The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - So Why Not Use Dentists To Help On The Vaccine?

Episode Date: December 15, 2020

And a special word about tomorrow's guest and the latest on the book plates!

and hello there peter man's bridge here the latest episode of the bridge daily it is tuesday of week 40 and we're talking to you today from the worldwide studios of The Bridge in Toronto. I had to come into Toronto this morning for a dental appointment. So, you know, listen, I never liked dentists. Well, I shouldn't say it. It's not personal. I never liked dentist offices all my life. I was one of those kids who was, like like kind of freaked out a little bit about going to the dentist.

Although I never, I got to say I never had any bad experiences of the dentist, but that's kind of freaking out thing remained with me and still does in a way today. So it's been more than a year since I was last at the dentist because of COVID. And I'm sure dental offices across the country have suffered as a result of that. Patients not coming in, missing appointments for cleaning, not missing, but just not coming to appointments for cleaning and regular dental work. Anyway, I was in one of those situations last week. There I was using one of those water things that I clean my teeth with before I brush my teeth

and sometimes after I brush my teeth. Anyway, there I was with this, you know, spray going on in my mouth and then all of a sudden I could feel something was happening and pop off, popped a cap that was on one of my lower teeth. From years of abuse as a kid eating candy and chocolate and you know what. Anyway, the cap popped off. And so I was going to have to have something done. So the appointment. This morning. 8 o'clock. I love first appointments of the day. Like get in, get out.

So I went and there was a certain degree of trepidation. There was the normal dental stuff. Although this wasn't going to be a big deal, of course, because they're just going to stick that cap back on, right? But the whole thing about COVID and the various things you have to go through going into an office like a dental

office, the whole idea of somebody, you know, working on your mouth. Anyway, everything was done according to the book. And the only issue became, all right, it's not quite as simple as we thought. It's not a matter of just, you know, putting some crazy glue in there and sticking it back on. We're going to have to move a little bit of your gum around to make it fit properly.

And moving the gum around to make it fit properly. And moving the gum around means cutting the gum, right? Which means maybe we better have a little freeze. So out pops the needle. And so wise man that I am, I said to my dentist, hey, you know, you should be doing the vaccine at the same time. You get that big needle, you should be able to bing, bing, a two-for-one sale here. And he says, funny you should mention that, because we dentists think that we're being overlooked here where we could offer a great service.

We've got the offices, we've got the staff, we've got the PPE, we've got the equipment, we've got everything that you need to be doing the vaccines. Dentists know how to give a needle, right? Oh yeah. Anyway, I thought that was an interesting thought. Now, there's space issues, you know, a lot of these places where they're going to be doing vaccinations, especially when they get into bigger numbers, are going to be in big spaces. And I'm not sure your regular dental office can deal with that. But nevertheless, it was an interesting idea. So I said, I'd put it out there. Let's see what happens.

Away you go. So anyway, I was in and out of the dentist's office in 40 minutes. I have a new mouth in the sense that my tooth, the cap was put back on and all's good. So So that little episode went fine. No trauma. I should catch you up on a couple of things before I get into the couple of major things I wanted to mention. First of all, I should have mentioned this yesterday, but the book plates finally came in. I know a lot of you were waiting patiently. I had over about 150 requests over the weekend for book plates for Extraordinary Canadians.

And just a reminder, because some people are still asking, like, what's a book plate? It's just a sticker. It goes inside the front cover of your book. You can stick it wherever you want. I just signed it. It's very small. It's not made for long messages, so don't get too excited.

You'll get my signature. And you just stick it inside. Anyway, I had all these requests. We ran out of book plates for the third time. But the book plates arrived over the weekend, special delivery. So I've been churning them out. And yesterday before I left for here in Toronto, I dropped off a lot at the post office.

So they're on their way to you. Since then, there have been a lot of new ones. And I will get those done tomorrow probably, and hopefully get them off to you in time for, I know many of you are giving them as holiday gifts, the book. And thank you for that. Now, others have wrote not about book plates, but the problem they're having finding the book. Now, I don't think it's an overwhelming problem, but in some cases you're going to have to look around a bit because the book has been a much bigger seller than many people in the business thought it was going to be. And as a result, some places have sold out. And, you know, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, is trying their best to get new shipments to these different places.

Some of them are big box stores, and hopefully that will happen. But you can always find somewhere that is selling the book. Indigo has been selling, and Chapters have been selling, a lot of the Extraordinary Canadians book. So has Amazon, so has Walmart, so has Costco. And so, of course, are your independent booksellers. And wherever they are across the country, and there's almost certainly one in your town, go for it.

I know many of you like to shop online at this time especially, and you should still be able to do that. But hopefully you'll be able to track it down. It's done remarkably well, and it's done remarkably well because you've been great customers. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Extraordinary Canadians. Still there in the top 10, up near the top of the top 10, either number one or two, depending on which list you look at. And that's great. Co-author Mark Bulgich and I are extremely happy.

