The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn -- From Jan 6 To Conspiracies To Podcasts And A Lot More.

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

Your thoughts, ideas and questions about the issues of the day.  We get lots of emails, hundreds of them every week, at The Bridge, with thoughtful, challenging ideas about the stories we cover.  Thursday is your day to air them out.   

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday, your turn, your thoughts, questions, ideas on the issues of the day. That's coming up. And hello there, Thursday. This is the Thursday episode. That means your turn, as we said. I'm Peter Mansbridge in Stratford, Ontario, looking forward to getting at some of the thoughts that you've expressed to me this week about a variety of different topics

that we've discussed here on The Bridge. Before we get to your letters, I guess we could call them housekeeping notes. Just a clear indication to you of what's in store for the next, you know, for the summer, or basically for July and August. Starting next week, Monday, the bridge is on hiatus, as we like to say in this business. And as a result, there will be no new episodes, daily new episodes of the bridge for July and August. On Mondays, though, throughout the summer months, including on holiday days, it'll be kind of best of the bridge from the

past year. And there's some great episodes to pick from, including the three conversations with Moore and Butts, which got a lot of you talking and a lot of you writing. All three of those episodes will be run during the summer months on Mondays. So Mondays are, we call them encore episodes, but the best of the bridge from the past year. And then twice during the summer, once in July, once in August, we'll have a special episode done on that day of Good Talk with Chantel Iber and Bruce Anderson. So that will keep you in touch with things that are happening on the national political scene. Everything from whatever the latest issues are that are confronting the Trudeau government

to whatever the latest issues are that are confronting the Trudeau government to whatever the latest issues are that are confronting the conservative party with its leadership race underway and running to a conclusion in early September. So that's a snapshot of the summer for you in terms of the bridge. It's been another, you know, really good year in terms of our relationship with you, you know, really good year in terms of our relationship with you, the listener, the audiences have grown both on

Sirius XM Canada and on the podcast of the Bridge. The podcast, which in terms of the political podcasts in Canada, if you believe in the Apple rankings, has been number one for the past year, more than any other political podcast. And that's very gratifying to know. But part of the appeal of the bridge can be seen in the letters that come in every week. And that's what we're going to get to now um a kind of your turn a kind of mailbag episode that we started sort of you know just occasionally on thursdays and now

it's become a regular feature and one that uh you know there there are a number of repeat writers. It's always good to hear from people. But every week there are new people sign on, and that's great. You know, it is wonderful to hear from the people who listen, whether they agree or disagree. And there are both in terms of some of the listeners who call in. So it's nice to hear from you. There's no particular order in the way I read these. I rarely read a whole letter on air.

I read them all privately, but on air, I usually just look for snippets because we'd be here for hours if I read everything. So I'll pick out a paragraph or two, sometimes just a sentence or two, from different letters. The first one comes from Malcolm McKay, and Malcolm did the big no-no.

He didn't tell us where he was writing from. Well, that's okay for today. It will be nice. Malcolm writes, I have followed with interest your coverage of the January 6th television hearings, which we did again yesterday on smoke mirrors and the truth with Bruce. One reason I listened to your podcast is to hear context and multiple

viewpoints. However, I don't hear this in your coverage of the January 6th committee hearings. A couple of things. Malcolm writes, You haven't mentioned a lack of true bipartisan input and fairness to the hearings since Nancy Pelosi refused the Republican nominees to the committee. The opportunity for Republican representatives to ask contrasting questions

or to provide cross-examination is missing. Let me say this about that, Malcolm. First of all, Nancy Pelosi didn't refuse the Republican nominees. The Republicans nominated five members of their party to be on the committee, and five is what the committee had asked for. Three of them were accepted. Two of them were not, because they were likely to be called as witnesses,

and that's why Pelosi refused them. So at that point, the Republican Party could have dominated two others to fill those two gaps. Or they could check out of the process. They chose to check out of the process at that point. So the three weren't accepted, you know, were pulled out and the other two had already been rejected. So that's at the point at which Pelosi appointed Liz Cheney and Adam

Kinzinger, two Republicans, two elected Republicans, to sit on the committee, and Cheney is the vice chair. But it didn't end there. That scenario may have never played out had, and I'm reading here from a piece today in the Washington Post, the scenario may have never played out had, and I'm reading here from a piece today in the Washington Post, the scenario may have never played out had Senate Republicans approved the creation of an independent commission. This was even before the current commission. With five Republicans and five Democrats who would equally share subpoena powers to file a report by the end of last year.

