The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - We're Back! Week 10 Is Underway.

Episode Date: May 19, 2020

How was your long weekend and what did you learn about how to enjoy it? Plus this question -- who does the most house work in your home? A tweet in Japan sets off some pretty good table talk.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here with as a result of the COVID-19 virus that has spread around the world and spread around most of this country. Now, of course, this is a Tuesday after a three-day long weekend. Wasn't that great? Wasn't it great to actually spend some real downtime? Now I know a lot of you have spent a lot of downtime over the last 10 weeks. But even then, there was something about having this break, this kind of holiday long weekend

in May. And for a good chunk of the country, it was a great weekend weather-wise. Here in Stratford, it was, you know, kind of half and half. But still, it was worth it. Saturday was a great day here. You know, it was about 20 degrees. It was sunny all day. It was like a real good spring day. Sunday, Monday, not so much.

It kind of rained. It was cold and windy, but nevertheless, Saturday was great. And it allowed you to truly get out. And, you know, it's after this weekend I've decided that the best place to be and the safest place to be is outside with certain conditions. Okay, listen, we've all got used to our homes. We've been doing the stay-at-home thing for 10 weeks.

And it's been important. And it's been successful. And it should continue. But the idea of getting outside and being physically distant or socially distant from others outside of your family group that you've been living with is a safe way to be. Plus, if you wear a mask. You know, we've been through this whole mask thing

over the last 10 weeks. We've been, yes, wear a mask, don't wear a mask, wear a mask, don't wear a mask. Wear a mask. There's nothing wrong with it. Get used to it. You're going to be seeing masks for months, if not the next couple of years. In many parts of our life, they're just going to be a part of what we do and how we get along and we can get used to it. And you're already seeing just how it's becoming kind of a fashion thing. There's lots of them out there. So we went from no mask, nobody has masks. And where do you get a mask? Do now every time you turn around, there's masks.

You've got to order them online. But there are lots of them, lots of fancy ones. But the main thing is we learned over this last week or so that there are certain elements of practicing our lives now as things start to open up a little bit where outside is okay. Outside can be safe. Certain things you've got to remember.

You know, it's safer outside than it is in the office. It's safer outside than it is in the mall. With fresh air and space, that physical distance, two meters, six feet plus, the risk goes down. If you're worried about the distance thing, about the couple of meters, and you think you get crowded at times, absolutely then wear the mask.

Wear a mask. So I was reading this piece in the New York Times on the weekend. Come ask. So I was reading this piece in the New York Times on the weekend, as I often want to do. A couple of, you know, like sort of kind of basic reminders now that we're kind of loosening the rules a little bit. If you decide to meet friends, you're increasing your risk. But you can take precautions. Keep gatherings small. And within those gatherings, keep the distance.

Don't share food. Don't share utensils. Don't share beverages. Keep your hands clean. Distance. Also claims that life during a pandemic is safer outdoors in part because even a light wind will quickly dilute the virus. If a person nearby is sick, the wind will scatter the virus, potentially exposing nearby people but in far smaller quantities which are less likely to be the risk is lower outdoors, but it is not zero. Okay?

One other thing you're going to be wanting to talk about in the next, well, certainly in the next month, for those who have access to a pool, swimming pool, a community pool, there's one just down the street here. They haven't announced yet the rules about what's going to happen when and if it opens. You'll want to check out what's happening in your neighborhood, or if you have the opportunity to go to the lake, or you can swim in a nearby river. Experts agree, this is according to this New York Times piece, that the risk of swimming in pools, lakes, or the ocean is not from the water, but from

exposure to people in and near the water. So once again, distance. Distance when you're talking pools, or lakes, or rivers, or ocean. And they talked to one of these, you know, experts, a virologist, Angela Rasmussen at the Columbia University, taking a course in public health, or teaches a course in public health. This is quoting her, Dr. Rasmussen, in my opinion, pool water, fresh water in a lake or river or seawater exposure would be extremely low transmission risk, even without dilution. Probably the biggest risk for summer water recreation is crowds. A crowded pool, dock, or beach, especially if coupled with limited physical distancing

or prolonged proximity to others. The most concentrated sources of virus in such an environment will be the people hanging out at the pool, not the pool itself. Okay? So those are all things, you know, to keep in mind as we start to venture more and more outside. Because we will. It's only natural to be outside. It's better for your health.

Gives you all those natural vitamins that you are going to want, you're going to need. So, you know, keep that in mind. Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about this town, about Stratford. I'm going to use it as an example because Stratford is, it's like so many other smaller communities, cities and large towns across the country. They're kind of the many ways the backbone of this place. You know, Stratford is, I don't know, 30, 33,000 people.

And like all its sister communities across the country, and including some of the big cities, or all the big cities, it's been hit hard by this in terms of what it's done to the economy of the town. You know, the most well-known business in Stratford is the Stratford Festival. Happens every year. You know, lots of people come to Stratford every year to see the festival. It's a Shakespearean festival, but there's musicals as well, and there are literally hundreds of thousands of people come to Stratford each year.

So the festival, which brings in, I don't know, two, three hundred million dollars a year into the kind of GDP of Stratford. The festivals had to cancel for this year. So all that incoming money, all those tourists who were coming in to town, not going to happen. So first of all, that's a huge problem for the hotels, the hospitality industry in this community, just like it is in communities across the country.

Hotels, motels, B&Bs. B&Bs are a big deal in Stratford. Restaurants, lots of great restaurants in Stratford, home of the Stratford Chef School, world known. and many of those graduates end up staying in Stratford, at least for a while. And that's why we have some of the best restaurants in the country. So they're all suffering. Local businesses, you know, gift stores and you name it.

