The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #40

Episode Date: December 18, 2020

You pick the best way to describe 2020, and the winner is....?

and hello there peter man's bridge here with the latest episode the bridge daily it's friday of week 40 and you know what that means it means the weekend special it's just set for a couple of days here on the week before Christmas. All days are upon us here on the end of week 40 for the Bridge Daily. It's contest day, and I just announced the contest yesterday thinking, oh boy, I probably left it too late, but no dozens of entries on the contest. And I've

got, you know, some of them here that I'll read today. Not all of them made the final cut. And only one will get the book, the signed copy of Extraordinary Canadians. Looking forward to giving that out. So normal rules apply for Friday, for the weekend special. Only some letters get read because there have been so many. And not all of each letter gets read. Now, a lot of these are very short, because that was the request, remember? We're looking for what word or phrase or sentence or two would you use to describe 2020?

Not the obvious, like awful. And so most of you dealt with that. Some of you got a little carried away. You were so innovative. Just like Shakespeare. Some of you wrote big long poems some of you came up with new words to old songs

but you gotta know I can't sing I can't carry a tune so some of this may sound a little brutal I can't carry a tune So some of this may sound a little Brutal However, let's get going Peter I'm going to start actually by reading Not an entry to this

But there's a nice little letter And I like this one From our friend Jill Lees in Brantford, Ontario Hi Peter, just wanted to tell you About a conversation I had today This was this week. While I was sitting in a waiting room at a local life labs clinic, very safe, sanitizer, masks, and socially distanced,

I had the first of two blood tests that I was scheduled to take, but this particular test required that I wait for two hours between tests. So knowing that, I would have a couple of hours to fill, I took a copy of the best-selling book, Extraordinary Canadians. What a great choice. With the signed book plate, says Jill, along to read while I waited. A very friendly gentleman started a conversation with me by asking what book I was reading, and so, of course, I held up the book to show him the cover and explained that it was a best-selling book written by Peter Mansbridge about extraordinary Canadians. He responded by saying that he'd watched me on The National previously, but was unaware of the best-selling

book. I also told him you had a podcast every weekday and told him about some of the topics you cover and the special guests you have. He was very interested and immediately took out his phone and downloaded your podcast, and so I suggested he treat himself to your best-seller book as a Christmas gift, or two. Jill, what can I say? This is great. Out there, pumping the book, selling the book,

getting new podcast listeners. Jill Lees, an honorary Extraordinary Canadian for her hard work promoting the book. Love that. And I'm glad you got your book plate. And as I said yesterday, I've been sending out the book plates as soon as I got the request with the proof of purchase. I'm sorry I got to ask for that. But nevertheless, sending them out right away. I'd say now it's going to be touch and go whether if I get a request today whether you get it in time for the holidays simply by

you know the postal office and the courier places are swamped you know we were by the local UPS store here in Stratford yesterday and was packed. And the poor lady who runs it, who is fantastic, she's just terrific. She was like overwhelmed by what was happening. So they've never, ever, ever been like this. And that's understandable.

People aren't traveling, or at least they're not supposed to. They're not going anywhere. They can't see friends. And so they're sending, you know, either through the post office, mailing stuff, or they're sending parcels through the post office, schedule by Courier. Anyway, that's the explanation on where things stand on book plates. All right. So we're looking for your thoughts on something about 2020, how you describe it. Now, some people were kind of used shorthand in their descriptions,

but this first one, which came in, which once again shows the worldwide reach of the Bridge Daily. We've got listeners around the world, including Arlen Nipchuk in Naruto, Japan, who wrote this morning. And listen, Arlen, I'm reading this because you're in Japan. If you were in Stratford, I wouldn't be reading this because it's kind of, it's about me. And really this podcast is not about me as much as I talk about her book. Mark, this podcast is not about me.

As much as I talk about our book, Mark Bulgich is in my book. Anyway, Arlen writes, Peter Mansbridge has brought some comfort on this year. We say thanks to you. Well, thank you, Arlen. That's our letter from overseas this week. Alex Cianfloni. He's attending Brock University. He's in St. Catharines right now. Here's how I would concisely describe 2020.

