The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #14 - As 'the bridge daily" Hits A Half Million

Episode Date: June 19, 2020

Lots of great questions, thoughts and comments from YOU. Plus who listens to the "bridge" and from where?

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily it's the weekend special, number 14. We've made it through 14 weeks of the Bridge Daily as it covers COVID-19 and other issues that have become so dominant during these 14 weeks. And you know what those issues are. Weekend special is brought to you by you it's your questions your comments your thoughts and we've got quite a few this week but before we get to it as i promised last night a little bit of a mini celebration okay mini celebration that's me tipping my orange juice glass, clinking it as this mini celebration. As you are listening to this podcast, we have crossed the half million market downloads for The Bridge and The Bridge Daily, which is, I'm told, is pretty good for a podcast. One that started last fall during the election campaign

and went kind of into hibernation and started up again as a daily. Fourteen weeks ago to cover COVID-19 and to cover the issues surrounding systemic racism that impact all of us in North America. Not just in the States, but here in Canada as well. So what I promised yesterday is I'd give you some sense of what these numbers mean. It's a little confusing kind of checking in on podcasts to have some sense of how much they're listened to,

where they're listened to, is an interesting art. I subscribe to a number of services who, A, put this podcast up on their delivery system, but also monitor how the podcast is doing. And they all tell me this is doing really well. And with over 500,000 downloads now, there's reason to celebrate. And I look at, you know, obviously most of these downloads happen in North America,

most of them in Canada, but not exclusively. The Bridge Daily is listened to on every continent except Antarctica, and we're working on that. We're going to do a big push on Antarctica, see whether we can get at least one person to listen in Antarctica. How they do that or not, I don't know. Where they are in Antarctica, I do not know.

But we have listeners in, you know, Australia and New Zealand. We have listeners in Africa. We have listeners in South America. We have a lot of listeners in Asia, even more in Europe. But the main bulk, the overwhelming main bulk, is in North America. Now, we can tell more than just that. We can tell the total number of countries in the world where people download the bridge daily. So take a guess. I gave you a hint yesterday, it's more than 100.

That's pretty good. Most are in Canada. Big surprise. But not exclusively in Canada, because there are 147 countries in the world where at least one person has downloaded the Bridge Daily. And, you know, that's pretty good. The top 10.

I'll just give you the top 10. All right? Canada, obviously. The U.S. is number two. Who's number three? That's right, the United Kingdom. Australia is number four. Germany is number five.

France is number six. Hong Kong, China is number seven. India, number eight. India, number eight. Japan, number nine. And Mexico, number ten. There's your top ten countries who download the Bridge Daily. How many cities around the world do you think have shown a download of the Bridge Daily? If you guessed 3,330, you were right!

Number one, Toronto. Number two, Calgary. Number three, Brampton, Ontario. Number four, Etobicoke, Ontario. Number five, Scarborough, Ontario. Number six, Edmonton. Number seven, Winnipeg. Number eight, North Vancouver. Number nine, Montreal.

Number ten, Vanier. So they're all in Canada, the top 10 cities where the Bridge Daily is downloaded. And I'm looking down here trying to find who's the first non-Canadian city. Going way down here, 30, 40 cities. First one. I'm looking. I'm still looking here. Man, like in Dawson Creek, British Columbia,

1,200 people, to be exact, 1,174, have downloaded the Bridge Daily. Well, that's a long way. The first foreign... Well, it's in China. More than 600 people have downloaded the bridge daily. And Tsuan Wan, I'm sorry, I don't know where that is. I'm not sure whether that's the correct way to pronounce it.

Chicago comes in there, Minneapolis, and the list goes on. I'm going to try and get down to the very last city. One assumes it'll only have one download. 3,330. That's an awful lot of cities to scroll through. And that's what I'm trying to do right now. And wing it while I'm doing it. The last one, Omaha, Nebraska.

All right. Where there's only been one download. Now, I hope that was last night, and it's just the beginning of a trend. What I hope it wasn't was last year. And they just said, oh, I'm not going to listen to that again. Actually, it was probably somebody passing through Omaha. That's usually the way these things work. Anyway, that gives you a snapshot of, you know, the stats on the Bridge Daily.

