The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn on The RCMP, And The Ranter on Jagmeet Singh

Episode Date: February 23, 2023

A lot of your comments about whether the RCMP needs to be reorganized following our Tuesday interview with Paul Palango on his book 22 Murders. And then the final part of the Random Ranter's trilogy on the country's national political leaders -- this week it's Jagmeet Singh's turn.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday, it's your turn. Lots of letters on the RCMP. Plus, random ranter, his take on Jagmeet Singh. And hello there, welcome to Thursday. Peter Mansbridge here in Toronto for this day. A little bit of snow overnight in Toronto. Oh, there had, you know, all the red lights and orange lights and blue lights were flashing all night because this was it. This was Snowmageddon again. But you know, really, it wasn't that bad. I look out my window and I look straight

up University Avenue towards Queen's Park, the provincial legislature. There's hardly any cars on the road early this morning because I think they were expecting the worst. Now, some of the conditions aren't good. The roads seem not bad, really, but like sidewalks and that, icy, not a good thing. So that was the early morning situation. So people were taking it easy out there. But you know, sometimes they tend to just overreact a little bit in Toronto and the warnings start coming in. Oh, big storm coming. It's coming in. It's going to be real bad. Well, okay. That's not what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about your turn, your thoughts, ideas, comments on various issues of the week.

And by far and away, the most talked about issue from our program this week was the Monday interview with Paul Polango. Well, actually, I guess it was Tuesday. It was the first day of the week because Monday was a holiday. So Paul Plango, his book, 22 Murders on that terrible April 2020 situation in Nova Scotia, where a shooter killed 22 people and questions that have been raised about the RCMP's handling of that. Plus some general questions raised about the RCMP. And that has been happening for some time now, not just Paul Blanco, who, as we said on Tuesday, controversial guy. Some call him a conspiracy theorist, but he's kind of been out there.

He's written very successful books about the RCMP, and he raises serious questions. And those questions are, you know, relevant all the time, especially so right now as the RCMP and the government make a determination of who's going to lead the force into the future with a new commissioner due within the next, well, a couple of months, I guess. Anyway, as a result, lots of letters. So let's get to them. Jason Craig writes from Conquerel Mills, Nova Scotia. I'm a resident of Nova Scotia. I've read as much of what was written by Paul Polango. I'm comfortable in my belief that the inquiry into the mass shootings

is not going to give more than a token acknowledgement of the shortcomings of the RCMP during and after that event. Kudos for tackling a controversial item in a manner that does not fit the official narrative, as Paul details in a painstaking manner. At a high level, I agree, major change and disruption is overdue with regards to the RCMP,

but politics is going to see that can kick down the road while more events like these occur. God, I hope not. It is time to eliminate a lot of endless bureaucracy here, keep the historical and nostalgia elements, fund new contract policing models, and move forward with something more effective and safe for Canadians. D. Elliott from Charlottetown. Very interesting interview on Tuesday's show with Mr. Polango about 22 murders, the investigation. I found the book to be quite different from the media and RCMP perspective. No kidding. You may have heard the saying, there's the right way, the wrong way, and the RCMP way.

Not too far off, especially in this case regarding the RCMP. Found Paul Polango to be quite forthright in the interview as well as his book. Anyway, we'll have to see what the commission report says. Who knows? That could be due within the next six weeks or so. Kate Gawkle-Turvett from Listowel, Ontario. And we're just looking for the best place to start this reading of the letter. Here we go.

I like this. I'm writing to you from up the road in Perth County in Listowel, Ontario. And when she's saying up the road, she's talking from my other place in Stratford, Ontario, right? I'm writing to you from Listowel, Ontario, birthplace of PGA golfer Corey Connors, Jared Kiso of Letter Kenny, and Shorsi fame,

and actress Emily Kutz of Star Trek. Man, who knew? I've enjoyed your podcast from the beginning and felt it reminded me of my days as a young mom listening to Peter Zosky on my little Walkman, keeping my brain in touch with news and people all across Canada. Today, as a senior, and particularly during the pandemic, yours was a voice of calm and reassurance with facts and opinion

coming from you, your co-hosts and guests. Thank you for that. Thank you for kind of detailing, you know, the historic facts of Listerville, Ontario. I listened to your Tuesday podcast with Paul Polango, found his views regarding the RCMP to be insightful and interesting. I think I'll find his book and read it as well. My point, however, is in response to his closing views on the RCMP musical ride.

