The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Day After The Carney Speech

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

We start today with a few thoughts about yesterday's Davos speech by Prime Minister Carney -- its had, for the most part, a very positive reaction from around the world. This though, is our usual Wednesday special, this week an end bits special. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of the bridge. It's Wednesday, wonderful Wednesday, as we like to say, midway of the week. Good day for Mark Carney. He spoke yesterday in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum, and the reviews have mostly been really very good for him. We'll talk about that. But it's also a Wednesday, which means in this case,

we're going to do a little end-bit special. That's all coming up right here on the, Bridge. Hello there. Peter Mansbridge here with the bridge and Wednesday. It's not an encore edition, as we often do on Wednesdays, but this one will be an end bit special, but I guess we really should make a couple of remarks about yesterday's news developments.

On the one hand, the Prime Minister spoke in Davos, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum, about his vision of the days ahead and the path ahead for nations. in this complicated world these days. And the end of the old world order and the beginning of a new world order, his speech, it's available lots online, should have a listen to it if you haven't already. At least read the reports about it.

Because it's receiving quite the nod of appreciation and respect around the world from papers in your world. Europe, from papers, well, the New York Times. Now, we're going to find out today, I assume in some sense of what Donald Trump thinks of it. Carney's not alone in his thoughts, but nobody's quite put them together the way he did yesterday in Davos. But as I said, around the world, a lot of newspaper editorials and commentaries. about Davos yesterday gave the nod to Mark Carney,

suggesting it was one of the best speeches that they'd heard from a world leader in some time. Now, it's not universal. You know, trust the Toronto Sun. Toronto Sun didn't think too much of it. One of their regular columnists called it a truly awful speech. Didn't like it at all. But we'll see where it goes. from here. He certainly laid out his position, Carney. And it's very different from, well,

among others, Pierre Pauliev, who couldn't come out fast enough after the invasion of Venezuela to praise Trump. So we'll see what this all means in the political situation in Ottawa as well. But the other thing that I was really glad to see, because if you follow the bridge, you've been seeing me and Janice Stein harp away at this for some time, that how ready were we for a serious situation with the U.S. that went beyond trade? How able are we to defend ourselves beyond trade? Global Mail yesterday wrote about some of the discussions that are going on behind the scenes of the Defense Department in Ottawa about that very subject.

Now, we've hinted both Janice and I at this in the last few weeks as well that there were stuff going on, but the Globe really detailed it and what they're learning. So I think you've got to expect more and more of this in the days and weeks ahead, more discussion about this, how much of it is open in the public, I'm not sure. and whether the Prime Minister or the defense minister talk about this

in clear ways, I'm not sure either. Perhaps they shouldn't. But clearly, things are going on. And I think I'm glad that we've been a part of these discussions in the last while because people have been responding certainly in their mail to me about things. this particular aspect, how ready are we? How ready should we be? What can we do? Is there anything possible for us to do living next to a giant in terms of its capabilities on the military front? Anyway, that's all bound to be part of the discussions in the days and weeks ahead.

So back to our Wednesday mission, the NBid special. The kind of stories, they're kind of news you can use stories that come up, and it's become very popular since we started doing it occasionally last fall. This was actually the third week in a row. I think we've done it here. It's not going to happen all the time. But we thank my friend Mark Bulguch, who I now, I like to call Mark the senior producer of the bridge.

We're going to have to come up with a list of titles. You know, I'm kind of like the host. Willie, my son, and we'll call him the executive producer because he does all kinds of stuff every day on it. And Mark collects stuff for N-bits. He helps sort out your stuff. return every week. And he's just generally a really good source of advice and information. And as you know, he is a co-author with me on a number of books we've had out already,

extraordinary Canadians, how Canada works. And this year, we have a new one coming out this fall, which I'll be able to tell you about soon, but it's going through the final stages of editing. We have a title working on the cover, Simon & Schuster's, the publisher once again, and we're looking forward to that. I think many of you, many of you will find it interesting. And you'll want to go and purchase a copy of our latest book. That's, as I said, we'll tell you more about that a little while. Okay, let's see what Mark's dug up for us these days for our end bit special today.