Only 35 House Republicans supported that measure, some of whom still believe an independent commission would have saved a lot of headache. That was the offer. They rejected it. And if you believe what you hear this week, Donald Trump is now very upset that they didn't take one of these opportunities

to have people on the committee who could challenge things that were said by witnesses. I would have loved to have watched that happen. I would love to have seen that happen. As one of the Fox commentators said this week, I'm not sure it would have made any difference at all because how do you challenge those witnesses? 95% of whom are Republicans, Trump appointees, or Trump supporters.

So how exactly are you going to challenge them when they've said the things they've said in these last two weeks? Nevertheless, that's how I would respond to that charge of yours, Malcolm. The second one is a good point. I don't have a disagreement with this. The riots could have been prevented, but the hearings are unlikely to discuss one of the reasons that the mob was able to threaten Congress the way it did,

and that is the absence of police forces trained in crowd control. There is something weird about what happened around the Capitol building that day and the lack of riot police and the proper preparation for riots, which was a clear indication that something was going to happen there. So why didn't that happen? And who's responsible for that? And so far, at least, that has not been a focus of the committee. All right, Malcolm, thank you for your note.

Rob Bjarnason from Carberry, Manitobaoba he's got kind of the flip side of that a week ago i corresponded with you espousing the unlikelihood of trump ever being held accountable i have the hope of being proven wrong with this opinion as you and bruce so capably summarized hear that malcolm Rob thinks we were capable. The evidence presented to date by the January 6th Committee is very compelling. It is pretty compelling. Even Fox admitted that this week. There was a fair amount of mail about conspiracy theories,

so I'm going to read a couple of those. Derek Andrews from Fredericton. One statement that stood out to me while listening to your podcast the other day, I'm not sure who said it, but it was on conspiracy theories. This doesn't make sense. How could someone believe this? It got me thinking. What if instead the question was, how could someone get to How could someone believe this? It got me thinking, what if instead the

question was, how could someone get to the point of believing this? These things don't happen overnight. In other words, I'll throw out a couple of considerations that don't seem to get talked about enough these days. Education. When was the last article or news story on the state of our education, particularly following the pandemic? We've been so focused on just getting kids into the schools. Have we checked in on how they are learning? Where are our literacy numbers at? Screen time. Try googling screen time for kids articles, especially over the past few years. It's barely reported on, but the articles that are written suggest kids have doubled or tripled their screen time over the last three to five years. So not only are they digesting questionable content, they are digesting a ton of it. And we have no idea what adult numbers are at all.

Brent Harris writes on conspiracy theories. Brent writes from St. John, New Brunswick. Thanks again for the show. I'm a counselor here in St. John, Canada's oldest city. I have family, friends, and colleagues around me that believe in some level of conspiracy theory. What I chalk it up to is our modern forms of communication and community. Because few of us really need one another like we used to, there is less authentic community and communication.

I run a tool library here, and we often rally volunteers to go and help people work on homes for people who need the help. Just like the old barn-raising culture used to be back in the pioneer days, it's our way of creating community and solving problems. Scarcity and necessity brought us together in the past, but now it's all too easy to choose to be around people of the same class or ideology or some other point of connection. Because we don't have to rub shoulders with inconvenient people any longer, we have time to create, adopt narratives about why things are wrong or why people aren't like we are. This is a breeding ground for all sorts of disembodied and negative philosophy, which I believe leads us inevitably to a proliferation of conspiracy theories.

That's interesting, Brent. Eric Consor writes from, or sorry, Aaron I don't know how many times I've made that mistake. Aaron Consor from Sherwood Park, Alberta. I really enjoyed your discussion with Bruce the other day. It really was eye-opening and a bit heartbreaking to hear how many people have been swayed by so many conspiracy theories. I think another symptom, or perhaps a side effect of all of this misinformation, is the erosion of compassion and empathy that seems to have happened

to me it feels like once someone starts down the path of believing these theories their ability to show compassion to another person is crushed under the need to proselytize their new beliefs beliefs. And sadly, I now have an example. And she goes on to list an example in her own family. But we get the point here, the erosion of compassion and empathy that seems to have happened. Korobov or Korobow. I'm not sure where Erwin is writing from. I think it's Manitoba. Although it would appear that evidence is being presented that Donald Trump and his minions knowingly peddled lies about the 2020 election and probably broke the law in doing so, I think there will be no real consequences that

