The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #33 -- A Day Early But Still Special!

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

Catching up after a couple of weeks of missing your comments, thoughts, questions. All good!

and hello there peter mansbridge here with the latest episode of the bridge daily it's thursday of week 33 we got a special program lined up for you today because it's your program, right? It's kind of an early version of the weekend special because we've got something different planned for tomorrow, something special planned for tomorrow. But today we're going to get to your letters, your emails, your thoughts, your questions, your comments. There's quite a few of them today, so I'll get to them in a sec. First of all, though, I want to mention something that you may recall.

I did a podcast in, I think it was early August, where I was kind of focusing on the challenges that were being presented to the tourism industry as a result of COVID-19. And obviously, those are considerable, those challenges. And you know the list from airlines to hotels to restaurants, B&Bs, you name it. All across the country, coast to coast to coast. And one of the predictions at that time in the middle of the summer is if something wasn't done, especially to help restaurants. In other words, us patronizing them.

And that was one of the reasons that restaurants, once things started to slow down in the summer in terms of COVID, why some were opened up in terms of in-dining in the restaurants. They'd already been obviously trying to do well on takeout. But the feeling was that if something major didn't happen in terms of pumping money into restaurants in Canada, two out of three were going to close before the end of the year.

Two out of three. Now, I don't know whether we've got to that number yet or whether that's going to be the number by the end of the year, two out of three. Now, I don't know whether we've got to that number yet or whether that's going to be the number by the end of the year, but I know, and I'm sure you know, because you've seen it and you've heard it in your own communities, that some restaurants are going out of business. And some of them are kind of institutions, not only in their area, but in their province, and in some cases in the country. And when that happens, it's just yet another signal to us about the devastating losses that are being created by this pandemic. So today I get an email from my friend Melissa Royal, who is one of, if not the number one lawyer in Newfoundland and Labrador. Melissa's amazing.

She's amazing in the courtroom. She's just an amazing person. And in her whole life, she's probably only made one slight miscalculation in judgment. But, you know, somebody had to marry Mark Critch. They're a great couple. Cynthia and I were at their wedding last year, last summer in Newfoundland.

It was fantastic. It was a great weekend, as it turned out. As any weekend you get a chance to be in Newfoundland is. Anyway, they're a great couple. And I think, in fact, she's funnier than Critch, but hey, whatever. She'd rather be a lawyer than a stand-up comedy act. Although she's pretty darn funny. But on this day, she sent an email about what is really an institution. Well, it's an institution in the Conception Bay area up the Avalon Peninsula,

certainly around Carboneer, but really it's kind of an institution in Newfoundland and Labrador. And for those who travel there, it's a Canadian institution. And that institution is Fong's. It's a restaurant in Carboneer. And it goes back years. In fact, it goes back decades. Staple of birthday dinners and weddings and political banquets. Closed its doors after 60 years in business.

Reading the CBC story that Melissa sent along. Art Fong's family first arrived in Newfoundland via St. John's and came to Carbonear in 1954, with Fong's father opening Fong's Restaurant in the community five years later. Widely known for Chinese and Canadian food, and the business expanded to house a motel in the 1980s. Anyway, you know, this is a story that's kind of similar to ones that are happening across the country. Because as Art says, when COVID hit,

it was just devastating for Fong's, and the clock was ticking, and finally it's ticked out. And they're having to close the restaurant. Sad story. But a story that is happening in different parts of the country.

Far too many parts of the country. Keep in mind, the tourism business, when you add everything into it, represents one out of ten jobs in Canada. One out of ten jobs. And closing Fong's is part of that number. All right. As usual, when I read the mail, I don't read necessarily all of the letters, sometimes just a little bit.

Sometimes I read the whole thing. And the order that these go out in is just the order they came off the printer, so don't assume anything. And there's a wide array of questions here, so let's get at it. Lana Taylor from Riverview, New Brunswick. Hi, Peter. I wonder if you might be able to help answer these questions. When a donor gives money toward an election campaign,

is it for a specific candidate or for the party? Is it the same in both Canada and the U.S.? Is there money left over? If there's money left over at the end of an election, what happens to it? I'll take the last one first. There's rarely ever any money left over. It's amazing how parties, no matter their stripe, manage a way to spend every penny they've got, and then some.

