The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special #57

Episode Date: April 23, 2021

Your comments, questions and ideas round out a very busy week.

Hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with the latest episode of The Bridge. You're just moments away from the weekend special. Like you, I have been so grateful and so thankful for frontline workers during the COVID crisis. Let's just talk about the frontline workers at SickKids, which is one of the world's best children's hospitals. SickKids doctors also work behind the scenes on incredible breakthroughs to help our kids and generations to come.

Listen to their inspiring stories in a new season of the popular podcast called Sick Kids Versus. Each episode explores a major Sick Kids discovery, like, well, a virus-fighting super molecule or a cure for hard-to-treat cancers. Just visit sickkidsfoundation.com slash podcast well, a virus-fighting super molecule or a cure for hard-to-treat cancers. Just visit sickkidsfoundation.com slash podcast or search SickKidsVS and spell versus V-S.

So SickKidsVS. You'll be amazed at what you learn. You know, yesterday I was whining about the snow on the ground here in Stratford, Ontario, in the heart of southwestern Ontario. No snow today. It's all gone. All disappeared. Gorgeous. Gorgeous blue sky today. Supposed to go up to 15 degrees. And when I peek ahead into the forecast for next week,

we're looking at days in the 20s. Wow. Could spring really have arrived now? It's going to be May soon. But we're still fighting the curse. You know it. It's still there. I looked at yesterday's numbers across the country.

There's still some pretty staggering numbers, especially in BC and Alberta, Saskatchewan. Well, not so much Saskatchewan and Manitoba, but BC, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec. A little bit of a spike going on in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I mean, these are like numbers the rest of the country would embrace with glee. But for Atlanta, Canada, we don't see numbers.

We don't usually see numbers like this. I mean, 19 new cases in New Brunswick yesterday, 38 in Nova Scotia. Only one in PEI and only three in Newfoundland and Labrador. Anyway, I assume and I hope that they will get those under control quickly in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It's Friday, weekend special day. You know what that means. It means your letters that have been coming in all week

on a variety of different topics. We didn't focus down on the one this week. So we have a number of different comments and thoughts and issues that are popping along here. As usual, as I've reminded you before, there's no kind of rhyme or reason as to which letters I pick to go on the broadcast podcast, but and I don't read necessarily them all. I read them all as they come in, but I don't read them

all on the air. Alright, so given that, let's keep this in mind. And no particular order. I just kind of read them as they come in. Although I like this one. It's from Durval Sassetti. And he's in Natal in Brazil with its beautiful beaches,

he makes a point of saying. Thanks, Durval. We appreciate that. We like to hear about the beautiful beaches in Brazil. We certainly prefer to hear about the beautiful beaches in Brazil than the terrible time that country is having with COVID. However, let's read the letter. Greetings from Brazil.

This pandemic has led people to do unexpected things, such as writing to a TV podcast host to thank him for his amazing work, something I would have never done in normal times. So let me start from the beginning. I arrived in Canada in 1999 to start my undergrad at McGill. During the following 11 years, as I became a permanent resident, then a citizen, got married, had a son, completed my graduate degrees, started working as an instructor at the University of Windsor, one thing remained constant. Most nights I'd watch The National.

I think it's fair to say I've learned so much about Canada and about being a Canadian from your shows and interviews. I've also grown to love your voice, which is one of the most soothing sounds in the universe, right up there with cooing babies, warbling birds, crashing waves, or pattering rain. All right, Durval, whatever you say, buddy. Then in 2010, I made the worst mistake of my life,

accepting a tenured track position at a Brazilian university. I thought it would be only for a couple of years until a better opportunity would allow us to return to Canada. So far, I only got a one-year stint as a visiting scholar at McGill in 2015, during which I went back to my nightly dose of the National. Both myself and my wife have tenured jobs nowadays in the sunny city of Natal with its beautiful beaches, which usually attract tourists from all over the place.

Nevertheless, my longing for Canada and for Canadian weather, all of it, has only increased over the years, especially after Tropical Trump was elected down here a couple of years ago, referring to the Brazilian government and its pretend dictator there. And now with his handling of the pandemic, perhaps better described as a denial of the pandemic, how I wish we were still back there. So you can imagine how overjoyed I was when, on a whim,

I searched for your name in my podcast app a couple of months ago. It is just so wonderful to listen to you again on a daily basis. I feel calmer, more connected, and if I close my eyes, I almost feel as though I've teleported myself back to Canada. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for becoming a part of my life once again. Thanks, Durval. Listen, I love hearing from those who are connected in some fashion to Canada

who are in other parts of the world. Because it's so often that I find that people like that sometimes have a better appreciation of what we got here than we do ourselves. And while we should always demand more and better from our leaders, sometimes it's worth remembering what, in fact, we do have compared to a lot of others. And they have, as we said, a tough time in Brazil. Tony Falsetto writes from Ottawa. Enjoy the podcast, good companion on my daily walk.

