The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - The Weekend Special # 61

Episode Date: May 21, 2021

Your thoughts, comments and questions on everything from golf to UFO's to food rationing coupons.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Friday. You know what that means. It means the weekend special. You still trying to find ways to get into the world of crypto? Well, look no further. Bitbuy 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. And hello once again, Peter Mansbridge here. It's The Bridge, the weekend special. Your thoughts, your comments, your questions sometimes come in the form of the letters you've sent me

this week. And there are quite a few good ones this week. So we'll get right to it after I know you're expecting me to say something about last night. Well, let me just say this. That's why they call it a best of seven series and not a best of one series. Good hockey game, not the outcome that I was necessarily cheering for. But it was a good game with the exception of that one moment in the first period and the absolute silence in the arena. No fans, of course, but nobody was saying anything, including the commentators.

It was just silence. As we watched carefully, the Toronto captain, John Tavares, lying on the ice after what clearly seemed to be an accident, but it was one that scared a lot of people. It looked extremely serious. And nobody took any chances. Took him off the ice on a stretcher. He went to a hospital. He stayed the night in the hospital. The early indications are good that there is no serious damage,

although we don't know anything for sure at this point. And we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best for John Tavares, as it seemed all the players on the ice felt the same way. All right, let's get to your letters. The reminder that I read them in no particular order. And some of them I only read portions of because some of you get quite, well, you like writing. And that's good. I'm glad you do.

We all benefit from some of your stories. First letter comes from Huntsville, Ontario. Scott Creaser. I had the pleasure and privilege of receiving a vaccine today. This was written on May 14th. I was excited to receive it, but in thinking back to your vaccination discussion with Bruce Anderson a few weeks ago, I didn't think I would be feeling in any way emotional. That probably would have been the case if our local immunization location was in a school or auditorium, but it was at the Canada Summit Centre. This building was constructed as

part of the G8 Summit hosted in Huntsville in 2010. But it also houses the arena where, up until March 2020, I played hockey every Thursday night for the Huntsville Old-Timers. For the previous 14 months, I had not entered the arena, and I was doing so for the first time. It turns out the spot where I was directed to wait after my inoculation is the goal crease, where I attempt to stop pucks, often unsuccessfully. I'm not sure if my unexpected emotional reaction was the feeling of relief at being vaccinated, the realization of how much I miss everything that is my weekly hockey outing, or a bit of both. I have to admit to swallowing a few lumps in my throat as I waited.

Good letter, Scott. And I don't imagine I'll ever stand in the crease in that net again without looking up and thinking about that moment getting your vaccine. Jameson Spence. Where's Jameson writing from? Grand Prairie, Alberta. I've been thinking about writing for a while, but was never really sure what to include, so I've been taking notes of some of the things you've said

over the past few months, and here are a few thoughts on topics covered on your shows. Grand Prairie, Alberta. First thing that Jameson Spence mentions is Toronto-centric. And the line is yes to Toronto-centric. Although I now live in the West, I was born in Montreal, grew up in Brampton, Ontario, along with short stays in Peterborough and London for schooling, and I am extremely grateful for the 30 years I spent in the Toronto area. I defy any Canadian to visit Toronto for a few days and not be elated and overjoyed with their experience. I'm not sure you're right about that but hey it's your letter I defy any Canadian to visit Toronto

I'm sure some wouldn't feel that way to all the refuters please tell me where else in our beautiful country I can take in a Broadway show watch all of the major professional sports see the epic views from the CN Tower sing along and laugh with the world's biggest

musicians and comedians, muse over rich history and art and museums, be dazzled by indie car races and international air shows, and proudly march and dance in the streets and squares celebrating pride, diversity, and culture, to name just a few things. I could go on, but I digress. We should all be extremely proud of our one and only truly global city. Wow, that's quite the pitch. No to Canadian politics. Touching on your discussion that younger generations in our country are not engaged with our policymakers should be of no surprise. The fact of the matter is our political system, in one word, is embarrassing. My God, one only needs to watch a few seconds of the mudslinging, childish playground arguments that take place in legislature meetings to feel ashamed.

It saddens and sickens me to think that a single dollar of my taxes goes towards enabling this type of behavior, not to mention the disgusting standards that take place leading up to elections. How about a political party that spends all of their campaign dollars simply boasting and pumping the tires of their own candidates? That's a novel and refreshing idea. And finally, yes to podcasts.

