The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Who Should Pick The New Governor-General?

Episode Date: February 18, 2021

It's potpourri Thursday and there's lots to choose from.  Who should pick the next Governor-General, Bitcoin; forgotten passwords; pandemic passports; where Canadians really miss visiting Americans; which food has become our favourite thanks to Covid-19; and have you hit the pandemic wall?  All that and more.

Hello there, I'm Peter Mansbridge. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. Today, among other things, have you figured out how Bitcoin works yet? Don't worry, I haven't either. And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here, the latest episode of The Bridge. We've got lots on tap for today. Let me start with, well, one of the news stories that I kind of woke up to this morning. It's the latest survey from our friends at the Angus Reid Institute. And it's about the appointment of a new Governor General. As you know, the government of the day is looking at that appointment to fill in for Julie Payette, who resigned

amidst questions about her operation at Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General, although she never lived there apparently. Too busy having things done to it. Anyway, the questions that the Angus Reid Institute were asking were basically around the position of Governor General, and they asked some interesting questions, and the answers are equally interesting. They wanted to know whether Canadians felt that the hiring of the new Governor General should be made by the Prime Minister as it has historically been made,

even though there have been attempts to have a parliamentary committee come up with a short list or even recommend who it should be. But Julie Byatt was picked by Justin Trudeau. That was a straight-up hiring of the GG by the prime minister. So Canadians were asked, who should actually hire the successor? And 9 out of 10 of those asked by the Angus Reid group, 91%, say that decision should be up to a parliamentary committee rather than at the sole discretion of the Prime Minister.

There are other findings. Canadians across the country have competing ideas about what to do with the Governor-General role. In Quebec, a full majority, 63%, would eliminate the position altogether. But elsewhere, residents are kind of divided between eliminating, reducing, or even expanding the purview of the position. Overall, the numbers suggest that most people would like a full examination of the role. Those who say they would reduce the purview of the position,

approximately one in five Canadians, are most likely to say they would eliminate the Governor General's place as a symbolic leader of the Canadian Armed Forces if they could change the job. While half of Canadians support continuing to recognize the Queen as head of state, remember the Queen is the head of state for Canada, head of government is the Prime Minister. Just one-third say they would like Canada to remain a monarchy for coming generations. This is down 10 percentage points over the past five years.

I think those numbers are going to change significantly when the Queen is gone. The Queen's not going to live forever. And within the next five or 10 years, we're going to be faced with that reality. And when we are, there may be some hard decisions made on the part of the Canadian people

about how they feel about the monarchy. All right, Thursdays is, if you've listened to this podcast, broadcast over the last year or so, Thursdays is pretty much a potpourri day. You know how people coupon clip? Some people love to clip coupons. It used to be a big deal when you got daily newspapers. Now you get flyers in the mail.

And there are often coupons in there to give you deals at the grocery store, the drugstore, or wherever else. And some people make a kind of habit of serious coupon clipping, and they save hundreds of dollars. I don't coupon clip. Perhaps I should, but I don't. What I do do, I do do, I save stories. Sort of every morning when I get up, I kind of comb the internet looking for stories of newspapers around the world that I follow. So many of the stories that I save are not Canadian by nature because I'm seeing those all the time. And we deal with them, of course, here.

But on Thursdays, I like to kind of scan the world and find other stories as well. That's why I call it potpourri because it could be anything. It could be any possible story that I find, in some fashion, interesting. And so I save those, and I get this big, you know, I've got a big pile of these stories that I've saved over weeks. After about a month, I say, okay, you know, I'm

never going to get to this one, and I file it. You know where. But others, well, they bubble to the top, and this is one of those days, because it's Thursday. It's potpourri day. Have you ever forgotten your password? Yeah, it's not that uncommon, right? And the problem with forgetting your password, then you start to tend to use the same password for everything so you're not going to forget it.

And that's dangerous. All the security people will tell you don't do that. So you should maybe write them down somewhere and then forget where you wrote them down. But that's the idea behind passwords. Now, most places where you need a password, if you've forgotten your password, there'll be a separate link there. You know, forgot your password, and you go through a little process and you end up getting a new password. However, there's one place that doesn't allow you to do that.

