The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #26 -- Enjoy.

Episode Date: September 11, 2020

Your letters, thoughts and comments for Week 26. As always, some good ones!

and hello there Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily it's Friday you know what that means the weekend special number number 26. Your letters, your thoughts, your comments on another week gone by. What a week it's been. Obviously, the last couple of days we've been caught up with the whole Trump-Woodward story. But we're not going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about your thoughts and comments and letters. A couple of them are on the U.S. election. talk about that today. We're going to talk about your thoughts and comments and letters. A couple of them are on the U.S. election, but we'll move away. We did spend two full days on the Woodward story. I got to rant away, say my piece on it. The COVID story, you know, it just keeps rocking along, right?

You know, there's concern in Ontario and BC, those two provinces especially, because numbers have gone up somewhat in the last couple of days. In Ontario today, the number was up over 200, which is the first time it's been up that high in terms of new cases in quite some time. In BC, I think they hit a new record number yesterday of 130, something like that. Alberta numbers are still high. But elsewhere in the province, and I think you've got to keep looking at things this way, you've got to keep looking at the big picture.

And while there is concern, concern enough that in Ontario they're under a pause now on not loosening any of the restrictions anymore for at least another four weeks, while they work out whether the spike is something to be concerned about, whether there's a second wave happening, whether the school situation, keep in mind these numbers we're looking at right now don't include any impact that school starting may be having. And in BC they put in new restrictions in a couple of areas. But the big picture

nationwide still, you know, is pretty impressive. It won't be really good until there's zero cases and this thing is behind us, but we're going to live with this for a while. Saw Dr. Bonnie Henry's interview with Ian Hanamansing last night, and it made pretty clear she doesn't think this is going to be going away anytime soon. It could be with us for months, maybe even years yet. So the big picture is important to keep in mind. Yesterday, that's not including today's numbers because not all the provinces and territories have reported for today as yet.

But yesterday, you look at the number overall for the whole country, 630 new cases. That's only a little more than half of the number of deaths in the United States yesterday. I think Canada had eight deaths yesterday. The U.S. is up around 1,100 and something. But as I mentioned to you a little while ago, the number that I look at and think is important is the positivity rate. The percentage of the tests done overall, what is the percentage of those that turn positive? Well, it's down to 2.1% now. When

we first started talking about the positivity rate a couple of weeks ago, it was, I think, 2.4 or 2.5. So that's all good. I mean, as I said, it's not good until it's zero. But it's pretty good. When I look at the provincial breakdown, I look at... These, once again, are yesterday. In terms of new cases, none in Newfoundland, one in New Brunswick, none in Nova Scotia, none in Yukon, none in Northwest Territories,

none in Nunavut, none in PEI. New cases. Ontario and Quebec, significant numbers in triple digits. Triple digits in BC and Alberta. That's it. Saskatchewan, only six. Manitoba, only 13 new cases. So, in total, 630 new cases in Canada yesterday.

Public health officials won't be happy until it's down to zero. But they're a lot happier where it is now than where it could be if people, that's you and me, your neighbors, your friends, weren't taking the actions that they're taking. Masks, social distancing, washing hands, all of that stuff. All right, the mailbag. The mailbag. Let's have a look. Let's peek into the mailbag. Keep in mind,

these are fairly random choices that I make of the letters that come in. And I don't read the entire letter in most cases. Sometimes I'll read in the last one, I'll give it a good chunk of the letter. But let's get going. And while we're on the subject of COVID, let's deal with some of those issues right away. On the first day of this week, which would have been Tuesday,

the day after Labor Day, the first podcast of the week, I did a whole thing on masks. And one of the ways that you can test how effective your mask is, and I even did a test live in the podcast where you basically put your mask on, your cloth mask on, you light a match, hold it out in front of you, you know, obviously not too close. Nobody's trying to cause a problem here. And you blow through your mask. See whether you can blow that match out.

If you can, your mask is not very good. If you can't, you can feel confident in your mask. So Kathy Wills from Calgary heard that. She was quick to pounce. The trick to the lighter candle test, who has matches, Peter, she says. Sheesh. I have matches.