This one's from the New York Times. The headline, it just was a couple of days ago. The headline is, how hot was your town last year, and you're able to look up where you live? That's the headline. The story starts off this way. And this is in the age of climate change, right? Climate change.

That means it could be really hot, it could be really cold, but it's going to be different than we're used to. That's change. Because I get letters, you know, and shots taken at me by some of the climate deniers. It's freezing here. There's all the snow. So much for climate.

change. Well, yeah, no, that's the point. Anyway, here's the story inside the New York Times, Harry Stevens and Eric Niler. We'll read the part of it. Planet Earth isn't cooling off anytime soon. Last year's global average temperature was the third warmest since the pre-industrial era, according to new data released Tuesday by scientists at Europe's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The past 11 years have been the hottest on record, and that warmth has fueled more powerful storms, floods, heat waves, droughts, and wildfires across the globe. From Moscow to Salt Lake City, thousands of cities around the globe, experienced their hottest average temperatures since at least 1950, 75 years,

according to a New York Times analysis of data from Copernicus. and it suggests find your own city. So if you punch in Kitchener, Canada, which is sort of, you know, kind of halfway between Stratford and Toronto, the two cities when I'm in Canada where I live in. In Kitchener, last year's average temperature was 46.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's the 20th warmest year. in the last 75 years. The temperature has increased at a rate of 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. That doesn't sound like much, but it is, and it accumulates. The warming climate affects weather patterns. For every 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, the atmosphere holds about 7% more moisture, which increases the likelihood of more intense rainfall.

and the risk of severe floods. A similar relationship can be found with heat waves and drought, according to Samantha Burgess, the deputy director of Compticus. Here's what she says. Climate change is effectively a threat multiplier, she said. An individual event may not be directly attributed to climate change because we've always had flooding events and we've always had heat waves, but they are often made worse because of that long,

term climate change signal. But people don't experience the average temperature for the whole year. They live through weather at a particular time. Record hot years are made up of shorter periods that can be both hotter and colder than average. In Kitchener, Canada, seven months were hotter than normal in 2025. March was particularly hotter than normal, while December, last month, was particularly colder than normal.

You bet, and so is today. Dr. Burgess said that emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and warm ocean temperatures were the driving forces behind 2025's atmospheric warmth. Another factor is the reduction in sulfate aerosols. Tiny particles formed when coal and other fossil fuels are burned. They had been blocking sunlight and keeping parts of the earth, cooler, she said. But efforts to cut sulfur pollution from industry and commercial shipping have led to

cleaner air and more sunlight hitting the earth's surface, heating up parts of the land and ocean. Anyway, I know we have listeners around the world on this, and so if you want to find out the situation in some of the cities closest to you or that you're in, go to the New York Times. look up this article. Title was how hot was your town last year? Look up where you live. And they got a big math that was, you know, various cities. And, you know, Kitchener is kind of like in the middle.

It wasn't the hottest year in the last 75 years. There was the 20th warmest. So there's a pattern there, right? But, you know, Shanghai was the hottest year in 75 years. Manvi, India was the coldest year in 75 years. Climate change. Buenos Aires, the third hottest. Honolulu, the hottest.

Salt Lake City, Utah, the hottest. Moscow, the hottest since 1980. Sorry, since 1950. So 75 years. Okay, moving on. This one's from National Public Radio, NPR in the United States. you know, Donald Trump yesterday and his mumbling, rambling

two-hour kind of half speech, half news conference claimed that NPR didn't exist anymore. He'd basically shut it down by cutting it off. NPR still, still, you know, it's not easy, but they still exist.

And they still have an online service. And you can find this article. The Risks of AI, artificial intelligence in schools outweigh the benefits. Okay, you hear that? The risks outweigh the benefits of AI. A special report that was on NPR. So let me read a little bit of this.

It's a fellow by the name of Corey Turner. And you can hear him on the weekend edition on Sunday on NPR if you can get it. And you can get it. You can get it online. Here's what he writes. The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently overshadow the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution Center for Universal Education.

