The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Bridge Returns!

Episode Date: October 31, 2019

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Well, there we go. We haven't heard that music in a few days. In more than a week since the federal election. We had all that fun together over all those 40, 41 days. And I've been toying with the idea of what to do, how to keep the podcast going, how to keep the bridge going. And so we're going to try it out. We're going to do a few things. Not on a necessarily regular basis, but maybe once a week, maybe twice a week.

We'll see how it plays out. But I've been thinking about it a lot, and I've been hearing from people, people who want to keep hearing it. Last night I was in Moncton, the great city of Moncton, New Brunswick, a special dinner event for a fundraiser for Special Olympics in New Brunswick. What an amazing group of athletes. 35 of them were there with their families, with the people of Moncton and surrounding area who support the Special Olympics.

Could never happen without that support. And some great sponsors. And we had a wonderful evening. It was terrific. So back from Moncton on the flight today, I took the 5.10 a.m. flight out of Moncton. Man, there's nothing like a 5.10 a.m. flight. And it was, you know, I don't know, half full, more than half full.

It was a big plane. So, I don't know, half full, more than half full. It was a big plane, so I don't know, 80, maybe 100 people on it. But it's kind of groggy, right? Everybody's asleep 10 minutes after takeoff, and the flight takes about two and a half hours coming back against the wind. You don't want that lecture again, do you? The one about what height we fly at, how it's longer going east to west than it is west to east because of the wind.

We're not going to do that all over again. Anyway, it was a long flight, but it gave me time to actually get a bit of sleep, but also to think about things. So I've decided to keep the bridge going, and one of the ways I've decided that I'm going to keep the bridge going. And one of the ways I'm doing that will be I'm going to broaden the discussion beyond Canada, beyond politics. I've got some thoughts that I want to express about the situation in the United States. Not the typical kind of thoughts you hear surrounding the day-to-day,

blow-by-blow Trump situation, but some that are related and some that have an impact on the way you see the story and the way you hear the story. So I'll just leave that, let it out, settle with you and let you know that I am going to do that and will probably do it soon, may well be the next edition of The Bridge. But there's still some things to clean up on this side of the border and with this story, even though we're more than a week away from the election. So let me get to that. Obviously, the Prime Minister and the Liberals are working on their next cabinet, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

And it'll be interesting to see what Justin Trudeau does with that cabinet. Currently, there are, I think, 35 members in the cabinet, when you include the prime minister. So there's 18 men, 17 women. I think that's the current makeup. You remember when he formed his first cabinet back in November of 2015, it was gender balance, gender neutral. 15 men, 15 women, including him.

Now, what will it be this time? He says he's aiming for the same thing. So there's always a lot of attention based on the swearing in of a new cabinet. Attention by the media. And it's considered, you know, a major scoop if you can find out who some of those people are before they're actually announced. But you know, when you get right down to it,

what's really important in a cabinet? What do you actually remember from a cabinet when they're announced? Well, obviously, the prime minister who's already got his or her job. And after that, it's quite often it comes down to who's the finance minister guiding the country's economy, who's the foreign minister representing the country on the international stage when the prime minister isn't there. He's involved in so many of those day-to-day discussions that take place between countries

and allies. Bill Morneau is the current finance minister. Will he have a second go? Will he get a second full term as finance minister? That's a serious question on the table. You know, we saw Jim Flaherty run a long period of time until he resigned as finance minister in the Harper years. We saw Paul Martin as finance minister for a long period of time

in the Jean Chrétien years. But in other governments, finance ministers tend to come and go with the sort of ups and downs of an economy. So what will happen with Bill Morneau? Obviously, Morneau and Trudeau get along, or they seem to, so that'll have some impact. But there is a feeling that he very well may be replaced. In the foreign affairs spot, you've got Chrystia Freeland, who has often let it be known that she would love a major economic portfolio, and there's nothing more

major than finance. So that could open up those two. There could be, who knows, it could be a swap or there could be nothing or somebody else may come in. This point's still too early to tell. I'm sure they've, you know, inside the back rooms of the government, there's, they got pictures on the wall and they're looking at different possibilities and different options. But here's one thing I can tell you. Let's say the cabinet is around the same as it is now, somewhere around 35 people. For most of those ministers, on the day they're sworn in, that'll be the last time you hear about them until the next swearing in of a cabinet. Because they don't get much attention in all the other

portfolios. So a lot of fuss is made about people who you're really not going to hear that much about. They don't get questioned much in question period in the House of Commons. They don't make it into the TV news, unless, unless there's a scandal, or the hint of a scandal. Then suddenly these names pop up who, in many cases, you've never heard of before. The minister of such and such. Ethics questions. Questions about use of government airplanes.