People have matches. I'm a woodsman. I use matches. People have matches. I'm a woodsman. I use matches. Anyway, here's the trick, she says. First, blow out the lighter or candle without the mask on. You'd be surprised how close it has to be to your face without the mask. To see how far away from your face it should be, then try with the mask on. Too many cloth masks don't make the grade from home sewers or crafters

because the fabric must be boiled, like in a witch cauldron first, then wrung out and put in the dryer on the hottest setting, forever. To shrink the weave, that's why you do it that way. I've made several different styles. The elastic is the biggest pain in the neck and the nose clip. That's why it's a waste of my time because for $25.95 you can buy a box of 40 to 50 disposable ones. They pass the lighter candle test

and fit much better. I prefer these. I keep one box in my vehicle and one box next to the front door. I wish they came on two or three sizes for kids and teens. Anyway, that's Kathy Will's thought.

Right? And she says test a candle. Actually, I heard somebody suggesting another way to test today. And that's simply to put your mask on, hold your hand out in front of the mask, about six to eight inches away, at least, and blow through your mask. Do you feel it on your hand? You'd be surprised, according to this expert,

how often you don't with a good mask, that you don't feel that kind of heat from your breath. Anyway, that may be worth a try. Greg Yarker. He's in Kingston, Ontario. He listens to the podcast while he's walking his dog, Roxy, he says. As you continue to remind us about the importance of the simple basics in combating the coronavirus, such as wearing a mask and washing your hands, I'd like to highlight another means of protection that often goes overlooked, cleaning our eyeglasses. For those of us who

require eyeglasses, we seldom think about the number of times throughout the day during which we handle our eyeglasses with our hands, adjusting them, pushing them up the bridge of our nose, or taking them off and putting them on as required. We eyeglass wearers may be accustomed to cleaning our spectacles with a lens cloth, but how many of us clean them with soap and water to ensure they are free from contamination? On several Zoom calls and virtual meetings, I've been asked how my daily habits have changed since the start of the pandemic, and when I share my insight into cleaning my eyeglasses with soap and water, it's always met with many comments from others saying they've never really thought about how many times they handle their glasses during the course of a day.

When you think about the proximity of our eyeglasses to our nose, washing them as well as our hands, seems to be another means of protection against COVID-19 that rests not just under, but on top of our noses. Thanks for sharing that, Greg. And you're right. And I'm guilty on that, Greg. You're right. And I'm guilty on that front, too. I wear eyeglasses, and I don't do a good enough job keeping them clean. Okay. Bill Cherhart. From Grand Bend, Ontario.

We've heard from Bill many times. And I often butcher his name. I think I might have just done again. Anyway, here's Bill's thought, or part of it anyway. Your last letter on Friday's podcast, that's a week ago today really piqued my interest it was from someone from my hometown of kitchener his letter cited an unfortunate experience he had as a result of a family situation in which mother and father were of differing faiths in his case protestant and catholic he talked about a period of weeks where he felt that he was being treated like a second-class citizen. I too grew up in a family situation in which mother and father were

Protestant and Catholic, but my experience was exactly the opposite. My father adopted Protestantism, but my relationship with the children, my cousins, of his large number of siblings, could not have been more pleasant. My sister and I were never treated as outsiders because not only were we Protestants, it was so because their uncle, my father, created that situation. In high school, I played on all the varsity teams. In the winter, that meant basketball. Our rival in Kitchener was the Catholic high school, St. Jerome's. On Saturday mornings, my best friend and teammate Mike and I went to St. Jerome's to play pickup basketball with many members of its varsity team,

including one of the priests who loved basketball. We were always made to feel welcome. I mention this to make the fellow who wrote last week aware that his unpleasant ordeal was not the way it had to be. Please feel free to forward this email to him. Well, hopefully he's listening and he can hear it. I hope in some small measure it helps to heal his experience. All right, Bill, thank you.

Sarah McDonald from Toronto. One of the questions from the race next door this week. That's the podcast on Wednesday, the podcast within a podcast, where Bruce Anderson joins us. And there's Bella. She's always trying to get into the podcast, as she is right now. Oh, I see what it is, because I can see out the window.