Strenuous. My 2020 fall term online at Brock has been strenuous. Peaceful. Sound of the birds in the morning and my plants growing strong and healthy. Confusing. CERB applications, eligibility, and payments. It's one of the government's support payment plans, CERB, right? And finally, distinctive. Excellent life experience. I surely have grown from it. Well, good from you, Alex. That's mixing the difficult times with the positive sense of what perhaps we can take away from this year.

But that's a lot of words to come up with one word that describes the year. But those four are all good. Michael Redfern from Waterloo, Ontario. He has a kind of, he's into the poetry thing. Now, keep in mind, I'm not good at this, okay? So I'll just read it as best I can. This is the year 2020, according to Michael Redfern. Hatched in the Ides of March, this slithering beast,

COVID conundrum, chokes us, forcing us to see color, race, and creed trump corporate greed. Mankind is our business. Color, race, and creed trump corporate greed. Mankind is our business. Now, as you know, I don't usually I don't usually read emails where the people

don't put down their name. I'm going to make one exception here for this one. SpongyLoveCakes at gmail.com. SpongyLoveCakes writes, 2020 has me hunting through my bookshelves for all my stoic philosophers. Breathe, abide, and carry on. Breathe, abide, and carry on. Barb Butler from Regina. 2020 Trump COVID. It's been quite the year. With a vaccine coming, could we be in the clear?

Parents and children learning and working at home. I was annoyed because I had nowhere to roam. 2021, hurry up, is what we will all cheer. All right. Thank you, Barb. Tom Matthews from Ingersoll, Ontario. A year stolen now. Droplets spread, dark fear and death.

Light comes from a vial. Now, all those things are right. In a short, you know, what have we got, a dozen or 15 words there? A year stolen, Al. Droplets spread dark fear and death. Light comes from a vial. Ted Matthews in Ingersoll, Ontario.

Thanks, Ted. Veronica Baker. She got a 902 area code, so that must be, she's somewhere in Nova Scotia. The three words that best describe 2020 are as follows, and I quote, stink, stank, stunk. Then she says, I'm just kidding. As an introvert, I have truly enjoyed many aspects of 2020, a little spoiled in our Atlantic bubble. We've done well in Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia has been challenged so many times this year, and they have some really difficult moments. Most recently, by yet another tragedy with a fishing crew lost at sea. Perhaps the best way to describe 2020 as seen from inside the bubble is the stronger

together term borrowed from the special this spring. That was after those terrible shootings in Nova Scotia. This one is from Joseph Murdoch Flowers in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Apex. And in explaining this, he actually sent a couple of poems, and I'll read one of them. In sending this, he said, I caught a cold this fall and I'll read one of them. In sending this, he said, I caught a cold this

fall and had to work from home after our offices reopened at Nunavut Legal Aid. In past years, I would have stayed home on the worst days, if at all. The pandemic changed that. I wrote the following notes to inform the office I'd be working from home based on the rhyme of the ancient mariner. So here's that one. Apex is Ikeluit, okay? It's an apex lawyer, and he's sick now on day three. Still coughing, sneezing, blowing his nose, but not spreading his viral debris.

The office doors are open wide, yet he is home, contagious. Clients are met, but his presence would set a precedent disadvantageous. He holds with him a cellular phone, and I have email too, quoth he. He stays home again to save their health. Mayhap tomorrow better he'll be. I don't know, you might want to keep working at that, Joseph. But a good attempt. Mary Jane McIntyre, Collingwood, Ontario.

You know how you used to do these things. You'd come up with a word, and then you'd have a word for each letter of that word. Right? So Mary Jane's word is struggle. And that's not bad. 2020 has been a struggle. And that's not bad. 2020 has been a struggle. So Mary Jane really applied to the rules of the contest, which is come up with a word to describe 2020 or a phrase, or if you have to, a couple of sentences. She chose option one, the struggle. One word.

But then, she had to give me a word for each letter of the word struggle. So the S is sequestering. I don't know. Maybe. The T is temperamental. Yeah, that's for sure. We've all had our moments this year. R is relentless, which we've had to have been.