Like many, the pandemic has led me to the podcast world and the bridge, along with Tim and friends who oddly helped me find yours at the top of my list. Shout out to the long lost Sid. Used to be Tim and Sid. Sid went off to do morning TV. Shout out to the long lost Sid. Thanks to you, your listeners and guests. I find myself more engaged and educated on a variety of topics and happily share knowledgeable thoughts on discussions with people of all ages. And I'm a K-12 teacher, so you can imagine how valuable a vast and comprehensive knowledge of the world can be in the conversations I have. Lastly, thank you for all that you've done and continue to do. You're a legend. To steal a line from my good buddy Dave, you have the voice of a goddamn angel. Really, Dave. You are Canada's

Morgan Freeman. Yeah, right. And if Peter Moosebridge is ever in need of a voice agent, please consider me for the job. Peter Moosebridge. That was fun. I've talked about that before. That was my little role of five seconds or whatever it was in the Disney movie Zootopia. And it was a great experience. Wonderful people at Disney had a lot of fun doing that. And I'm in Toronto this week in my little office in our condo in Toronto. And behind me I have the check that I was paid for Zootopia. I told them I couldn't accept any money. So they put the equivalent amount of money they were going to pay me,

which was substantial, five figures, for five seconds. But I put it in, had it given to a charity. But they called me back about a month later and said, we have to pay you something by union rules. So we agreed on a dollar, one dollar, to do this. And I have the check, the Walt Disney Corporation, to Peter Mansbridge for one dollar and have it hanging on my wall here in my little office in Toronto.

Kathy Delph. Not sure Kathy says where she's from here. No, doesn't appear that she does. And this is, I'm going to read this. Don't assume this means I would do this for anyone else. I'm doing this because it was the first request of this kind. I just thought it was kind of neat. So I'll do it one time only.

My husband Frank and I have always been huge fans of your work. We do miss seeing you on the nightly news. That was years ago. But wish you well on your new ventures. We also very much enjoyed your in-depth interviews with politicians and celebrities alike. Most of all, we really enjoy your sense of humor. Thank you. Now to the favor. My husband's

Frank, his 60th birthday is on May 21st. That's today. He doesn't want any presents or a party. He's always doing special things for me, so I was wondering if you may find the time to send him a quick birthday email. I do appreciate that you're very busy,

but it would mean a lot to him. Kathy, I'll do that. I'll send an email, but even better, he's just got mentioned on the weekend special. You don't have to worry about anything to buy him for his birthday. Who could ask for more than to be mentioned on the weekend special and to get an email? All right, moving on. Karen Boshy, one of our regulars,

she's been on a few times, retired teacher in Edmonton. Just reading one short paragraph from Karen's letter this week. When I was teaching, I had a poster up in my classroom and referred to it often. Learn to listen, listen to learn. It's time that we all try to be better listeners and exercise our critical thinking skills to make more sense of the world we live in. Choose wisely what you're listening to so you can gather accurate, trustworthy, and relevant information. Understand the issues, be prepared,

stay connected, and follow the plan of action. That is what everyone collectively needs to keep doing so we can achieve our common goal of beating COVID and returning to normalcy. And Karen has a short PS. Sorry you're unable to golf. It does seem unreasonable. My youngest adult daughter, who's a public health inspector up in Fort McMurray, Wood Buffalo, has a real passion for golf and looks forward to her evening golf rounds in these stressful, challenging times. Spring has come, and our beautifully long spring,

summer, northern evenings are a blessing. Now, I've never golfed in Fort McMurray. I have seen the golf course. I did golf in Whitehorse, and it was the same kind of thing. It was, I think, late June, so it was the longest days of the year. And it was spectacular. Spectacular golfing in Whitehorse. I think there were a few bugs around, but still, it was pretty good.

Susan Hall writes from Toronto. She's got golf on her mind as well. Never felt compelled to share until I heard you read parts of Gary's golf email last week when I found myself yelling at Gary via my iPad. People should never speak of that they know nothing about. Since May 2020, when golf resumed, this was last year's golf resumption. It is going to start again, I think, tomorrow in Ontario. The only place in the world where golf was stopped because of COVID.

Since May 2020, when golf resumed last year, lockers have not been accessible. Last year, we were allowed to clear out our lockers from the previous year, and then the back seats of our cars became our portable lockers. This holds also for this year in those weeks before Doug Ford banned golf. In addition, we are only allowed to arrive 20 minutes before tee times. And carts are for singles only, unless from the same household. On the course like you, this is because the letter last week had suggested that that's how COVID spreads in carts and in lockers. Well, as Susan's mentioning, both didn't happen last year when golfing was allowed. On the course like you, I'm usually in the woods and that's well distance from my foursome.

