of the things that she's done is basically I gather that she gets on the phone regularly with these suppliers and says, I know we've got a contract and I know it says this. And I want to just make sure that we're on track. And if we're not on track, let's talk about how to get on track. So I think that constant pressure has helped make sure that the number of doses available will not be a barrier to hitting those numbers.

The second part of the equation is, will people take those doses? And a couple of things to note about that. One is that if we had only bought AstraZeneca, we'd be in trouble because there are enough people who have hesitation about AstraZeneca. It's about half of the population who say, I don't know, I don't know if I really want that. Whereas with Pfizer, more than 80% say that they have confidence in it, and a similar number for Moderna. And we're getting a lot of doses of both of those vaccines right now. So I think there'll be enough doses. I think that the first barrier is do I trust the vaccine and enough people trust what we're going to get. So where are we at right now? Our numbers show that among adults, she was using 80% of all Canadians, I think, and that includes children. And so that's a separate thing. Our data only looks at adults,

but I think it's a reasonable bet that if a parent gets the vaccination, they're probably going to want to get their child vaccinated, provided that the authorities say it's safe. We're at about 20. If we think about 30 million Canadian adults, 22 million have had a vaccination already. 2.7 million are telling us, I'm ready when you are. Tell me when I can book that appointment. These are mostly young people, right? And so that gets us to 24.7 of the 30. And then after that, the going gets a little tougher. Okay. So that's 81% of adults. The next 13% are a combination of, I prefer to wait a little bit.

Now, maybe by the time the next two weeks is over, they'll say, okay, I've waited a little bit. I've seen a little bit more. I feel good about it. I'm going to slide into the getting vaccinated column. And then there's another 1 million or so who say, I could be persuaded, but I really would rather not. Those are going to be hard. Now, I kind of feel like we can get to 90%,, 90 percent of adults accepting the vaccines. And we know from our research that things like lotteries actually make a difference. It's a bit ironic that that people who, at least in my mind anyway, I don't mean to be critical of people, but I think of people who don't want to take a vaccine as maybe people who, other than for health reasons, don't understand odds, because the odds of getting sick

from COVID are much worse than the odds of getting sick from the vaccine. Having said that, about 45% of the hesitant say, oh, well, if you give me a lottery ticket, a chance to win a million dollars, those odds sound good enough for me to take the vaccine. That doesn't quite make sense to me. But if it works, I'm okay with it. Some of these incentives are really interesting because it's not just lotteries, right? There's scholarships i mean it it it seems to be the western provinces at least manitoba i think saskatchewan alberta are doing lotteries scholarships other kinds of prizes and listen if that's getting people to the needle yeah we tested

like 30 things everything from free camping at a provincial or a national park to a free Starbucks coffee to 50% off your next VIA trip. And one of the things that's really interesting about it is it doesn't matter if it's a hot dog and a beer at a ball game or a half-priced ticket to a hockey game. The value doesn't really matter. It's kind of the exchange of something. And so when we test a $20 voucher for that you can spend at Costco or Walmart or Canadian Tire, or a $10 voucher, it almost doesn't matter whether it's 10 or 20. It's just something. And so there's a certain portion of those hesitant who will take it. I remain optimistic on the first shot that we'll get 90% plus, maybe closer to 95. On the second shot,

that's where a lot of the effort needs to go. So I'm hoping that people who use incentives, companies that put incentives into the marketplace, focus on fully vaccinated as being the end state, because we don't have a big problem right now in terms of getting to the kind of numbers that we need getting that first shot. But we need to remind people about the dangers of the variant, the more protection that you get against the variant, the better. And if we if we're going to use incentives, we should probably use them to create that second dose compliance too. Okay, I've got a couple of questions on some of the things you just said. We're going to take this quick break and then I'll ask them.

Okay, two things in what you said a moment ago, and one of them is this gap between first and second dose pickup on the part of those who get them. I'm, I guess, a little surprised that there's a hesitancy if you've had one dose about getting the second dose, but you see it here in Canada right now, but we do see it in the U.S. a little bit. And it's not a hesitancy born of I'm scared of that or I'm scared of the side effects as much as do I really need to? Do I need to bother with that? Right. Maybe the protection is good enough. Maybe enough people have the protection. Everything's opening up. I've got other things on my agenda. It's almost the kind of the deferral of the decision to get it that we need to be a little bit concerned about. But right now, as of this morning, 99% of the people who've got a first shot say they're going to get that second shot. It's just the view of a lot of observers and experts in this field who say that

