The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn on Drugs, and The Random Ranter on Justin Trudeau

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Lots of different issues on your mind this week from the convoy inquiry to safe injection sites to the tasty benefits of SPAM.  And the Random Ranter is back with his take on each of Canada's major national leaders -- he doesn't hold back.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday, your turn, and today we've got lots of emails from you on lots of different topics. Plus, the random renter goes after, well, welcome to December. That's right, we're into month number 12. The end of the year is in sight. 2022, almost all gone all right it's a your turn day and uh lots of mail again this week i'm always amazed at the uh the amount of time that many of you spend writing your emails your thoughts about various issues your thoughts about the podcast your thoughts about the podcast, your thoughts about the random ranter.

And for the most part, you seem to like what you're hearing. And I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, those who don't like what they're hearing don't listen anymore, and they don't write. So I get to hear from those who like what they're hearing. And because the numbers for the podcast just keep going up, I figure we've got to be doing something right. You must be enjoying part of it. Well, one of the things you clearly enjoy,

because I rarely see something against the random renter. I hear a lot of good things about the random renter. You almost got to go back to his diatribe against electric vehicles, where you saw a split in the reaction to what he had to say. But we have a number of letters. Last week, the ranter was after those who were arguing against safe injection sites, and that includes Pierre Poliev. So as a result, got a number of emails.

I'll read a couple of them. And a reminder, I read every email that comes in. I use some of them on the Thursday edition and usually just parts of some of them. And that's where we are here. Chris T. from Lindsay, Ontario writes, Just listened to your podcast and the random ranter on my way into work. I'm a paramedic

and I want to thank the ranter for being a voice of reason at least this week the war on drugs is over and the law lost like the temperance movement of the past it's time to think of how best to control and mitigate harm when it comes to drugs this is best done with being proactive. If there are safe supply injection sites, users can be influenced to go to these sites. At first, this can be done by police and paramedics, actively bringing users there. Once word has spread, many would voluntarily go to these spots for safety and to not be bothered by emergency services. There's been many a time a paramedic has been yelled at for ruining someone's fix. It's once at these sites that mitigation can start. It is the staff of these sites that do the

hard work. They will help try to get those users off drugs. It doesn't happen immediately, but by listening, befriending, and talking to users, some, if not most, users will ask for help. I've transported users who don't want to do drugs, but are addicted and don't know how to get off drugs. The hospitals are too busy to properly manage their addiction, and most users are afraid of the police or going to jail. They just don't want those kind of situations. Safe supply injection sites are a necessity in today's society,

and the work the staff does in these sites is preventing trips to emergency departments. I'm appalled that many politicians don't want to consider prevention when it's the easiest way to save tax dollars, government resources, and save the lives of Canadians. All right, Chris, thank you. Lauren Finlayson from Cumberland, B.C. I'm not surprised that the leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition would take such a position on safe injection sites.

My only surprise is that he did not blame Mr. Trudeau for it. After all, he blames every problem upon the Prime Minister. One of these days, Polyev will stand and say that hangnails are a plague in this country, ruining lives and threatening the economy, and it's all Trudeau's fault. Today, the ranter had a sensible approach to the addiction disaster, that of supervised injection sites. He has recognized that addiction to drugs of any kind is a terrible thing. I suspect that Mr. Poliev just sees it all as a way to reach out to his base for their votes and maybe pick up a few others along the way. I'll give him marks for nastiness if that is what his base of support calls for, but I think he made an error in

consorting with the ottawa occupiers and endorsing bitcoin now i'll add injection sites to the list donald mcclellan writes from new westminster bc like the ranter i would have been opposed to injection sites and the legalization of drugs, but over time, with the demands on the emergency health providers, the continued high death rates from drug overdoses, and the obvious failure of policing and the war on drugs concepts, it is clear it would be more humane and cost-effective to fund harm reduction programs and legalize drugs. The crime and mental health issues cannot be solved by policing, and the total cost of drug-related

crimes, including those committed by drug users to fund their addictions and the legal system's efforts, would be much better spent, or not spent at all, on treatment and prevention. I've lost all faith in using police and courts to solve what is essentially a health issue. The war on drugs has failed, continues to fail, and that concept will continue to fail for all interested parties, the taxpayers, first-line responders, the health professionals, the victims of crimes, and the drug users. So reaction to last week's rant from the ranter.