And it's already a place that I can't figure out anyway, and that's the whole issue around Bitcoin. You know, I have tried to understand cryptocurrency, and I know I should try harder, because clearly it's a very interesting situation that is playing out on the world currency markets because Bitcoin is, I don't know, the last time I looked a couple of days ago

was like $50,000 US for one Bitcoin. And these were things that, whatever, five, 10 years ago people thought was play money, right? And they just kind of ignored it. You could get it for, you know, whatever it was, a few bucks. But now it's worth a lot of money. As I said, somewhere, you know, earlier this week it was around 50,000 US dollars for one Bitcoin. I don't even know what it is. I don't know what you do with it. I mean, do you, do you put it in your parking meter? Where do you, what what you do with it. I mean, do you put it in your parking meter?

What do you do with a Bitcoin? Anyway, apparently, the big issue for some Bitcoin members is they can't get at their Bitcoin because they've forgotten the password they need to go in and get it. So I'll read just a couple of lines from this New York Times story. It was published last month. It's about a fellow, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco. He only has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, and that was a month ago, $220 million US. So if that's what it was worth a month ago, it's worth at least twice that much now.

The password will let him unlock a small hard drive known as an iron key, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. I don't know. He's tried. You get, apparently you got 10 guesses at your password. He's done eight of them.

So he's obvious. And then after you've done all 10 and you don't get it, you're toast. Your Bitcoin is bit fled. It's gone. At least that's my understanding of it. The dilemma, says the New York Times, is a stark reminder of Bitcoin's unusual technological underpinnings, which set it apart from normal money and give it some of its most vaunted and riskiest qualities. With traditional bank accounts and online wallets, banks like Wells Fargo and other financial companies like PayPal can provide people the passwords to their accounts or

reset lost passwords, right? As for his lost password and inaccessible Bitcoin, Mr. Thomas has put the iron key in a secure facility he won't say where in case cryptographers come up with new ways of cracking complex passwords. Keeping it far away helps him try not to think about it, he said. I got to a point where I said to myself, let it be in the past just for your own mental health. I wonder if he's tried 1, 2, 3, 4.

Can you imagine? You hit the gold mine with Bitcoin and you can't remember how to get your Bitcoin out of your digital safe. If that was my problem, I'd probably figure out a way to live with it. There's so many other problems in our world today. And one of them, of course, is the pandemic.

Interesting to see, this could be the beginning of a trend apparently it's the first move by a country denmark has announced plans to introduce digital passports by the end of this month and those digital passports will show whether or not that right, you've had a vaccine. Okay? Now, will Denmark just be the beginning of this trend? Almost certainly. With a population of 5.8 million people, Denmark weathered the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis with a relatively low rate of infection and death.

The Scandinavian country experienced an all-time high surge in new COVID-19 cases in December when the third wave hit, and that's when they, shortly after that, they started doing the vaccines. So they're going to, excuse me, they're going to go whole hog into the digital passport arena, and those passports will show whether or not you've had a vaccine, which is going to make life a lot easier when you're, say, crossing borders, getting on airplanes, Perhaps going into restaurants. Hotels.

How long will it be before we see something like that? The Washington Post, that story, by the way, about the Danish passports, was in Healthcare IT News, which you can find online. The Washington Post has a story that kind of looks at the way we've been living in this last year

and the impact it's had by the fact that we've been living, many of us, in our homes. Those who've been asked to stay at home, whose work is not essential that forces them or asks them to go to, whether it's frontline health care workers or grocery store clerks, you know the list. So the Post has done this survey, a fairly significant one, trying to understand what this has meant, being cooped up, which I guess is a negative way of looking at it,

but cooped up with your family for almost a year. This is the result from their surveying. About one in eight were home alone. Two in five were home with kids. Almost half were in a household with another adult who was also suddenly sent home. More than two-thirds were home with another adult, such as a stay-at-home spouse or retiree. That's based on almost 90 million American adults who the U.S. Labor Department classified as being

forced home by the coronavirus pandemic for at least some of last May, which was the typical month that they focused in on, which is probably fairly representative overall of most months that the pandemic has been in play. So what impact has all that had? That's also what the survey was trying to find out. At the height of the pandemic,

most working Americans spent at least a few weekdays at home. Some were laid off. Some were working remotely. But most had one thing in common. They were suddenly spending long hours inside a single house or apartment with the same few family members.

It will stand as one of the fastest, most sweeping shifts of human behavior in modern history. That's the conclusion of the Washington Post. At one point, almost half the population spent more than 18 hours a day in their homes, according to the location data provider's safe graph. The people we usually see most during waking hours, our co-workers,

were replaced by our spouses and children. The places we see most, workplaces, bars, grocery stores, were replaced by extended hours in our homes and lengthy hours in front of the television set. You might want to do a look at your own situation. Try to come up with an average week for yourself. And if you can remember, compare it to what was happening more than a year ago in your life. And look at how it's changed and what impact you think that's had on you.