No rakes and bunkers and no touching flagsticks. Lastly, after the round, we all headed to our own cars and drove home. Golf was 100% safe last year, as it is this year. Unfortunately, the Premier, Doug Ford, in Ontario, instead of listening to the Science Advisory Committee, listened to his Yahoo buddies, and thus Ontario is the only place in North America golf is not played. My only conclusion is that he has alienated and ticked off much of the conservative base with this ridiculous move.

Close non-essential workplaces if you want to curb the spread, or sorry, close non-essential workplaces if you want to curb the spread of COVID. That's Susan Hall in Toronto. I'll tell you a quick little story. I used to belong to the Toronto Ladies Club, which is a beautiful course in the north end of Toronto. And well, I shouldn't say I belong to it. I was what they called a courtesy card holder. So I was allowed to play there, but I wasn't a member. Obviously at the Toronto

Ladies Club, the only people who were allowed to be members were ladies. And they didn't really have, they didn't have a proper change room for men. You kind of changed in the basement if you needed to change to go play golf, including just putting your golf shoes on, all that stuff. Well, some of us, what we used to do is we'd just change in the car. We'd get there, we'd park in our designated men's area for courtesy card holders, and we'd kind of change into our golf shoes there and just go straight out to the first tee.

One year I brought my friend, Ray Natishan, who was the governor general at the time, wanted to play the ladies club. He'd heard so many things about it. So he was down in Toronto for something. And I said, okay, great, let's go. And we drove out there. You know, the Mounties have to follow us.

And we get there and they pull into the parking lot, which was basically an area of the parkland that surrounds the golf course. And he said, what are we doing here? And I said, well, this is where you change. This is the clubhouse. This is where you change. So there he was, the Governor General of Canada. He, you know, he had a suit on, so he had to strip down

and quickly change into some golf pants and a golf shirt and put his golf shoes on. And then off we went on to the golf course. Had a wonderful time. Nice round of golf. It's a beautiful course. And so I always remember that scene to the governor general in the back of the car changing,

moving on. Now this is a very, this is a one-line letter. But there's a reason I'm reading it. It's from Vince St. Angelo. Thanks for your show. I find it informative and enjoy the medical experts with whom you discuss COVID issues. So why am I reading Vince's one-line letter?

It's because he's writing from Forest, Virginia, in the U.S., listening to us on Sirius XM, which goes across North America, a clear signal. And Vince, in the heart of the USA, a clear signal and Vince in the heart of the USA not far from the capital where you have all the so-called experts from Tony Fauci on down

giving advice who does Vince like listening to? he likes listening to the medical experts we talk to on the bridge from Halifax and Toronto and Hamilton and Edmonton. And that's great to hear. Nice to know.

Thank you, Vince. Next letter is from Tammy Gonsalves. Gonsalves. Gonsalves. I'm sorry, Tammy. You know, I don't have a clue how to pronounce your last name. But Tammy writes. She's got a 647 phone number, so I guess she's in this kind of Toronto area. I'm in the midst of reading Extraordinary Canadians.

That was the book I wrote with Mark Bulgich last year, number one bestseller. Great book, still selling. Wonderful stories about it. Guess what? Extraordinary Canadians. So Tammy writes, I'm in the midst of reading Extraordinary Canadians

and I'm so proud that my niece Jessica Grossman of Uncover Ostomy is featured in this inspiring collection of stories. I'm not a writer but have embarked on a project very similar to your publication. Several years ago I interviewed half a dozen or so incredible survivors and want to share their stories. These people include a Holocaust survivor, a burn victim, and a woman pronounced dead at the scene of a car crash, to mention just a few. I'm sure you're inundated with similar claims of book ideas, but was wondering if you might be interested in learning more. Reading your book seems to be the push I've needed to revisit this book idea. I feel I've done an injustice to these people who trusted me with their stories,

although I have yet to share them after all these years. Tammy, stay focused. Work at your book at your pace and in the way you want to do it. You know, writing a book isn't easy. It takes time, it takes dedication, and it takes a clear idea in your own mind what it is you want to put forward. And so you don't need to talk to others about those things. You can work those things out yourself.

I'm working on another book project right now and hope to have my next book out this fall. Very different than the one that I wrote with Mark last year. But I've found it an extremely relaxing thing to do, is to write. And in my broadcast years, including today with the podcast, it's just sort of, you know, winging it a lot of the time. Writing a book is a whole different discipline. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

Keith Brady, a lot of people seemingly forgot to say where they were writing from this week, which is, you know, I really implore you to do that if you can, because it helps us understand kind of where we're coming from and the way the country is responding. So Keith Brady writes, the fact that Canada has caught the U.S. in first doses is moot. And we have. I think we've now actually passed them in first doses. Not second doses, first doses. And in my opinion, that's not a moot point at all.