The ranter will be along in a few minutes' time, a little earlier than usual today, and I think there's something for everyone in what he has to rant about today. There's no particular order to the way we're going here today in terms of topics that you brought up. Excuse me. A couple of days ago on an NBID, I talked about an item in one of the aviation things that I follow that suggested

that on Italian flights, flights in Italy by Italian airlines, that passengers tend to clap when the plane lands. That actually provoked a number of letters. Sometimes I'm surprised. What did you hear at the end of the program? They had lots of letters about spam. We did spam as an end bit the other day.

Spam the food, not spam the issue in your computer. We'll get to those. Anyway, clapping passengers. Catherine Haig writes from Winnipeg. I enjoyed listening to your anecdotes about aviation and Churchill and about the comments of flight attendants as reported by CNN. I wanted to add my two cents about clapping Italian passengers. This is generally not correct.

I worked for four years in the late 1990s for a small Austrian airline called Tyrolean Airways as a flight attendant, and we had lots of flights to several Italian destinations. Our passengers were often business people, and none of them ever clapped regardless of the nationality the only clapping passengers were tourists going to greek islands on charter flights and there it was considered good manners to show appreciation for the smooth flight and good service, which was so much better in those days. Everything was better in those days. So I don't know who the American flight attendants had on board,

but they were certainly not my average passenger. Sharon McKay from Dundas, Ontario. She's got an airline story. She wanted to add to the mix. My story occurred well over a decade ago on a flight I was taking from Halifax to Toronto. The flight was overbooked. The attendants asked for volunteers to give up their seats. In return, there would be a generous payment, plus tickets anywhere the airline flew.

No one budged. Two seats were needed. Eventually, an attendant approached two men sitting a few rows ahead of me, informing the men that they would have to leave the plane. The men refused, speaking loudly, strongly objecting, threatening that their company would never book flights on that airline again.

Different attendants came forward to speak to those gentlemen, but to no avail. Eventually, a senior staff member, a woman, boarded the plane and spoke to the men. She said in words that a good number of us could hear that if they did not leave their seats, the plane would not fly, the flight would be cancelled, and no one would reach their destination. In my mind, I wondered if the men, looking around at all the passengers watching the exchange, might worry that they could be sued by a good number of people if they refused to leave the plane. Whatever their personal reaction, the threat worked and the men left, loudly proclaiming their objections as they headed down the aisle. Not long after, a rather well-dressed couple arrived on the plane and were escorted to the seats the men had vacated. I believe I was not

alone wondering about the strings the couple were able to pull in order to obtain their seats. It seemed to be a clear instance of unfair power and privilege did not speak well of the airline. Well, no comment. We never did that at Transair. I don't ever recall that happening at Transair. I recall lots of things happening

at Transair, but that wasn't one of them. Quick aside, I remember doing a golf tournament on the prairies somewhere. The old Peter Zosky literacy tour, raising money for literacy. And one of the

prizes Air Canada had put up was two tickets anywhere air canada flies anywhere air canada flies this was a year this 20 years ago at least 20 years ago and so they you know i after the meal after the gulf we you know pulled the name out of the hat this This guy was really excited. Two tickets anywhere Air Canada flies. He chose to fly from Regina to Calgary. Seriously. Like he could have driven, right, and used the tickets to go to Hong Kong

or London or any number of places. But he went for a wild weekend in Calgary from Regina. Ian Hebblethwaite picks up on something interesting. Ian writes from Moncton. Love your flying anecdotes. I listened as I was driving to work. I'm currently developing a course to teach new hires how to be a Halifax terminal controller.

Do you know why blinds should be open on landing or takeoff? We mentioned this, right, in the show the other day. Well, Ian's got the real answer, he thinks. In the unlikely event of an emergency evacuation, everyone's eyes are accustomed to the current light conditions outside. That sounds like a pretty good reason. Joseph West. I'm not sure where he's writing from.

