The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #24 - Enjoy

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

Your questions, comments and thoughts. Lots, even myriad things to think about. Thats an inside joke and you have to go inside to hear it.

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily here we are on friday the weekend special for week 24. Week 24. It's got a nice ring to it. Kind of like that. Week 24. I don't like the fact we're still doing this after 24 weeks of covering a story that we knew was serious. We knew it had big problems right out of the gate in mid-March when things started. But I gotta say, most of us thought we would have moved past this point by now.

Here we are at the end of August. It's September next week. September. Wow. Anyway, the weekend special, you know what it is. It's a chance for you to say your piece, some of your questions and thoughts and comments, not only about the week gone by, but about any of our kind of three major topics, right, that we have. COVID-19 ever since we started back 24 weeks ago. And we added a whole issue surrounding Black Lives Matter. Had a great podcast last night. At least I liked it. And those of you who wrote in really enjoyed hearing from Perdita Felician.

Great comments from her. And the third topic, kind of the race next door, the U.S. election and our special Wednesday programming along with Bruce Anderson when we present the race next door, kind of the podcast within a podcast and give you some ideas about things you might want to be considering while you're watching our neighbors go head to head. No comment about last night's

show on the White House lawn. I think it said what's needed to be said all by itself. Okay, so for today, for the weekend special, as I said, your emails, and once again, just to remind you, I get a lot of your emails, and I select some of them to feature on the podcast each week. And they are in random order,

sometimes with one clearly being the one I'm kind of saving for the end. But other than that, that's kind of random. And I don't read all of the email, just parts of it, okay? You're all great writers. Some of you are very long writers. And so we do a little bit of an edit. All right. For some reason, I'm not quite sure why,

there are a lot of emails this week from the West Coast. A lot of emails this week from the West Coast. A lot of them. And the first one comes from Vancouver. It's from Rodney Daughtry. And I'm just reading one line from him. And the one line is, Four words. Personalized cameo loon calls.

Now, that's a result of a number of things that we've talked about in the last couple of weeks, and one was the app Cameo that does kind of celebrity appearances for a fee. Celebrity, I use that term loosely. It's kind of like the C-list celebrities. of celebrity appearances for a fee. Celebrity, I use that term loosely. It's kind of like the C-list celebrities. I guess that's why Rodney's suggesting I should be on it. And loon calls, he's suggesting that because I did a loon call, or what I thought was a loon call.

Many of you have had many laughs about my loon call ability. And I do one here for you now, except I'm not in loon country. Some people think there's a lot of loons around here, but here in Stratford. But the loons I talk about reside at the lake I go to north of Ottawa in Quebec. And so when I'm back up there, and I'm hoping to go back up in September for a couple of days, maybe I'll try another loon call and satisfy people like Rodney, who's looking for more personalized loan calls, but to put them on Cameo.

And maybe I'll do that. September and October are a great time to watch loans, right? They teach their young to fly, because they've got to get ready to fly out of town and head south. And that kind of happens in October and early November. So you get to watch the flight process

and teaching them how to fly and it's really quite spectacular. When I go up there at that time of year, there are very, very few people around. And that's the way the loons like it, right? Okay. Juliet Martin.

She has a fairly lengthy email of which I'm just going to read a couple sentences because I really admire her for them. As a recent social services retiree, I spend parts of my days sewing masks for charity. My personal goal is to give away 1,000 masks. As of today's date, I'm approaching 400. The lion's share have been masks for children, for return to school, but also for seniors and the homeless. Well, good for you, Juliet Martin.

I don't think anywhere in Juliet's email does she say where she's writing from. But wherever she's writing from. But wherever she's writing from, that's a pretty nice thing. A target of 1,000 masks she wants to make. She's almost halfway there. That's great. Donna Lockhart from Ennismore, Ontario. Wanted to add an idea to the discussion about the impact of the upcoming fall flu and cold season.

Keep in mind, you know, those regular flu shots, they're going to be coming at you within the next few weeks. You'll hear from your doctor or you'll see in drugstores signs that the flu shot is available. Take it. All right, this is not the vaccine for the coronavirus. That's not going to be around for a while yet. But this is just the regular flu, right? A double whammy is potential here. You have the regular flu and the second wave of the coronavirus.