this is a funny thing that can happen between the first shot and the second shot is that people just get a little bit complacent and they decide that getting another vaccination isn't really that necessary. So if you're going to use incentives, use them for the larger challenge of getting everybody past that second finish line so that next fall and winter is really a safe time for people to do what they want to do and businesses to operate well. All right. I'm supposed to re-identify ourselves because I always forget this, but this is The Bridge. It's the Wednesday edition, which is Smoke Mirrors and the Truth. Bruce Anderson joins us from Ottawa. I'm in Toronto today. And at the moment, we are talking kind of fallout from yesterday's interview with Anita Anand,

the Minister of Procurement, and the whole discussion about vaccines and how the situation is unfolding in Canada. The other thing that you mentioned that I, you know, it's an extension of what she said. She says 80% fully vaccinated by end of July. You're saying the possibility exists that we could end up getting up to around 90. Now, I'm, you know, both those numbers are in the herd immunity zone. So those are good.

But I'm actually surprised that we're hearing numbers that high and not and this isn't sort of a negative about canada but you don't see those kind of numbers in other countries at least other countries that have a free vote um and i i wonder why what what are you assuming is um making canada making Canada distinctive, if it does turn out to be distinctive, in terms of the high turnout rate for getting vaccines? Yeah, I think that's a great question. It's one of the more interesting things to watch through this pandemic is how people in different societies with different cultural kind of tendencies have reacted to the pandemic and to the guidance about what to do,

including masks, including social distancing, including lockdowns, all of that kind of thing. And I think that the way to think about what's different about us from vaccines is partly understood by recognizing what was different about us with respect to masks and lockdowns and social distancing. I mean, we are, after all, a country that prides itself on our tendency to say, I'm sorry, wherever we are, whenever we run into somebody else or appear to be willing to speak over somebody else or anything else, we are the I'm sorry people. And it's a mark of our sense of courtesy and also that we don't really kind of like friction and chaos that much. We're a country that wrote the words somewhere along the way, peace, order, and good government.

And they represented a really important way to understand what is in our DNA as a country that makes us decide that if our health authorities, whom we generally trust, we don't go, oh, well, Dr. Tam, you know, she must be like Anthony Fauci. And half of America thinks you can't trust Anthony Fauci because Donald Trump said you can't trust Anthony Fauci and half of America thinks you can't trust Anthony Fauci because Donald Trump said you can't trust Anthony Fauci. We don't have any version of that of any magnitude. There's some lurking in the corners of the internet, no doubt about it. But we don't really validate the your keys will stick to your head kind of rhetoric that we see in the United States about vaccines. It's out there a little bit, but it isn't supported by one of the two main political parties or one of the main political parties. And there isn't really a way to have that conversation in polite company without people

kind of stepping back from you and kind of wondering what they got to do next because, oh, the time is passing. We've got to move on. So I think part of it is we trust our health authorities. We followed the guidance because we believe in taking steps to protect our health, but also care about other people that we could infect, that we could endanger and what we should do about that. And we tend to be more skeptical about these kind of bizarre conspiracy theories. And maybe it's because we see how odd it looks south of the border sometimes. And I know that every once in a while, we get a writer,

Peter, that says, we don't understand America. And I sort of feel like maybe we do. We certainly consume an awful lot of information about it. And we see some of its idiosyncrasies. That's the nicest word that I can use to describe this phenomena. We see them in relief relative to our own society. So I think we're going to mostly do the right thing. And mostly also if employers and businesses say, look, we really need people to recognize that if you're going to come into this place of business, it needs to feel safe for our workers. It needs to feel safe for other customers. And this is a condition that matters to us. I think a lot of people are going to go along with that, even some of those who maybe would rather not get the vaccination. I'll just say two things.

You never said you were sorry that the Leafs lost. So, so much for that I'm sorry theory. I'm not sorry about that. And the other thing is I was very disappointed to hear that that whole keys stick to your forehead thing isn't true because I'm always losing my keys. It would be easier if they made a vaccine with a little bit of that. Yeah, I get it.