will come to bear on Mr. Trump. I say this because the United States is a broken society, and that almost half of Americans have ignored pretty well all of Trump's previous indiscretions and continue to support him. Trump himself mused that he could walk down Fifth Avenue in New York shooting at people and he would not be arrested. Well, let's see how this turns out. The committee itself has no power to charge anybody. They're just there seeking answers and they will table their report. It'll be up to the Department of Justice, the DOJ,

to make a determination as to whether or not there should be any indictments as a result of evidence that has been collected on the January 6th insurrection. I tend to agree with you. This guy has got away with so much in the past by lying about things, by clearly being involved in schemes that were certainly bordering on breaking the law. And, you know, we'll see what happens in this case. The evidence is pretty significant. Celia McConville. Oh, she's here in Stratford, Ontario.

You know who was here in Stratford yesterday? My old friend Lloyd Robertson. Former CTV anchor. He was CTV anchor part of the time that I was CBC anchor. And Lloyd's a great guy. We go back a long way. We used to work together at the same network. And of course, Lloyd was born and raised and started his career right here in Stratford. Anyway, Celia McConville writes,

Love the show, especially Good Talk and the wonderful Chantelle Hebert. This episode was fascinating. She's talking about last Friday's episode. It was fascinating for its insider's perspective on federal politics. I was disappointed, though, by the presentation of the Liberal NDP agreement as essentially a safety net for the Liberals. Having looked at this agreement, I can see that many of the Liberal NDP agreement is essentially a safety net for the Liberals. Having looked at this agreement, I can see that many of the planned actions

would do much to improve the lives of Canadians who are living with limited means. The key word, Celia, in your sentence right there was the planned actions. I think if those actions actually occur, all of them, then people will look at that with a certain, you know, some people will look at that with a certain amount of thanks and

be very impressed by it. But they're not there yet. They have a three-year deal. Let's see how much of it gets done. And initially, there is no question. It was a safety net. And not just for the Liberals, but for the NDP as well. Neither won an election right now. And if they get three years without one,

they'll be very happy, especially if these things are accomplished. The planned action. Dave Kellett, Lakefield, Ontario. He wrote on a number of things. I'm picking one of them, hearing aids. I have pretty intense hearing loss, says Dave. I've worn hearing aids since I was 34, and the benefits outweigh the cost of looking old.

Hearing aids were easier to accept than losing my hair at 27. Additionally, a good pair of hearing aids stream audio straight to your head. It's a great way to listen independently to audiobooks, music, and the number one Canadian political podcast from time to time. And Dave writes that because I'm going through this process right now of determining whether or not I'm going to start wearing hearing aids. And, in fact, I have another appointment later today, so we'll see how that works out.

Okay, here's one more before we take a break. Bruce Gartner writes from Montreal, I find it rather offensive that Pierre Polyev goes on and on about me not being in control of my life. That's absolute nonsense, says Bruce, and that somehow Canada is not a free country. Talk about trying to administer an unwanted cure on an unwilling patient for a non-existent disease. If Polyev wants to try his hand at making a country more free, he should run for Prime Minister of North Korea.

They are the ones who really need it. If he did that, then he will have really accomplished something with his political career. Well, you can't argue that Polyev doesn't get people talking, because he does. And some of it is in admiration, some, like Bruce, not so much. Okay, we've got lots more to come here, and on a whole variety of topics.

And we'll do that right after this. And welcome back. Peter Mansbridge here in Stratford, Ontario, birthplace of Lloyd Robertson. That's right. You're listening to The Bridge on Sirius XM Canada, channel 167, or on your favorite podcast platform. And wherever you're listening from, we're glad you're with us.

Okay, on with the mailbag. Derek Dillabo from Ottawa. I'd be interested to hear your opinion on the reasons for the huge general upward trend of podcasts in the last few years. I think one of the reasons is that many people crave meaningful conversation. Many years ago, while working in a mine and staying in a camp out west, I took a correspondence course through old-fashioned snail mail called Interpersonal Communications. It taught the basics of improving conversations through various techniques such as paraphrasing, backtracking, and body language. That one tiny course stayed with me all these years, but along the way helped me immeasurably in my relationships

both socially and professionally. It helped me deepen conversations and understanding with people and in turn helped solve problems and increase creativity as well as introducing to me many new things. The art of listening and conversing also builds trust and helps people to be more open and honest. However, it is not an easy thing to do. It takes practice and patience. Many podcasts, if you choose wisely, are helping people appreciate good quality conversation that go deep into facts. Derek, I don't disagree with any of that. Good for you.