My husband and I saw the ride last November at the Royal Winter Fair, and I can tell you that it was pretty lame. To be fair, I suppose performing inside an arena doesn't lend to the performance as well as an outdoor venue would. However, some of the riders bounced like a sack of potatoes on the back of those horses. Not the elegance and skill I had anticipated. I wonder, is it time to retire the ride

to appearing only at official or special events and save us some taxpayers' money? Just saying. Kate Gawkle-Turville. Dane Stewart. I'm from Truro, Nova Scotia The shooter drove through Truro during his rampage I usually don't listen to stories about the mass shooting Because it's challenging to listen to a story about a man

Driving across the landscape of your childhood Shooting bullets through each pin in the map But I need to write in because i think in some ways your story wasn't the right one i appreciate the work that paul has done and i appreciate the visibility that you gave through your show but you didn't mention the people the nova scotians the families 22 people were killed 22 whole people each with a life each with a story they didn't get a lot of mention in your program. Accountability and justice are important, but so are these histories, these people.

I'll take your point. I think, you know, I think it, I was going to say goes without saying, but that's not a very good argument. I think what we're trying to get at is what happened on that day. Why did these people die? And so that was the focus. That was the story on Tuesday. But I hear what you're saying.

We should never forget the victims of these crimes, big and small crimes. Pamela Moffitt in Vancouver. We had a lot of reaction, as I said, to this interview from right across the country. Pamela Moffitt from Vancouver writes, I've been enjoying your podcast for some time now and really appreciate the insights that many of your guests bring to the show. I especially enjoyed your interview on your February 21st program with Paul Polingo regarding the RCMP.

Wow, what an eye-opener. It seems that we have been asleep for so long, perhaps our Canadian naively has lulled us to sleep. Our Canadiana, I guess, naivety has lulled us to sleep with the mandate of the RCMP. Paul's perspective certainly gives us pause as we entrust our Prime Minister to appoint the next Commissioner of the RCMP. Paul's perspective certainly should open up the conversation for all of us

to think about how the RCMP should be structured, what its mandate should be, and how it should be held accountable for past mistakes, such as its handling of the Portapique mass murders. Doug Heineman. When the provincial policing contracts were last renewed in 2012, British Columbia threatened to withdraw and set up a provincial police force. Instead of seizing the opportunity by saying, what can we do to help with the transition,

Ottawa offered concessions and pushed hard to keep the province in. Now Alberta is talking about withdrawing and I see no sign that Ottawa realizes that this could be a step forward or a step toward stripping the RCMP down to become a focused and effective federal police force. Change is never easy but repeating the mistakes of the past is no way to run a country. Paul Polango is absolutely right. The RCMP should get out of provincial and municipal policing. The force does too many things and none of them well. The old term, jack of all trades, master of none, fits perfectly.

Don Mitchell from Regina. Paul is right on. I've been advocating for years that the RCMP should become a national police force and get out of contract policing. Provincial and municipal governments can get locals to be the police and maybe we could get back to the best cop who knows their neighborhood and is the good guy and not the muscle. But I fear that nothing will change. And in the finest traditions

of previous and current Canadian governments, nothing will be done until an absolute disaster strikes us. That was pretty close to an absolute disaster, if not one. I thought Port-au-Pic would be the catalyst, but I was wrong. The upper echelons closed ranks and protected the reputations of senior administrators instead of getting at the truth. The force needs to be stripped of the foundations and then commence a full reorganization of the service with all sacred cows ready for the abattoir. Don Stone from Edmonton.

On the topic of polling, Bruce mentioned that the UCP, that's the Alberta Party, Governing Party, talks about a provincial police force. Janet Brown's recent poll indicates 85% of Albertans say no to a provincial force.