I get it. We could have used that. Um, all right. Enough about vaccines. Let's pivot for a moment or two anyway to the election cycle. You're still thinking, I'm still thinking that this is likely a late summer election call. How the prime minister is going to set the stage for that without somebody pulling the plug on his minority government, other than him personally pulling the

plug i'm not quite sure how that's going to work but nevertheless that is the current thinking a call in in somewhere in mid to late august for an election in mid to late december or september um and we'll see how that works out but there was there's kind of a i don't know whether you call it a wrench in the plans or in the wrench in the thinking about how an election might unfold uh watching the green party which is you know we're not talking about a lot of votes here but they are votes that can make a difference uh they only had three mps elected in the last election one has left and has joined the liberals just in the last week or so um but now there's a a clear movement afoot to dump the leader

so how does this all work into the election thinking yeah i i think it's a very interesting thing to watch, in part because I think that the election may well turn on the votes of BC voters, of voters under 30, of voters on the progressive side of the spectrum. And that is where the Green Party tends to find its highest levels of support. Right now, we see the Green Party at 12% federally in BC. We see it at 14% among 18 to 29-year-olds. So when I think about those numbers, I think what they do when those numbers are elevated like that for the liberals, it puts them in some jeopardy because then the NDP becomes a more competitive force. And that three-way race in BC and that two-way race being between the NDP and the liberals among under 30 voters is absolutely a crucial battleground scenario for this. But I think that what's going on with the Green Party, I don't really know the

kind of inside of the Green Party very well. And none of us have really had an opportunity to kind of understand that, how it's developed and what its kind of congealing factors are as a party. It hasn't been around that long. It's only really been led by that one person, Elizabeth May, for the longest period of time. And it was largely a kind of an Elizabeth May-centric political movement, it seemed, on the national stage. But when we kind of dig under the surface a little bit and look at the attitudes of Green Party voters, it's kind of a mix. You know, there's a lot of young people who say climate change is a really important issue for them. And the Green Party is the most ferocious advocate for emissions reduction and biodiversity protection and that sort of thing. So if you really deeply

care about that, the Green Party feels like the most aggressive champion of that issue. But there are also other elements within the Green Party that are a little bit more right of center, actually, on economic issues. If we are looking at the pockets of vaccine resistance, sometimes we find them highest among the People's Party and among some parts of the Green Party membership, which you wouldn't expect necessarily if you think of the Green Party as essentially a kind of a modern, highly educated, progressive party. It doesn't only look like that. And I think this is one of the problems that when you had a leader

with the stature and the longevity of Elizabeth May, and this is not to criticize enemy Paul, she's new to the job, but there have been other pressures that have built up in that party under Elizabeth May too. I think it sort of felt like she was kind of pushed out of that role rather than decided that it was time for her to go. So I don't know that it's a congealed party. I don't know that it has one kind of perspective and one set of priorities across the country. I think some of that's playing out and probably both the NDP and the Liberals are watching it with great interest. The Liberals a little bit from a fearful standpoint of what happens if the Green Party does right itself and maybe more hopeful what happens if they don't look like a viable,

cohesive party in the election and we can make a call on their voters to support us based on our climate action plan and our other environmental policies. I should use this opportunity to let people know, some of whom have been asking, about Good Talk, the program that Bruce and I and Chantelle Hebert do, and we're doing through most of the spring, every Thursday. That show is on hiatus right now as we warm up to get ready for an election campaign so it too will be

back if the election is called in mid-august good talk will be back at least once a week for our full hour discussion and obviously it'll be election focused and um chantelle you know like bruce has a good handle on this situation, especially with the NDP, but how the Green Party, if they are in serious trouble, and who knows where this is going to lead, but there is an attempt to try and move the leader out, and a meet poll. But it'll be interesting to hear Chantel's voice on this as well,

because we all remember back in the election that Jack Layton made his breakthrough, the orange wave, and they ended up in opposition. Was that 2011? Was that the 2011 campaign? I think it was. Yeah. It was Chantel who was the first one who was kind of on top of that story about how NDP votes, especially in Quebec, were starting to build,

and it could have an impact. And I see, I noticed that just this week she wrote a column talking about the NDP and its potential to make headway in this campaign as well yeah um so that coupled as you say with uh something going on in the green party where there are a lot of former ndp supporters uh built up in there where they might end up but as you say um they are not the only supporters inside the Green Party. So it's all... One other thing, Peter, to watch, I think, in this,

it's not so much related to the Green Party, but that I'm paying a little bit of attention to is that we know that the Conservative Party is kind of facing pressures from both the left and the right or the centre and the right, that the presence of the People's Party as an option and the Maverick Party in Western Canada or parts of Western Canada, both of those can bleed away some support from the Conservatives. And it doesn't always look

like support that can make them lose seats, although it probably could make some seats more competitive. But the risk for Aaron O'Toole a little bit is that it creates, it supports a narrative that he's not making progress, that he's actually kind of in a weaker position than Andrew Scheer was, and that every time there's a poll that has a number for the Conservatives, the first digit of which is a two, not a three, that kind of reinforces the pressures within his party among people who say he's not working out, he's not making the progress that we expected. Here we are in a pandemic that went on a long time with a deficit that's massive and an economy that's still kind of weak. And why are we still polling in the 20s rather than in the in the mid 30s and maybe even ahead of the incumbents? And so I'm watching the Maverick and the People's Party numbers pretty carefully because they have an effect because they only take from the Conservatives.

