The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - What's Going On Inside The Royal Family?

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

Will and Kate versus Harry and Meaghan.  How serious is the royal battle and what damage will it cause?  And can King Charles do anything to fix it.  And, who cares anyway?  Royal commentator Bonnie Brownlee is our guest.But first a story about Carey Price you probably did not know.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. A change of pace today. What is going on inside the royal family? We're about to find out. And welcome to another week into December, heading towards the holidays. And you're right, we're going to talk about the royal family for a bit today. You know, we've dealt with some pretty heavy topics here for the last few weeks. And for good reason. There's a lot of heavy stuff going on out there. Whether it's COVID, whether it's the flu, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's China, whether it's the Emergencies Act, we've been dealing with all of these. But something else has been going on in the last little while that we haven't touched on. We haven't touched on it, in fact, since the death of the Queen.

And, you know, I've spent a good part of my career covering the royal family. You know, weddings and funerals and you name it. Various scandals of one sort or another. And so there's been a lot of stuff going on inside the royal family the last little while, you know, the fights between Harry and Will and Charles as King, all this stuff is sort of going on. So we wanted to try and get a sense of what's really happening. What's at stake here. So in a minute, I'm going to talk to a good friend of mine and somebody who actually knows the royal story, and we'll find out from her.

But first of all, I wanted to mention something that I saw early this morning online, and it's a story about Carey Price. Now, Carey Price is best known as one of the greatest goalies that's ever played in the NHL. He's the goalie for the Montreal Canadiens, but he hasn't played in the last couple of years because he's been injured. And he's been dealing with certain health issues.

So it's going to be a while. Still maybe by the end of this year he may be back. We're not sure. We're not sure what's going to happen there. But this isn't a story about Carey Price and hockey, of which he has a legion of fans, including me, even though I'm a Leafs fan. But Carey Price is Carey Price.

He's a wonder to watch. He also has a Twitter account, which he uses very sparingly and usually only to make a statement of some kind. Well, he's certainly got people talking with a statement he made in the last couple of days. And it's about his opposition to Ottawa's Bill C-21. It's a proposed amendment that would further restrict access to certain firearms in Canada.

This is a debate that's been going on for the last while, and as often happens with gun issues, it is a vigorous debate. Well, Curry Price prides himself in his Indigenous background, prides himself that he loves hunting and fishing, has since he was a little kid growing up in the interior of British Columbia. And so he's come out strongly against certain provisions that are in this new legislation. Now, my little story here is not about the legislation or about that debate. It's about Carey Price.

I guess it was around six or seven years ago that I did a profile on Carey Price. He doesn't often give interviews, and when he does, they're very short. But I actually met Carey Price when Jean Beliveau died. I flew to Montreal to talk to a number of people who had either played with him or were affected by Jean Beliveau. And I was in the Habs dressing room. They'd just had a practice. And Curry Price was sitting in his regular slot

down at one end of the Habs dressing room, and I was further down talking to a couple of the players. And I looked up and I saw him, and he was looking at me, and he waved. And I thought that was odd because I'd never met him before, but obviously he'd seen me he recognized me I guess when he was growing up as a kid he used to see me getting in the way of the hockey games and the playoffs and so I went down shook his hand said hello and that began a well not a friendship, but it began an acknowledgement of each other.

And while he was, that was one of his best years in the NHL. He was having an incredible year. He won all, ended up winning all these different awards. But he was resisting interviews. But I decided I was going to ask for one anyway. And I went through the normal channels, and she came back, sure, you'll spend some time with me. And so I did.

Producer Stephanie Jenzer and I went to Montreal. We spent some time with Carey Price. Here's the point I'm getting to that ties back to this story. As part of our time with Carey Price, we spent some time at his home. Now, he doesn't live in downtown Montreal. He doesn't live out in the country. He sort of lives halfway in between, if you wish, in terms of those two different kinds of living conditions. So he's sort of out there a bit. And one of the surprises, we talk hockey.

You know, obviously he stood out by his truck and talked to the back of his pickup truck. And he said, oh, I want to show you something. So we went into a certain part of his home where he makes his own ammunition. He makes his own bullets. When he goes hunting, it's a very special moment for him. And he takes care and pride in what he does. And he's totally into all the various safety measures.