It's the delivery guy. It's my copy of Rage, the new Bob Woodward book, ushered to me by my publisher, Simon & Schuster, very kind of them, as they give me an advanced copy because I don't think it comes out until next week. But I'll get to read it this weekend

and see whether there's anything more in it that hasn't already been reported. Anyway, where was I? I was reading Sarah McDonald's. One of the questions from the race next door this week was basically, how can Americans actually vote for this guy, Trump? I've been struggling with that as well. I watched the Democratic National Convention. It was so clear to me that Joe Biden is a decent human being, the complete opposite of Trump, who does not seem to have any regard for anyone who isn't him. For all of these Christian Republicans who follow the teachings of Jesus, as I do, says Sarah, I don't know how they could bring themselves to continue voting Republican if Trump is their candidate. I could not wrap up my head around it. I spoke to some people and read some things,

and this is what I've determined. They see Trump's faults, but they are willing to forgive him since they know not everyone is perfect, as they themselves are not perfect. I suppose part of that is the Christian mindset, is that we are all imperfect sinners and we need to be saved, etc. So they aren't really too bothered by Trump and it's really just the Republican policies that are guiding their votes. I don't like it, but it is an explanation. I think another aspect is what you had touched on on another of your earlier podcasts, I believe, with Bruce, and it was with Bruce. When Americans were polled about different things, many people don't see

outside of their little bubble, and that bubble is often Fox News. Well, if you missed last night's podcast, you might want to get my thoughts on Fox. I have heard several people lately, both Canadian and American, say they don't pay attention to the news. They'd rather stay positive. So in addition to the people who are willing to put up with Trump, there are more that don't even know how bad it is since they are not personally affected by COVID, racial injustice, economic issues, etc. Alright, Sarah. Interesting views you have

on that situation. She's got a PS here. My eight-year-old and I put our masks on during Tuesday's episode and we're blowing out matches, or rather trying to blow them out. Our masks pass the test. Good.

Here we've got a letter from Rebecca Hawk. I don't think she tells us where she's from. However, she does tell us what she has to do, and this all relates to the whole school issue i think you may have heard last night though i was asking people to send in their school experiences this week because as much as i talked about trump and woodward in the last couple of days i know for a lot of you the issue this week wasn't a book wasn't trump wasn't bob woodward it was school whether you're a teacher whether you're a parent whether you're a student wasn't Trump, wasn't Bob Woodward. It was school.

Whether you're a teacher, whether you're a parent, whether you're a student, that was your issue. So here's what Rebecca has to say. I'm a library technician in a high school. This year is my first full-time permanent position. With this new job, I'm learning new things, but it's also very difficult during COVID and social distancing. Because of COVID, the library this year is closed to students, and no library materials and resources can be checked out. Only teachers may request library

resources. That's odd. The first week back has been very stressful for myself and the teachers and staff. This most stressful thing this week for myself was being locked out of my board user account, not being able to log onto a computer for several hours. That's never any fun. But I managed to eventually figure that out. The teachers are experiencing technical difficulties with devices when teaching virtually on-site at school as well. That must be incredibly frustrating. First of all, for many teachers, doing online teaching is a challenge. It's something new. They haven't done it before, and it's going to take a while to work out a pattern that works for everybody, the teachers and the students.

But if you're further complicated on that front by having technical issues, well, then it's really challenging. And Rebecca closes up by saying, I'm continuing to wipe everything down in the library, especially every time after I use the phone, and even remembering not to share pens and pencils. You know, I was thinking the other day that when this all started, six months ago or whatever it is now, 26 weeks ago.

It took us a while to get into the rhythm of washing our hands, of keeping distant, of staying at home. Remember those early days, stay at home, stay at home. Not freaking out when we go to the grocery store. Wearing masks. But we eventually got onto it. You know, we figured it out. Then we get into the summer and things. You know, it was summer, and we loved to be outside.

And we were careful, but we went outside. And as summer started to tick down, I at least found in my own case that I was starting to forget things. I was starting to forget not to wear my mask, or not to take my mask with me. I always remembered that. But I would forget to put it on at the right time. And I'd suddenly have to scramble.