And it's fun to go through them. And I try to do that every once in a while. And this was a good time to do it as we celebrate the half million mark in downloads for the Bridge Daily. Okay, I know. Let's get to your letters, your comments, your questions.

And let's get at it. Annette Duvall from Barrie, Ontario writes, A number of times on your podcast, you've reminded your listeners about the importance of wearing a face mask while in public, in addition to physical distancing as an added layer of protection against COVID-19. I was wondering what your thoughts are on face shields. I do have thoughts on face shields. You know, I think if things don't significantly improve, we're going to be seeing a lot more face shields out there.

They're relatively inexpensive. They can be reused if you buy the proper kind. And obviously they cover a lot more. They cover your eyes, your nose, your mouth. They give you protection. They give you protection from incoming and obviously there's protection from outgoing. So it's all good. And when you look in hospitals, some grocery stores, you see face shields.

I have nothing against face shields, just like I have nothing against face masks. Debbie McCullough writes, Your rant about masks yesterday and on other episodes made me think of something that happened to me last week. Last Friday, I hopped on my bike. Debbie lives in Ottawa. I hopped on my bike and decided to go check out the Black Lives Matter march in my hometown of Ottawa. It was a beautiful day,

and my route to get to the march is a nice one. I went my way down Colonel Baye along the Rideau Canal, crossed the pedestrian bridge at the University of Ottawa, passed City Hall, the NAC, and crossed the street at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier. Beautiful. I stood next to my bike on the other side of the road from the Chateau Laurier, and I took in all the sights. People of all ages, peacefully marching and chanting, spectators clapping, police, paramedics, all wearing masks. So many different shapes and colors of masks.

It was amazing to see. I suddenly was shocked to remember that I had not packed my mask. I felt terrible, like an outcast, and was thinking people were looking at me in judgment. I didn't stay very long because of not having a mask. On the way home, I enjoyed being able to bike on Queen Elizabeth Drive, on the other side of the Rideau Canal. I used to live there on Queen Elizabeth Drive

when I was covering Parliament Hill in the late 70s. I had a small apartment right on Queen Elizabeth Drive. Anyway, which municipal leaders have opened up to walkers, runners and cyclists to get out and get physical while being physically distanced. I reflected on not having a mask at the march and thought what a good thing this was, that the social norm for me now is to wear a mask for all of the reasons you have been stating over the time of the COVID pandemic. Keep lecturing us on wearing a mask.

Well, I think you've lectured yourself there and you've lectured others by talking about the day you forgot, just like I did yesterday. Talked about forgetting to put it on heading down to pick up my mail. Carolyn Black from Waterloo. I appreciate you continuing to reinforce mask wearing. Yesterday I went to Walmart, a store that I go to very infrequently. I think February was the last time I was there. I felt disappointed and scared at the lack of compliance with mask wearing. It felt that the majority of customers were not wearing masks.

This is in stark contrast to my grocery store, four kilometers away from the Walmart where the vast majority of customers are wearing masks. I'm trying hard to not draw conclusions about why Walmart shoppers aren't wearing masks when it seems to be the norm in most other places. And I don't think you should. That's one Walmart store, the one that you frequent, or at least you did, in Waterloo. That's not to say that happens everywhere,

but there's no doubt there are some stores where mask wearing is not required, it's not asked for, and it's not done by staff. And I think that's a mistake. I think they should. Jill Snell from Fernie, British Columbia. On the weekend special number 11, so three weeks ago, Patricia Thomas' comments about how we will need to learn to live with the virus touched a chord.

Over the past weeks, turning into months, the focus has been on the deaths related to COVID-19. Perhaps it's time to change that focus. Rather than looking at the deaths and the risks that increase the likelihood of contracting COVID-19, maybe we should be looking at the lives and trying to find out what helps an individual survive and or stay healthy during these challenging times. I think that's an interesting redirection of focus. We need to understand, determine how some people who contract the virus remain asymptomatic and find a way to encourage that behavior. Individuals need to be empowered while being held accountable

for their own health and well-being. Over and above washing our hands and using masks, which are crucial public health measures, we need to investigate what survivors have done differently from those that have passed away and look into what allows an individual to catch COVID-19 and not exhibit any symptoms. All right, Jill, I think those are all good points. Barb King from Okotoks, Alberta. As we approach July 1st, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind recommending titles of your favorite books about Canadian history or about Canada in general that could provide your listeners with some diverse perspectives.