And then they end up having to do various events after the election to try and pay off the debt. That's fairly commonplace. Usually a donation is made just to the party, and the party decides how that will be spread out. But I think you can also donate to particular candidates, to particular ridings. It depends on the election, and some elections,

there are different rules, so you've got to check that. But the basic thrust of your question is what happens to the money, and quite frankly, in almost all cases, that money gets spent. Nick Redpath, or Ridpath, from right here in Stratford, Ontario. Great job on the podcast. I've been listening to your podcast since it began. I've enjoyed your thoughtful perspectives on the news of the day, especially the angles that may be missed by the generic mainstream news outlets.

Thank you, Nick. That's kind of you. Wanted to switch gears out of the COVID and U.S. politics news cycle and let you know that, quietly, a great Canadian has etched another mark on this country's arts wall. On Friday, and this would have been a week ago, two weeks ago, on Friday, Gord Downie released his last album of solo music, of course. As we know, Gord passed away a couple of years ago. Ever since he passed in 2017,

I've often felt there's a small hole in this country's ethereal blanket. Nobody else I can recall as the singular creative force that can at once comfort, scare, unite, inspire, and humbly invite a nation to absorb the idea of tangential thought. I never had the chance to meet him, but I miss him for all the reasons above. I wonder what he would think about the world we live in today. Well, Nick, as you may know, I knew Gord. We were friends, not close, but certainly close enough that we talked every once in a while and we did a number of things together, including golfing. He was a really good golfer.

Listen, he's etched his mark into the soul of this country and it'll always be there and we'll always listen to his music. And yes, absolutely, greatly miss scored. What would he be thinking today? I think he'd be thinking what he was thinking those last few years of his life, which was trying as best he could in the ways he could to find a pathway to a better relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. And I think he started that journey along that path, and he's kept many of us on it too.

Long way still to go, but that's part of Gord's legacy, aside from being a spectacular musician. Michael O'Reilly from Barrie, Ontario. Regarding Halloween, it might be that kids look forward to Halloween, but it's been canceled before. Just last year, it was postponed in many places due to some unexpected severe weather. Kids are young. They'll get over it. But if you insist on finding a way

to make it happen, make it happen at their schools, because school is already happening. So let them dress up, like they were probably going to anyway, and have a socially distant Halloween parade around the school. Okay, Michael, that's definitely one idea. Michael Churchart from, not Michael, Bill, William. He's from, I think he's from Grand Bend. Bill's certainly written before. He's kind of, he's looking at the political campaigning that's been going on from a different perspective, saying that what these candidates need is a better coach

so to prevent them from making mistakes. He's written a fairly lengthy letter, but I'll just read a couple of sentences. Who are the experts at winning? It's athletic coaches of high-performance athletes because we do it regularly. We're the exact opposite from politicians in that regard. We're not trying to appeal to a mass audience

who we need to play a role in keeping me and my colleagues at the helm of a team. The only way we can sustain longevity is by winning. We know how to compete by not making obvious mistakes. If we do not win, it will be because of our opponent, and they won, not because we lost, and there's a difference. In 2016, Trump didn't win, Clinton lost. To all politicians out there, make sure on your campaign team there's a high-performance coach. Don't hit the campaign trail without one. If you do, do so at your own peril.

Bill is, of course, with the organization Coaches of Canada. But that's okay. No harm in having a good coach on your side. Brenda Bowie wrote to me. She was a little ticked off at something I said, and I understand why she was. So let's read her note. Very much enjoy your podcast and your messages to stay safe and get the flu shot. I work in a pharmacy in Cambridge, Ontario. That's not far from here in Stratford,

just down the road. And I know that people are anxious about the availability of the high-dosed. The high-dose is four times the regular-dose flu shot. We will not be receiving more until late October. We're into late October now. She wrote, Brenda wrote this a couple of weeks ago. As many listen to you and your advice, please verify your facts on the high-dose flu shot. It is not necessary for all over 65 to receive the high-dose. The following is good information posted by a pharmacy in Southampton, Ontario, and she includes that from Kristen's