You don't want that. So at least deal with the regular flu, and as soon as you're able to get it, the flu shot, I'm certainly going to take it. Anyway, back to Donna's note. Seems that no one has mentioned this yet, I'm certainly going to take it. Anyway, back to Donna's note. Seems that no one has mentioned this yet, but we think it's worth considering with all the additional hand hygiene,

disinfectant usage, distancing, less socializing, or if we do, we will wear a mask inside. We think the flu season might just not be as bad as in the past. When we would go watch local hockey games in the past, arenas were a hotbed for infections. Hand rails, closeness, washrooms, talking and yelling. And no, we did not wash our hands then as often as we do now. Well, there will be no arena going this fall,

and if we all keep vigilant with hand washing in particular and mask wearing, the flu cold season just might not be as bad. All depends on our behavior. Time will tell, and we'll know this fall. Donna Lockhart. Well, hey, Donna, your logic is bang on. Sounds like a smart way to be thinking. Still, you have a chance for a flu shot, I'd take it. I'm certainly going to. Wayne Kruski from Rossland, BC. He also has a fairly lengthy letter. He picked up on something I said last week about gluten-free food, which is all that's allowed in this house because Cynthia, my wife, has gluten issues.

So Wayne sent a gluten-free, diabetic-friendly recipe for chocolate. Chocolate, decadent chocolate quinoa recipe. Gluten-free, diabetic-friendly. No sugars. I don't know. I love chocolate. I don't know. I love chocolate. I don't know.

Maybe we'll try it. Anyway, I'm not going to bother reading you the whole recipe because it does go on. However, he also mentioned something about Cynthia. He says, you've occasionally mentioned your wife Cynthia as being connected to the theater. She is. Like, she spent 20 years as a singer and dancer and actor at the Stratford Festival, but also on television and in movies. She was in Moonstruck. She had a TV series called

Street Legal. And on stage, she's performed all kinds of different roles. Cynthia Dale, okay? Anyway, Wayne wasn't sure who she was. Then you use the term triple threat, so I looked her up. I had no idea who she was. I listened to some of her music, loved it. It reminded me of when Linda Ronstad was working with Nelson Riddle. Linda Ronstad and the Stone Ponies.

Remember them? Anyway, very nice. I showed this to Cynthia, and she was flattered that you found her music. And she does have a great voice. All right, Trevor Barry. Where's Trevor from? Saanich, B.C. So here you go, another B.C.

I appreciate the sentiment. This is about the issue of, we should say, physical distancing and not social distancing. That one of our readers, or one of our listeners had suggested, and I didn't disagree with that. Anyway, Trevor has a different idea. I appreciate the sentiment and agree that we want people to stay socially connected during this COVID pandemic in order to mitigate other negative health impacts such as mental illness and other wellness issues. However, it seems to me that the two terms, physical and social, actually describe different behavioral choices. Physical distance simply means measuring a physical distance, two meters.

Social distancing means keeping distance apart between social interactions. In other words, I conceptualize the term social distancing differently. In fact, maybe even think of it as an umbrella term that includes subsets like physical distancing. Anyways, maybe that's just me and my strange way of justifying in my own mind why provincial and federal public health offices have explicitly used both terms during this crisis. You're right about that, Trevor. Okay, let's use them both. Robin Ward, Edmonton. Remember, she wrote last week

after we talked about Chrystia Freeland becoming the first female federal finance minister and she wrote to remind us that alberta had actually had three women as finance ministers in its past now she wrote again this week to say hey guess what so saskatchewan it was late at night when I wrote the message about Alberta. I forgot that Saskatchewan's also had three women finance ministers. And it looks like Ontario's had a couple also.

All right, I'm not sure where this is all heading. But it started with the first federal finance minister being a woman, and that's true. There's no argument about that. But clearly the provinces were way ahead of the federal government on that issue. Barb Demaree, also from Vancouver, writes, I've often wondered what it must be like being a journalist right now. We're living through a time like no other. People who may have been casual consumers of news are now

glued to all the various outlets to keep updated on the latest scandal, protests, pandemic numbers, something outrageous that's spewed out of Trump's mouth, or any of the myriad of things going on in the world right now. I'm one of them. It's mind-boggling. Do you wish you were still part of it, or are you thankful you're able to sit back and observe like the rest of us? How would you like to be covering the RNC, the Republicans? Listen, I made a decision to retire after basically 50 years in the business, working every day as a journalist,

and enjoying my retirement doing other things, including journalism, doing documentary work, doing this podcast, doing a number of things. And I'm glad I made that decision. Have I missed things this year? This has been an incredible news year, as you well know. But I've been involved to some degree, and I'm enjoying the way I'm being involved. I miss the camaraderie of the day-to-day cut and thrust of the news business,

but I don't miss it that much, and I'm enjoying the things that I get to do now. Last night, I got to talk for 20 minutes with Ron McLean about the issues surrounding the athletes walking out, the hockey players walking out, and all the various professional leagues shutting down for a couple of days and the impact that might have. And I could never have done that in the old days

because I was basically offering my opinion, right, as I often do on this podcast, which I couldn't do before when I was in the day-to-day process of news reporting. But now I have some leeway to do that. And so that's what I was doing with Ron, who's a great friend and is doing a remarkable job through this story. I mean, the kind of hours he's working already.