Now, she's from Barb Kings from Okotoks, Alberta, but she also included a few lines about being in Ottawa on July 1st in 2017 and what a great day that was and how much she enjoyed it. That, in fact, was the last Canada Day broadcast that I anchored. In fact, it was the last broadcast that I anchored during my 49 plus years at the CBC. And so it was an emotional day for a lot of different reasons for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and look back on it with great memories. As to your question about books and your question about, you know, Canadian history being a good time to talk about it for Canada Day, I'll tell you my favorite.

I mean, I love Canadian history, and you've heard me talk about a number of aspects of it many times over these past 14 weeks. But here's what, you know But here's the area that certainly in the last 20 years that I've been most fascinated by, and I think I've read every book, pretty much every book that's been written about it, and that's the story of the Franklin Expedition. The attempt in the late 1840s to go through the northwest passage by

sir john franklin and his crew of about 130 they all perished every one of them and it's been it's taken 100 and whatever years um to a find the ships therebus and the Terror that they were on, and to try to draw a curtain on what really happened there. Anyway, there's some great books, some really, really good books. My favorite is probably Ken McCugan's book, Fatal Passage, but there are literally dozens of books on the Franklin Expedition. One of the more recent ones that's pretty good, actually, focuses on the Erebus specifically and its final two voyages, one which was to Antarctica,

and the second was the voyage where it ended up getting lost on the Northwest Passage. And it's written by the most unlikely of sources, Michael Palin. If that name sounds familiar to you, it's because you're a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus, where he was one of the founding members. Anyway, Palin's book is pretty good. I really enjoyed it.

And if you want to know a little more about it, go on Google, find the book, and you will see links to a great interview that my friend Steve Pakin did on TVO with Michael Palin about his book and about the Franklin Expedition and about Erebus, the ship, in particular. Anyway, that would be my recommendation to Barb King of Okotoks, Alberta.

Man, I think Alberta and Newfoundland have got the best community names. There's some great ones. Sarah McDonald in Toronto. I'm a mother of two boys, eight and three, a full-time in-house lawyer and married to someone

who also has a full-time job. Our days since March have been chaotic with both of us working from home, keeping the three-year-old entertained and homeschooling the eight-year-old. We've had some lovely and relaxing days as well, and have certainly appreciated this time together. We are all anxious to return to some of our old activities, like soccer and t-ball, in-person fitness classes, school in the fall, etc., but also worried that we are doing too much too soon. I look at some provinces where their cases are low and consider that it is probably

safe to make those changes, but then at some of the states in the U.S. where there appear to be no restrictions in place and cases are climbing. I feel like Toronto could go either way and I'm cautious and I also don't know what I'm even worried about anymore since I've been worrying and thinking about all the things since January when COVID became international news. Add that to the regular stresses of being a mother, a wife and an employee, I am tired. We keep going and find moments of respite, but this has been a time like no other in my life, or anyone's for that matter, and I've had to find new ways to manage my days. I really resonated with the letter you read last week from the mom in Alberta, who would be turning 40 next year, like me,

and wanted to write with my own shared experiences. I also appreciated that you told her the best was yet to come. Thanks for that. Yeah, that was a great letter last week, and Sarah, your letter is a great one this week. Patrick Tallon. I think he's from the Ottawa area as well. I'm writing in from L'Original, Ontario.

We live in a small border community halfway between Montreal and Ottawa. Canada's exclusion from the UN Security Council is undoubtedly a personal political blow for our Prime Minister. He has been vocal about this since his first election win and has been taking great strides to appear as a statesman on a global level. This appeared to be important to our Prime Minister. We'll never know, but I wonder if the SNC scandal and the blackface photos that arose in 2019 had anything to do with our UN exclusions and the link with how world

leaders view our Prime Minister? I don't know. That's possible. Other countries haven't said why they bypassed Canada and picked, what was it, Norway and Ireland instead. That's possible. I'll tell you where neither seem to be hurting. First of all, he won the election with both those things hanging over him. He was reduced to a minority, but he did win.