The sweeping study includes focus groups and interviews with K to 12, kindergarten to 12, grade 12 students, parents, educators, tech experts in 50 countries, as well as a literature review of hundreds of research articles. It found that using AI in education can undermine children's foundational development and that the damages it has already caused are daunting, though fixable. This is a long article. You can find it on the NPR website. But let me, that's NPR.org.

But let me read a little bit. One in five high schoolers has had a romantic AI relationship or knows someone who has. Because Generative AI is still young, Chat GPT was released just over three years ago. The report's authors, their review, a premortem intended to study AI's potential in the classroom without a post-mortem's benefits of time, long-term data, or hindsight. Here are some of the pros and cons that the report lays out, along with a sampling of these studies' recommendations for teachers, parents, school

teachers, and government officials. Now, as I said, there's a long article, I'm not going to read at all, but I do want to give you a snapshot of what they're saying. Pro, here's a pro AI. AI can help students learn to read and write. Teachers surveyed for the report said AI can be useful when it comes to language acquisition, especially for students learning a second language. For example, AI can adjust the complexity of a passage depending on the reader's skill, and it offers privacy for students who struggle in large group settings. Education. Teachers are using software, to see if students used AI. What happens when it's wrong?

Good point. Teachers reported that AI can also help improve students' writing so long as it's used to support students used to support students' efforts and not to do the work for them. Teachers report that AI can spark creativity and help students overcome writers' block. At the drafting stage, it can help with organization, coherence, syntax, semantics, and grammar.

As the revision stage, at the revision stage, AI can support the editing and rewriting of ideas as well as help with, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. That's all good. Here's a con. AI poses a grave threat to students' cognitive development. At the top of the Brookings list of risks is the negative effect AI can have on children's cognitive growth, how they learn new skills and perceive and solve

problems. The report describes a kind of doom loop of AI dependence where students increasingly offload their own thinking onto the technology, leading to the kind of cognitive decline or atrophy more commonly associated with aging brains. Rebecca Winthrop, one of the report's authors and a senior fellow at Brookings warns, when kids use generative AI, that tells them what the answer is. They are not thinking for themselves.

They're not learning to parse truth from fiction. They're not learning to understand what makes a good argument. They're not learning about different perspectives in the world because they're actually not engaging in the material. That's really

interesting and it's really important. Let's see if I'm going to find one more pro and one more con. Actually, we'll do better than that. We'll find something that's both a pro and a con. AI can be an engine of equity or inequity. One of the strongest arguments in favor of AI's educational use, according to the Brookings report,

is its ability to reach children who have been excluded from the classroom. The researchers cite Afghanistan, where girls and women have been denied access to formal post-primary education by the Taliban. According to the report, one program for Afghan girls has employed AI to digitize the Afghan curriculum, create lessons based on this curriculum, and disseminate content in Dari, Pasito, or, sorry, Pashto, and English via WhatsApp lessons. AI can also help make classrooms more accessible for students with a wide range of learning disabilities, including dyslexia. But AI can massively increase existing divides to Winthrop Warns. It's one of the people who've been studying this.

That's because the free AI tools that are most accessible to students and schools can also be the least reliable and least factual. accurate. We know that richer communities and schools will be able to afford more advanced AI models, and we know those more advanced AI models are more accurate, which means that this is the first time in education tech history, that schools will have to pay more for more accurate information. And that really hurts schools without a lot of resources. You know, I got to tell you, quite apart from the AI aspect of that story, the hardest part for me in reading it is about Afghanistan.

You know, we were there. We shed blood defending the United States, right, under Article 5 of NATO. That's why we were there. that's why 1508 159 depending on how you classify them Canadians died in Afghanistan that's why hundreds more were physically hurt or mentally hurt through their experiences in Afghanistan

and one of the reasons we were there is to give kids the ability especially young girls the ability to go to school we lost that war just be up front be admitted we lost it the Taliban are back in control and girls are suffering as a result

I'm trying to decide whether to take a break maybe we'll take a break come back we've got a few more they're good got a few more and we'll deal with them right after this and welcome back you're listening to the bridge the Wednesday episode right here on

series XM channel 167 Canada talks are on your favorite podcast platform. This is a wonderful Wednesday. We're doing a few of our N-Bid specials. A reminder that tomorrow, it's your turn, and we have some more great, ask me anything, questions from you. We'll have those.