U is unforgettable. You got that right. G, the first G is global. The second G is God forsaken. The L is loathsome. And the E is enduring. Okay, eight letters in struggle, and I'd say five or six of those are pretty good. But Mary Jane, thank you.

You came in with the one word, struggle. Jim Wernham, who's in London, Ontario. I think the word that best describes 2020 for many of us is pause, both in its application as a noun and as a verb. This year, all of us have experienced aspects of our life that we've had to take a break from. These range from minor inconveniences, like waiting in lines for testing to shop, etc., to the most significant events of our lives, funerals, weddings, graduations.

So many of our plans, from travel to education to our social gatherings, have been put on hold for now. This year has provided, often, not by choice, both the opportunity and necessity for us to catch our breath, to consider what is important to us, and with limited options to take the time to decide that we will return to moving forward on perhaps a better path than we would have otherwise been. Pause. That's a good word. Susan Halsworth. I'm not sure Susan says where she's... Oh, I'm sorry. She's from Caledon, Ontario.

As 2020 comes to a close, I'm optimistic that humankind has learned a great deal this year and perhaps even come to appreciate the basics of life and how communities can come together to make greater change possible. I would describe 2020 as a pivotally collaborative year. That really rolls off the tongue, right? Pivotally collaborative. Scientists around the world are working together to develop COVID-19 vaccines. Communities are coming together to acknowledge and begin to address a systemic racism to locally neighbors working together

to support each other. While the word pivot may be overused at this time to demonstrate how plans have changed, I believe it's critical to include it in the description of this year, which could be the push we need to identify how we can better work together to address many more issues. That's good, Susan. I like that. Good letter. Don Lomas, Burlington, Ontario. 2020, the best of times, the worst of times. That was Dickens, right? Tale of Two Cities.

The best of times, the worst of times. With so much of the news centered on COVID-19 and Donald Trump and his antics, it's easy to forget the many good things about 2020. Canadians spent more time with their families than ever before due to working from home and online schooling for the children. As my wife and I walk in Burlington every day, we are amazed how many people who used to sit in their backyards now sit out front and say hi to whomever passes.

The air is cleaner. The gardens are greener. I just hope that we can keep the benefits from COVID and bury the virus. Thank you, Don Lomas in Burlington. Somebody got a kick out of, I guess yesterday, I was trying to read some Latin, didn't do so well, and told a story about how my grade 9 or 10 Latin teacher, Mr. Westinghouse, a collegiate in Ottawa,

said to me one day, you know, Peter, if only you could be as smart as your sister. I never forgave him for that. I think he was just kidding. But my sister was really smart. Especially in Latin. Because we use Latin so often. My sister still kind of walks around talking Latin all the time.

Because she was really good in Latin. Catherine writes, my Latin teacher, Mr. Bob Sheridan at Bowmanville High School, told me the same thing. Why don't you get higher marks than your sister? My average, says Catherine, was 95%. That's really not fair. And so we knew that Mr. Sheridan was just kidding, right? He wasn't kidding with me, Mr. Westinghouse. I never had a 95 in anything.

In fact, some subjects you could add together and it wouldn't come to 95. Aaron Conser, Sherwood Park, Alberta. We've heard from Erin many times. And whatever we do, it's always worth it. Always feel better. Even when she, you know, hogs the time by writing all the time. Just kidding, Erin. Here's what Erin says about 2020. My word to describe this year is a crucible, as it feels as though we have been challenged and tested throughout this

pandemic and have yet to see what has been forged as a result. I believe that this year has revealed who we really are at the core of our being. My hope still is that in the end we will all remember what this has brought out in all of us, who stepped up, who made a difference, which businesses looked after their staff, and what we all did to help and hinder our way through. Thanks, Aaron. Judy Gorman from Scarborough. Okay, here goes.