Him and Elliot and Chris and, you know, David Amber, who's one of the other hosts on Hockey Night in Canada, is the son of Arnold Amber, who was my producer for years through the 70s and 80s and 90s at the CBC. And he was so proud of David as he was growing up. Arnold's gone now, I'm sad to say, but I watch David and I just think of how proud Arnold was of his son and how proud he would continue to be in this day watching him because he's terrific and of course there's ron and ron's you know number one in my books as one of the great hosts you know i've worked with r Ron all around the world because we did Olympics together.

We did, you know, I used to join him for the opening ceremony of some of the big Olympic games. And I have never seen a guy who prepares as much as Ron does, who reads as much as Ron does, listens as much as Ron does, who talks to as many people as Ron does, who reads as much as Ron does, listens as much as Ron does, who talks to as many people as Ron does. On that, he's a lesson for anybody who wants to be a journalist. Last night, he started rattling off in the middle of this interview we were doing about a variety of different books that he'd read that had led him to a certain conclusion

about philosophy of life. I'm going, my God. I hope he's not going to ask me any questions about any of those books. It was quite something. Anyway, I digress. But Barb Demaree in Vancouver, let me pick up one word you said in your letter, because I love this word. You talked about, I'll just read this phrase of your letter, or any of the myriad of things going on in the world right now. Myriad of things. Now, I don't know when I first heard that word,

but I was attracted to it. And the actual definition of myriad is thousands of. Okay? Not thousands, but thousands of. Okay? Not thousands, but thousands of. So technically, if you want to be grammatically correct, you would say, or any of the myriad things going on in the world right now,

as opposed to, or any of the myriad of things going on in the world right now. There, I did it. My first English lesson. Never finished high school, never did well in English, but that word, I know. Myriad. Thousands of. Moving on. Richard Sainer writes often to this podcast.

I don't read all of his letters on the podcast, but he keeps coming up with some interesting things. And this one really is not his. It's his daughter's. And he sent me, she's a nurse in Calgary. And she sent him an email, I guess, in the last couple of weeks, and he asked if it was okay if he could send part of it on to me, and she said it was okay. I mean, she's, like all the, a lot of other nurses in this country, she's exhausted from

the kind of hours she's been working, and the kind of, you know, situation she'd seen, she's seen play out in front of her so he sent he asked her about you know how busy it is how difficult it is she talked about how she just come off another incredibly long and hard shift and he asked her to kind of describe it. So a couple of lines here that I want to read from Richard's letter, which is quoting his daughter's letter to him. We are busy as people are drinking more alcohol and are coming in intoxicated. We're also having opposite as they

are used to having their daily 26 ounces of vodka and can't afford it and are now in withdrawal. Drugs are huge. No cocaine available from the states so crystal meth and fentanyl are being used instead. Mental health and sexual assaults are keeping us busy. Nurses are burnt out and either are calling in sick for a break or are denied vacation and no one wants extra shifts. We're struggling to replace staff. Many are seeking other places to work. I'm afraid there will be no nurses by February or March. Well, that's a dark view of the future

and a dark view of a good chunk of the present. I hope things get better, Richard, for your daughter and for those who are relying on her services and the hospital there. Bale Belding from Halifax. So we finally get out to the East Coast after all these ones from the West Coast this time around. Bale writes, Aaron O'Toole won the PC leadership convention on Sunday. He did. What do you think of the system that is used to elect the leader? I don't mean the mechanical system used to count the votes. I mean the system that is used to elect the leader? I don't mean the mechanical system used to count the votes.

I mean the ranked ballot system used to determine the winner. Is it outdated? I don't know whether it's outdated. I mean it's relatively new, at least for an old guy like me who used to remember the old system. But clearly it's one that needs to be examined. It would be great if all parties would use the same system, but they don't, and they all keep changing,

trying to find the right one. And Bail's concern is whether or not it truly reflects the wishes of party members across the land. As a former member of the media, does the six-hour delay cause issues with the PC party looking for favors from within the media down the road? Are there ways, while still retaining full and neutral independence, that news media can sometimes work with or against political parties?

Well, you've got a lot in that question. But first of all, look, the convention was last Sunday. Did they have screw-ups in terms of the way the technology worked? They sure did. Is anybody still talking about that? No. Just like I said on Monday, that story is history. That story gave the media something to talk about

during those long hours of waiting for results. But after they finally got a result, the issue isn't about how long it took to get it. The issue is the new leader and what that new leader is going to do and how he's going to do it. A connection between, I mean, first of all, when you talk about the media, the news media, it's not a monolith.

Everybody's different. And people operate differently and have different guidelines about how to act. And newspapers have opinion pages and they have news pages. And sometimes you've got to make sure the two are distant from each other. But I still believe that for the most part, we have a dedicated and honest media in this country. But it comes down to you, the readers, the viewers, the listeners, to determine who you trust, who you believe in.