The last poll during Kenney's government, Janet Brown's poll showed 95% of Albertans said no. Albertans love our RCMP. All right, well, if you're getting the impression that we only ever heard from people who agreed with Paul Polango or appreciated Paul Polango, or we're looking forward to reading Paul Polango's book, you'd be wrong.

Paul, as I've mentioned a number of times and did more than a few times on that program, Paul's been a controversial journalist through his career. He's been accused of being a conspiracy theorist. We had that go around with him on the podcast. However, as I said, not everybody liked what he had to say. Nick Brown writes from British Columbia.

Got a kick out of how Nick addressed this. Mr. Mansbridge and showrunners. Nick, I guess you're a new listener. There are no showrunners. There's me. That's it. That's all. It's a hobby, right?

I do this from my home. I book my own guests. I write my own questions. I ad-lib the rest of the show. My son does social media promotion for the program. But there are no showrunners. It's not that kind of program. This is not the CBC or CTV or anybody.

It's just me in my little house. Okay. That was not Nick's point. He had just finished listening to the episode and clearly he was not happy. I must say as a serving police officer, but speaking as a private citizen, I was highly disappointed in some of the comments that Mr. Polango had to say and the lack of counterbalance your episode featured. It was not a balanced show, that's for sure,

and we made that point, why we were doing what we were doing. This was one of the most successful non-fiction books of the past year. Now, Nick may call it fiction, but it was put forward and accepted in the book industry as non-fiction. It was the number one bestseller. That's what we were talking about. Now, Nick, it's a very long letter for Nick, and with all long letters, and I get a lot of them, I usually isolate one paragraph, so that's what I'm doing here. And one example, he says, that was poorly done, of a number of examples he gives. Mr. Polango claimed that the confrontation between the RCMP and Mr. Workman, he was the shooter, at the gas station station which resulted in the latter's death was

an execution based on video evidence this defies basic logic no police force would ever train a police officer going into a high-risk firearm scenario let alone a member of the emergency response team which was the case in this instance to pull up parallel to an armed person and then attempt to engage with an armed person. It defies the basic concepts of having cover readily available to be behind in a potential gunfight. Again, a ludicrous claim that doesn't withstand against basic logic. And this claim certainly found no rebuttal from your program to make another wild claim supporting a cover-up on the part of the national police force all right nick i get your point that you certainly have issues with mr palango and maybe a debate between the two of you at some

point might be an interesting way to proceed but But he has his views, you have your views, and within the next month to six weeks, we're going to get the Commission of Inquiry's views on what happened in Nova Scotia in April of 2020 and why 22 people ended up dead as a result. We'll talk again when that report comes out, I'm sure. Alright, moving on to another controversial

part of the bridge, especially the Thursday edition of the bridge. We introduced late last summer the Random Renter. It has been, without question, highly successful. And last week's, in terms of the numbers of people listening, and you know, what's the point of doing a program like this? You want people to hear it, right? You want people to listen to it. And you find ways to listen to it and you find ways to engage them and we engage them by having some of the best guests out there you know from janice stein

who becomes a regular again next week um bruce anderson chantelle a bear brian stewart doctors Anderson, Chantelle Hebert, Brian Stewart. Doctors, and you know them all, when that kind of advice is needed. The More Butts Conversations, another highly successful segment. Anyway, the ranter has been great. And last week, the ranter's been on this tear against the three national party leaders. Not just party leaders, but national party leaders. Ones who have candidates running right across the country. And so he did Pauliev. Last week he did Justin Trudeau.

Today he's going to do Jagmeet Singh. That's coming up in a couple of minutes. But last week's Justin Trudeau rant, highest rant ever recorded by the random renter. I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear the applause there. No, it was a big week for the renter. In terms of downloads of the program, it's still going on. There have been thousands of downloads.

It's a big deal for the ranter. Lots of cause to celebrate that he's being heard, not necessarily agreed to, as you're about to hear. Marge Andre writes from Richmond Hill, Ontario. It is a requirement of a leader, elected or not, to be ready for pushback. But I've been asked if I'd throw my name in for various positions. I couldn't take it. No, I don't need to be liked all the time.