2020 is just one hit after another. For me, it was a migraine while in hospital for an organ rejection episode while in lockdown for a bloody pandemic. Boy, that's been a bad year for you, Judy. Migraines are terrible, right? No matter what else you may be going through at the same time. Stephanie Daniluk Fernando. Stephanie lives in Winnipeg. Now, I don't know how old Stephanie is,

but Stephanie, if you're old enough to have kids, and those kids, a boy or a girl, is playing hockey, that's got to be quite the nameplate on the back of the jersey. Dan Luck Fernando. That's got to, like, stretch right around. Stephanie Daniluk Fernando. From Winnipeg, my old hometown. Here's Stephanie's letter.

The word that best describes 2020 for me is transformation. The catch? This is the word I chose in a diary entry dated December 28th, 2019 to manifest for 2020. Could I have chosen any word that better describes the 2020 that I am sure we have all had? I doubt it. Transformation. One could even say 2020 is the epitome of transformation. Nice shot, Steph. We like that. If you heard me earlier this week, I talked about the first time I ever saw that word crawl up on the teleprompter when I was reading the news, and I hadn't seen it before. I'd used the word epitome many times, but I'd never thought about how it was spelled.

And then suddenly there it was on the prompter and I said, epitome. Anyway, epitome is not the word that Stephanie is picking. She's picking transformation. Wendy Bateman doesn't say where she's from. And I really encourage you because it really does help me get a sense of the country when I can see in your emails where you're writing from. I tend to try to picture that place because I'm lucky. I've been to I haven't been everywhere in Canada, but boy, I've been to a lot, a lot of places. And I tend to remember them. So anyway, Wendy Bateman writes

she's looking for a word to describe, describe 2020. She offers two. And I really like one of them. The first one is retrospective. I'm not sure what you were thinking on that, but here's the second one.

It's a, it's a, it's a great word to describe 2020 virtual. Boy, has this been a virtual year, right? On so many fronts. How we shop, how we communicate, how we congregate. Virtually, how we cook, how we sing, how we dance. You know, I've done, you know, as part of my kind of secondary career, I do a lot of speeches. I do host a lot of different events. And there have been quite a few this fall that have been galas of a sort.

And as a result, I'm virtually introducing and watching, you know, singers and dancers and at various gala events. And they're in their home. You know, I did one the other night for Luminato, the arts festival in Toronto, of which I'm a member of the board. And Misha Bruger, I'm sorry, Misha, I'm going to screw this up. You know who I mean. One of the greatest opera singers in the world, also a Canadian. She lives in Nova Scotia, and she has a place kind of in the country, and we connected with her virtually,

and she sang a couple of beautiful Christmas carols sitting by her wood stove. It was incredible. Misha's a friend of Cynthia's, and as a result, a friend of mine, and I hadn't seen her since we were all in Berlin together a couple of years ago, and she'd done a concert, and the place went crazy, and we went out for dinner afterwards. Amazing person. Anyway, virtual, that's a good choice, Wendy. Wendy Bateman from who knows where. Okay.

Getting down to the crunch here. Now, you know, David Oliver in Victoria is kind of a regular. I've heard from him many times over the past months. And he's great because he's not shy about taking shots at me and taking me to the woodshed on things that I've said that he doesn't agree with or thinks we're wrong. And that's okay. I like that. Well, I don't like it, but, you know, I respect it.

Anyway, David, of course, doesn't follow the rules, which were one word or one phrase or maybe one or two sentences or a short poem. No, David, in the way that only David can, said, this is what I'm going to do. And I dare you to read it. So David writes, well, it's not Shakespeare. It's not Dylan Thomas or Bob Dylan. It's something that came into my head around May as I was listening to Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man. So David wrote this.

You know, I'm going to read. I mean, the problem is, as I said earlier, I can't sing and I can't carry a tune. So I'm going to butcher this one way or another. But you'll get the idea because it's quite innovative and quite inventive. And even in fact, the fact that it breaks all the rules, David, we'll go for it anyway. Hey, Mr. COVID-19, stay away from me. I'm in lockdown and there ain't no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. COVID-19, stay away from me.