And secondly, every number I've seen over his performance in the last three months has been staggeringly high, as it has been for most of our leaders in Canada. The public feels they've had good leadership through this crisis so far. Now, how will they feel when it's all over? When accountability sessions start and investigations into certain ways and things that happen? How will they feel then?

I guess we'll have to see. But right now, he's not paying the price for past ills unless the price was included in the reason why Canada was rejected for the UN Security Council. A lot of letters came out of the whole, should we close the border thing, or keep the border closed, which it will be for another, what, 30 days at least. Val in Vancouver writes, Number me among the isolationists. I miss weekend trips to Seattle and Portland. I really miss quick trips to Trader Joe's

and Bellingham, Washington. We need to keep the entire border closed, though. No neighboring states bubbles too risky. Excuse me. There have been fringe benefits, though. Closure of Stanley Park and half of Beach Avenue to car traffic has been wonderful. It's looking like Amsterdam with all the cyclists. And I breathe a sigh of relief about not having to deal with the crowds on Sunset Beach

or the tens of thousands that ring English Bay on the three-night celebration of light fireworks. All selfish, of course, and a smallish price to pay to live in the West End. Vancouver, right? It makes me sad that many Canadians see staycations as a drag. We take this beautiful country for granted. I expect to see more RVs on BC roads this summer, a lot more. Problem is, many out-of-province drivers have difficulty with mountain roads in a car,

much less a large recreational vehicle. I'd already planned to visit Mom and the West Kootenays this summer, have now moved it up several weeks to beat the rush, especially since Highway 3 is not very RV-friendly, but it's a gorgeous stretch of road. It is, being on it myself. Thanks, Val. It paints such a great picture of the West Coast, right? It is beautiful, but you're right. There's so many beautiful parts of the country.

We were in Newfoundland last summer. I've been there many times, but every time I go, I go, man, we've got to move here. We're up at Trinity for Mark Critch's wedding with Melissa Royal. It was a great time and a beautiful spot. Okay. It was a great time and a beautiful spot. Okay, moving on. More border stuff. This comes from Robert Welch in Vermont. Yes, I'd love to reopen the border,

but I want it to be a phased opening. I would start with the land border crossings in phases based upon infection rates by province and state. If you're coming from a state with a similar infection rate as the province you're going to and the other way around, come on in. I don't think air travel should be allowed from a state with a similar infection rate as the province you're going to, and the other way around, come on in.

I don't think air travel should be allowed until the final phase where the infection rate in the U.S. as a whole has died down. I sincerely think that will be a while. I'm using Vermont's plan as a model. If your country's infection rate is below 400 active cases per million, you can come and go without self-isolation restriction. That's interesting. Thanks, Robert. Betty Armstrong.

Same issue. I would like the border to remain closed. Canada is doing fairly well. Let's not take the risk. BC has quite a few boats from the US along our coastline wanting to moor at our marinas. People who live in these communities are worried, and rightfully so.

You know, I've heard that from a number of people. I've also heard issues about Americans who are able to cross the border because they say they're driving to Alaska. And some evidence that maybe they're not actually getting as far as Alaska, which is an issue. Now, I don't know how accurate that is, and I don't know how accurate this issue about marinas are that Betty raises,

but obviously people are concerned about those things. As I've said last night, we've had hundreds of calls about the border question. Almost all of them are saying keep the border closed. Paul Sidwell, border open? Absolutely not. Not until they get their act together and lower their infection rates south of the border.

If we can stop traffic between provinces and turn people back, it's obvious that we should stop non-residents. Gordon Peters from North Enmore, Prince Edward Island. Love the island. You know, I mean, I love parts of every province that we have. Gordon adds a picture, which obviously I can't show you on the podcast. Maybe I'll make it the cover art this week, if that's possible. I'll try.

It's lobsters. Cooked lobsters. So Gordon writes, I heard you talking about lobster last week. Thought I'd send in a picture from PEI for you. I don't fish lobster myself, but I have a lot of family and friends in the lobster industry. Their industry has been greatly disrupted by our current condition.