I find it interesting but also infuriating that journalists seem to have a short memory or don't do enough research when it comes to the child care program. In talking about it, there is never any mention that Ken Dryden did negotiate a child care program with each province. Unfortunately, the program was never implemented,

but killed when Stephen Harper took office. Even you mentioned that we've been talking about child care for 30 years. Anyway, as I said, enjoy the podcast on my walks. Tony, you're right about what Ken Dryden did. You're not entirely right about we haven't mentioned it, but we talked about Ken Dryden and the importance of his role in this new child care program and the appearance he made last weekend or two weeks ago

with Chrystia Freeland at the Liberal Convention talking about childcare. But Ken Dryden, you know, just like a lot of other hockey fans, Ken Dryden to me is Ken Dryden, an incredible Habs goalie. I'm not even a Habs fan, but he was amazing. Of course, he says that anybody could have been amazing as a goalie for the Habs in the 70s because they had the best defense in the world.

There's probably some truth to that, but still, at the end of the day, he had to stop the puck, and stop the puck he did. I remember one day in Toronto, my son Will and I, and this is when Will was about, I guess, 10 or 11 years old, and we were sitting in a little diner in downtown Toronto, having breakfast. It was a Saturday morning. We were having breakfast in a diner.

It's nothing like it, right? It's just great to do that. And in walks Ken Dryden. And I see him. He sees me. We wave. He comes over. I said, you alone? And he said, comes over I said you alone and he said yeah I said come sit with us so Willie didn't know who he was and I kind of whispered to Willie I said Willie this is the best goalie in the world. And so Willie perked up right away.

And Ken was fantastic. We got into, you know, we started talking about hockey and talking about some of the glory days of the Habs, although the Habs always seem to have glory days. And he was great. I mean, he just got totally into the conversation and dazzled Willie with his stories. It was terrific.

So we don't forget Ken Dryden on childcare, and we sure don't forget him in the nets. Randy Shantz from toronto randy was listening yesterday i guess he says regards e-bikes and uber we talked about how e-bike electric bikes or the scooters or motorcycles or or mopeds are outselling electric cars in the last year that That's how popular they've become. So Randy writes, I ride most days and it seems most of the bikes delivering food are using an e-bike.

Of note, one benefit of COVID is Toronto has seemed to have increased the number of bike lanes. Now maybe it's just a coincidence of timing. I think there's a couple of things going on there and it's not just Toronto. It's happening in many parts of the country. Barry Hoffman writes from Burlington. And this follows yesterday's podcast where we talked about water and how the Americans are consuming water at a rate that will raise concerns about where they're going to be looking for new water because they're going

to they're not going to run out of water but they're using way more water than they ever have fresh water so barry hoffman writes canada is probably the largest world source of fresh water and we can't solve the boil water crisis what am i missing good point barry jim wernham from london ont. He's a physiotherapist. He's got like 16 initials after his name for all the different degrees and variety of things, obviously, that he has accomplished in his life so far. Jim writes,

I've noticed that there are now ads appearing in the podcast version of The Bridge. While you mentioned that this would happen, I was still surprised to hear them. Like with any change, I'm sure you'll have received messages expressing outrage at the prospect of having to listen to ads in what was an ad-free service

for the better part of two years. Actually, you know, I seem to have received more understanding than outrage, and even the outrage is kind of subdued. I, for one, don't mind them at all. These ads are a small trade-off for keeping such quality content free to anyone who wants to listen. The work you do is both entertaining and important in keeping us connected and providing unique points of view to consider. Thanks for ensuring that free access to your podcast was maintained after the move to Sirius. And that was really important for me. February 1st, where they took over distribution,

not only on their own network, so it's available on SiriusXM, but continuing as a podcast. And it's free to get the podcast. You do have to subscribe if you want to listen on SiriusXM. Obviously, there's a ton of other programming on SiriusXM, including some of the other shows that we do, including Good Talk with Chantelle Ibera and Bruce Anderson on Thursdays. But ads appear in both the podcast version

and obviously on air on SiriusXM. And, you know, Jim's right. I basically paid for this podcast out of my pocket for the first year and a half. And while I wasn't necessarily out looking to sell it, people came after me because it's been extremely successful. And I'll tell you, it's been extremely successful as a result of the transition to Sirius. The podcast numbers have gone up about 25%,