pharmacy in Southampton. And it is all good information, but basically what it boils down to is this on the flu shot. Brenda's quite correct. There is no stipulation that everybody over 65 gets the high-dose flu shot. But you usually go with your doctor's recommendation, and that's what I went with. The high dose is four times the regular dose, as Brenda mentions. And your doctor will get some dosages. Your pharmacies get dosages, and it's a matter of if your doctor suggests you should have the high dose, then you have to work out

where you're going to get it from. But, you know, if you just walk into the pharmacy and the pharmacy makes the decision, then you're going to need certain documentation to make the case that you need the high dose. I just went with what my doctor suggested, and that's how it was arranged for me. I'm considerably older than 65.

All right, Graham Nowlin from Ottawa. Long-time listener since back when you were discussing the Canadian election. Seems like eons ago. Well, I'll tell you what, it was a million downloads ago. That's when we started, you're right, last fall during the election campaign. We were nightly through the election campaign, then we kind of took a few months off, did the occasional podcast in there. But when COVID hit, I decided, you know what?

I'm going to do another daily, thinking it would only, you know, be a few weeks, maybe a few months. So here we are 33 weeks later. Graham's question. If you have any idea of how long we may have to wait for the final results after the American election, given the large amount of mail-in ballots, I've read that the final results of both the B.C.

and New Zealand elections will take a few weeks. Well, that's not what happened with them. To get maybe the absolute final, final, final, but in terms of what happened, who won, who lost in the overall election, we found out the night of. And I still maintain, in spite of all the bluster and the threats, that we're going to know on election night. And I still maintain, in spite of all the bluster and the threats, that we're going to know on election night.

Sometime, either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, who the winner is. I could be wrong. I could be right. I mean, I tend to think, you know, with whatever it is now, four or five days to go, that it's going to be a blowout. But Biden's going to win. He's going to win big.

But as I've warned you before, I've been wrong before. So who knows? Another way of keeping the podcast going for months if this thing drags on. Anyway, Graham, thank you. Aaron McQuaig writes from Kenora, Ontario. Now, there's a part of my past, Kenora, when I started in the business in the late 1960s

up in Churchill, Manitoba, and then moved to Winnipeg in 1971. One of my assignments based in the Winnipeg newsroom where I was doing both radio and television was to cover northwestern Ontario, basically from the Manitoba border to Thunder Bay. And that involved a lot of travel. And once a month, I'd spend a week in northwestern Ontario,

and the first stop was almost always Kenora. So I have a lot of fond memories about Kenora. Anyway, Aaron, your letter. You recently referenced the reopening of dance studios in comparison to all the different things that have closed during COVID-19. And you referenced it in comparison to the announcement of the cancelling of trick-or-treating in hotspot areas in Ontario, and now I can't help myself.

Perhaps you have other studio listeners that have also emailed you on this, but in case you don't, I thought I'd share some information. The timing and the way the news came out made it easy to compare the two, but they really are very different situations. Dance studios across the province have worked hard to develop and practice safe protocols for COVID-19. Class sizes are limited and spots are marked on the studio floor in order to ensure physical distancing. Class times are staggered to ensure cohorts don't mix. Hand hygiene and mask policies are in effect with many studios, including my own, now requiring dancers and staff

to wear masks for the entire class. As well, dancers and instructors are pre-screening and hybrid virtual classes are available for those who cannot attend in person and of course strict cleaning procedures have been implemented. Studios continue to adapt as new information on COVID-19 comes out and as regulations are updated and simply wanted to be given the same access to continue modified in-person training and dance instruction as was allowed for other children's sports and activities in the province. As for Halloween, I'm not sure what the right answer is on trick-or-treating. It's not a personal worry as we live in a rural

area and don't have anyone showing up at our door and also have no kids of our own. However, having seen the resilience, the understanding, and the ability of kids of our own. However, having seen the resilience, the understanding, and the ability of kids of all ages to adapt to their new normal within the dance studio, I'm certain that kids can cope with a modified format to their Halloween celebrations. Thanks, Aaron, and in that few sentences, you told me more about dance studios than I knew, and I'm impressed with how hard