And it has changed our world. And as you can tell in the numbers I was quoting the other day in terms of trust in media, there are an increasing number of people almost every day who listen to podcasts. And there are thousands of podcasts out there that you can learn from and challenge yourself. I mean, there's garbage out there.

We know that. So you've got to be selective. But of the non-garbage podcasts, there are thousands to listen from. They deal in history or geography or science or sports or you name it. It's all out there. And it's a great way to get your mind working, get your brain working. And you know what? Maybe you'll even start one yourself.

Speaking of, here's one from Geneva, Switzerland, one of our listeners outside of Canada. Gary Aslanian. Aslanian. I'm not sure, Gary, just how you pronounce that. But Gary writes about podcasts, appreciating the bridge. And he says, I thought of thanking you last year, and I didn't. And the thank you is related to the influence you had with your podcast

on my own idea of having a podcast. The pandemic and the changes in how the information is consumed made me decide to propose a podcast focused on global health coming from our program at the WHO. And it was approved and we have completed season one of Global Health Matters. That's the name of the podcast. And now we're in season two. We cover a lot of ground and have thousands of downloads all over the world. I make a particular effort to have guests from countries

where the actual global health issues play out. We had topics focused on how climate change is affecting health and Maasai communities, how global health needs to be decolonized, up to how vaccines can and should be produced in countries themselves. If you have a moment, check it out. I will. Good for you, Gary, and thank you for telling me that in some small way I had something to do

with you getting your own podcast. It's not hard to do. You just need some very kind of basic equipment, and away you go. And, you know, I've been to Geneva many times. As you mentioned in your letter, my dad used to work in Geneva at the WHO 50 years ago. Geneva's a great city.

If you can afford it, it ain't cheap. Jean Fougue from Notre Dame du Lyle in Quebec. The other day you mentioned that the Canada post website was the most accessed website by canadians actually said it was the number four website accessed by canadians you said wow canadians really like to track their packages and look up postal codes did you know that every time we're on a website and look up an address and it pulls down a list of possibilities, it's most likely accessing a Canada Post address. It's accessing a Canada Post product called Address Complete. That's probably why Canada Post is the number one Canadian website accessed by Canadians.

A lot of people have been writing about that. Ian Gorman. And this is as it relates to the whole media trust thing. The situation is not greatly different from the 1950s when we both started to follow the news. We still had to decide how reliable each source was. Back then, the online sources were shortwave radio stations. The Fox News of the day was the Radio Peking,

rebroadcast from Havana. I'm not sure. Personally, I rank some of the news sources as BBC World Service, Radio Canada, Voice of America, and Radio Peking. CBC was close to BBC, and the Voice of America was perhaps halfway between CBC and Radio Peking. The shortwave broadcasts were like the podcasts of today, but much of the news on the internet is, like the podcasts of today, but much of the news on the internet is, like the Washington Post website, is curated,

more or less verified, and like 1950s print, organized so that you can pick and choose what you want to read. The big change from the 1950s is that the internet has expanded the geographic reach of social networking from the local tavern or coffee shop to the entire world.

Spencer Stinson writes from Blenheim, Ontario. A lighter subject today with more than a few references about pineapple on pizza on the podcast, I thought it was fitting that this past week, on June 16th, was the 60th anniversary of the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, just up the road from me. This is said to be the home and birthplace of Hawaiian pizza. So you'll have to stop in next time you find yourself in town. I wonder how many places claim to be the home place of Hawaiian pizza.

Elizabeth Guthrie. Elizabeth writes, where is she writing from? She just finished her fourth year at Carleton University, so I assume she's near Ottawa. Yes, she's in Ottawa. Now, Elizabeth writes a really long letter, and it's a great letter. However, I'm only going to read one part of it,

because she was inspired to write it by me talking about convocation. As this is that time of year. Here's what Elizabeth writes. Yesterday, I watched some of my closest friends walk across the stage at Carleton University's 157th convocation. After a grueling four years made even more difficult by the pandemic, we made it to the other side. I'm immensely proud of my friends, peers, and the entire class of 2022 for their accomplishments. No matter what you may hear, the knowledge and skills that you've gained are valuable. Your experience as a student, whether you majored in fine arts or computer science, is valuable. You are valuable.