I can take criticism and be told I'm wrong. Would it be possible, though, to be more civil? Show some respect? Is the random renter being disrespectful? Is his behavior nudging the rest of us to thump our fists and cry, yeah, let's cut them down, those incompetent losers? Well, I don't think he said anything like that, but he was pretty tough,

as he has been on each of the political leaders. And there's always room for that. We've also, you know, there have been times when the political leaders have been praised, including by the random ranter on this program. But he was targeting all three of them in this trilogy, and you'll hear the final one coming up in a couple of minutes. but he was targeting all three of them in this trilogy,

and you'll hear the final one coming up in a couple of minutes. You get Messier. I listened to the two rants on our politicians. I must admit the degrading introductions with turtles, rats, and pigs do not appeal to me. The first rant on Polyev focused on and criticized his style, his lack of policies and criticized his style, his lack of policies, and his party, while the one on Trudeau, as usual, mainly attacked his personality.

Cheapshots, as we would say, sounded more like a thrashing than a critical rant. Why do we enjoy so much insulting of our politicians? I'm not sure people necessarily enjoy them. Carol Lavallee in Stittsville, Ontario. As I reflect on Mr. Trudeau's at times too saccharine demeanor, I'm reminded of the influence of the family environment on our personalities. As a child growing up in a home with one parent suffering from the ups and downs of mental illness contrasted with a highly intellectual parent, Mr. Trudeau may have unconsciously taken on the role of being the sweet one, eager to bring

sunshine back into the family when things got too tense or chaotic. Now an adult, that behavioral, that behavior perhaps automatically slips in when it's not even needed. We all carry old family roles into our adulthood. Yes, Mr. Trudeau is at times too saccharine. A demeanor can be irritating, but I prefer that to the role of being the proverbial angry attack dog. Looking at you, Mr. Polyev. Derek Dillable from Ottawa. Ottawa's a suburb of Stittsville where Carol Lavallee wrote from.

You know what I mean. Derek writes, I was in a mall parking lot last week and a car pulled up in front of me with a F. Trudeau bumper sticker on it. And then a mother with her two young children got out to go shopping. At first I was slightly shocked, but then I felt a bit sad.

Is this what we have become now? Routine flags and bumper stickers with crude slogans, not just among adults, but children as well. I listened to the rander use some somewhat similar language. I'm not sure you could call it similar. When he called Trudeau a phony and even mocked his cadence of his speech, he neglected to talk about the most important things of all, policy. There are many families that don't care how he pronounces $10 a day, daycare, or child tax credit, or even legalization of cannabis.

None of these things are phony. The magic of the moor-or butts conversations proves that political opposites in reality can have thoughtful, meaningful conversations and come to agreement because there is plenty of common ground to be found if we truly strive for it. We all benefit both children and adults when we talk, listen, and reason with each other. Bumper sticker politics and superficial language will only bring us further apart. And the last one, from Gabrielle Robichaux. I'm not sure Gabrielle told us where she's writing from, but that's not, but that's not,

and that's unfortunate, but nevertheless. Time to end this nonsense. What BS? PS, no, I didn't, nor will I vote for Trudeau. But I can smell BS like a certain smell in a car. I'm shocked that you can't. Enough. Well, on that happy pro-ranter comment,

let's bring in the ranter. Okay, here's the final part of his three-part trilogy on the political leaders. And then next week, you'll get back to non-political things after he's got this out of his system. But as I said, it's clearly been popular for some of you. Popular doesn't necessarily mean appreciated. But it's been something that's got you talking. Which is the whole reason we do occasionally provocative things.

So let's be provocative. Let's get to the random ranter. If I can just find it. And here it is. Here you go. Random ranter on Chugmeat Sing. Chugmeat Sing. What can I say?