Now, I'm a board member of the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation, which is working towards trying to help young children, and we're talking primarily of grade school kids, not exclusively, but primarily, in terms of literacy. There's a shocking number of Canadian kids actually fall under the area of not being literate. And so we're trying to help that. And this started a few years ago,

but now we are faced also, and primarily right now, with the issue of the impact of the pandemic on kids. Stress, anxiety, mental health. So we're finding ways, we're looking at ways, and that's what yesterday's board meeting was about, to try and do that. And it's funny because, well, it's not funny, but it's challenging right now. And really important that we look at this because the various studies that are coming out, and there was a new one out in Germany last week, suggests that children really are at the pointed end

of this mental health issue. A new survey of children, and I'm reading from Associated Press here, a new survey of children in Germany I'm reading from Associated Press here, a new survey of children in Germany suggests that the stress and deprivations of the coronavirus pandemic are taking a toll on their mental health, especially among those from underprivileged families, researchers said Wednesday. This is a new study coming out of Hamburg. One in three children, German children, are suffering from pandemic-related anxiety,

depression, or are exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. The long-term impact of this we haven't even thought about yet, especially

on that generation of young kids. And so researchers, scientists, and governments, and private organizations like the Canadian Children's Literacy Foundation, you can look us up on the internet, you'll see what we're doing, trying to accomplish. Here's one for you. You know, we had our borders closed for what, almost a year? And most people say, that's okay. The Americans have a problem. We don't want their problem. Keep those borders closed. Not everybody's saying that. This piece in the New York Times about Canada.

A couple of weeks ago, David McMillan, the co-owner of Montreal's famed Temple of Gluttony. If you've ever been here, you know what it means by that. Joe Beef. He used to spend his days obsessing over his signature dishes like rabbit with mustard sauce, lobster spaghetti. These days, however, he has another preoccupation, studying American vaccination rates. He wants Americans back, and he wants them back soon because he, like a lot of other restaurants that cater to tourists,

are losing a lot of income. You know, Joe Beef was known all over North America, right? He had clients and customers from New York and Boston, Los Angeles. The waiting list was supposedly 10 weeks long to get a table. And Joe Beef. So what's all this meant? Weekly revenues for Joe B for $150,000 Canadian dollars

based on American tourists. $150,000 a week just for the Americans. David McMillan told the New York Times, When the Americans were here every night, it felt like we were putting on a Broadway show. No kidding. Well, it's a question many in the Canadian tourism industry have also been asking.

When are they coming back? Ever since the border was closed, the loss of American visitors armed with their strong dollars and consuming zeal has buffeted popular destinations like Montreal and Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver, already reeling from a debilitating pandemic. Canadian airlines are forced to make thousands of layoffs. More than two-thirds of the 21 million international tourists

who came to Canada in 2019 were from the U.S. That represented close to $9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue to Canada. No wonder they're sitting there waiting. What was your favorite food in 2020? The year of the pandemic. We're still in it, 2021. Make a recovery here on other kinds of food but apparently the most popular food

in 2020 was i'm waiting have you got an answer i'll give you a clue it starts with a p pizza pizza over the first nine months of 2020. The combined revenue of Domino's and Papa John's, these are, you know, both in the States. Domino's here as well. Is Papa John's in Canada? I don't know.

Domino's certainly is. Anyway, the combined revenue of those two grew so much that it was roughly equivalent to their selling about 30 million more large cheese pizzas than they had the year before. In fact, when you look at the growth in food sales, pizza and chicken are the only food categories expected to have grown. This from a big feature, also in the New York Times. Pizza, pizza, pizza. Revenues of those two places up 12% are $434 million. and if you're an investor

in the past year Domino's stock soared 40% to $385 a share back in 2008 a dozen years ago you could have picked up Domino's shares for $3 a share. $3 a share. Who needs Bitcoin when you got Domino's? All right.

Still to come. Have you hit the pandemic wall yet? Okay, I mentioned the airline story a moment ago. And you know me. Airline stories, I love them. They finally come up and crunch the official numbers for 2020 in terms of how many, what the drop in passengers was for 2020. Now remember you had the first, basically the first three months, certainly the first two months. A year ago this week, I was overseas traveling, having a great time. I was in the UK. I was in England and Scotland and the Netherlands.