For many, but not all, fishing areas in the Maritimes, there was a delay of up to two weeks in an eight week season to the start of their fishing season. And depending on what processor company was buying the lobster, many fishers had a daily quota on their catches in place for much of the season. Hopefully the reopening continues to proceed successfully and things will get back to normal soon, or at least as close to normal as we can expect for now. Thanks, Gordon. Love the picture. We actually had lobster a couple of

weekends ago. Some in our local grocery store that had been flown in. Live lobster. Brought it home, cooked in. Live lobster. Brought it home, cooked it. Fabulous. Here's the kind of question I love, because it gives me a legitimate reason to promote my book. Ron Fisher writes, see I've got a book coming out, along with Mark Bulgich, later this year in November from Simon and Schuster called Extraordinary Canadians.

It's not about me, it's not about Mark, it's about you. It's about some very extraordinary Canadians. Not household names. That's why we're doing it. Because so many extraordinary Canadians exist, nobody knows about.

So that's what our book's about. And Ron writes, will it be available on Audible and will you be reading it? Good question. Don't have the answer to that yet. We're working on that. That's an interesting part.

I did read the introduction or the foreword, whatever you want to call it, which kind of sets up the book. And that'll be used in promotion in the months ahead. And when that's out, I'll let you know. Andrew P. from Oshawa, Ontario. I was intrigued by your coverage of the opinion piece

written by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times. After finishing the podcast, I read through his article to ensure I had proper context and unfortunately came away quite disappointed. This was the piece about, who's better, male leaders or female leaders. I take umbrage with the premise that Christophe takes in his thesis, a premise which he undercuts in his own article. He writes, it's not that the leaders who best managed the virus were all women, but

those who bungled the response were all men, and mostly a particular type, authoritarian, vainglorious, and blustering. Gosh, I don't know who he was talking about. If Christophe had not cherry-picked his comparison data and instead used a more representative measurement, say comparing per capita death rates in all OECD countries, or simply all countries on earth for that matter, he would have to reject his hypothesis that a country's political leader's gender makes a difference in their coronavirus response. As he stated, it appears that authoritarian, vainglorious, and blustering regimes I wonder who he was talking about

have done extremely poorly in responding to this crisis. And I believe that is a far more honest conclusion than what he presented. His work does, however, scratch the surface of what is, in my opinion, a far more interesting question. Does having more equity amongst political leadership affect a country's ability to survive disasters in general? And if it doesn't, should we as a society to continue to push for it anyways? My answer is yes on that last question, no matter what the answer to your particular part of that is. What I've watched over time

is that the more equality there is in gender in governments, the better that government generally is. That's not to say all women are great in leadership roles or all men are poor in leadership roles.

Obviously, that's not the case. But I think more women should be encouraged to run for political office, whether that's at the local level, the provincial level, or the national level, or the international level. Then they should. How are we doing here? Okay. Okay. We are at the last letter.

The last letter for week 14 for the weekend special. And as you know, what I try to do with the last letter is it's usually long, and I like to read it all or almost all of it because it touches a chord. They all do. All your letters do. I get lots and lots of letters every week. I don't read them all, but I read a good selection of what comes in. All right.

This one comes from Megan Rondo in Edmonton. That's two weeks in a row we've had an Alberta writer as the last letter. All right. here's what Megan has to say. I was listening to Friday's episode of the podcast today while I was out for a bike ride in the beautiful Edmonton River Valley. I know that valley well. I never lived in Edmonton, but my parents did.

When my father was the Chief Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development, I think was the title, during the Peter Lawhead years in Alberta. And they had a condo that was up on top of one of the bluffs overlooking the Edmonton River Valley. And it is beautiful. It's gorgeous to look down on that. So anyway, Megan was riding her bike. There were many things said by yourself and in the listener mail that really resonated with me, and I wanted to touch on two of those things. There was lots of talk about Trudeau's hair in the New York Times article. You said something along the lines of

how we're more fascinated with looking at ourselves in the mirror and how our appearance has changed over these past 13 weeks than we are with Trudeau's hair. Remember the New York Times had said that all Canadians are fascinated by Justin Trudeau's hair. Really? Anyway, back to Megan. That got me thinking not about how my appearance may have changed over these past few months,