Morning, night, and evening, I'm avoiding you. Now, there are a lot of verses in this. And, of course, that's the refrain after each verse. I'm just going to read a couple of the verses because they're pretty good. I took a walk along the beach and looked away to sea, Longing to be free, but none can hear my plea. I turned away and saw the people walking, and every face was masked, and there were gloves upon their hands, but no one understands,

and in my head I hear their voices talking. Here's another one. I wish I could go journey to a far, far distant place, where they don't know my face, where the virus left no trace, away from all the TV newsmen yapping. I'm needing to go anywhere. I feel that I have paid to leave this stale parade, to go where I can hear my boot heels tapping. So let me read the refrain one last time. Hey, Mr. COVID. Think of, hey, Mr. Tambourine Man. As I said, I can't sing and I can't carry a tune. As you probably guessed already.

Hey, Mr. COVID-19, stay away from me. I'm in lockdown and there ain't no place I'm going to. Hey, Mr. COVID-19, stay away from me. Morning, night, and evening, I'm avoiding you. David, you know, once again, congratulations, buddy. You really do have a knack. And it came so close to being the contest winner. So close. But hey, as they say, close is only good in horseshoes. So that brings us to our winner. Our winner for this week of the super special. The super weekend special. For week 40 of the Bridge Daily.

It's been an eventful week. We've had so many interesting things happen this week on the podcast. Once again, if you didn't hear the David Axelrod So many interesting things happened this week on the podcast. Once again, if you didn't hear the David Axelrod interview the other day, you really want to listen to it because it was pretty interesting. That was on Wednesday night. So this weekend, when you're looking for something to do, maybe you're going out for a walk and you've got your headset on, you're going for something to do, maybe you're going out for a walk and you got your headset on,

you can listen to that. You know, if you're not listening to this. Okay, here's your winner. This pretty much matches the rules. But I really like this one. It's very simple. Very direct to the point. Wayne Kruski from Rossland, British Columbia.

Here's what Wayne writes. 2020 was the year that a stereotype was reversed, and the mask became the mark of a hero, and the absence of a mask became the mark of a villain, That's pretty good, eh? Let me read it to you one more time. 2020 was the year that a stereotype was reversed, and the mask became the mark of a hero, and the absence of a mask became the mark of a villain, and a person's true nature was revealed as never before. So there you go. And in the background, look, everybody is cheering for that, including Bella, the dog,

who's barking up a storm in the background because the doorbell just rang. She's all bark, no bite, you know, those kind of dogs. Wayne, we have a signed book here for you but you're going to have to send me your address so this will find out whether you tuned in today to find out how you did because email me back with the address

we can send the book to I don't think there's any chance of you getting there before Christmas but you will get it and congratulations and congratulations to all of you who wrote. There were dozens of other entries as well. You know, I love Fridays for that fact. When I started this, whatever number of weeks ago it was, 40 weeks ago, we thought, oh, you know, we're starting to get a little bit of mail. We should try and find a way of using some of this mail. And that's turned into a weekly show, kind of a mailbag edition.

You know, nothing original. Lots of people do that. But what I have found particularly interesting for The Bridge is that the listeners we have are really thoughtful, really innovative in the way they construct their thoughts. And, you know, in this week, suddenly, you know, poetry kind of reared up and a lot of people wrote poems of different kinds or songs

like David Oliver did out of Victoria. And that's great. And they all kind of shine a light on who we are as Canadians, how we're different from region to region to region, how we celebrate those differences. Bruce Anderson. You know? Oh, there's old Bruce Anderson trying to phone phone me he'll just have to wait a minute

i'll call him right back um but uh anyway so i i love doing these friday broadcasts and i really appreciate the fact that you uh take part in them as well whether you end up with a book or not it's it's wonderful to hear from you. And hopefully we'll keep doing that. Well, we've got a week to go before the holidays really get underway. You have a weekend to be challenged once again, to remember the keys to our success. As all this introduction to vaccines is starting to happen. It's going to take a while.

It's going to take months. And we can't forget that we're still in the middle of the fight of our lives. And that fight means wash your hands, wear a mask, stay socially distanced, and avoid big crowds anywhere. It's going to be tough over these holidays To kind of close yourself off But we got to do it So toughen up It's a struggle

Okay I'm Peter Mansbridge Thank you so much for listening This has been the Bridge Daily The weekend special for the end of week 40. We'll be back on Monday with week 41. Thank you.