and it's also on SiriusXM, so it has whatever audience SiriusXM has. And they're pretty excited about the numbers that are moving along very well for them as a result of the addition of the bridge so all around um it's been helpful and it's also allowed us to put some money back into the podcast and improve certain technical issues which many of you know were a problem in the early going so So we have better quality on that. We're still looking for perfection,

but we're heading in the right direction. Tracy McCloskey writes from Edmonton. Like you, I'm so happy to have my vaccination and hope everyone gets on board and does the right thing. You mentioned today that we have so much excess fresh water here that our neighbors to the south periodically gaze longingly up to the north, hoping to gather some of our excess. I'm not sure our beloved astronaut Chris Hatfield would agree with you

Chris is a good friend of mine too Three years ago I had the privilege to hear this amazing Canadian speak And he shared a number of photos with us I've enclosed a photo I took of one of his space photos Which indicates three blue bubbles on top of North America The largest bubble, which is not that large Perhaps covering the interior middle portion of the USA on top of North America. The largest bubble, which is not that large, perhaps covering the interior middle portion of the USA,

is all the water on our planet. The next size blue bubble, about the size of a three-dimensional dime, is all our fresh water, I believe. The smallest blue bubble, which looks like a very small dot made by the tip of a pen, is the accessible fresh water we have in North America. Yes, perhaps a good portion of that tiny blue dot is in Canada, but still doesn't look like a lot of water to me. Chris spoke about this at length, stressing the importance of water conservation and protection, something our current UCP government here in Alberta doesn't get as they continue to allow coal mine exploration

in the eastern slopes of our Rocky Mountains, affecting critical watershed areas. All right, Tracy, thanks. Kelly Pratt writes from Guelph. I just listened to this week's podcast COVID discussion with Dr. Isaac Boguch. Thank you, thank you, thank you to both you and Dr. Boguch. I do wish, I do what I can to stay as informed as possible about the virus, testing and vaccines without getting into the political or social hysterics of it all. This past weekend was a challenge for sure with

all the flip-flopping that's going on in Ontario. You ask the question most people need answers to and the doctors need, or the doctors read professionals with all the real scientific knowledge, provide the balanced and reasonable responses that enable us to remain calm and not lose our minds with all the nonsense that others are intent on spreading. Let's hope that by the time, by this time next year, it's professional gardeners you're talking to and discussing the various treatments for crabgrass or maybe a review of your listeners' favorite chili recipes.

Yeah, that'd be popular, right? Gardening with Peter. Well, we got Bruce on for that. Or as we call him now, the radish farmer. All right, Kelly, thank you. Liz and Charlie Fraser. They're writing from Saskatchewan. From Prince Albert.

I used to live in Prince Albert. It wasn't for a long time, but it was for a good time. 1968. May and June of 68. I remember it specifically because in June of 68, two things happened. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. I was in Prince Albert for that. Living in a boarding house.

And the other five boarders were all young women. Go figure. I was working for a small airline. We had offices in Prince Albert. And I ended up in that boarding house for a couple of months Bobby Kennedy was assassinated one of the girls came into my room

knocked on the door came into my room at whatever time it was like one o'clock in the morning and said Peter you better get up Bobby Kennedy's just been assassinated and I got up and and watched the television coverage.

He'd been in California, just won the primary there. It was late at night, our time, like 9.30 or so their time. And the second thing was there was a federal election, the Trudeau Mania election. Pierre Trudeau won in June of 68. And Prince Albert was a riding that everybody watched because John Diefenbaker was the MP for Prince Albert. And I remember the day of the funeral service

for Bobby Kennedy. Ted Kennedy was speaking. I was sitting in a barbershop chair on the main street in Prince Albert, having my hair cut, watching Teddy Kennedy on the TV in the barbershop, in all black and white. And who came walking down the street, main street, shaking hands? John Diefenbaker.

All right, let's get to Lisa's letter. I work as an educational assistant at the largest high school in Saskatchewan, Carlton Comprehensive in Prince Albert. And several of the staff caught COVID before Easter. One of the teachers was admitted to the hospital 17 days ago. He was moved to ICU on Friday, passed away early Saturday morning. The day he was admitted to hospital is the first day he could have received his first vaccine.

The Saskatchewan Teachers Federation stated he is the first teacher in Saskatchewan to pass away from COVID. He was a true leader in the school. He will be greatly missed. COVID becomes really close and scary when someone you know and call a friend passes away from it. Condolences to all. You tend to talk a lot about the vaccine situation in Ontario. We do.