If we are to come out of this current political climate, still standing, we need to celebrate the upcoming generation and our contributions to the world, not undermine them. Whether we attended university or college, are working in the trades or in an apprenticeship, or went straight into the workforce, it's our generation that will

inherit today's challenges, and the rest of you owe it to us to take us seriously as stewards of our society. No argument there. Austin Ziegler writes from Toronto about this issue that we've dealt with a couple of times on low voter turnouts, and specifically whether or not electronic voting is an answer. Austin writes, This is a topic that has interested me periodically over my 25-year career in software development. Over that period, I have become increasingly convinced that it is impossible to have electronic voting that satisfies all of the requirements that we expect from a voting system. We expect that our votes will be counted as we cast the vote. We'll be verifiable.

The ballots can be clearly identified as genuine, unmodified, and cast by the voter themselves. We'll be anonymous. My specific vote is secret, so that I support my candidate without fear of consequences. Electronic voting systems, and especially phone voting systems, at best solve one or two of these, and introduce brigades of other flaws which make them unsuitable. Not every voter has a unique phone number, or even a single phone number. This removes vote verifiability, as we cannot be sure that the person casting a vote

from a given phone number is the voter. Phone voting ties a vote to a phone number, removing anonymity. Phone numbers are trivially spoofable through the phone system, meaning that we cannot even trust that the vote was submitted by the phone with which the number is associated. If we introduce a voter token,

a unique code to indicate my ability to vote in a particular election, we have now created a market for those tokens. If we use blockchain, we have high verifiability and an increased chance that the vote was cast by the person who holds the keys to the voter token, but we completely lose anonymity as well as introduce a host of other problems such as sustainability. Think of the staggering environmental cost of Bitcoin. So Austin gives us a lot of different thoughts there on this issue of electronic voting. Some of it's a little deep in the weeds for me, but I get it. I hear what you're saying, and clearly you're somebody who's studied this.

So thank you, austin for that dr mark nicholson writes from where's he writing from saint john new brunswick i was listening to your statistics about people's trust in news and it made me want to reach out about an issue here in new brunswick concerning local news and newspapers i was a a digital subscriber until just last week to the until recently Irving-owned Telegraph Journal, and by extension all the Irving-owned publications under the Brunswick News banner. As you may know, Post Media recently purchased Brunswick News.

I didn't immediately cancel my subscription, but was concerned about how our local coverage would potentially change. An even bigger change came last week when it was announced that Post Media was cancelling the Empty Stocking Fund, which is a charitable campaign that provides funding for Christmas gifts and meals to families in need. The Empty Stocking Fund has been supported by the local newspaper in St. John since 1913, over 100 years. Since the 30s, the fundraiser was broadcast on CHSJ radio.

It's a telethon where local schools have their choirs perform Christmas songs while raising money for the charity. It eventually moved to CHSJ Television as an eight-hour telethon in 1959. In recent years, the broadcast has continued to be live-streamed by Rogers, or you could watch on TV if you were a Rogers subscriber.

This charity has raised millions of dollars to provide for needy families over the years. Just last year, the telethon, which continued to be sponsored by the Telegraph Journal, raised a record $260,000. It absolutely sickened me to hear this news, and I immediately contacted Brunswick News to cancel my subscription.

Dr. Nicholson, that is, how do I say it? That's a sad story. It's an unfortunate story. I mean, there are always a number of sides to an issue like this. But that it would have to turn to that is really not good. Karen Bosche writes from Edmonton. She was listening the other day when I talked about the circus returning in Europe.

No animals, though. Funny thing you should mention the circus, writes Karen. Guess what rolled into Edmonton last week, along with a lot of rain? The Royal Canadian Circus set up its big top tents in the overflow parking lot at the West Edmonton Mall. Haven't seen this for a while, certainly not since COVID. I did not attend, but with your podcast discussion on the topic, it made me wonder if it is a sign that people in times of stress, like increasing inflation, cost of living, and global turmoil, will look toward nostalgic

pleasures of past simpler times gone by, like a circus on a long summer Canadian evening as a source of enjoyment. Sun sets past 10 p.m. at this time of year in Edmonton, and that gives me immense pleasure. I'm from the been-there-done-that era, became a homeowner in the early 80s and a parent of three by the beginning of the next decade. With the news this morning of yet higher rates of inflation, it makes me genuinely concerned for those young families who will have many struggles ahead of them. Maintaining lifestyle, staying in their homes, and providing for their children will be a huge source of stress and a big challenge. Taking advantage of local recreational attractions and events will become the norm for many. Staycations will be the highlight of summer holidays, and you know what, there really is so much out in our cities that one can get pleasure from

with less expense. Lori Kielty, she writes from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Just the sound of that name, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, makes you happy, right? You can image it. You got it in your mind. You've seen the pictures. Some of us have been lucky enough to be in there.