You mentioned clapping upon arrival on Italian flights. When I was a child in the 70s, when landing in Europe, from within or even from Canada, all the Europeans on the flight would clap. And like at a concert, everyone else joined in. I've never experienced it as an adult, but it's kind of a nice memory. I've been on a few flights where there's been clapping. It's usually come after like a sketchy flight in terms of the weather, right? Okay, moving on. There's a few letters, letters obviously about the inquiry into the emergency act we did a number of

shows on this last week as it wrapped up and most of the mentions about it were very positive um about how the cabinet ministers including the prime minister done last week not so the letters don robertson writes Edmonton, there are a lot of angry frustrated people in this country and they don't all drive trucks. The government has been forcing its very distorted irrational philosophy on everybody without the opportunity for any kind of free open discussion or debate about any issue that it promotes. I'm not sure that's true. That's what House of Commons exists for. Trudeau himself provided the kindling which ignited this fire. That's true.

And when it came time to douse the flames with dialogue and positive constructive solutions, he made things worse with his let-them-eat-cake attitude and cringed in fear at the thought of meeting and talking to that fringe element, as he called them. He also could have even helped to set them straight about how our constitution works. Do you not find it odd that Trudeau can travel around the world, talk face to face with heartless dictators, some of whom have enough nuclear missiles pointed at us to obliterate

this entire country in a matter of minutes yet he considers a few rude obnoxious protesters to be a real threat to the security of this country um wasn't just him who felt that way clearly some of the advice he was getting felt that way too um mark koopman from burlington ontario i was one of those of those Canadians watching the proceedings of the past weeks with some interest. I'll admit that I am not a liberal voter and do not see that changing anytime soon as I cannot stomach the blatant opportunism and preachiness so often espoused by this current government. I'm one of many Canadians that, while not necessarily supporting the methods or ideology of the convoy protests, did admire their willingness to stand for their principles, assuming some cost. I believe that while voters of my ilk may not be a majority,

we may at least be a large minority. Unfortunately for this country, and maybe democracy at large, with an unwillingness to constantly argue or even stand out from society, voters who feel that the government does not even attempt to recognize or value alternative viewpoints may find apathy is a better mindset. Trevor Seyfried from Calgary. Listening to SMT, Smoke Mirrors and the Truth of Bruce Anderson the other day, and I'm reminded that your show is not news, as you've stated in the past, it's comment. The general sense I get from listening to the commentary provided on the convoy is the following. The ends justifies the means, regardless of legality.

Polling showed that most people wanted the protest to end, so just end it as fast as possible. The Emergencies Act would only be used as a narrow frame to remove trucks. It didn't hurt the government politically, so why not do it? History is full of examples of situations that had the above thinking, that had actions by governments leading to horrific outcomes. Obviously, the act in this situation didn't lead to anything horrific happening. However, the mere precedent of any government breaking the law,

breaking the law? Where exactly did they break the law? And breaching civil liberties, where exactly did they breach civil liberties? All while telling Canadians to just trust them is very alarming. We're talking about the bedrocks of Western liberal democracies here. It should not matter how tough it was in downtown Ottawa, what polling says, how narrow the frame is, or what the political outcome is. Then to have the government, the Minister of Justice, and the Attorney General invoke client privilege when questioned on why they invoked the Act is also alarming,

but sadly on brand for this government. I think you got an issue on that last point. The sky isn't falling, but I honestly have a hard time wrapping my head around how anyone would think of this as okay. Trevor in Calgary. Don Mitchell from Regina writes, On Friday, the three of you mentioned this be good talk last week. On Friday, the three of you mentioned how refreshing it was to hear our political leaders talk without communications filters. Your comments were echoed by several other members of the media

who said it was heartening to hear that MPs and cabinet ministers can talk openly, coherently, and with depth instead of just talking points and deflecting, and they didn't get burnt at the stake as a result. Massaging the story by political communications staff of all stripes is why the population is so annoyed, and at times angry. If our leaders would talk to Canadians like adults, maybe Canadians wouldn't act like children. Hey Don, you got something in that last line? Okay. We are going to listen to the ranter.

Why wouldn't we? Let's bring in the ranter early this week. Here he is. Just a guy. Just a guy. Lives in Western Canada, no affiliation with any party. You'll see why after this.

I'm going to try something new this week, a random ranting political speed round. First up, Prime Minister Trudeau. I think everyone was impressed with his performance on the stand last week. Everyone except convoy supporters, that is, because they got schooled. Not only was Trudeau large and in charge, he was clear and concise. All the flowery prose was gone, and with it, the dramatic cadence that makes me feel like I just ate some sour candies. I loved how defeated the convoy lawyer was when her big gotcha question fell completely flat and Trudeau turned it on her with aplomb.