That was very popular last week when we did it. It was the first time, an AMA. We'll do it again tomorrow, and who knows, maybe next week. We have so many great questions from you. So we'll do that, plus the random ranger. And then Friday, of course, Bruce and Chantel arrive. We'll properly assess where things stand politically after the Carney speech, after the Polyev.

He's got some kind of a speech tonight. I'm sure he'll say something. And we'll have a better understanding of where things sit on the national political scale. Don't be surprised if we end up with an election this year. If you believe what Carney said yesterday about the state of the world and Canada's position in it, you would assume governing through this should have a serious mandate. So I don't know what will happen here. But governing through the kind of crisis the world is in right now with a minority government sounds to me pretty iffy.

We end up spending every week or second week talking about, oh, can't. is the government going to survive or is this bill on such and such a thing going to be something that brings the government down? And all the backroom shenanigans and deal-making that tends to go on. I just wonder how this is going to play out. Anyway, let's get back to our in-bit special. Here's one that comes out of, where's this one from? is from techradar.com. And it's about another study.

Is a poor productivity climate killing your efficiency? Most workers say returning to the office is making us a lot less productive. And we sure know this debate. It rings out all the time. Every week you can find a different company or government department that's going through this debate. debate internally about working from home versus working from the office. So let's see what these guys have to say.

Workers are already speaking up against returning to the office, citing reduced in-office productivity and a loss of flexibility and new research from Logitech backs that up. Office distractions are said to be costing UK businesses more than 330 million hours per year. Nearly three and four, 71% of the participants talked to, agreed office distractions, reduced productivity, with a quarter of them losing at least an hour a week

due to poor productivity climate, such as noise, lighting, air quality, or outdated tech. In fact, noise was found to be the biggest product. productivity killer overall, with loud talking, 43%, and loud typing, 21%, being particularly bug bears. More than two-thirds, 69% of the 2,000 hybrid and office-based workers surveyed have argued with colleagues over noise levels, and more than half, have even moved seats or gone home because of office chatter.

Besides the obvious, workers are also being. being affected by air quality. Stuffy meeting rooms and poor ventilation are key productivity killers here. Looking ahead, it's clear that companies need to do more to improve their office environment if they're to be enacting mass return to office mandates. Around one-third each want fresh air ventilation systems, more natural light, and soundproof booths. The modern office must reflect.

the evolving needs of the people it hosts and the work that goes on inside it. Says one of the people who did the study. You know, it's funny, hey, before COVID, we knew, you know, we used to have this discussion on an office-by-office basis, oh, you know, it's too dirty in here, it's too loud in here, it's too this, too that. And you'd work with, you know, special committees established by whoever the company your department was to try and improve the situation.

But then because of COVID, people worked from home. And surprisingly, many companies, not all, but many companies said, you know what, it was pretty productive. People did more work at home than we thought they'd do. And they did it well. And so there's been a resistance in a lot of areas to going back to work. Okay. This one's going to surprise you. It comes from the BBC.

At least I found it surprising. The Chinese app that's gone viral for young people living alone. You know what it's called? It's called Are You Dead? So here's what the BBC writes about this app. A new bleak-sounding app has taken China by storm. Named Are You Dead? The concept is simple.

You need to check in with it every two days, clicking a large button to confirm that you are, alive. If not, it will get in touch with your appointed emergency contact and inform them that you may be in trouble. It was launched in May last year to not much fanfare, but attention around it has exploded in recent weeks with many young people who live alone in China's Chinese cities downloading it in droves. This has propelled it to become the most downloaded paid app in the country. Do you hear that? The most downloaded paid app in the country.