That's a very significant point. I mean, keep things in perspective. A year ago, we were in the midst of this pandemic, and nobody had any idea whether we'd ever find a vaccine to help us defeat the pandemic. Just simply a year ago, and we were being told it could take five to ten years before there was a vaccine. We had a vaccine and we're starting to use it just before Christmas of last year. So, you know, less than five months ago. And already, you know, what is it, half the population in this country have received

a first dose, at least a first dose. And those numbers are going up quite quickly because we're being flooded with vaccines right now. Second doses, first and second doses, in other words, fully vaccinated, our numbers are still way back, way down, single digits. But this country took the position that it was more important to vaccinate at least partially as many people as possible before focusing on fully vaccinated. Partially vaccinated still gives you a tremendous degree of protection. I think it's around 80%. Also, we didn't have a, we couldn't produce our own vaccine.

And that is a question, a serious question for politicians of all stripes, because successive governments have allowed that to happen. But that's just simply a fact right now. But I don't think it's a moot point that we've caught and passed the United States in first doses. Anyway, not to interrupt Keith's flow too much here, because he clearly has strong feelings about this. We as a country were woefully unprepared for a pandemic. I'm not sure who was

prepared for a pandemic. It certainly wasn't our friends south of the border. But they reacted very quickly and poured billions and billions of dollars into preparing for the pandemic.

We've spent a lot, too. Anyway, okay, Keith, I won't interrupt any more of your letter. I'll just read it. We as a country were woefully unprepared for a pandemic, negligently unprepared. What is more important to governance than public health? A sick population equals no economy, inability to defend itself. So we are now catching up? Well, good for us.

But we're still in the distance in terms of being locked down. It is shameful for a modern first world country to find itself in the position of the third world. Hell, we even absconded vaccine from the disadvantaged and the dispossessed. Not something to feel good about. Sure, we're catching up, but the government dropped the ball at the outset and before. Do you mean governments or government? Was it all just the federal government's responsibility how this was dealt with and is being dealt with? People have died and lives have been turned upside down as a result. The government has little to brag about.

I'm not sure anybody's bragging, any government. History will not be kind to this administration's handling of this pandemic, and it may well not be, to the federal government, to a series of provincial governments, which have, you could argue, mishandled the situation. And those investigations and accountability sessions and commissions of inquiry will take place. They should take place. And I believe they will take place.

All right, Keith, I see, you know, it's clear you have strong views on this and good for you that you do. I just don't agree with all of them. Which is my right, just as is's yours to make the claims you did. Matthew Smith from North York, Ontario. Matthew's not happy with me either. I had no idea you were skeptical about the whole UFO, UAP subject matter. Yes, my phone is ringing, but I can't answer it because I'm in the studio. So I'll just keep on going here. I had no idea you were skeptical about the whole UFO UAP subject matter. Yes, we do live in a time where graphic artists

can conjure up the latest CGI and create some spectacular flying discs and post it online and claim it as a real saucer. Is this where you raise your eyebrows and claim that it's all hogwash? I don't think I said it was all hogwash. But I've been through, you know, I'm in my 70s. I've been through different periods of my life where I've been a big believer in conspiracy theories, including UFOs.

And I've been in periods in my life where I've decided, you know, I think that's stretching the imagination a bit. And I guess it would be fair to say that's the period I'm in right now. If so, where do you stand on the Roswell 47 incident? I stand in the same place I stand on most of these. I think there are lots of explanations of possibilities of what may or may not have happened. And I do find it fascinating that while parts of the United States are not the only places in the world where UFOs are seen, there seems to be an inordinate number that just happened in the United States. What about the Falcon Lake, Manitoba incident in 1967?

The Royal Canadian Mint even made a $20 glow in the dark flying saucer coin out of that story just a few years ago. I didn't know that. Is it that hard to believe we've been discovered by other beings from distant worlds who have superior technology than us? Or do most of us think that we're all alone in our galaxy or universe? I'm not sure I'll believe that. As I said to you the other day on this podcast, I've talked to astronauts who leave open the question about, are we alone?

Even if the Pentagon releases more proof or footage of UFOs, which they will now call UAP, within the next month or two, what will we as humans do about it? Will most of us be able to process that there are superior beings other than humans and that we're truly not alone in this vastness of space and time. Getting down near the end. All right. Gabriella Zilmer from Toronto. I enjoyed the potpourri this week.