Whatever. You know, we all know who Jody Wilson-Raybould is now, as it will be a sitting independent MP, but we all know her because of the SNC-Lavalin story, right? What did you heard about her before then? Government had been in power, you know, more than three years. Do you remember anything about Jody Wilson-Raybould before that? There was a bit of attention surrounding her Indigenous background

when she got the Justice Minister's portfolio in November 15, as it should. And then there was a brief flurry of stories in the, I think it was the summer of 2016, when she was found out to have been at a fundraiser in Toronto at a law firm, and there was a lot of questions raised about that, whether or not that was a conflict, whether or not the ethics commissioner would have to step in and have a look at it. As justice minister, it didn't seem right.

She was at a meeting of lawyers raising money for the Liberal Party. That's it, though. I mean, she had legislation. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying she didn't do anything. I'm just saying there wasn't much attention given to her. So I would challenge you of the ministers who are there now, the 35 ministers who are there now, the 35 ministers who are there now,

when you take out the prime minister, you take out the finance minister, you take out the foreign affairs minister, how many of those 35 can you name? Don't look at anything. Don't Google it. How many can you name? Well, you wouldn't be alone if you could only name a few, more than the ones I've just named.

So, keep that in mind when you hear the drumbeat of stories leading up to the swearing in of the new government, which is an important moment in the history of any country and certainly in the history of any parliament. But of all these people who are going to parade by the cameras and are going to take the oath, when are you going to see them again? You may never see them again. But it's worth keeping an eye out.

You look for potential stars on the horizon. You know, Justin Trudeau's not going to be there forever. Could there be a future prime minister sitting there in that new cabinet? Something to look at. So, I fly back from Moncton this morning, arrive in Toronto at, I think it was like 6.30 with the time difference and everything. Come downtown.

I've told you before, we live in Stratford, but we have a little condo in Toronto. Come downtown because I have some meetings in Toronto. And, man, I hit the sack. I was really tired. So I get up to sleep and I wake up, I don't know, about 10 or 10.30, 11, somewhere in there, somewhere in the 10 to 11 hour. And I think, wow, I really need a coffee and I make awful coffee. So then I go down and find a coffee. So there's lots of coffee shops and you can imagine the kind of coffee shops that are in downtown Toronto. There's one at every corner. And so I find one and I'm sitting there having my coffee decaf I'm a decaf guy I've had decaf for 20 years so you're saying why would you need a coffee if you were like trying to wake up

and have a decaf it doesn't make sense well it is what it is I like decaf I'm sitting there. Who walks in? Peter McKay. Peter McKay walks in. I've known Peter McKay for a long time, and obviously he was in the news. He made news yesterday. He was in Washington. He was on a panel at, I think, the Canada Institute, and he was asked about the election,

and he compared Andrew Scheer's performance to that of a hockey player who has a breakaway and totally misses the net. So there's been a lot of attention to that quote and other quotes he had in the same panel as to is that the opening volley of his leadership bid, of his attempt to bring down Andrew Scheer. So I saw Peter and the seat beside me was empty

and I said, Peter, come on on the seat's empty it's the shit disturber seat you're more than welcome come sit here uh he smiled he was about to meet somebody so he only stayed for a couple of minutes and we had a quick chat and his story is look I you know I said what I said I can't take that away. I didn't really mean it to come out the way it's come out. And I'm going, right. Sure. You didn't. Maybe you didn't. I don't know. Anyway, he's certainly got his name back in the nurse. And it's once again, raise that discussion that we talked about the very first night of the election. As soon as it became clear what was happening,

that the knives were going to be out for Andrew Scheer, and they're out. And if you don't think they're out, name the one prominent conservative who's out there saying, I'm with Andrew Scheer. I don't want to see anything happen. I want him to be the leader right through the next election. Name the prominent conservative who's saying that, convincingly. Anyway, so that story's going on. But this whole thing with

Peter McKay has made me think of two things. Because I'm the old guy and Bob Ray, the Muppets, those two guys sitting in the theater balcony looking at the performances going on below us. I remember 1983 leading up to the convention.