Not a lot, really. I'm neither upset nor enthralled with him. In fact, I'm decidedly meh. He does nothing to capture anyone's imagination, which probably goes a long way to explaining why his leadership is seemingly on life support. Where Trudeau offers his sunny days and Polyev looks to make Canada great again. Singh, well, he doesn't do any of that. He's busy presenting himself as the next prime minister, and then getting laughed out of the room by the other parties, and more than likely the media too. But hey, if you don't believe it yourself, you can't ask anyone else

to believe it. So I don't fault him for thinking he can win. What I fault him for is saying it out loud. He's the underdog, not the front runner. And for most, he's not even in the race. He's got absolutely nothing to lose and he should be acting that way. You know, throw some stuff at the wall, float some trial balloons, try to seize the initiative. But nope, not Jugmeet. His lane is lame and stays mainly in the plane. That's right, he's boring. And people are starting to notice. So much so that I read a review of Jugmeet's leadership by the gruesome twosome of Rex Murphy and Jordan Peterson in the National Post. I'm not sure why it would take two right-wing gateway luminaries to come up with such a witless, wet-noodle takedown of Jugmeet, but whatever.

They seem to matter about the way minority government works than anything else really and on that front i have no issue with jugmeet he ran a poor campaign and lucked out to find himself as a power broker in a minority government that's the way our democracy works and he's made it work for his party i mean the ndp has had more influence on legislation than they've had in generations. But that said, they've done nothing to leverage that into support. They've been out-razzled-dazzled by the liberals and out-outraged by the conservatives. And to me, that's a symptom of the biggest issue. The NDP has lost touch with its base. Maybe it's not even touch. Maybe it should be relevance. Because traditionally, they were the union strong party of the blue-collar worker and garnered support right across the country. But that's not the case anymore. Today, many unions support liberal or

even conservative candidates. I would argue that even among unions whose leadership support the NDP, the members themselves will largely support other parties. Add to that their regional decline. The inroads they made in the Maritimes in Quebec? They've completely eroded, along with much of their support in southern Ontario. Saddest of all for them, they're a non-player in Saskatchewan, the province of their birth. All this just leads me to believe something is seriously wrong with the NDP. And as leader, that needs to land squarely on Mr. Singh's shoulders. It's check-up from the neck-up time for Jugmeet,

but I'm not seeing any signs of him rallying the troops seizing the moment or leading the charge i'm seeing someone who's articulate but not persuasive nice but not all that interesting thoughtful but not passionate that's okay for a friend it's problematic for a leader and it's downright damning for a politician. The Ranter, with his take on Jagmeet Singh. And as I said, that's the last one of his three-part trilogy. Most trilogies have three parts. And that's it.

So if you have something to say about it, let's hear about it. All right, we're going to take a quick break, then we'll come back with our final segment, which is your thoughts, your views, your turn on a variety of different issues. That's right after this. And welcome back. You're listening to The Bridge on SiriusXM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform.

This is the Thursday, your turn episode of The Bridge, and we're glad you're with us. Tomorrow, good talk. Chantelle will be by. Of course, she takes a bit of a break she'll be off for uh at least one episode of a good talk um as she's hiking in iceland we'll have to ask her about that tomorrow it sounds pretty uh good for her pretty exciting um okay exciting. Okay. Back to your letters. I should mention if every once in a while there's a bit of a pause, it's because I've had the sniffles all week. I was worried about what that might

mean, but I've tested myself a number of times and there's nothing. I'm test negative. I've just i've just got the sniffles um okay uh this is kind of a potpourri of letters um this one comes from jim sellers in edmonton i'm writing because i think you and perhaps chantelle and bruce may be the only ones who might remember this and have an opinion on it in 1979 joe clark's minority conservative government was defeated. I recall, I hope accurately, that the defeat was primarily because of their budget, which called for a major increase in gas and oil prices. Well, it was going to affect the price of the pump for sure. 18 cents a gallon, that's what we used back then, gallons. 18 cents a gallon was the projected increase,

and for a minority government to suggest that, good night, Irene, and welcome to the 1980s with Pierre Trudeau. The fact that Clark lost to Trudeau, who promised to scrap the tax, has me baffled about the irony of the situation compared to today's conservatives taking resources and liberals canceling the tax. Okay. Connie Stallard from the PEG, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Connie's focused on this China story. One of the air balloons, for lack of a better term shot down in our airspace it was determined to be Chinese in origin the federal government announced that they're no longer funding research with Chinese military and state security institutions so why are we going to allow the exodus of Chinese students returning to Canada we're studying remotely thus far from the pandemic, this coming school year. We seem to be shutting our front door to the Chinese with our eyes wide open,