Lots of varied tidbits to keep things really interesting. You brought a smile to my face with an article regarding inflation and your reflections about inflation and interest rates in the 70s and 80s. I remember the time I bought Canada savings bonds at 19.5%. What a great investment. Yeah, it would have been a great investment. But the flip side was when we, as a young couple with barely two cents to rub together, bought our first home. Home prices were going up and I panicked and insisted we needed to buy a home if our baby girl was ever going to have

a backyard. So we looked high and low and bought the house we were in to this day. But our first mortgage was at a rate of 11.5%. We locked in for five years because we were afraid the interest rate would go up and we wouldn't be able to make our payments. Of course, rates have come down and we were able to pay off our mortgage in 15 years by keeping our bi-weekly payments the same or higher. It was a nerve-wracking time for sure. Given how leveraged many people are today in this crazy housing market with these low interest rates, a steep increase in inflation would be devastating. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Thanks for doing the bridge and good talk. I really look forward to my time with you and your guests. And Gabriella, we love having the opportunity to talk with you. And those days were quite something, no doubt about it. The final letter comes from Suzanne Shear. having the opportunity to talk with you. And those days were quite something, no doubt about it. The final letter comes from Suzanne Shear. You remember that name? She had the final letter last week, too. She told this fabulous story about her grandfather.

He was a farmer in the Woodstock area. you. And, you know, we talked about what it was like for VE Day, Victory in Europe Day. And she had passed along some of her grandfather's notes that he'd written, a kind of diary. And it was really quite something, listening to her, to those letters. So what has Suzanne written this week? Well, she felt guilty because she didn't talk about her mom or her grandma. She only talked about her grandfather. So she wrote a very lengthy letter this week, not all of which I'm going to read, where she sent along her notes from her family,

especially notes from her mom, her kind of diary. And I'm going to read one paragraph because it talks about rationing. We tend to forget. You know, their family lived in England at the time. She'd come over to Canada after the war. That's when the family had moved to the Woodstock area to do their farming. Anyway, she talked about what it was like, life was like during the war in England. And the whole issue surrounding rationing, we tend to forget.

Or many of us don't even know, that England and Ireland, Great Britain, the United Kingdom and Ireland, had to be supported in terms of basic goods. A lot of them came across the North Atlantic in the convoys that came from Canada. But in the meantime, they had to ration. A lot of those ships were sunk by German U-boats.

So here's the excerpt I'm reading. During the war, everything was rationed. Each person was allowed per week two ounces of butter, four ounces of sugar, four ounces of tea, one egg, if you could find one, and half a pound of meat. That's per week. My father knew a butcher, so guess what? Also, one could buy canned fruit without coupons. If the shopkeeper had some as well as fresh veggies and fruit, though they were very scarce. If one saw a queue lining up, that meant that the shop had something

and you joined the line no matter what they were selling. The word spread very quickly. When Wimbush's had bread, we got there quick. Wimbush's was the name of one of those stores. Clothes were also hard to get, as we had to give coupons for everything from underwear, stockings, dresses, coats. It was hard knowing you could not buy the dress or coat you'd seen in a certain store without first having to count coupons. Sometimes my sister and I would help each other out if she needed something really bad. I would loan her what she needed.

Then when we got new ration books, she would pay me back. Thanks, Suzanne, for sending in the stories. You know, I've said often in the last year and a half, you should write down your experiences now of going through this pandemic. Because future generations will be just like Suzanne. They will go to those notes that you write today to see what it was like during this time for members of their family and for Canadians in general.

So write things down while it's still fresh in your mind because, you know, six months from now, when we're fully out of this, we'll be grasping at new things to be talking about and thinking about and we'll try to put all this in our past well it's part of our present right now and it's part of our history so let's remember it and let's ensure that future generations get a glimpse of what this period has been like. All right, thanks as always for all your comments and your letters. It's always great for Fridays. I look forward to it. The opportunity for the weekend special, which is really more about you than about me, although sometimes I can't resist commenting, as you can tell.

Have a great weekend. Stay safe. Stay well. We're not out of this yet. We are going to be out of it, but we're going to be out of it by pulling together on all the things you know that we need to do. We'll be back next week, Monday, with our glimpse of where we are in the nation. Wednesday is the weekend special. Sorry, Wednesday is Smoke Mirrors and the Truth. Friday of next week is the weekend special. Tuesday and Thursday, we always have lots of good stuff as well.

So we'll see you then. Go Leafs go. Game two,urday night i can't wait sort of i'm peter mansbridge this has been the bridge thanks for listening we'll talk to you again on monday Thank you.