According to research institutions, there may be up to 200 million one-person households in China by 2030. Chinese state media outlet Global Times says that. And it's these people that the app, which describes itself as a safety company, whether you're a solo office worker, a student living away from home,

or anyone choosing a solitary lifestyle. That's who they're trying to target. People who live alone at any stage of their life need someone like this, or something like this, as do introverts, those with depression, the unemployed, and others in vulnerable situations, said one user on Chinese social media. There is a fear that people living alone might,

die unnoticed with no one to call for help. I sometimes wonder if I died alone, who would collect my body? Said another person. Wilson Ho, who's 38, lives around 100 kilometers from his family, says that is exactly why he downloaded the app. He works in Beijing. He returns home to his wife and child. twice a week, but says he has to be away from them at the moment to work on a project and he

mostly sleeps on site. I worry that if something happened to me, I could die alone in the place, I rent, and no one would know. That's why I downloaded the app, and I set my mom up as my emergency contact. Now, this isn't all rosy for this app. Some of being quick to bash the app's less than cheery name saying that signing up for it might bring ill fortune. Others have called it, called for it to be changed to something with a more positive spin, like, are you okay, or how are you? And though the success of this app must be in part because of its catchy sounding name, the company behind the app, Moonscape Technologies, has said it's taking on board the criticism of

the current title and weighing up a potential name change. It's actually listed internationally under the name to Mamu, D-E-M-U-M-U, ranks in the top two in the U.S., Singapore and Hong Kong, and top four in Australia and Spain for paid utility apps, possibly driven by Chinese users living overseas. So there you go. you want to check it out I just told you how to do that

here's one from where's this one from this is from one of these websites that tracks book sales and if you're a book fan you'll like to hear this and if you're a book author

you'll like to hear this print book sales rose slightly in 2025. Hey, as long as they're rising, that's a good sign. I mean, we all thought, you know, a decade ago, we thought, you know, digitized books, that's going to kill the book business. And bookstores are going to be in trouble as a result of that.

But in fact, that's not the way it happened. You know, digitized books and getting books online, for going your phone and you can listen in your car and all that have been a big bonus but it hasn't killed the print business you know I I listen to books often when I'm driving back and forth between Toronto and Stratford just finished 1929 by Andrew Ross Sarkin it was a great listen you know that drives about two hours It took me, I don't know, five back and forth trips for that book. But print books, and I've, you know, I consume a lot of history books.

Anyway, so the title on this, I'm sorry, I wish I could, I obviously didn't connect where this came from. Exactly. It's a newsletter. Anyway, the headline is print book sales rose slightly in 2025. For the second consecutive year, unit sales of print books were up at outlets that report to Sircanna Book Scan, hitting 762.4 million in 2025. That marks a 0.3% increase over 2024, which in turn saw sales grow 0.5% of 20% of, which in turn saw sales grow 0.5% of, over 2023. Since sales peaked in 2021, COVID, that doesn't surprise me, at 839.7 million copies.

They have settled at levels higher than before the pandemic, though not as high as many publishers had hoped. Post-pandemic, adult fiction, helped by the emergence of book talk, I guess that's the TikTok book talk, that's been the strongest segment. And adult fiction sales did increase again in 2025, but they were up just 1% compared to a nearly 5% increase in 2024 over 2023. Sales in the romance category. That's not the category that Bulguts and I are in.

Just in case you're wondering. Sales in the romance category. Romance category rose 3.9% to almost 44 million units, while fantasy sales fell 8.7% to 24.1 million. Bookscan doesn't have a Romantici category, but the big driver in romance was the Romanticie favorite Ony Storm, Wing and Claw collection by Rebecca Yaros, which sold nearly 1.7 million copies during the year.

Well, let me tell you, Rebecca, you don't have to worry about us challenging that number. The standard edition of Onyx Storm sold another 573,000 copies. Okay, enough of this. It's all about numbers. But the main thing is that people are still reading. And reading makes you think. Okay, here's the last one. I love the title here.

Where's this one coming from? It's coming from good housekeeping.com. How could you go wrong with this story? Here's the headline. What are grandma showers? It's the trend everyone's talking about. Now, usually I switch off when I hear that kind of a tease, whether it's on a news broadcast or whatever it's saying,

blah, blah, blah, blah. The story everyone's talking about. Well, you know what? everyone doesn't talk about it. Some people talk about it, whatever it is. And it's the same with this. What are grandma showers? You know, like baby showers?