I'm not a Trudeau fan by any means, but clearly there's some fire underneath all that smoke, and I liked it. He was great, and for a brief moment, I even believed it, but then I watched him give a speech during his trip to the James Smith Cree Nation, and there was Justin again, saying things I totally agreed with that somehow still gave me that sour candy face. The only difference I can see between the two is that on the stand Trudeau was speaking using his own words, while speech Trudeau was drawing heavily from his drama teacher days and giving a prepared performance. I'm thinking he'd be well served to fire his speech writers, or at the very least, take away their thesauruses.

Next up, Elizabeth May. She's the new old leader of the Green Party. Again. Or should I say yet again. And the nation has responded with an overwhelming meh. Congrats Elizabeth on being elected leader of a bankrupt party no one wants to lead. I love watching you at the debates because you always add substance to them the same way I always look forward to what the BQ has to say. You taught me that sadly the only time politicians can be truly honest is when they don't have a horse in the race. I'm not sure where Pierre Polyev went this week. Maybe he's back incubating in the think tank looking for a new playbook to replace the 80s copy that he used last week for his big war on drugs video. What's next? Let me guess. Private for profit prisons?

I thought climate deniers were against recycling, yet all I see from him is imported, failed ideas from a bygone era. Next up, Daniel Smith. Alberta sovereignty within a United Canada Act. Sounds like it's sponsored by the George Orwell Society. Talk about letting all that oil money go to your head. I guess while you're scaring off all those science-loving, mask-wearing, immunization-believing medical pinkos, you may as well scare off some foreign investment dollars to go with them.

Good job, Marjorie Taylor, I mean, Daniel Smith. Way to represent your minority of support. Who needs democracy anyways? Wait, you do. Way to represent your minority of support. Who needs democracy anyways? Wait, you do. Come next election. Good luck with that. Finally, to bring the speed round to an end, I will reach into the whatever-happened-to bin and pull out a name. And the winner is...

Jagmeet Singh. He's been really quiet lately, and you know what they say about the quiet ones? No, not silent but deadly. It's you gotta watch out for them. The guy's barely set a peep in months. I don't know what he's doing. Is he just laying low and letting Justin and Pierre duke it out? All I know is I'd like to hear more from Jagmeet, because as a leader he represents something of an everyman. He wasn't born born into it nor was he hatched by it and i think his shrewd deal with the liberals has proven that he can be pragmatic and ideology aside we're desperately in need of some pragmatism these days

a random ranter for this week we sort of like spraying around the room on that one. Interesting, though. I'm sure we'll hear from many of you about that one, just like we did about last week's. Okay, time for our mid-your-turn break. And we'll get back to your turn your letters your thoughts your comments your ideas right after this and welcome back peter mansbridge here. You're listening to The Bridge,

Your Turn, Thursday segment, and The Random Ranter, right here on SiriusXM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform. Yesterday, the SMT was up on the YouTube channel, as will Good Talk tomorrow be available on the YouTube channel,

and you can find that by hitting the link on my bio on Twitter or Instagram. Okay, moving on with your letters. Got quite a few to go here, so I'll move along quickly. Rob, this is a whole potpourri of letters. They're all over the place, although we start with a couple on the issue of spam. I talked about spam. I dropped 10 seconds about spam, the food, a couple of days ago. Rob Yarnison writes from Carberry, Manitoba. Spam, which is the American version, or click, the Canadian version.

Little research reveals perhaps Spam sold at Costco is the healthier choice as it's made of an actual cut of pork shoulder and ham, while click includes mechanically separated meat. Your description of fried Spam brought back a rural Manitoba memory. While working for a land surveying company out of brandon in the 1980s we had the opportunity to eat at some great small town restaurants while surveying in a little town called angusville we dined at the chuchmuch cafe where we ordered their special called the baby chuck it turned out to be fried click sandwich with a craft single slice of cheese on a hamburger bun that brought back some memories of lunches while growing up in

the 1960s winnipeg where fried click white bread and kd were a lunchtime staple much to the chagrin of today's quinoa and avocado crowd. Yeah, I can't see that crowd eating fried click. Code Clements writes from, where is he from? We've heard from Code before. He's, uh... I can't remember. Anyway, Code writes, When the war started,