and how responsible dance studios, if they're all like yours, have been in trying to ensure that COVID-19 does not spread in their situation. Julie Volkansek, Hamilton, Ontario. She's talking about the meaning of community at a time like this. We rely on our community for many things, wearing masks, keeping physical distance, hand washing, reporting COVID symptoms to those around them, et cetera, et cetera. But we also rely on our community

to be supportive of mental health as well. We're all dealing with a lot. We all have homes where we are spending the majority of our time, and we all need to help each other to enjoy those spaces after days, weeks, and months that have not looked or been the same for any of us. I guess I'd just like to remind everyone that community responsibility is incredibly important right now. I love my community most days, but right now, late at night with inconsiderate neighbors, because there's got some noisy neighbors there, I'm wondering if members of my community feel the same. Well, I hope that sorts itself out, Julie, because, listen,

we get through this together, as the saying goes, and together is what community is all about. Okay, moving on here. There's one about Judge Amy Coney Barrett. This was sent about a week ago, so the debate was still going on about Judge Amy. So the title is Judge Amy Coney Barrett. It's from Beth Huffman in Edmonton.

Perhaps if she was ethically inclined, she should have declined the appointment to the Supreme Court. If historically it has been wrong to have appointments so close to elections, it is wrong now. Trumpery does not make the world right, don't you think? Well, first of all, you know, it's an opinion we have that it would be wrong

to appoint this close to an election. Nowhere does it say you can't do that. Abraham Lincoln chose not to do it because he felt it was too close to the election, but there's no rule that says you can't. Now, what's interesting about Amy Coney Barrett is that she got onto the court this week. It was finally passed and went through, as you know.

And there have already been, since she's on the court, there have been three or four different cases involving the election coming up on Tuesday in terms of mail-in ballots, counting off them and when they can be counted. And in each one of those cases, Barrett, Coney Barrett, decided she was not going to take part. It wasn't an official recusal, but she didn't vote.

She didn't have her opinion registered. So that's interesting. Whether she's decided that it would be unethical for her, given the very fact that the president and a number of people in the Republican Party said she was being put on especially to protect the president in cases surrounding the election. So we'll have to watch that. We'll have to watch how often she does not take part. Spencer Stinson from Blenheim, Ontario. You and Bruce talked last week about how Canadian and U.S. political systems are so different, but do you think we could actually benefit from having an elected Senate here in Canada,

similar to the U.S.? When Senators engage in questionable behavior in Canada, it seems the worst that happens is the party they are associated with simply boots them to an independent. Or they are suspended and then reinstated at a later date. If they were directly accountable to the Canadian public, issues of poor performance would probably sort themselves out more readily. Spencer's writing this letter because of the recent controversy surrounding Lynn Bayack, who's a senator, and Spencer's pretty clear

he thinks she should be given the hook. Well, the Senate does have a process that they can have a senator boot out of the Senate, but that's not what you're asking about. You're asking about whether or not there should be an elected Senate,

which is one of the great questions that surrounds our two-house system, the way that we do parliamentary business with the House of Commons and with an elected House of Commons and an appointed Senate. I'll tell you where I'm sort of on this after watching this debate unfold for a long time, and I know as somebody who came out of the West how important it is to some Westerners that it be an elected Senate.

My own feeling is we've got enough, you know, different levels of parliament, let's see if we can make one of them work before we start adding another one in terms of elected. And in terms of appointed, you know, really, I have problem defending the need of an elected Senate. I know it's supposed to be the house of sober second thought. And, you know, sometimes it is. But most of the time, we kind of get along without even hearing anything about the Senate.

I'll tell you this. The Senate, at least under the current prime minister, is not appointed as all past senates have been, where the prime minister of the day appointed whoever, his cronies, his buddies, or sometimes his political opponents, into the Senate. But now it's a system where you apply to be into the Senate. But now it's a system where you apply to be in the Senate, and a nonpartisan body goes through the applications and chooses who should, recommends who should be called upon

to fill those vacancies. Well, I can tell you that after I stepped down from the National, I was encouraged by a number of people who were in a position to make that encouragement that I should apply to go into the Senate. I didn't even pause. I was not interested in doing that. You know, it used to be a lifetime appointment. It's now an appointment until you're 75. So the idea of getting somebody who was within striking

distance of 75 is probably not a bad one, as opposed to somebody who was 35. You would get kind of a lifetime job for 40 years and a pension and all the benefits that go to being a senator. Anyway, I said no, I was not going to do that. I was also encouraged to apply for some other positions within the structure of government, on various boards of crown corporations, this kind of thing. But I decided against that for my own, you know, reasons. I just didn't think I was interested in that.