You know, most of the population's in Ontario. 40% more than anywhere else. But also, this is ravaging on Ontario right now. I'd encourage you to discuss some of the positives out there. Saskatchewan's vaccine rollout has been top-notch. According to COVID-19 Tracker Canada on Sunday, April 18th, Saskatchewan has administered over 87% of the received vaccines. That's a great number and better than anywhere else, I think.

This is well above the national average of 78. I'm 55 years old, received my vaccine at a drive-thru clinic on April 3rd. I saw an article that stated that all hands on deck in Saskatchewan for vaccine rollout, and I'd like to thank and applaud Saskatchewan Health Authority for their incredible job. And finally from Lisa, on the weekend special last Friday, you were talking about your favorite CFL team. Just want to remind you that although the riders play out of Regina, they're the Saskatchewan Rough Riders.

Lisa, I know that. When I lived in Regina, we used to watch the buses coming in from all over the province whenever the riders played. People of Saskatchewan are very proud of their team and never refer to them in terms of Regina. Anyways, I knew you would be a rider fan because how could anyone cheer for another team? Bill Gorslin from port hope ontario loves the podcast i'm old enough to have listened to bob and ray

geez bill you you gotta be old buddy i'm old enough to have listened to Bob and Ray both on Bruce Smith of CJBC when he had the afternoon drive show in the 60s, and on the U.S. station that my mother listened to from Rochester, New York. We lived in Port Hope, Ontario, and my mother was American, hence her affinity for U.S. media in the 40s and 50s. The letter from the woman in Wilkie, Saskatchewan last week about talking hockey on the Hockey Talk Show could have come right from a Bob and Ray skit.

I love it. Please keep it coming. Thanks, Bill. Okay, we're getting near the end end and there are a couple of well there's three letters left so let's take a break come back and read them they're pretty uh they're pretty good back in a moment are you still trying to find ways to get into the world of crypto we'll look no further bitbuyy is Canada's number one platform for buying and selling Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bitbuy has launched a brand new app and website with a

new look, lower fees, and new coins. Bitbuy is your one-stop shop to get involved and super easy to use for beginners. Visit bitbuy.ca or download the Bitbuy app. Enter referral code PODCAST20 to get $20 free when you make your first deposit. All right, Peter Mansbridge back with the weekend special. We've got three letters to go, a couple of long ones here. So let's get right at it. First one comes from Stephen Lowe.

And I believe Stephen is in Ottawa. He is. And he doesn't say what he does for a living. But I'll tell you, he sounds pretty knowledgeable on this. And gives us some good things to remember i was listening to today's podcast and you read a letter from someone who was talking about people who've been vaccinated worrying about getting sick from covid19 what we need to remember is that this virus doesn't work like other viruses we don't wear masks to prevent ourselves from getting infected though the guidance to use triple layer masks helps us to do just that but rather we wear masks to prevent a person with no recognizable symptoms

from passing the virus along yes those of us who have been vaccinated, I got my AstraZeneca shot on Tuesday, are at less risk to get seriously sick, but it may even suppress our symptoms so that we are in effect asymptomatic if we catch it, and thus we can still be a risk to others. The big worry is that those of us who've been vaccinated may get sick, not know it, and pass it along to someone who hasn't been vaccinated. That's why even though we've been vaccinated, we still need to maintain a six-foot distance from others, wear a mask, not so much for our own sake, but for the sake of others. But it's those who haven't had access to vaccines yet, and the-vaxxers and the vaccine-hesitant people as well that will be most at risk. To reach herd immunity, we need to hit a point where 70% of the population, evenly distributed throughout the people in our workplace, on our street, in the

grocery store, in our towns and cities, our provinces and territories, our countries and continents, in order to suppress this virus and reduce the chances of surges and outbreaks. Until we reach that point of even distribution, there will be people at great risk. The closer we get to 70%, the less the risk. But there will still be risk. And if we don't reach that marker, we'll see surges and outbreaks still.

And the more people who get sick, the greater the likelihood of a new variant being created. And that opens the door to variants that could be vaccine resistant. This factor that we can unknowingly pass this virus on because we're pre-symptomatic, pouchy symptomatic, I'm not sure of that word, or asymptomatic, means we have to continue to keep the word circulating that we're not just staying home, staying together, apart, wearing masks and getting vaccinations to protect ourselves, but perhaps more importantly, so that we don't spread this virus to others. And that's something that keeps getting lost in the discussion. All the mitigation we take may help us to stay well, but more importantly, it prevents us from spreading it to others. It's not about me so much as it's about you.