Or I'd be in an area where there were not a lot of people, but some people, and I'd forget about the distancing. So you have to keep reminding yourself, as will teachers and students. These early days, they'll be focused. But as they get more and more used to it, and fingers crossed, no issues come up, the temptation will be, or the natural reaction will be,

to start dialing back on some of this. It's no time to be dialing back. Melissa Hillman writes from lovely Sydenham, Ontario. She says, I'm writing to you from my workshop slash garage where I'm a woodworker and spoon carver and mom to two awesome kids, one in elementary and one in high school. Our school board, the Limestone District School Board, has done a great job, a good job, over the past couple of weeks to maintain communication with parents through frequent calls, emails, text messages, and their website news releases.

Our youngest returned to school in grade six on September 3rd. Our board is using a staggered entry for elementary students by alphabet, with half the alphabet attending Tuesdays and Thursdays, the other half Wednesdays and Fridays since September 3rd. On the 14th, all the students who opted for in-school instruction will return to classrooms together. Our daughter takes medication that suppresses her immune system, so we had some trepidation about sending her back. But she was insistent she wanted to return to school with her friends, and we're fortunate to live in a community that has so far been able to keep the virus at bay and avoid the rampant spread

we've seen elsewhere in the province. So she returned with her new sneakers and her backpack and Ziploc baggie of clean reusable masks last Thursday. Our eldest returned to school on September 8th, heading into grade 11. Our school board had originally planned for quadmesters, having students in two course cohorts. On the last week of August, the province informed our board that they were not eligible for quadmesters and instead needed to adopt an octomester timetable for in-school learning. Yikes! Students spend five hours per day in one course for 23 days, write their final exam, and then move on to their next credit. There are pros and cons to this approach, with my biggest fear being that his younger sister will catch a cold, as she's prone

to do, and he will have to isolate at home until her symptoms are gone and our COVID tests are negative and run the risk of potentially losing that credit in the meantime. When one school day covers roughly one week of coursework, a few missed days for a cold virus could equate to a month or more of missed work. I'm assuming this means there's no access to online viewing of that class. Back to the letter. Not a huge deal if you're taking a phys ed or power fit class, but for academic math or science classes, it can make a significant impact. For now, we're helping the overabundance of hand washing, sanitizing, and mask wearing.

We're hoping all that will keep the germs away. On the positive side, my son reports that he's so far preferred the ability to focus on one subject per day that it's given him more time to ask questions and work through problems. He's taking math with the teacher there should he run into issues. Wow, that's quite a concept. I hadn't heard about that. The same subject all day, every day for, what was it, five weeks? Boy, oh boy. You got to like that subject.

What if you don't like the subject? That would be a rough month. With regard to social, I keep reading here Melissa's letter. It's a good one. It makes me feel, Melissa, that I'm like actually there with you. With regard to social distancing in the classroom, my son is packed into a class with 33 students. 33 students.

They sit nearly elbow to elbow with less than a foot between desks. Some students refuse to keep their masks on or wear them properly in their own ignorant form of teenage rebellion. My son's girlfriend reports a similar issue in her biology class, where instead of two to a lab bench, they sit three, jammed together because there are 35 students plus a teacher in her classroom. The combined funding structure by the province for in-person and virtual learning formats seems to be the culprit. So that, despite over 10 percent of the school opting for online instruction in school classrooms, are more full than ever before. As a parent, it had been my hope that if some students were opting for online instruction, it would free up physical space for students in the building.

This definitely has not been the case in our small, rural high school. Boy, I thought the whole idea was going to be smaller classes. Sure not the case there in lovely Sydenham, Ontario, at least not in the school where Melissa's kids are going. But it also sounds like the kids are figuring out a way to live with it. So far, It's early. Interesting to see how that goes.

I have one more letter, but before I get to it, it's not long, but I'm going to read it all because I love it. It's cheeky. But before I get there, I read something in one of those online postings that I occasionally refer to the other day. And it is about this whole idea of the impact of online courses, especially in universities and colleges. Now, this was the take, that when you think long-term, especially if this works, I know my son, Will, fourth year U of T, started his online stuff yesterday.