But to him, he wanted some sense of the ammunition, the bullet, and more so than just picking them up in a box at a store. He wanted to make them, And so he makes his own ammunition, and has apparently for a good chunk of his life. And so when I saw this story this morning online, and this picture of Kerry in his camouflage outfit holding his rifle out in the countryside, I immediately thought of that day, that moment, and that story about, in fact,

he cares about this part of his life. It's been a part of his life since he was a child, and cares to the point that he makes his own shot. So here's a guy who's known for making incredible saves. He also makes incredible shot, so to speak. All right. That's enough. I know. What's the point of that story? The point is, I'm a Carey Price fan. We probably disagree on some issues and may well disagree on this particular one. But this is not just some guy who goes to the local gun store,

pick up his gun and his ammunition and heads out into the land. This is a guy who, since he was a kid, has been doing this. But also, he's the complete hunter, if you wish. Makes his own. All right. Moving on. Moving to the major topic for today and that major topic is the royals

so who did i want to talk to about this i wanted to talk to bonnie brownlee bonnie is um how would you best describe Bonnie? Well, you can maybe go to her profile, where she's talked of as a communication strategist, which she is, a broadcast executive, which she was, and a royal observer, a royal commentator, which she still does for different networks,

different networks around the world. And so Bonnie is sought after at times when things happen within the royal family, and she delivers. So I called her up over the weekend and said, Bonnie, let's talk Royals. I want to try and understand what's going on inside this family, because every day you pick something up, and it's usually centered around this fight between the brothers,

William and Harry. So I wanted to find out what that's all about. So I'm going to take a quick break, and then when we come back, Bonnie Brownlee with us on the Royals. But first, this. and welcome back you're listening to the bridge right here on sirius xm channel 167 canada talks your or your favorite podcast platform and on wednesdays and fridays we're also available on your YouTube channel, our YouTube channel.

So you can actually see the podcast in video form. But that's just Wednesday and Friday. All right. Here's our conversation with Bonnie Brownlee. It's coming up right now. So Bonnie, let's start with, I mean, you've listened to a lot of people talk about the Royals over the years, and you're able to watch from the vantage and listen from the vantage point of actually knowing something about them. So what is it that we miss as sort of ordinary people when we're talking about the Royals?

What is it we miss in trying to understand that life? The easiest thing I would say is that they're kind of ordinary as well. They have their own issues. They struggle within their own family, as we all do. And they're not always aware of how that impacts the outside world. So I would say that over the course of the last year or so, they have started to figure out that they need to try to show who their family is in a much more sort of productive way and how they do live their lives every day. I'd like to expand on that a bit, but let me start by saying that this sounds like the sort of they're just like us argument. I mean, they're not just like us, right?

They're not. No, they're not. But I mean, when they have issues, they're just like us, right? Not everybody's going to like who you happen to marry or not everyone's going to like who you marry into a family. In that sense sense they're human and they have the same sort of reactions to things what their issue is sometimes as we've seen over the last year or so is how to manage that and that's that's some of the work that king charles is trying to figure out today is what is this family and what am i supposed to do with it? I mean, he literally is struggling sometimes

with the behavior of some of the members of the very, you know, tight, immediate family. Well, it's tight and immediate, but it expands as we've witnessed in this last week or so. I mean, all the hits that the family, the bigger royal family took over the, you know, the remarks and the actions of one of their, basically one of their staff. Right. Who'd been around for years, decades. 60 years.

But they all took the hit, right? Well, you know, they've become a bit of a Kardashian story. Like we seem to be able to be going after everything that they're doing. And, you know, William and Harry, this whole situation is not, I think it's quite unfortunate how all of this is starting to play out in public life. Because this is the part of your life or my life that you actually don't want to have talked about on national TV at night or covered in stories. So I think they're just, you know, King Charles has a lot of work to do.

And some of those ladies in waiting, as Lady Susan was for 60 years and the highest honoured lady in waiting ever in the royal household. She was with Queen Elizabeth for 60 years. She would know every secret. And her great title in the end was, I think they called her woman of the bed chamber, which means no one knows more secrets or more inside than the person that holds that very prestigious position. But that is the stuff that has to change. You and I both know it. We've been around this game a long time. And they're not just royals and head of an institution. There's politics involved in this every day. And they're still sorting out the politics of how they manage this royal institution moving forward. And the situation with Lady Susan, who made the mistake, or didn't,

I'm not, you know, we didn't hear the, we think we know what was said in that conversation. And you know, how some of these royal household women would speak after 60 years, you actually think you're the queen. I mean, you know, it happens like that. And an improper use of language would be offensive to a lot of people. And, you know, it's time now for King Charles to find lovely little retirement options and packages for this old archaic protocol that lives within the royal household. You know, Lady Susan, I don't know what advice she's getting, but she could probably make a fortune if she wrote a book. If she has all the secrets, if she knows everything, she should go see a publisher. Yeah, she would never do that.