Hi, Peter. I'm not one to write letters, notes, but your recent podcast with the mic sock compelled me to put finger to iPad and send a quick note. I loved listening to you drink coffee. It kept it real as though you were sitting in my living room having a chat. That's it. We'll keep it short.

Enjoy your summer break. Laurie from Lunenburg. Yeah, I got the windsock on. Not so much lip-smacking coffee slurping anymore. But both the lip-smacks and the coffee slurps will be happy to know they're missed Donna Lockhart from Ennismore Ontario has written a few times artistic flair. She's a poet. And her husband, Rob, helps her every once in a while.

Anyway, she decided that she would mark this day, the last day before the summer break for the bridge, or the second last day, tomorrow's the last day, before the summer break with a poem. So I'll read it. Hokey as it is, it's nice. Thank you, Peter, for all that you've done. You've given it three years, a mighty fine run.

We turn you on and we turn you up, just as we start the evening's sup. We learned a lot from Bogoch and crew, all about COVID and monkeypox too. We learned that Bruce and you liked a kid and that Chantel, you better never get rid. We struggled through politics and a war in Ukraine. Seems that this world will never be the same. We heard about Will and Cynthia Too, the dog, a new microphone, whoever knew. We thank you for being the man that you are

and promise to listen from near and from far. But the best thing of all are the topics galore and we pray that you will be bringing us more. How nice is that? Thanks, Donna, and we will. We'll bring lots more. Willa Henry writes from Kingston. Oh my goodness, we are all going to miss your daily show this summer. You so deserve a rest and the time to do nothing at your cottage,

and the reruns will be well worth listening to again. I must confess that I fall asleep to your voice every night. I hope you make it past the first sentence. Your letter is here near the end, so I hope you make it to the end before you fall asleep. I must confess that I fall asleep to your voice every night and listen again when I wake, like so many women at 3 a.m. Thank you for educating us all with amazing guests, important topics, and wise perspectives. Have a wonderful summer.

Willa Henry from Kingston, Ontario. Thanks, Willa. And a last one. A last one for this day. From Christine McDonald in LaSalle, Ontario. I really appreciate that you highlight emails from listeners.

Not all are profound, reasonable, rational, or agree with you or guests on the topic, but there is something to be learned from each of them. We are all listening to the exact same podcast, but the perspectives and opinions vary. We need to hear all opinions, not just the echo of our own beliefs. That's right, Christine.

You got it. That is why I like to devote one day to your thoughts on things. And you're quite right. They don't always agree with my thoughts or Bruce's thoughts or Chantel's thoughts. Oh, of course, Chantel's perfect. Nobody ever has any questions about what Chantel says. She's always right. But that's the whole idea behind Thursdays, right?

Is to get your take on stuff. And to give a sense of the kind of national audience that we have. That's sort of coast to coast to coast. And outside of Canada. We hear a lot from listeners who listen on SiriusXM in the US. We hear from listeners around the world like today. I had our letter from Geneva. From people who listen on the podcast. We've had letters from onboard ships in the middle of the Atlantic.

Who somehow managed to magically download a podcast. It's a fantastic way of connecting. And when I think back to when I started back in Churchill, Manitoba. When I broadcast late at night, I'd be lucky if people in little tiny Churchill

were all able to hear it because of the technical bouncing around, especially at night and getting crowded with other stations from different parts of North America that would knock us off the air because we had very low transmission ability. But now, podcasts can reach the world, and they do. And so that's why I think it's more than worth it to listen on Thursdays. And I find that podcast listeners, when they decide, you know, I'm going to write,

they always have something to say that is worth reading and listening to and considering. Even when they're critical. And so I try to do exactly that. All right, that's it for this day on the bridge for this Thursday. Tomorrow, Friday, good talk. And it will be our last one before we go on hiatus next week. So don't miss it. It's bound to be a good one.

And Chantel will be there. And so will Bruce. And so will I. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge for this Thursday. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.