spam was shipped to soldiers around the world because of its ability to maintain global temperatures. Since then, a whole slew of flavored varieties have come into existence, comprising an entirely colorful universe of processed meats. The first offshoots were Spam Hickory Smoke and Spam with Cheese, both of which hit the market in 1971. The line has expanded to include 15 flavors of Spam, reaching from the obvious Spam Light, which promises less fat, sodium, and calories, to the obscure Spam Tocino, which is flavored with the popular Filipino bacon. Code knows his Spam. And just to clarify what he actually said, not what I actually read,

was that Spam had this ability to maintain in global temperatures. Not maintain global temperatures, but to stay fresh no matter what the temperatures were. Doug McDougall. Doug writes from Stratford, Ontario. You probably already know this, but spam was created by the American company Hormel in 1937 and was a staple with American and other troops in World War II. Margaret Thatcher referred to it as a wartime delicacy. And Stalin said, without it, we would not have been able to feed our army. It has affected popular culture, with its name being used to describe unsolicited email messages. The name has been speculated to be the acronym for shoulder of pork and ham. And as of 2012, the eighth

billion can of Spam was sold. We grew up with Spam in our farm family here in Perth County, Ontario. Mary Algar didn't stop just talking about Spam. She sent in a recipe for

Spam stir-fry noodles. You can find that stop just talking about spam she sent in a recipe for spam stir fry noodles you can find that at the budget bites website mike donnelly from tecumseh ontario thanks for the riveting story of spam the meal that got me through my early poverty years. Fried rice, peas, and spam. Something from every food group, blended together. Dining excellence. Brought a smile to my face today. Thank you so much. Okay, moving on to other topics.

Dave Kellett writes from Ontario, from Lakefield, Ontario. It's the only letter I got this week on the issue of guns. As you know, the federal government is moving continuously and trying to, it says, reduce the number of guns in Canada, and especially those which they say were basically built for war, not for recreation. So Dave Kellett writes from Lakefield, Why is the Trudeau government going after hunters after all this time

assuring the population the new gun laws were targeting dangerous guns? There's no denying gun violence and illegal guns, but the latest gun bans, as I can manage to interpret them, suggest any semi-automatic rifle or shotgun. That's an overwhelming number of shotguns in the country, as a shotgun is the most popular choice for water fowl and bird hunting. My question is, and I would hope Bruce has some polling on this, will the government be able to buy back all those hunting shotguns, and does the population support not only taking hunting shotguns from law-abiding hunters and paying for it? Some of these guns are very expensive, and in contrast to the previous bans,

which were for a small percentage of the gun owners in Canada, this ban would affect the overwhelming majority of people who own guns. The buyback programs' costs would exponentially be higher than any pre-discussed versions. I know a lot of Canadians don't hunt, but will they really support the costs of the taxpayer, especially when there's no actual link between crime and hunting rifles and shotguns. We've got problems with inflation, cost of housing, job vacancies, homelessness, and poverty. I'm a country where families are going to struggle to heat their homes this winter. Should we really be concerned with hunting guns?

Okay, Dave, I hear you, and I know a lot of people, especially in rural Canada, are very upset by this and find it an infringement on their long-held rights to own guns and use them for hunting and dealing with issues on their farmland. The government's trying to maintain that what they're trying to do is take guns off the street that weren't built for hunting but were built for, you know, assault rifles, that kind of thing. But I understand the conflict.

And, Dave, I thank you for writing the letter. Doug Moore writes from Nanus Bay, BC. Just finished listening to Tuesday's end bits and your recollection of your time spent in Churchill, Manitoba. As you mentioned, one of the things that used to come up every once in a while was why don't we build a dome over Churchill? I was in pilot training in Gimli and we were having the same thoughts down there. Part of our training was officer development, and part of that program was that we had to develop a course project on any theme of our choice. Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic dome were all the rage back then. This was 1969, same time I was in

Churchill. And so we thought, why not put a geodesic dome over Gimli? So we forged ahead with the idea. As you pointed out in your end bit, there were more than a few technical details to overcome, but we didn't let those minor details hold us back. We built a model of Gimli under glass and ran with it. Here's a couple of photos of me and our dome. And yes, Doug adds some of the pictures.