But, you know, her husband at one point was the chair of the BBC for like 10 or 12 years. So if this was Canada, that would just scream, you know, conflict of interest to all of us. Like how, you know, we'd have issues with that. They sort of let stuff like that sort of slide along. And I think it's just going to become more difficult. You know, for King Charles or Charles, he's now almost into his first 100 days this month. And my advice that anyone wanted to listen to over the coming months has

been, you know, you've got to start making shifts and efforts and starting to show some kind of change for a royal modern monarchy. And he's done, he has done stuff and he's done little stuff, but this now will only, I hope, hasten some of their decisions. You know, you know, some of these players, you've worked with some of these players. How hard is it for you to say, utter the two words, King Charles? I mean, it still doesn't sound right to me somehow, but, you know, obviously it is right.

But how hard do you find it? Do the people in that circle talk like that? Talk about King Charles? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And even the royal correspondents, as you know, it's a very serious role in media in the United Kingdom. Right. And some of them were there when I worked there 25 years ago, like because they stay and do this job to their 80 or 90.

They have less. They like doing it. I mean, you know, they feel very differently. I'm I'm very respectful of the monarchy. I'm just I'm just not sure about you know this whole king charles thing it feels very different and you know we knew we had her majesty the queen for all of our lifetime and she represented something more about sort of you know stability and um uh democracy and our our our civil society you know she represented that and went through a series of wars and her father and the whole family um and we knew less about them than we know now and some people are still mad at charles over princess diana and the divorce and the way she was treated and watching the crown that, you know,

gives them all these inside looks into what they think does go on in that royal household. Okay, I want to talk about the crown in a minute, but first of all, I want to talk about the, I don't know, what do you call it, the battle of the Brothers, the Battle of the Brothers Families, the whatever, you know, Will and Kate versus Harry and Meghan. How real is this stuff and what's the impact of it? Well, unfortunately, it's real. The war, whatever it is between the two brothers is a real situation. And it's actually it's sad to see you know they were quite close growing up and for them to be in this sort of kind of horrible display of bullying and you know

fighting back and forth with each other and it's it's mostly coming from Harry's side because he's in a different space William will go home from this trip in Boston and really start to reflect much deeper on how he will what to do about it because Harry just keeps coming with incoming right like there's there's really no rhyme or rhythm to it it's just sort of attack and you know William's not of that. Like, he would actually not believe in that. So the cuts are deep. What's the root cause? Like, what is it? Why are they at odds?

I'm not 100% sure that even William and Harry know what this is all about. The thing about the royal family is they were quite content for Harry. If you want to go to the United States and marry Meghan and, you know, build a life and not be a working royal, that's actually okay with us. What they don't like is the way they're doing it. And if there's the way of actually doing what Harry and Meghan want to do and be a bit more constructive about it and a bit more professional, You can make a point even with anger, but this is sort of, you know, this is really harmful stuff the way that they're doing it. And I'm not saying they're wrong about that. It's just, it's not the way that I would do it if I

was trying to make a difference at this point. And so because of the harshness and the exchange of, you know, not nice cities between them all, it's deep and it's going to take a while for all of this, if it's ever even possible, to come back together. You know, there seem to be a lot of observers, mainly UK observers, who seem to think that Harry's not the problem, but Meghan's the problem. All this is her. I'm sure to some extent that's true. I mean, you know, Harry comes from this very different background. Meghan Markle is a young woman who was an actress brought up in the United States, just had a whole different view of life.

And I don't know who she's listening to. I don't really know who her advisors or mentors are. And certainly in the position that they're in, you need to surround yourself with the best and the brightest that you can find to actually help you build a strategic plan to make it is whatever it is they're trying to be. And that's the other thing with Megan and Harry. I don't know is they're trying to be. And that's the other thing with Meghan and Harry. I don't know what they're trying to accomplish. I don't know where they're going with all of this.

It's not always clear because they want to be very, very private. But now they're doing a Netflix documentary about their private life, right? So there's a lot of conflict in what they're saying. And they just seem to drop the trailer as Will and Kate are landing in the U.S. for a quick three-day visit, which almost looks like it was deliberate to try and say, hey, we're still over here.