but about how my life has changed since I first started listening to your podcast way back in the fall. I usually would listen to it at night when I would go to the gym or when I was trying to start dinner before my husband and daughter got home from work and day care. Now though, I try and squeeze in episodes of your podcast when I can between trying to balance working from home and also trying to take care of a four-year-old. I feel like even though the world has slowed down, my life has become more chaotic. This leads into the second thing that really resonated with me, which was the last letter that you read. I have a four-year-old daughter. My husband and I are both lucky that we have jobs

and that these jobs allow us to work from home. Daycare in Alberta closed around the middle of March, so my husband and I have been trying to balance work plus taking care of our four-year-old. For the first few weeks of the pandemic, I was trying so hard to make sure I was getting all of my work done in addition to trying to be super mom. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, and I also felt defeated. Despite my efforts, I felt that I wasn't able to give my work or my daughter the attention they deserved. I kept trying to push on for a few more weeks, but by the middle of May, I had reached a breaking point, and mental health was suffering. I cannot be everything to everyone during this time, and I needed to step back. I took a leave from work, and I've been trying to focus on my daughter during this time.

It was a hard decision to make because I didn't want people on my team at work to think I was abandoning them or leaving them with extra work. Ultimately, though, I needed to take care of myself so that I can get back to being the best version of myself. In addition to taking a leave, I've also tried to scale back on the time I spend on social media. While I want to be informed of what's going on in the world, some days social media can really be just too much, especially Twitter. Going to the gym used to be one of the ways I dealt with stress. With gyms closed, I've been biking a lot more. I took the plunge and got an electric bike, and it has been a lot of fun going for longer rides in the beautiful River Valley. I know my mental health still isn't where it was pre-COVID-19, but I'm really trying to make an effort to take care of myself,

and I think it's something we all need to do more of. Daycares have reopened in Alberta, and tentatively we have our daughter going back in July. I do have anxieties about this, but I think it's the best decision for our family right now. Even though my daughter is just four, she is super aware of everything going on. When we go out, she always asks me to give her her mask. When we go into a store, she always makes sure to use hand sanitizer. She knows that there are certain things we can't do right now

because of COVID-19. She has big plans, though, for when COVID-19 is gone, including going to Winnipeg. Even though she has been to Disneyland, she's decided that the first trip she's going on post-COVID-19 is to Winnipeg. We went last fall because we had never been before, and she loved it, especially the zoo and the polar bears.

Love that story. Love that image. That's the Assiniboine Zoo. Some of those polar bears came from Churchill, Manitoba. Back in my old Churchill days in the late 60s, we used to ship some of those polar bears, the problem bears we called them. Going to a zoo was a much better option than what some people wanted to do with those bears. They kept coming into town and breaking into houses and garbage areas. Some of them went to the Assiniboine Zoo in Winnipeg.

Others went to zoos across North America. But they've got a great display of polar bears at the Assiniboine Zoo. I was there with my grandson a couple of years ago. It's great. So Megan Rondo, I hope your four-year-old's dreams of getting back to Winnipeg and seeing the bears again is fulfilled this summer. And thank you for sharing what you've been through over these last three or four months.

Your story is not alone in the landscape of stories that we're hearing about and witnessing because of COVID-19. It may well be all too typical for a lot of parents. But the very fact that you sat there and wrote it down

and you make decisions about how you were going to conduct yourself through this period and that you needed to take a break and that you did it, you know, is a tribute to you. It's a tribute to your husband. It's a tribute to your four-year-old daughter. So good luck. Have a safe trip. Have a safe journey out to Winnipeg. And, you know, I've got to tell you, there are lots of reasons to travel in Canada. We've got an incredible country.

And if the movement between provinces allowed for you, then take advantage of it. Not just this summer, but any summer. Hey, listen, I go across the pond. I have a particular affinity for golf in Scotland. But I also travel our country. I've been to, you know, every province and territory over my time. And I love it.

As I said, there's something to treasure in each area of this country. So if the situation this year allows you to travel to different parts of Canada, you'll never regret it. All right. Always great to hear from you

at the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com, the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com, the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. I hope you have a great weekend as we head into Week 15. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge Daily. We'll be back Monday. Thank you.