They're all suffering. And slowly I drove through the middle of town today to see, well, you know, today is opening up day. If you could, if you want to. And I don't know, 30%, 40% maybe of the stores have opened already. I mean, they've got to go through a bit of prep for this, and they've also got to get their employees back in line. So those are all challenges.

But some of the businesses, there are factories here in Stratford. There's a factory that makes ball bearings for cars and planes and trains. There's a factory that makes rubber moldings for cars. Southern Ontario, lots of communities in Southern Ontario have industry that's supportive of the auto industry. So they were going back to work today as well. Those factories were allowed to reopen. But they had to prepare. And this is the beauty.

This is the main reason I wanted to tell you this story. So I'm driving by on the weekend, and I'm looking at one of the places that does rubber. They got a huge tent outside. I'm wondering, well, what's that for? They're not doing testing here, are they? Are they doing testing for COVID-19? No, but they are prepping. They're prepping their employees for coming back to work.

So it's kind of like a triage tent. And each employee arriving at work will have to go through the tent, have their temperature taken, fill out a questionnaire, they're provided with personal protection equipment, and a health and safety briefing before they enter. Now this is just early going. I think they're only going to be at half staff for the first little while. Half the employees will be back to work, and they'll slowly ramp up.

But they want to set in place the protocols that are going to exist for more than a little while. Get used to it. And that's kind of a signal to what we should probably expect in a lot of different places. So they're doing that over at the ball bearing plant. They're doing something similar with an operation as well. Their triage tent is set up, I think, inside. But the same idea.

And you know what else they're doing? This is what I really like. This is the ball bearing plant. And I think already it's caught on as an idea here locally and probably should nationally as well. I hope it will nationally if it already hasn't. This is what they're doing. One day a week, and this is a plant that employs, you know, hundreds of people, okay?

Once a week, one day a week, they're bringing in lunch for their employees. They're supplying lunch. They'll have it safely put out in kind of dining room area or outside if the weather calls for it for their employees. Where are they getting the food? They're getting the food from one of the restaurants in town that's desperate for business on the takeout front because they've had to replace their whole idea of what a restaurant means

because people can't go in and sit down. So the ball-bearing guys and gals are not only supporting their industry, supporting their employees, they're supporting the local restaurant industry as well. So each week they'll pick a different restaurant. Now, I think that's great. You know that phrase we've been using all along, we're all in this together? We're all in this together here.

And Stratford, I'm sure, is no different than, you know, towns and cities all across the country. Right? I'm pretty sure they're... If they're not already doing that, they will be doing it soon, once they've heard this. And you've told them all about it, right? I think it's a great idea.

Okay, a couple of other points on this, the first broadcast of week 10. And on Friday, when I was reading all those letters from you with your big ideas and there've been more big ideas came in on the weekend and don't worry we'll get to those later this week the mansbridge podcast at gmail.com the mansbridge podcast at gmail.com don't be shy write give us your questions your thoughts your comments and your big idea about how you would take advantage of the opportunity that exists to have a big project, a project that could affect Canadians from coast to coast to coast, could create jobs, and could better our society.

I know you've got some ideas. Anyway, during the broadcast over the weekend, I, at one point, was reading a letter where the writer had written, talking about what she did for a living, said she was a PSW. And I, drifting along, she did for a living, said she was a PSW. And I, drifting along, said, well, public service worker.

Well, in a way, she is a public service worker, but that's not what PSW stands for. PSW, as most of you know, stands for personal support worker. And they could be in hospitals, in long-term care facilities, in retirement homes, any number of places. But PSWs, people who are kind of at the lower end of the wage scale in the health care business, but are right there on the front lines. And that's where she was. So I wanted to correct that first.

And second, I'm told that this is PSW day. So what a day to correct it. Personal support workers. Make sure you're thinking of them tonight at 7 or 7.30 or whatever time it is in your community when you go on your front porch and clap or on your balcony or wherever. Do it. We do it here every night. You know, in our like little neighborhood, we've got a real core group of five or six houses that never misses it. They're fantastic.

You know, one guy's got a drum. Another guy's got a harmonica. Another guy's yelling. My next-door neighbor, who's a doctor, has a trumpet. You know, it feels good. And it only lasts a minute or two, but you hear it kind of reverberating around the city.

It's great. Now the last point I'm making today. I think this is kind of neat. You know what the hottest thing on Twitter was on the weekend? In Japan. It was, it went viral very quickly. And I'm going to tell you about it because I think at the same time,

you can, Quickly. And I'm going to tell you about it because I think at the same time, you can, it's a good discussion point at dinner tonight for your family. See what you can come up with. Somebody did a study in Japan, in this one family, and listed all the household duties that the wife performed and the husband performed. Okay? Want to take a guess at those numbers? Go on, take a wild guess. How many household duties do you think the wife performed

versus how many household duties do you think the wife performs versus how many household duties do you think the husband performs? Now, this is just one household, but the verdict of the viral nature of this on Twitter was that this is probably not that uncommon. common. This particular example, 210 household duties performed by the wife. 210. The husband, 10%. You better do some math at your table tonight. That's every household duty you can imagine. It doesn't matter whether both husband and wife are working, have jobs outside of the home. At the end of the day, that's how the duties split in the house.

Good time for men to be feeling guilty. But at the same time, once again in the New York Times this morning, in an article that kind of plays off of this subject, a suggestion that because we've all been, not all of us, but so many of us have been at home together for weeks on end faced with the running of a home that men are pitching in much more than they ever have before. They're a lot more useful around the house than they've been before.

I don't know, is that the case in your home? You might want to discuss that. All right, there we go. For our first episode of week 10 of the Bridge Daily. Hope you've enjoyed it. Love to hear from you. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. Thanks for listening this Tuesday. I'm Peter Mansbridge.

I'll be back in 24 hours.