We're still a glittering ball in this picture, too. Yeah, and part of William and Kate too is a lot of it for her is about her clothing and I would actually like at some point to see her be able to start to express herself differently and although she did wear a rented dress to the Earthshot Awards for 75 pounds. So I thought, you know, that all of that is great stuff. But there's going to have to be more to them as they move forward. And I think there will be. Charles will take longer to change because he's way too much a product of the last, you know, 75 years.

Whereas William's got a different view on things. And I think the two of them together, you know, look, if anyone's going to save this to be something of any value to us and the Commonwealth countries around the world, in the end, it's probably going to be William and Kate. Has there been a house cleaning in the palace in terms of, you know, the advisors the Queen had at the end? Are they still there or has Charles brought in, King Charles, sorry, has he brought in a whole new group of people with, you know, new concerns, new thoughts about how to move the royalty forward? They're starting that. They've done some redundancies with positions. There are no longer lady in waiting. They are now companions.

So he's starting to, you know, this doesn't happen quickly, right? Trying to go in and just change something that your mother had kept in place for a hundred years. So, you know, like he's starting to sell off some of her horses, which means the stable people will start to get less. Like there's, you know, changing titles, taking some of the royals off the payroll. Again, it's just taking longer than it should. And because he is a king, he doesn't have an election in four years. He can sit there until he dies. But yes, there is a cleaning up to some extent going on for all of them.

And the one name you haven't mentioned so far is Camilla. So how does she fit in this picture? Is she his closest advisor? Would she have major influence on the way he handles this situation? For sure. I quite like her. I think she's been through, you know, a bit of a time with the Brits when they first got back together. But Camilla is, she gets the royal family.

She's of them and prince philip loved spending time with her because she's funny and she was articulate and she could you know she liked to ride horses and she had all of that about her but the thing that's been um good for her is are the royal uh reporters the correspondents they've followed her for the last 16 or 17 years since she's been married uh to king charles and they like her and they see that she is just trying to go out there every day and do her job and she keeps the status quo so you saw you know some of the incidents during the queen's funeral where he lost his temper and they caught it on camera. Like she's the one that just sort of keeps all that, you know, going.

And people genuinely in the UK, they've turned on her. They like her. If you know what I'm saying, like they've come around to understand that she's kind of solid. Yeah, it is funny how that's changed because after Diana died and before Diana died, there was this feeling that she'd ruined everything for the royals and certainly for Charles. And over the 15 or 20 years since, she's managed to change that around. And you look at that and you try to take a lesson from that as something that, you know, could Meghan Markle have that kind of, you know, change?

Because it's clearly the UK press doesn't like Meghan Markle. I mean, if they can find a way to make her look bad, they find it. But I think you're right, Peter. I mean, Camilla was a very good example of how you actually can change an image and a brand, even though in many ways she didn't actually do anything wrong. Right. They should have just let Charles marry her in the first place. Right. Then we wouldn't have been dealing with all of this. But yeah, and I'm not even saying Meghan Markle's a bad person at all. I just think she's trying to make a stand about something. So I would make the stand clearer and better. I would just do it. There's never anything wrong with kindness in life, right, to make a point.

Yeah, I'm still stuck on you saying they should have just let him marry Camilla at the beginning, which is probably true. You know, he was clearly in love with her when he married Diana. But if that had happened, then those of us who are unabashed Diana lovers would never have had Diana in our lives, right? Exactly. That wouldn't have been fair. Okay, The Crown. You know, we all watch it, or most of us watch it, and it seems to be taking a bit of a beating in this year, what is this, year four or five? I think it's five.

I can't remember. There's been a lot of criticism of it as totally made up this time around. But what's your take on it? I mean, you've watched it. You sit there and sit there for all these all these years too so and you know what it's like inside so what did you think of it or what do you think of it today the first season or two i actually thought they had it was very close to the bone if you will like it it they had insider stuff, and they did reflect how they did live

and how the queen always called her mother mummy and how they call her mummy, and all the grandkids call her granny, all that kind of stuff. But the last season that I watched, I found it a little unfair, I thought, to both the Princess of Wales and to Queen Elizabeth I don't think Diana to me was never quite that um naive or um or silly or feeling sorry for herself or crying in the corner all the time as they did portray her a bit in the last season and also the Queen they made her very unaware of life in general outside of,