It looks pretty spiffy. Nice dome. Don't see it over Gimli yet, or Churchill. Lauren Finlayson. He's in Cumberland, B.C. He got interest because I mentioned Lobsters the other day So he talks about

How he and his family were In PEI Little did we know until that moment That lobsters are usually served cold Well Sometimes if you buy lobster roll or what have you, I like them hot, I like them steamed. But anyway, he's talking about being in a particular lobster place

in Victoria, PEI, right near the Confederation Bridge. We ordered one each and in a few minutes these taste delights arrived at our table. Oh my, they were so sweet and tasty and we just gorged on them. Each came with a nice salad and maybe fries. After all, this was PEI, the home of the finest potatoes. So Peter, the

next time you're driving down Highway Number One on Prince Edward Island, please turn off and find Victoria. That is, after you've checked to see if it's lobster season. We guarantee there's a lobster dinner waiting for you that you'll not soon forget. You know what, Lorne? I was just there in September. I went to that very spot. Now, the lobster's great there in Victoria, but you know what?

Lobster is great pretty well anywhere. If you like lobster, you're not going to be disappointed in PEI or Nova Scotia or parts of New Brunswick if it's in season. John Clifford from London, Ontario. In 1969, my wife and I took the train to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for our honeymoon. We had very little money, and so walked and hitchhiked around the Sydney area, enjoying the generous hospitality

of everyone we met. One night, we even slept out in a farmer's field, right under the stars. This past October, we retraced our honeymoon Although the train now only goes to Halifax We rented a car and after visiting Halifax and Peggy's Cove Drove up to Sydney and then on to the Cabot Trail At the same time we were listening to the audio version of Off the Record Alright!

Thank you. And they said it was a welcome addition to their travels. Ian Gorman writes from Ottawa. I'd like to hear a discussion with Brian Stewart about attacks on a civilian population. There's a very strong incentive for such attacks because the foundation of military strength is the productive capacity of the population. That was the rationale behind the blitz on London,

the carpet bombing of German cities, and the fire bombing of Japanese cities. It's the rationale behind Putin's attempt to make Ukraine uninhabitable this winter. Given the advantages of direct attacks on civilians, the only way to prevent such attacks would be either to make the attacks impossible with better air defense or a strike of the staging points of those attacks. The second approach would be an escalation of the

war, which is exactly what the NATO countries are trying to avoid. Okay. Victoria D. writes from Toronto. COVID was a test for us. We had always lived in different places. Both of us had careers and always busy and traveling,

but we managed COVID and you helped. I saw your jump into the lake on Instagram and that the note about your podcast as an aside, I'm now deleted Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too much time wasted. I listened often to be informed and also to hear a reassuring voice when the I'm now deleted Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Too much time wasted. I listened often to be informed and also to hear a reassuring voice when the world was so crazy, when walking the dog

or in the morning as I got ready for the day. I think my husband and I miraculously got to know each other better and deeper during COVID. We had been so busy, we had not really spent that much time together, just the two of us. Silver lining, right? You know, I've heard that from many people. You know, it's too bad we had to go through COVID, and still do,

for that outcome. But thanks for your comments about that. I mean, it's one of the wonderful things about podcasts, and as you know, there's thousands of them out there, there's some real jewels. And they make the whole listening process so interesting. Derek Andrews writes from Fredericton, New Brunswick. In response to your podcast covering events unfolding in China,

I appreciated your coverage on the topic. However, I don't believe this is in general protest towards xi jinping uh that you alluded to i believe this is very specific to their covid policies and restrictions that the people of china have had to live through for close to three years now um okay that's your view it's not mine i think there's a link between the two it's his policy after all um but there is always this frustration certainly among young people uh in china that they don't have the freedom that the full freedom that they want they've got a lot more freedom than uh believe me they had 30 years ago you know before tiananmen i've been to china i don't know three four times so i've seen it change since the

mid-70s when i was first there kevin torgumson from calgary brian stewart's take on poland is spot on i visited the country in 2007 and a few things stuck out to me crossing into poland really felt like you were leaving the EU and traveling through Checkpoint Charlie. It's like the Cold War never ended. Passports were checked and the border guards were very serious in their demeanor. Brian was arguing in his commentary earlier this week that there are a growing number of analysts and leaders in Europe who feel that Poland may well be the European

superpower of the future, and that transitioning is starting right now. Steve Abba writes from Toronto, I'm of course thinking of Brian Stewart and his wonderfully informative Tuesdays. They are, aren't they? Could we ask him how to let us know sometime how his process works, how he develops such great inside knowledge? I'll try to remember to ask him on Tuesday. Don and Penelope Stone in Edmonton, they're worked up, as some people are, about the Alberta's sovereignty within a United Canada Act. I'm proud to be a Canadian, strongly believe in the concept of cooperative federalism. Unfortunately, we have a government that governs for a subgroup of Albertans who hold political values on the far right of the political spectrum.