Grandma showers. I know we've got a lot of grandmas out there. So I better read this. Social media is filled with plenty of wide-ranging opinions and parenting and grandparenting. But one trend that's been particularly divisive, is the grandma showers trend. If this conversation hasn't made it to your algorithm just yet,

grandma's shower is similar to a baby shower, but for the grandma to be rather than the parents. Plenty of commentators on TikTok and Reddit have bashed the idea, saying it seems designed to make a grandparent the center of attention during a moment when the focus should really be on the parents to be. Others have noted that,

grandma shower seems like a gift grab. Everything's a gift grab. Pretty soon we'll have the Trump Grandma Shower gift. To go with all the other crap he sells. Sorry, I digress. Back to the article. But the more I learned about this trend, the more I could see the value of a grandma shower.

Under some circumstances, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate a new grand baby, but also some potential pitfalls. Of course, how could we have an article that had only upside, no downside? On the plus side of showering grandma, this is an exciting right of passage. Becoming a grandparent is an extremely important moment, says Amy Goyer, family and caregiving expert for a retired person's group. It's a life transition, a life event. A life event. I A milestone. Many have been looking forward to it for years and years. So it's something to celebrate. Yeah. I've got three grandkids. I'm probably still a few years away from great-grandparenting, but enjoying grandparenting. No loss. With declining birth rates and women delaying childbirth,

the average age of first-time grandparents in this country is rising. More than a few of my friends have fretted that by the time they finally have a grandchild to sit down and play with, they won't be able to get back off the floor. Oh, yeah. Sorry, I laughed in the middle of that. Some have worried that by the time they become grandparents and they're playing on the floor with their grandkid, they won't be able to get up off the floor. Another joked, a grandma's shower?

What do we get? Matching bibs? I like this. But becoming a grandparent has always been a joyous occasion, so why the new need for a special party? According to those who follow grandparenting trends, it depends on the individual circumstances of the family and the nature of the party itself.

In many cases, a grandma shower is simply practical. Goyer points out that an increasing number of grandparents are raising their grandchildren. U.S. census data shows that roughly 33% of grandparents living with their grandchildren under the age of 18 were responsible for their care. You hear this a lot, right? At the same time, many grandparents live on fixed incomes, and the price of baby children, gear has increased dramatically. More than 70% of strollers, car seats, and cribs sold in the U.S. are produced in China. According to consumer reports, new tariffs are expected to result in price increases of roughly 30%. Grandparents can't resurrect the gear they use for their own kids

because much of it is now deemed unsafe. Under those circumstances, wanting to shower grandma with a much needed safe car seat or crib makes sense. This also holds true for grandparents who are providing child care in their own home. Hauling a baby, a crib, a car seat, a high chair, and other everyday equipment between two houses is a logistical and physical feat, especially if you're elderly. Interesting. And that point about, you know, hand-me-down gear doesn't work. and today's, you know, rigid and rightly so, safety guidelines.

I know in our family, we have what we called, growing up in England, a pram, a baby carriage, a beautiful, old English-style pram. And my parents kept it, and they gave it to my sister. who had her kids used it. Our little brother had been in it. That's, I think, when we bought it. And in Ottawa, when we moved to Ottawa, to Canada. And where is this heading?

It's still used. My little brother's kids and grandkids have used it as well. So it's gone through a number of generations, and it's had to be updated for safety reasons through that process, as close as was possible. Still looks beautiful. Still looks like it came out of a showroom yesterday, but times have changed, as we know. Anyway, Grandma showers. There you go. He says, had that image of the two bibs.

All right, enough. Um, there you go with today's special and bit special. Tomorrow, as I said, ask me anything. Number two. Coming up tomorrow, lots of good questions that I'll try to answer as best I can. Plus the random ranter. Don't know what he's talking about tomorrow, but I'm sure he'll have something. And then on Friday, of course, Bruce and Chantel will buy with good talk and lots to talk about this.

week, as there always is. And they always deliver. So we'll hear what they have to say on Friday, on Good Talk. That's going to do it for today. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in less than 24 hours.