And they become your kind of primary source of news. Not necessarily your only source, because it's good to kind of look around, see what else is being said. But wherever you go, you've got to trust them. So you have to make that determination, right? All right, here's the last one. Is this the last one?

Let me check. It is. And it's really long, so I'm not going to read all of it. I'm going to read chunks of it. I'm going to read chunks of it. It also comes from, you guessed it, the West Coast from North Vancouver. Rafa Ladron. I think this is the first time for Rafa. I haven't seen that name before.

It says, it came to this country 20 years ago, and like many others, I improved my English by watching you at CBC. Your voice is very characteristic, easy to understand, and for that I thank you. I also lived in England, like I did. I've heard your podcast since day one, and that is a great way for me to finish my day, to be honest. I don't need anything else to sleep. I play the podcast and fall asleep right after it's over.

As long as you don't fall asleep in the middle of the podcast, Rafa. Right? You stay right to the end. Then you fall asleep. That's good. All right. Here's the main chunk of what I found interesting about what Rapha had to say.

There's a topic you have not discussed, and this is something my wife and I are currently experiencing. We're expecting our first baby due on September 18th. Very exciting and stressful to have a baby during this pandemic time, I bet it is. Although everything we are going through is unique or unprecedented, we are trying to adapt to the new circumstances. Our maternity clinic is in Lionsgate Hospital, which was shut at the beginning since there was an outbreak. Our clinic was relocated three times, and we had to follow them through their different locations, and most of the consultations have been over the phone.

I was not allowed to enter the clinic with my wife. Several times I felt upset because I was missing special moments, like hearing the heartbeat of my baby. But that didn't stop me, and I got myself a heartbeat monitor. And like that, many other stories. The point of discussion is parental leave benefits. As you know, many expecting moms, including my wife, either lost their jobs or got reduced hours due to the pandemic. As you may know, new moms are expected to complete at least 600 hours to qualify for parental benefits.

That left many moms short of qualifying for this benefit. My wife was so fortunate to barely pass the 600 mark a couple of weeks ago, and now she's out on maternity. Following the news closely, I found that mums were told to go to work and get the remaining hours to qualify. I found this heartbreaking and troubling. Mums are a key part of our country and society, fundamental for the upbringing of new Canadians, and no mum should go through that level of stress at that point. Rafa goes on this issue, and, you know, I get it. And finding yourself right on the cut line

or on the wrong side of that line, no matter how close you are to it, that must be terribly stressful. So what can I say? You want to know my thoughts. My thoughts are the same as your thoughts. And we can only hope that those who are in the position of making the decisions about

that line are going to give it reconsideration. And maybe if they're listening to this or listening to the, you sent in a couple of articles on this or read those articles, then maybe they will rethink it because your right doesn't seem fair. Reading your letter reminded me of my times as the expectant father, which of course is the easy place to be, right? As opposed to the expectant mother and everything that she has to go through.

I remember for my first child, my daughter, my first daughter, when daughter, my first daughter, when she was born in 1970 in Churchill, Manitoba. In those days, the father was not allowed anywhere near the delivery room. And you kind of sat out there, Churchill, small town, small hospital, usually alone, waiting. Hours. In fact, I think in that case it was more than a day.

Waiting to be told what had happened. Well, times changed, and by the time my son was born in 1999, fathers were allowed in. Not only allowed in, but could take part. You know, it cut the umbilical cord on Willie. And that was an incredibly emotional moment. And given the situation now,

obviously for some, in some situations, because of the pandemic we're going through, not happening for fathers. But Rafa's not complaining about the father's situation in this. He is concerned about mothers and parental benefits. And I don't blame him. Good letter, Rafa. I wish I could do more about it. I can't, other than to talk about it.

And that's what we've done. All right, another week, another weekend special. And now another weekend. We just keep adding them on as we head towards week 25 of the Bridge Daily, which will come your way on Monday. So on this weekend, I don't know what it's like where you are. It's not great here in Stratford, at least on this Friday night. It's kind of cloudy. It's kind of cool.

But it's the weekend, and we will all do as best we can with that while remembering, as we always do, the restrictions we place on ourselves willingly to protect others and to protect ourselves. We wash our hands. We keep distant from others, socially or physically, whichever way you want to describe it. And we wear a mask. Going to the market this weekend?

Wear a mask. Going to the market looking for fresh local vegetables, corn's up in some places? Wear a mask. And if you have the opportunity to go places just to get away from everything, enjoy it. And if you're distant from any crowds, take that mask off, breathe in some fresh air.

We got a great country. There's no reason why there are parts of it we can't thoroughly enjoy right now if we have that opportunity. All right. I'm Peter Mansbridge, rambling on as always. This has been The Bridge, the last one for Week 24. Thanks for listening. Enjoy your weekend.

We'll talk to you again on Monday. Thank you.