First, the leadership review, which Andrew Scheer is going to have to go through in a few months, but the leadership review that took place in Winnipeg in January is freezing. Leadership review of Joe Clark, who'd lost the 1980 election. A leadership review in which he'd get 67%. Two-thirds of conservatives said he should continue to be the leader. But Joe Clark decided that wasn't good enough

and called for a leadership vote. And some people have second-guessed him on that, saying, geez, you had two-thirds of the vote. Well, he did, except, in my view, it was the right decision, or he was just going to go through endless hell of people trying to knife him, which had been going on. And you know who one of them was? One of them was somebody who made a kind of an inadvertent remark

about Joe Clark's leadership during that period between those votes. And that remark, which was kind of offhand, was he compared Joe Clark to that kind of dog food that sits on the shelf because nobody likes it. That's what he said about his leader. You know who that was? Elmer McKay, Peter McKay's father. Well, that line got a lot of discussion

during that period in early 1983. He said he was just talking. There wasn't anything planned. Had an impact. Anyway, so there's that moment. And the other thing to consider is, well, two things, in a sense. One, most people who punch the knife in first don't end up winning. It's kind of held against them.

Elmer McKay never ran against Joe Clark. I don't think it was ever his intention. He was a Brian Mulroney supporter. Peter McKay has a lot of support out there, certainly on the part of those from the old Progressive Conservative Party. Not all of them, but some of them. And what it could do, because remember it was Peter McKay and Stephen Harper who formed the Conservative Party. One was leader of the Canadian Alliance, that was Harper. The other was the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, that was Peter McKay.

Peter McKay stepped down, let Stephen Harper be the leader overall of the new Conservative Party. So here all these years later, could he come back as leader of the Conservative Party? Or would those from the old Conservative wing rise up against him and have this battle between the two sides of the Tory party? And if they did, what impact would that have in future elections and the future political landscape in this country? So those are things to keep in mind. We're going to see some of this going on. And in the sidelines, meanwhile, nobody's talking about Jagmeet Singh.

Jagmeet Singh's had pretty much a free ride since election night. He had his dance party, after his speech, and since then it's been relatively quiet. But his party lost a ton of seats. It's now the fourth place party. And if there's going to be a leadership review, you wonder whether it's going to be there. And who maybe silently at the moment is working in that direction.

That'll be something to watch out for. Elizabeth May, I think everybody assumes, is not going to run again as leader of the Green Party, but we'll see. So, there are things to watch for in this story. There are all lows, kind of personality, leadership-driven issues, and then there's the main issue, which is the unity of the country, and who's going to do what to try and make things better. We've seen this movie before. We talked about this on election night, of how the country is divided on its regions and how that can be so difficult and so kind of core destroying. What's going to happen there to fix that? Who's going to be the statesperson to come step forward and say,

we can do this, Canada, we can do it. And here's how we're going to do it. And together we're going to do it. Does somebody have the royal jelly to do that? I guess we're going to find out. Anyway, as I said at the beginning of the bridge tonight, I want to say a few things about Washington and the current state there,

of play around the White House and the Capitol as we launch into these impeachment hearings. And it's not about any particular thing about Trump or Pelosi or Adam Schiff or whomever. It's more of a kind of general way to keep in mind in terms of watching these. And I'm once again going to draw upon a bit of history to do that. So I'm working that through in my mind and hopefully we'll have that up in the next few days. Meanwhile, I hope you've enjoyed this attempt to try to do something with the bridge in the post-election period. Let me know. Remember,

you can always write me. You can always write me. TheMansBridgePodcast at gmail.com. TheMansBridgePodcast at gmail.com. I've left a few letters in the email column that are kind of hangovers from the election. And I think that may be the best place to leave them. But we've opened up some new ground tonight and we're going to be opening up some new ground. So don't be shy. Send in your thoughts. I'd love to hear them, and I will address some of them, as you know, on the air, on the podcast.

So this is Peter Mansbridge with the post-election bridge. Hope you're enjoying it.