Michael Williamson writes from Burlington, Ontario. I hope you embrace the opportunity to send handwritten notes to those deserving of your thanks. This is a result of something I said the other day about the box of thank you notes I found that my mother had kept to be used when she wanted to send thank yous and how the thank you notice sort of disappeared in our high-tech world. Michael thinks I should think about that. I suspect that it will facilitate an opportunity to slow the world down for a little bit, to express yourself, but also remember your mom. Time carries on, relentlessly so. Dad always said life was for the living, and he is correct.

I hope we have you for a long time to come, but as mom and I have learned, when something needs to be done sooner or later, make it sooner, because later, well, it may never come. Good advice. Aaron Lazar. Aaron Lazar. I bumped into that music button on my little keyboard. Sorry about that.

You know, this really is amateur hour, right? It's amateur hour here at the bridge because I do all this stuff myself. And sometimes I get things a little bit confused. And I bumped into that button for that music. And that was the Wednesday music, right? That's the Smoke Mirrors and the Truth music. Anyway, let's get back to Aaron Lazar's letter. It's the last one for this week.

You know, just so you know, I get a lot of emails every week of people who love this podcast. They love it because of people like Brian Stewart and Bruce Anderson, Chantelle Hebert, and the doctors who were with us through the pandemic and still join in every once in a while, and the many other guests, James Moore, Gerald Butts. Their conversation series continues i think it's is it next week or the week after as we head towards the holiday break conversation number five the moore butts conversation or the butts moore conversation we argue about what order the name should go in. Anyway, you write a lot of nice things.

I don't run all those comments all the time, but I really deeply appreciate them. And occasionally, you know, I'll get notes from people who don't like the podcast. And, you know, they'll list why they think it's too kind of laid back and too folksy and too this, that, and the other. That's okay. But the overwhelming number are clearly of people who write in, like it, and the numbers keep growing.

So I've got to take some measure of that. Anyway, Aaron Lazar writes from Toronto. And I didn't know this existed, so I appreciate it. Aaron writes, I'm writing from Toronto. This morning my podcast app notified me that my year in review was ready to be presented. And lo and behold, The Bridge was my most listened to podcast. And he attaches screenshots and his podcast app is from Spotify, right?

I don't use Spotify myself, but apparently they'll send you, you know, the data, the stats on your listening habits. So many comments to make and stories to share. Suffice to say, I'm so grateful for the myriad of topics. I think it's myriad topics. I know it sounds like it should be myriad of topics,

but I think myriad, the definition of myriad is thousands of. So if you take the definition, then you just say myriad topics. Sorry, I am not a master of the English language by any means, but that one's always been something that I've argued about with writers and editors over the years. Anyway, I'm so grateful for the myriad topics you've covered, particularly during and off the pandemic. All the best to you, Dr. Bogoch,

and all the dedicated healthcare professions and support staff whose efforts continue to inspire us to be a better version of ourselves. So Aaron adds these pictures from Spotify and it's kind of neat to see it. The top five podcasts that he listened to and right up at the top is

is the bridge. So we know all of Aaron's listening habits. WTF with Mark Maron podcast, that's number two. The Big Story Frequency Podcast Network is number three. Revisionist History, that one I've listened to. Pushkin Industries. Smartless by Jason Bateman, or with Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes. It also tells you how many minutes you've listened to various things,

and I think Aaron's listening of the bridge constitutes more than a year of listening time. That's pretty good. Okay. We're going to wrap it up. We babbled on, rambled on too long. Tomorrow, good talk. Chantel Iber, Bruce Anderson.

And as I always say on Thursdays, I don't know what we're going to talk about tomorrow. But you know, magically, we always somehow find something to talk about tomorrow. But you know, magically, we always somehow find something to talk about. And we will tomorrow. So I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again

in 24 hours.