Very proud of our book, but mostly grateful and thankful for the attention you've been giving to it. Tomorrow's podcast is special, Smoke Mirrors and the Truth. We've got a great guest, David Axelrod, the Axe. David Axelrod's former reporter many years ago in Chicago, that's where he first met Barack Obama and ended up working with Barack Obama and became his senior policy advisor, senior advisor to the president in the White House. These days, he is still close with the former President Obama. He's a consultant. He's an analyst on CNN. He has a very successful podcast. And he's kind of a little bit of a friend. And we're looking forward to talking to him tomorrow about the current situation in the United States. Yesterday was an important day

in terms of the Electoral College, but it's still a crazy time. And, you know, I was listening to David's podcast the other day where he started off by saying, what the hell is Donald Trump up to? Well, we'll ask him that, see whether he's got an answer for it yet. In expectation of going to the dentist this morning, I was up most of the night and I had this. I suddenly, you know, around 3.30 in the morning, I went, I got it.

I figured it out. I figured out the pardon thing now, finally. Now you're sitting down because you'll probably laugh at this idea, but hey, things are crazy down there. Anything could be but play. Here's how I link things. Did you see the story at the end of last week, and it's still kind of continuing along with the Bill Barr stuff, even though Barr's resigned or fired, whatever you want.

He announced that there's an investigation going on into Hunter Biden's taxes. And Trump was apparently really upset because why didn't he announce this during the campaign the last week? It could have made a difference, blah, blah, blah, you know, the normal. So I'm thinking, there are all these rumors about Trump going to pardon all these people, including his whole family, his kids, maybe even himself. So I thought, what better way to take the heat off pardoning your kids if you pardon his kid? Why don't you just throw Hunter Biden into the pardon mix? Crazy, eh? That's the kind of thing you think of at 3.30 in the morning. I know, I know. You know, his base wants to, doesn't want to give Hunter Biden a pardon.

But they may also feel they're going to be so tainted by pardons going to everybody else that this might, in a way, kind of soften the blow. Funny, eh? All right. We don't have pardons like that in our country. Or as I'm sure

some people may have been pardoned in the past if we did. Okay, moving on to more substantive matters. How's this one? There have been a number of studies, different studies that have been done of late, looking at work patterns as a result of the pandemic.

The Harvard Business Review released a study over the weekend, an article about how employees have been reallocating their commute time during the pandemic. I thought, this is interesting. They're going to narrow this study down to commute time. Well, for a lot of people, commute time is a big deal. It's a lot of their day. It's a big part of their day. As the Harvard Business Review found out.

They found that employees have largely been able to spend more time on personal pursuits, but managers have just ended up working more. Overall, the research showed a decrease in commuting time of 41 minutes. That's the average. You know, some people live 10 minutes from work. Others live two hours from work. Anyway, their average commuting time in this study was 41 minutes. And as a result, there was a 37-minute increase

in personal activities, especially in the morning, on the part of employees. But at the same time, many employees extended their work hours beyond 5 o'clock. So they were making up in the morning by not having to commute. They decided to extend their hours, which cost overtime. So this study was bringing some interesting things to play. But add that story to this story, which just came out today in the Financial Times. The chief economist of the Bank of England, a fellow by the name of Andy Haldane,

was talking to the Financial Times economic editor, Chris Giles, about how the pandemic could yet have some positive impact on society and in particular on the world of work, creating fresh ways of thinking and minimizing unproductive and unpaid tasks, such as commuting. Look at this. Both sides of the Atlantic, they're studying commuting and the impact the pandemic has had on commuting hours

and what impact that could have on business hours and employees' hours. In the interview, the latest part of Economist's Exchange, it's a series in the Financial Times, Mr. Haldane, that's the Bank of England's chief economist, calls for a rethink of the social contract that exists between workers and business, balancing individual desires in terms of homeworking with business requirements in terms of collective working.

Now, remember when this all started, we talked a fair amount of trying to understand the impact on the long-term this could have on the kind of way we live and the way we work. And a number of people, including Dan Gardner, great guy, kind of a futurist of sorts, said, you know, don't get too carried away with thinking about how things are going to change because we always think things are going to change when something big happens,

and they don't usually actually change that much. Well, this one might be different because it's carried on so long, and there are so many different studies looking at positive ways to try and improve our lifestyles, whether that's work or personal. And something as simple as commute time has now entered the picture in terms of a discussion and how best to use that time if it doesn't exist anymore, which for many people it doesn't because they're working from home.

And in some cases they're going to continue working from home for quite some time, if not forever. So there's some interesting issues at play here. Now here's another interesting issue that's at play here. Now, here's another interesting issue that's at play. And we've noticed this since the pandemic struck. I mean, the world of television has changed dramatically, as we all know, has for the last 20 years. A 500-channel universe, the internet, the different ways you can get different programming. And now, especially the streaming services. They didn't start with the pandemic.

They started 10, 15 years ago when Netflix first came into play. But there's been a lot since then, and especially so, they've all taken off in the last year since the pandemic because people not happy with conventional television are finding other ways to be entertained. And those other ways, if they're using their TV sets, are often streaming services. I mean, I'm looking at the numbers of people

who subscribe to streaming services in the United States. This is the United States. Netflix, 195.2 million subscribers. And that's like really taken off in the last year. Like just like almost doubled. But that's the established. That's Netflix. They've been around since about 2001. Here are the new kids on the block and how quickly they're catching up.