That's who those voters are if those other parties aren't available on the ballot. I should mention that we've been trying to get Aaron O'Toole on the bridge. The request is in with his office and hopefully he will be willing to come on, give us the opportunity to chat the same way we talked to the minister yesterday, the same way we talked to the prime minister a couple of months ago. So we'll look forward to an answer from the conservative leader's office, hopefully, in the next short time. All right, I think that's going to wrap her up for today bruce we covered a lot of ground and clearly the most important ground is

that that new trash pump that you've got and i know on behalf of all listeners we we wish you luck out there i wish you luck shopping for that suit too p. I'm going to take a picture of the trash pump, and I'd like to see that suit. Are you going to go gray or black or blue? It's probably a mixture of those colors. I'm looking for the new kind of look, whatever the look is. I get a kick out. I took a look at some stuff yesterday, and for all the fuss, men's clothing is no different than women's clothing. You know, like women's clothing, every couple of years, skirts go up.

Then they go down. Then they go up again. And all this, so, you know, they're hoping that the fashionistas and those with money will buy new every couple of years. Right? It's the same with men. You know, you have the three-button suit, the two-button suit, the wide lapels, the narrower lapels. Don't forget the pleats.

Pleats, cuffs. I used to love cuffs. I used to love cuffs on pants. How could you get that into cuffs? Like, you know, love them? No, I just thought they looked so classy. I remember when I was a little kid looking at my dad's pants and there were cuffs on them, and I thought,

I can't wait to grow up and have cuffs. Yeah, yeah. And so I only abandoned cuffs a few years ago. My tailor used to, you know, you buy off the the rack but then they have to adjust things and i always had them put cuffs on the on on the pants and my tailor guy used to say you know really nobody wears cuffs anymore and i said as soon as i stop wearing cuffs cuffs will come back in you watch i love i just need to stop you there i love how you you use that term my taylor and then you know something in your mind said oh that's gonna make that sounds like a richie rich millions guy

so now i call him taylor guy or you know you buy off the rack but then you also get the i have only once in my life i won't name the place in downtown Toronto, but they called me and said, you have to come here because Peter Jennings buys all his suits here. And I said, well, I can't afford, you know, made-to-measure suits. Oh, well, you know, we'll give you a deal, blah, blah, blah. So, you know, I finally went there, and I had one suit made, and I never liked it.

It just was not right for me. And I did have one other made to measure suit. And it's a story in my next book. Well, you know, maybe with this suit, this will be my last comment on it. You know, this low carb, small butt Peter suit. Maybe it's time to go back to that tailor-made, like from scratch artisanal suit because you're coming out of the pandemic, a different man.

I'm definitely coming out of the pandemic, a different man. A different man who weighs more than the man who went into the pandemic. I'm working at it though. I really am. I hurt my foot the other day. So I, well, the other day, about a month ago, six weeks ago, and I haven't been able to do the kind of things that you want to do on the bike or on the treadmill or that kind of stuff because of my foot. And that's not good because you've got to find something

to get your heart going, right, as well. So I'm working at that. So here I am giving a full physical here, and it sounds pretty brutal, the condition that I'm in. No, you're looking good. I wish people could see you. You're looking very sporty this morning and well shaved and not like me. And my air is like horrible.

And you don't have shaved since the day I stepped down for the national. It was four years. Now I should say I have a close cropped beard. I think people have probably heard enough. You're a barber guy. All right. That's enough for today. All right. Young fellow. Good luck out there with the pump.

And we'll look for the update next week. Talk soon. All righty. That's it for today. That's it for Smoke Mirrors and the Truth. Tomorrow we'll be back with Potpourri Thursday. Friday, of course, is an opportunity to hear from you, your letters and thoughts and comments and questions or what have you on the mailbag edition of the weekend special for The Bridge. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge. Thank you.