So that's the way it's done now. But in terms of an elected Senate, I'm just trying to figure out why we need a Senate. And we can argue about whether or not it should be elected or not. Debbie Sacrob in Toronto. Your podcasts are excellent. Did you hear that?

Maybe I should repeat that. Your podcasts are excellent. I especially enjoyed listening to the special with Bruce Heyman. That was a couple of nights earlier this week. Bruce Heyman is the former American ambassador to Canada. Great guy. Who's now working on the whole concept of getting out the vote on the part of those Americans who live outside of the U.S.

The Race Next Door's podcast within a podcast is really insightful. That is. And I full credit to Bruce Anderson who came to me with the idea of doing it in the summer. And we've been doing it at least once a week since then. And of late, we've been doing it, uh,

you know, tomorrow night. So it'll be the third one this week. I just wait till you see who we have on tomorrow night. And a big thank you for using my photo of a mass tree in my neighborhood as the cover art for one of your auditions back in August. That's right. We did use that.

Your tree with your mask on it. When you read listener mail, I feel like we're all sitting around a table of Timmy's offering our valued opinions on world issues. Well, that's the idea, isn't it? And that's great that you describe it that way. Kelly Gulliver. Remember Kelly?

We read her letter a couple of weeks ago. She's from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, Labrador. Hi, Peter, this is the Newfie girl you put to sleep. Listened to your podcast last night. Just want to assure you I stay awake during your podcast, but sleep well after. I guess she wanted to make sure that I didn't think that she fell asleep during the podcast, although I'm sure there's some people who have.

Maybe there have been a lot of people who have. I did want to mention to you, as I said in my first email, that my husband put me on to you, so myself and my husband found it amusing that we both sent emails without knowing the other did until my husband ray gulliver from mount pearl told me to listen early what a surprise to hear you read his email and shortly after mine neither knew the other wrote so this time i'd like to thank you for reminding me just how connected myself and my husband truly are. I'd like to thank you,

I think. Kelly Gulliver, Ray's wife, and Mount Pearl. Love that. Okay. The last one today. Susan Corse from Puslinch, Ontario. Hello, Peter. Many congratulations on reaching the milestone of one million downloads with your podcast. That was just this week. I still don't know what that actually means, but it sounds like a lot, so I'm going to use it for my advantage. Million downloads we've had so far. Your listeners certainly appreciate your commitment and dedication. The Race Next Door segment is thoughtfully put together, providing insight and challenges us all to consider not only our own perspective,

but those of others. And the banter between yourself and Bruce Anderson is hilarious. You must let us know who is actually the better golfer. Well, you know, this podcast isn't about me. So I would hate to sort of go on about who's the better golfer. Because, you know, that depends on so many things. It's not necessarily about the score. It might be about how you play individual holes.

It may be about who's the best dress golfer. There's a lot of things it could be about. But as I said, this isn't about me, so we're not going to go there. Susan says, this is all certainly a bit of light entertainment that we all appreciate during these difficult times. Well, we try to do our best. Now, she was listening the other night, and she picked up on something I said. I was talking about a bookstore in New York that was on the edge of going under that asked people to buy to keep them going,

and they sold online, I think it was, 25,000 books. And it was one of those classic old bookstores that people come in, and they sit down in an old chair, and they pick up a book, and they just read it. And I said there was one in Inverness, Scotland that I love to go to that I couldn't remember the name of. So Susan says, I believe the Inverness secondhand bookstore you referred to on tonight's podcast

is Leakey's Bookshop on Church Street. My family live in Inverness and the Muir of Ord area and are whiskey makers. I usually pop over once a year to visit my homeland. I planned a trip for this November, but obviously the pandemic dashed those plans as it has done for many. You're right, it is Leakey's bookshop that I was thinking of on Church Street in Inverness.