yet have our back door open wide. Makes no sense to me. What's your take on this? My take is developing. Anastasia Lewis from CFB Shiloh in Manitoba. Well, it's western Manitoba. I'm alarmed after reading and hearing the Globe and Mail story reporting CSIS's confirmation of Chinese interference

in the 2021 federal election, specifically their goals and achieving them. I'm hopeful to hear about the issue Friday as I admire and trust Chantel's expertise with their limited bias and because Canadians need to seriously consider this issue. Food for thought, I'm an NDP voter who is very likely voting Conservative. I think this is a pocket of voters who are not explored enough. I could write more, but I'll save it for another time. Okay, well, maybe that's who the ranter was talking about. Renee Switzer from Roberts Creek, BC.

Over the last few weeks, listening to your podcast has led me to reflect on how I remember the quality of life growing up in the 50s and 60s. Back then, it took time to learn about what was going on around the world, even here in Canada. Reaction to events was slower and more thought went into reacting to those events. Since the internet and the immediacy of information transmission, it feels like society and quality of life have become less safe, more anxious. With few exceptions, it can be difficult for some to know what information can be trusted. The wholesale circulation of disinformation and misinformation is causing a breakdown in society. Yeah, we've talked about this a number of times on Good Talk,

and I've talked about it with Bruce on SMT on Wednesdays, and I'm sure we'll talk about it more over the weeks and months ahead. Jeffrey Oliver writes from St. John's, Newfoundland. You know, I think we've heard from almost, no, I think we've heard from every province today which is great uh jeffrey writes aren't trudeau and polyev and everyone else always talking about getting more people out of poverty and into the middle class and at the same time making things easier for the middle class.

But when people start earning more money and have more spending power, that is apparently dangerous to the economy, and interest rates need to be raised. Heaven forbid anyone who can afford anything. COVID restrictions are all but gone. Prices are still super high. Do we actually think prices will come down? I don't want to use the system is

broken, but rather it seems to me the system is doing as it was designed to keep people struggling while corporations and banks make record profits. I mean, look at the story of the oil majors making record profits and therefore pulling back on climate plants. Shouldn't those profits be going to help fix the problem that's a whole different email topic interesting jeffrey as he always is jeffrey's the fellow that occasionally writes from the middle of the ocean he works on board ships tankers crossing the north atlantic traveling around europe on board ships, tankers crossing the North Atlantic, traveling around Europe, and points elsewhere. Donna Lockhart from Ennismore, Ontario.

The public should now have serious doubts about the developer-politician relationship. This, of course, after the Doug Ford story of recent weeks. There's a perception the developers invited to family events are there for a reason beyond wishing the bride the best. These backdoor antics should raise alarm bells. I think we're failing to hold our leaders to high standards of practice that have been in place until just the last few years nancy kumpf from sarnia

just a few comments peter first i really enjoyed the moore butts conversation on monday i also wanted to mention how much i enjoy the banter between Bruce and yourself. I find myself laughing out loud at you guys. Good chemistry, always a great segment. Last comment, I remember when you were on the National, you periodically had roundtable discussions pertaining to something that was maybe being discussed globally or maybe discussions about health care in Canada. There were a couple of guests that I always felt were good to hear from. One would be Jana Stein.

She's been on here quite a few times and she's going to be on again on Monday. And the other, Samantha Nutt. She's been on quite a few times and she's scheduled to be on again soon. She's been traveling back and forth to Yemen, among other places, and we want to hear from Sam on how that's been going. But thanks, Nancy, for reminding us of two great guests who are basically regulars with us. Okay, going to end on two stories.

Sorry, three stories. we got time for this yep we do so first of all shut the mic off mic off and blow my nose glad to have spared you from that um okay it reminds me you know the fellow wrote earlier to showrunners there were showrunners there'd be somebody to deal with that issue right right? But we don't have showrunners. We have me. Okay. Val Grothman. Do we know where Val's running from? Yes, she's in Calgary.