But within days of coming back, that was it. Boom. No more flying. Haven't been on a plane since. Anyway, they crunched the numbers, and they've come up with the final figures for U.S. Airlines, and I imagine we're somewhat similar in terms of percentage. U.S. Airlines, according to the Axios,

carried about 60% fewer passengers in 2020 compared with 2019. Now, actually, that number surprised me. I thought it was going to be higher than that. But they're saying overall for 2020, so that includes January and February and half of March, 60% fewer passengers than the year before. The biggest decrease happened in April, with a 96.1% drop from the previous year.

December saw a 61% decrease in the previous year, slightly more than the 60% decline in November. So there's news we tell you about that you already knew. Airlines took it on the chin throughout last year, as did much of the tourism business. And remember what I say about the tourism business. Don't slough it off. This is big time important for our economy.

10% of Canada's economy is in some fashion related to tourism. One out of every 10 jobs has something to do with tourism, direct or indirect. So that is a very important part of our big economic picture. Okay. Here's the last story, and I think we're all, and you see it

and hear it in me every once in a while. We're all a part of this kind of hitting the wall on the pandemic story, you know. I've had it. I can't take anymore. That kind of feeling. Some days you just wake up and go, I really, I can't take it anymore. So we talk about the pandemic wall.

We've hit the pandemic wall. It could be, you know, I'm sick of eating this for lunch or supper because I've made it so many times in the last year. That's the wall. I'm sick of doing this or that or whatever has become a part of my routine on a daily basis because I've hit the pandemic wall. So here's a different way to look at it. Where does that hitting the wall expression come from? Well, as best as I can see, aided by a piece in the Washington Post, the pandemic wall is a steal from running, from the marathon race.

In marathon running, hitting the wall is predictable, as are the rewards for powering through to the other side. Many runners hit the wall around the 18 or 20-mile mark of a marathon, which is what, 26 miles? You know, they're different marathons, but apparently hitting the wall is around the 18 or 20 mile mark because of simple physiological math. Our bodies store about 1,800 to 2,000 calories worth of glycogen

in our muscles and liver. Runner's World explains, that's a magazine, right? On average, we use about 100 calories per mile while running, depending upon the run pace and body mass. Marathoners know that the finish line is not all that far past the wall. It's at 26.2 miles. Okay, so you've hit the 20-mile mark. You've run out of what's built up in your body,

and you've hit the runner's wall. But you know, you've only got six miles to go. We have no idea how close we are to the end of the pandemic. The vaccines are here. So are the variants. Herd immunity might be further away than health officials had hoped. Are we hitting the wall at mile 20? Or are we still at mile, I don't know, 14?

So you can take the approach you want I'm going to say we're at mile 20 keep our eye on the prize right the prize is a world somewhat similar to the one we used to live in we got to get there so we got to keep going we got to get there. So we got to keep going. We got to keep washing our hands, wearing our double mask setup, staying away from big crowds, socially distancing. And we'll get through those next six miles. It's there. It's like you can almost see it.

If we deliver on the numbers the governments are telling us, vaccine most people, all people who want a vaccine in the States by the end of July, all people who want a vaccine in the UK by the end of August, all people who want a vaccine in the UK by the end of August, all people who want a vaccine in Canada by the end of September. So if they can hold true to those numbers or even improve on them if there are different vaccines and more vaccines coming in, that's the 26.2 mile mark.

Right? It's not that far away. So we've got to focus. We've hit the wall. Shake it off. And we keep going. That's the plan. All right.

That's your Thursday potpourri section. Tomorrow, the weekend special, of course. We're at the end of the week already. It's short in a week because of the family day holiday on Monday. The weekend special means your show, your letters, your thoughts, your comments, your questions. And if I'm going to have them, you got to write them. So send me a note, themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com, themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. I'll be looking for them today and tonight and early tomorrow

morning. So get your thoughts in. Drop me a line. There have been quite a few already this week. But as always, we love to hear from new listeners. And we've got that whole, I'm assuming, chunk of new listeners who are listening to us on SiriusXM channel 167 Canada Talks. Tell me how you feel about next week. We're debuting a new show Thursdays at 5 p.m. on Sirius XM Channel 167 Canada Talks.

Good talk with Bruce Anderson, Chantal Hebert, and moi. And we'll be discussing, you know, things that political panels discuss. And we can't wait, can't wait to have Chantal back with us. So that's next Thursday. Thoughts on that? Let me know. All right. Enough for today.

It's all been good. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks for listening to the bridge we'll be back in 24 hours music music music music

music Thank you.