And it's a fabulous place. I was there, the last time I was there was in February, just before the lockdown. And so it was cool, if not cold, in Scotland at that time. And in Leakey's, it's not like they heat it. They have a big wood stove in there and it was going and if you sat close to it, you tended to get warm, but if you were very far away from it, it was pretty cool.

And I was up in one of the upper tiers where some of the heat was rising, but not very much of it, because I was looking for some old, you know, a lot of the explorers who went into the Canadian Arctic, first on some of the early explorations, but then in the later ones where they were actually trying to find Sir John Franklin, you know, that's a passion of mine, that whole story. Many of them came from Scotland, and many of them came from northern Scotland, where I go every year, up in the Highlands,

and in the far north in Orkney, like the famous explorer John Ray is East Morkney. Anyway, so I was in Leakey's searching through their old books on maritime exploration to see if there was something there that I hadn't seen before to pick up. But Leakey's is, if you're ever in Scotland,

if you like books and you're anywhere near Inverness, you want to go to Leakey's is, if you're ever in Scotland, if you like books and you're anywhere near Inverness, you want to go to Leakey's because it's one of those kinds of places. And if you can get Susan to get her relatives, the whiskey makers, to funnel you a shot or two of that, that'll make your stay in Leakey's even better. Anyway, she concludes, we can only hope that our lives will return to some normalcy

at some point in the near future. In the meantime, we carry on with our daily routines, remaining positive and thankful for good health and the ability to live in such a wonderful country that is both progressive and diverse and has affordable and accessible health care. So grateful. Well, Susan, you sum it up very nicely there.

Because you're right about all those things about our great country. All right. That's going to wrap things up for this Thursday. A kind of weekend special a day early, but with lots of great letters there. And I really thank, you know, I love getting your mail. I know I don't read them all. There's lots of them that come in.

I just try to read a selection that, uh, that I find interesting. I think that I can add a comment or two as well. Um, so I appreciate you sending anything along. Uh, don't stop now. Special guest tomorrow night. Not going to tell you who yet,

but special. All right. Um, and, and that'll be the podcast that goes through the weekend. but special. All right? And that'll be the podcast that goes through the weekend. We'll see. If something big happens over the weekend, maybe we'll have to hustle together another show just to keep you going.

But then we'll have something special on Monday night, which is the night before the U.S. election, of course. I don't know what I'll do Tuesday night. We may take a pass on Tuesday night. We may do something really late on Tuesday night. I don't know. I haven't thought that one through yet. I'll talk to Bruce, see what he thinks.

It's going to get kind of exciting for me in the next couple of weeks because the book that I've told you about before that I wrote with Mark Bulgich, Extraordinary Canadians, is coming out November 10th. And there's going to be a big push on that book. So if you want to get your copy early, you can always pre-order. Just go to my website, thepetermansbridge.com,

and look for the link that goes to Extraordinary Canadians at the top of the front page, and you can pre-order. But they're going to be out, obviously, at all the bookstores. And it's going to get a fair amount of play in those first few weeks because this is a book about some remarkable Canadians, most of whom you've never heard of before, but they're remarkable because of the things they've done, the lives they've lived, the challenges they've met,

and there are lessons for all of us in all of these stories. And it's very diverse, a very different cast of characters. These people, of course, none of them know each other. They all come from different parts of Canada very different backgrounds very different professions one of them I'm told the Globe and Mail is going to excerpt almost a full chapter

on their in their paper I guess it would be a week from this weekend, just before the book goes out officially. Anyway, Mark and I are both very excited about this book, so we hope you will be too. It's called, once again, Extraordinary Canadians. The Peter Mansbridge.com will direct you in whatever way you want to be directed

if you want to pre-order. If not, it'll be in all bookstores, I think, almost immediately as of November 10th. Okay. That's it, right? That's it for this Thursday of week 33. It's been great talking with you, and we're looking forward to talking to you again

with a special Race Next Door tomorrow. Until then, bye for now. Thank you.