Now, he closed out the third year mostly online, I think all online. So it's not totally new to him. But he said he really enjoyed his first class. Maybe really enjoyed is an overstatement. Enjoyed his first class. Anyway, what I was reading was a suggestion that this can have a long-term impact on the way universities teach classes.

And here's the deal. If this online teaching works, certainly in specific areas and specific classes, that because these are being recorded, so students can always go back and look at them, because they're being recorded, they may sit on the shelf and become next year's lecture too, available to those who either missed their class or, God forbid, if we're still in this, or quite simply as a different way of taking the class. Now, and think of the long-term impacts of that, you know, teachers, professors better start making sure they're getting paid

for future use of their lectures as well. But it's interesting because in some ways that video file, that disk, whatever it is kept on, is in some ways replacing a book, right? So students who at the beginning of a year have to go out and buy a whole bunch of books may instead just be able to log on to a video of past lectures, the lecture file on these different subjects. Interesting way of looking at it.

All right, now, as I said, I have one more. And this one comes from the worldwide audience of the Bridge Daily. As you know, at last count, we had, what was it, almost 150 countries where at least one episode of the Bridge Daily has been downloaded since we started. And every week we get letters from overseas. This one comes from Hong Kong, one of my favorite cities in the world. Been there many times.

Love Hong Kong. This letter comes from Andrew Work or Wark. I'm not sure which way he pronounces it. It's spelled Work and it may well be Work or it may be Wark. Either way, it's Andrew. So Andrew's subject for his letter is also about school. Here we go. I came home from a late 2 a.m. finish from work to find my bleary-eyed 17-year-old daughter

in between her first online university classes at the University of Toronto. I may have been bleary-eyed at first classes at McGill in 1989, but that was from hardcore partying on Peel Street. I probably saw you there. She flies into quarantine in Toronto on Saturday, and we all hope we've reached the right decision about not deferring her start for a year

and sending her into a comparatively high COVID zone, i.e. Canada. Not as high as if you'd gone south of the border. But it's time to grow up and go, and so the waterworks will flow at the Hong Kong airport as she flies Air Canada back to the old country to begin her new life. Proud, sad, and slightly anxious parents and sister say goodbye to a slightly nervous, excited, and ready-to-go girl. But when we next see her, she'll be a woman. See you later, kid.

Isn't that great? I mean, I think Andrew, as brave and as tough as he's sounding, he's holding back the tears too. Watching his daughter get on a plane, it's one thing to watch them get on a bus to drive to the other side of the city or drop them off outside their first class or watch them travel across the country, but to travel to the other side of the world, literally halfway around the country, but to travel to the other side of the world, literally halfway around the world, from Hong Kong to Toronto.

Man, oh man, I'm almost in tears myself thinking about what that image is going to be like, standing at the Hong Kong airport, watching that Air Canada jet take off and disappear into the skies over the South China Sea and heading off on its journey. Well, Andrew, best of luck to you. Most of all, best of luck to your daughter as she goes to the University of Toronto. And that kind of story is happening. Well, it's happening all over the world, right? It's difficult enough when you send your kids off to university. It really

is the beginning of the next stage of their life. But right now, in this time, in this age, it is a huge challenge for everybody within that circle. All right, thank you for that, Andrew. Let us know how things work out. In the meantime, that brings us to the end of the weekend special for week 26. If you have thoughts, if you have comments,

you can always share them with us. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. And as we reach out, stretch out to the middle of September, we're all that closer to the unveiling of Extraordinary Canadians, that book that Mark Bulgich and I have got written, that comes out on November 10th with Simon & Schuster. And if you want to take a peek at the kind of things that we'll be doing with that book

you can always go to my website thepetermansbridge.com where there's a full file of all past episodes of this podcast but there's also a special page for Extraordinary Canadians and you can look it up, pre-order if you wish, or just take a peek. That's the Bridge Daily.

That's the weekend special. For this Friday of Week 26, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thank you so much for listening. And we'll talk to you again on Monday.