you know, the palace. And to some extent, being the Queen for that long, you would be living a bit in an ivory tower. But she wasn't that unaware of things. She had enough, you know, advisors and friends and people around her that kept her pretty well aware of what was going on. And that was part of the role of her six lady in waiting is that when they attended all these cocktail parties, they pick up, you know, tidbits. And when they go to dinner, you know, they, they bring back information. So I just, I thought it was just a little, I don't know, there were moments of it that I found a bit kind of uncomfortable just watching, thinking that's not how that would have happened at all. Of course, the problem is, you know, it wasn't a documentary, although we tended to look at it that way anyway, even though we were continually told, hey, it's not a documentary, it's a drama, and we've taken certain liberties. It just seems like, you know, I guess last year and this year, they've really gone to

the liberty train to figure out what they can do with this to make it more interesting. I would say the one they've captured really well all the way through, though, is Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister, and her kind of role in this. You know, even when they showed her in her apartment at kensington palace which is where william and kate live now hers was she was very fashionable so hers was it's the best decorated you know she had such great taste her clothing her jewelry the cigarettes the champagne the wine like that part of her was real. And actually she was refreshing. She at least brought some, you know, dynamic, you know, feeling and fun into any room.

And she would sing at pianos and she would drink too much. And she would, cause you know, she would understand a little bit about what Harry's feeling like being the spare, which is what he, as you know, what he's called his book. And, you know, even to some extent, when you think about Prince Andrew. Sure. Walking around with nothing to do. There's not a great track record of the spares, right?

No. Even the Queen's father was the spare until the abdication happened, right? No. Even the Queen's father was the spare until the abdication happened, right? And then, you know, he suddenly had to transition to being the main guy. But whether it's, you know, Andrew, whether it's Harry, whether it was Princess Margaret, I love the way they portrayed Princess Margaret too, although I thought they missed the best part of Princess Margaret, which was John Turner. Yes, exactly. If you believe some, including J&T himself, he was the love of her life, right? And it didn't work, so that's that. But anyway, that's the Canadian ankle to the ground, and they missed it.

Okay, last question. Try to put yourself five years forward or ten years forward, because this impacts everything. It impacts our own relationship with the monarchy. But where do you see the royals five years from now? Can they get out of this mess that they seem to be in? And if they can, how should we think they may be perceived at that time? There's a lot of apologies and things that need to happen with the royal family, as you know, within Commonwealth countries.

I think one of the ways forward is I think the narrative and the language around some of our relationship as Commonwealth countries will have to change. And I think King Charles should be the one that starts to lead that so that there can be a little forgiveness and maybe the strings a little bit of the monarchy are loosened on some countries. Because the Commonwealth does great stuff in terms of education and feeding people in schools. You know, it's endless what they've done. And even King Charles, his own charities have done great work. So I think that's one pathway forward to show that they are changing and that they are becoming more modern and that they're trying to redirect funds to other areas and not just royal households. And hopefully, you know, look, how long will Charles live? Is he going to be 96 like his parents or 99? Or, you know, God willing, he lives a long and good life. So we will see the roles of William and Kate continue to expand. We will see Sophie and her husband, Wessex,

start to take on a larger role. George will be five years older as well. And we'll start to see, I think, a different display. So unless they show some real sense of understanding what's going on in the world, I think in a deeper and richer way, you know, we will still continue to struggle with them. I mean, you know as well as I do that it's not, we can't just dismiss them tomorrow. It's constitutional to our country, right? So it's, this is not something that you do simply or with ease. I just hope that they find that pathway,

that they can actually start to show real change and real contribution to societies as a whole. And I believe what they will do with Harry and Meghan is they will let them be. If they don't want to come back, if there is no forgiveness, I think they will just let them continue to be where they are. And I don't know how successful

they will be in five years from now. Yeah. Well, you know, it'll be an interesting story to continue to watch on so many different levels. Listen, Bonnie, it's always great to talk to you, but this has been fascinating to listen to your thoughts about what we're witnessing. And best to you and best to your husband, Bill Fox,

who's a friend of this program and has been on it a number of times. And Bill got his Order of Canada the other day. So both Bonnie and Bill were back at Rideau Hall for that ceremony where they've been many times in the past. Thanks, Bonnie. You take care. Thank you, Peter. Bonnie Brownlee.