It's a kindness and perhaps a moral obligation to take these steps to ensure we protect those around us. Stephen Lowe from Ottawa. Lots to think about in that one. Bill Flowers from Amherst, Nova Scotia. I was listening to you speak with Dr. Lenora Saxinger the other day. Dr. Saxinger is from Edmonton, remember? I'm always interested with her comments and impressed by them, but one that stood out for me was that she said something like,

every statistic is a person. I think we all need to remember that, or at least I need reminding. Untangle ourselves from the numbers and graphs and look deeper. These are people, as the doctor says, and each person with COVID-19 is part of a family. That multiplies the number of Canadians

who are struggling with this dreadful virus. I thank Dr. Saxinger for reminding us of that. Thanks for the podcast, great companion to me and my treadmill. Man, people are all in such great shape. Thanks to the podcast, right? Okay, here's the last one. I like this it's from a chap named don whitmore or whittemore

it's from don hello peter i know that the subject of how has the pandemic affected you was a few weeks ago, but here I go anyway. Let me start with saying that unlike you, I have always been proud to be Toronto-centric. Boy, we can't shake that Toronto-centric story, can we? I moved to the centre of the universe in 1988 sorry 1968 and have considered myself a proud torontonian since then even when living in peterborough for two years and burlington for seven i still considered myself a torontonian i moved back to toronto in 1997 and swore that I would live there until I died. But the pandemic and Doug Ford changed that. My daughters are both doctors. The younger one is finishing her residency in Pittsburgh,

and my older one, after completing three specialties, most recently in Winnipeg, has settled into an ICU position in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Their being far away from us was never an issue because we could always board a plane and visit them at a moment's notice. The pandemic changed that. I've not seen either of them since February 22, 2020. 2020 was the first Christmas since 1987 that at least one of them was not home for Christmas. With the way that nature has of trying to heal itself of the damage that humankind has done to earth, I have no doubt that pandemics will no longer be 100 years apart. Climate change is

real and more havoc is yet to come. Coupled with Doug Ford's complete inability to properly deal with this pandemic, I feel that I have no choice but to get out of Dodge. We need to be close to our daughters. My younger daughter has already decided that once her residency is completed, June of 22, she will join her sister in Yarmouth, or at least nearby. Nova Scotia makes it extremely attractive for qualified doctors to relocate there. So, their mother and I listed our spectacular condominium in North York for sale, and as I write this, my pets and I are parked in the parking lot of a small craft distillery in Truro, Nova Scotia for the night

and will continue to Yarmouth on the morrow. It's unlikely that I will return to Ontario until the condo sells and then only to oversee the relocation of our belongings to Nova Scotia. You've asked innumerable times, what are the Atlantic provinces doing right? Well, let me tell you about my experience. Five days before I planned to cross the New Brunswick border, I had to apply for a transit pass. This pass allowed me to pass through New Brunswick, only stopping for fuel and biobrakes. When I crossed at Edmonston, the highway was barricaded and I had to proceed through a way station where I had to prove that I had the transit pass and that I'd already registered with the Nova Scotia authorities. The same border control was also in place at Amherst. Once in Nova Scotia, I must have a COVID test

within 48 hours of arriving, and then another 12 days later. During the 14 days, I must self-isolate, and that, dear Peter, is one of the ways that they do it. If back in April of 2020, Mr. Ford had had the fortitude to enact this type of real lockdown measures Instead of his triple useless mockdowns Maybe Ontario would also be the envy of North America In closing Peter, let me tell you how much I enjoy your podcast Especially the Wednesday editions with the radish farmer And I sign off as Don Whittemore, Blue Noser.

He's a Blue Noser now. You got it, Don. You seem real happy to be one. You know, listening to your letter, you can almost breathe that fresh East Coast air. Makes you feel good. Listen, good luck on your journey. It's great you're going to be back with, well, at least one daughter for now,

and then hopefully two as the one in Pittsburgh ends up moving to Nova Scotia as well. Great letter. Love to hear from you guys from wherever you're writing, Brazil, BC, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and everywhere else in between. It always makes my week. I always wonder, you know, are there going to be enough letters to do a weekend special?

And you know what? There always are. And there's always more than enough. And it's always a great mix. As I've said before, I love it because to me it gets kind of a reflection of the country. Gives me a sense of kind of how the country is weathering the storm. Good to hear from you. All right, weekend ahead.

Try to enjoy it in all the appropriate ways. We will get through this. And we'll get through it by being smart and by being kind. Enjoy your weekend. Look forward to next week. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been the Weekend Special on the Bridge. Hope you've enjoyed it.

Thanks for listening. Talk to you again on Monday.