I mean, people clearly don't just have one streaming service. They have a number of streaming services in their homes. And that's why you hear more and more people say, I never watch conventional television anymore. I just stream. I only watch conventional television anymore. I just stream. I only watch conventional television for sports or live events. So Netflix up there at 195.2 million. Amazon Prime at 150 million.

Amazon Prime. Okay, 150 million viewers. Sorry, subscribers. Disney. Disney Plus, which is basically new to the game, right? Only started a little while ago. In fact, it started in this calendar year. And it's already in number three, third place, at 86.6 million.

We talked before about how its stock has gone crazy, and that's partly why. I've got to declare my conflict as a Disney employee. You know what I'm talking about. Peter Moosebridge, right? Zootopia. One of the most beloved characters in Disney, Peter Moosebridge. You know, it's like you say Peter Moosebridge, you think Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. Peter Moosebridge. You know, it's like you say Peter Moosebridge, you think Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck.

Peter Moosebridge. You know what I got paid for that? I've got it hanging on my wall here. I framed it. From Disney. What happens is they offered me the job. I said I couldn't take it. The CBC had this issue, even though we're talking Disney,

a partner of the CBC since like 1960. Went right up to the president and said, no, no, no, you can't do that. That would be a conflict. And I said, you know what? I'm doing this for my grandkids. You to give me a break this is nuts i'm not taking money any money that they write up for me in a contract for doing this role i will give to charity i will make sure i'll never see it it'll go straight to charity from dis to the charity, never passed through my hands. So it was no advantage for me. So that's what happened. And it was,

you know, not an insignificant amount of U S dollars. And it went to a well-known, well-respected charity in Canada. So that's the way it played. And then for about, I guess it was, I don't know, a couple of months later, they called from LA and they said, listen, we've got to give you something because of union rules. You actually have to get something. So we settled on $1 US and they sent a check from the Walt Disney Corporation to Peter Mansbridge for $1. And that check, never cashed, is framed and on my wall right behind me here in my little office, my little studio from the worldwide operation of the Bridge Daily right here in Toronto. Anyway, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, then Hulu, CBS All Access,

and then HBO Max. That's kind of the ranking of the top half dozen streaming services in the U.S. So if you're wondering why television is changing and why traditional networks are scrambling to try and figure out ways to make money, even the ones that are doing not badly in terms of audiences, That's why, because they're being overtaken in some areas by the streaming services. Okay, there was the most popular podcast we had last week. Bruce hates to hear this, but the most popular podcast we had last week of our five was the one on Christmas trees. You loved that one. So here's a Christmas tree update.

And this was in USA Today. So remember that one? We talked about Canada. We talked about Britain. This one's about the States. Americans are heading in droves to Christmas tree lots and cut your own farms this year as more people are attempting to buy Christmas trees. But this behavior, coupled with rising costs of supplies, such as lumber and other farm necessities, have driven tree prices to new heights. This year, fewer Christmas trees have been shipped abroad

from growers in the U.S. because the pandemic has given a boost to domestic sales, with the median price for fresh trees expected to rise 7% to $81. But get this, on the streets of Hong Kong, one of my favorite cities in the world. I love Hong Kong. On the streets of Hong Kong, eight-foot noble firs are selling for as much as, sitting down, $2,167 a piece.

And that's U.S. dollars, not Hong Kong dollars. While in California and New York, shoppers are paying more for what they say are inferior trees. Oh dear. Well, that beats Manitoba where you don't even get a choice. You drive in, you've pre-ordered and they give you the tree that they want to give you. You have no choice. You take it or leave it. That's why I love that story we told you last week. We could go yesterday. We could go Monday. You'll listen to it.

In Britain, the most popular new Christmas tree service is a rental operation. You rent your tree. You get it for, I think it was three weeks. You have to water it every day. You have to return it in day, you have to return it in as good shape, it's potted, you have to return it in as good shape as you started the contract with, and then you get the same tree back again next year, and that lasts for a number of years before the tree is so big, eight or nine feet and still in a pot when it is then transplanted into a forest.

So that's a really not only user-friendly, but environmentally friendly way of dealing with the Christmas tree situation. Especially if you're living in Hong Kong and you're paying $2,200 for a tree. Ain't that something? All right. That's it. That's all. That's my offering for today on the Bridge Daily

because I'm so excited about tomorrow. You don't want to miss it. Smoke mirrors and the truth. Bruce will join us from Ottawa. I'll be back in Stratford. And David Axelrod will join us. I'm not sure whether he's going to be in Chicago or whether he'll be in New York,

but wherever he is, he'll be with us and we'll have a great discussion about all things Trumpian and Biden-y. It should be an interesting discussion. So, that's it for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge Daily. Thanks so much for listening.

I'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Where we won't play that, but we might play something like this. © transcript Emily Beynon