And thank you to Bonnie Brownlee for her time and, you know, her thoughts on this story. I know it's not exactly the headline story that you're used to hearing on this program, but it is a story that I enjoy talking about. And I think, you know, it's of interest what's happening in that family and its relationship to this country. We all have feelings about this one way or the other, and, you know, maybe hearing some of this stuff will help

on how you think about it as well. All right. NBIT time. Time for a few NBITs. You know, for the last month or so, on Mondays, we've talked books. As we're into the major book buying season, as people get their gifts ready for the holidays. And books are always a large part of that. So if you're planning on picking up books for friends and relatives, you probably should

make your move soon, or they're going to run out. There are supply chain issues in some areas of the book world. But this first-hand bit is about the book world. Now, these stats are American, and I'm not sure whether they necessarily correspond in Canada. Excuse me, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did. More American readers, this is the headline in The Hill, more American readers are choosing fiction over fact. They're blaming this. They blame everything on Trump,

that people are moving away from reality and they just want to get, you know, tell me a good story. Non-fiction book sales have fallen by 2% since 2019. That doesn't sound like much, but fiction sales have seen a 45% surge. And as a result of all

this, some books that had been expected to do really well this fall are not doing well. New titles by Vice President, former Vice President Mike Pence, the world's most boring man, former White House advisor Jared Kushner, New York Times star Maggie Hagerman,

and former First Lady Michelle Obama have all underperformed. That's interesting. Readers purchased 158 million fiction print books this year through November 19th, according to BookScan, which covers most U.S. transactions. Non-fiction sales

totaled 240 million. As a share of all print books, fiction titles have risen from 31% of the adult market to 40% in just three years. So, you know, nonfiction is still outselling fiction, but you understand what we're saying here. The percentages of increases in both areas are different,

and the advantage at the moment is going to fiction. People just want to be entertained, not depressed. Here's another end bit. It's a seasonal one. You got kids who write to Santa. You got grandkids who write to Santa. Write now. Okay, now is the time to write.

If you want to reply. And this is from Canada Post. Here's Santa's address. Santa Claus. North Pole. H-O-H-O-H-O. H-O-H-O-H-O. So you just write Santa Claus, North Pole, H-O-H-O-H-O, Canada. And if you send that letter, Canada Post says we will make sure he gets it. Sacks of letters, they say, are arriving at the North Pole and our postal elves are busy helping Santa with his mail.

Learn about our Santa letter writing programs for caregivers and teachers. And if you want to make sure you get that letter to Santa, you better send it now. And you may even hear back from Santa. Include a return address in your letter and Santa will send you a letter back. The deadline's coming up fast, December 9th. Okay?

Just in a few days' time. So there you go. One more in bit, and it's kind of related. It's a postal related thing. You know, we see these stories every once in a while. Every six months you'll see

a story like this. This one's headlined. It's in an online thing called VT Digger. Giving thanks for a postcard that just arrived after a 101-year journey. You know, I don't believe this stuff. You know, it means it was sitting behind a box somewhere. Town letter carrier Viv Woodland knew something was strange the moment she tried to deliver the postcard.

It wasn't simply that the person it was penned to, Holland Smith, didn't live at the listed Brattleboro address. The color of the sunny California orange grove on the flip side looked more like sepia. The stamp was purchased for a penny rather than the current 44 cent rate and the postmark seemed to be a year old from 21. On second look make that 101 years old because it was from 1921. So begins the story of a head-scratching postcard and what the family of its late recipient hopes will see as its larger message.

It all started March 28, 21, when a telephone operator named Lena brought the card that pictures the succulent city of Pomona, California, framed by a backdrop of frosty mountains. I don't know. And then it goes on with all the different possibilities of why the postcard arrived late.

Listen, we're happy that it arrived. Probably no one there that it was intended for, of course. But that's okay. It makes for good copy. And every, as I said, every six months or so, we find a letter like that, or we see a story like that about some letter that's been, you know, hidden behind a bookcase or fallen down a crack in a floor,

and they make it sound like it's actually been in the system and it's been on trains and boats and planes and it's gone all over the world and finally it made its way back to where it was supposed to go. Whatever. That's why they call them end bits. Because it means it's ended. It's over. Just like we are for this day.

Coming up tomorrow, it's Brian Stewart Day. It's Tuesday. Brian Stewart with his latest take. And we had a letter last week saying, how does he find out all this stuff that nobody else seems to know, and then, of course, it becomes true. Well, we'll ask him that. So that's tomorrow, Brian Stewart on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Wednesday, Smoke Mirrors No Truth with Bruce Anderson, and that one is available also on the YouTube channel. Thursday, it's the Random Ranter, and I've got a great new angle to the Random Ranter story that I look forward to telling you on Thursday, plus your turn. So if you have something you want to say about anything, send me a note. Send it now. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com.

The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. Friday, as always, good talk with Chantelle Hebert and Bruce Anderson. Thanks for listening on this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.