Or it could be he's in Calgary. No, it's she. My husband passed away last November, and I'm 86 years old. My name is Val Grothman. We kept following your adventures, especially your interest in the Franklin Expedition. As a matter of fact, we actually made the Northwest Passage in 1995, sailing from Greenland through to Lancaster Sound to Beachy Island and to the waters on the west side of Banks Island. That's a great trip. Quest was the name of the organizers.

We were only about 35 passengers on the ship with a Russian captain. Well, he must have been busy, you know, between spying and doing everything else. He was also conducting a cruise ship, so that's great. We did stop and were stranded on Beachy Island when the ice flowed into the bay and our ship could not get out to open waters anymore. We had to request an icebreaker to help us get out of the bay and into open water. So we knew very well how the Franklin sailors had to struggle in such unfriendly surroundings. I believe our ship

was the last that got icebreaker help for free. After that, any following vessels would have to pay something like $40,000 if they needed the icebreaker. The reason I write to you today is, have you asked yourself ever why there is no grave for Franklin? They buried three crewmates on Beachy Island, but not him. Actually, I think it's just two crewmates from the Franklin expedition who were buried on Beachy. The third grave is from one of the ships that went looking for Franklin. I've been to Beachy a couple of times,

so I know that story fairly well, not perfectly, but fairly well. Here's the answers to your questions. The Franklin crew stayed overwintered in their first winter, 45-46, at Beachy as they were looking for the Northwest Passage before they went further south down around King Edward Island, King William Island. On Beachy, they suffered two deaths. And, you know, there's been lots of speculation as to why those two fellows died,

whether the tinned food had got contaminated or whatever it was. Some reason killed them. Franklin didn't die for more than another year. And they were well south of Beachy, so that's why he wasn't buried there. He died on board the ship. It is unclear what happened to his body. You know, they found both ships.

Now, they have not said whether his body was on board one of those two ships. Or, more likely, say some, in Royal Navy tradition, Franklin was buried at sea. You know, opened up an ice hole where the ship was trapped and lowered his body into the waters. But that's the answer to your question. I'm still fascinated by the Franklin story, love the Franklin story. Second last letter. Nope, better move along here. Donna Ward, when listening to have your say, that's your turn,

you pronounce the village of saint agatha from a listener's letter agatha this brought up a friendly and at times hilarious debate we have with a few of our friends when traveling to the east coast in the summer all six of us grew up in different places across north america from newfoundland nova scotia ontario manitoba illinois and wisconsin and some have lived in Alberta, British Columbia, and Colorado. The entire trip we debated the pronunciation of several locations, one being St. Agatha, close to our home. Some think it's Agatha, like Agatha Christie.

Other locations are Weber, a street in many cities, as well as a barbecue company. Is it pronounced with a short E or a long E? Elgin, a town in Illinois with a street named after Lord Elgin. Do you say it with a hard G or a soft G? Leading us to the drink gin or... Or gin. I don't know how those two gins are pronounced. As a journalist, news reporter, and podcaster,

I am sure you come across many discrepancies in pronunciation. Can you please settle this ongoing debate? I'm not sure what to settle. There are different ways to pronounce things. And different towns have different names. I mean, look at where this terrible situation is playing out in the States. To most of us looking at it the first time, it seems like East Palestine. But no, it's East Palestine it the first time, it seems like East Palestine, but no,

it's East Palestine is the way they pronounce it there. I remember this great little story. Hopefully this won't take up all our time because I have one more letter to read. Okay, here it is. I was at CBS. I was down doing something with CBS in the late 1970s. And one of the stars of CBS, aside from Cronkite, who I met on that trip as well, was Charles Kuralt, who used to do this series called On the Road. And it was extremely popular. He was traveling around the country all the time on a big bus. And one of the things that he kept as he was traveling around the country all the time on a big bus. And one of the things that he kept as he was traveling

was different towns with different pronunciations, although they were spelled the same way, just the kind of thing you're talking about. And so one day they were driving into this town, and the sign outside was spelled M-E-X-I-C-O. And Charles said, we got to stop here. We got to find a coffee shop or something. This could work perfectly.

Who knows how they pronounce that? And the guys on the crew said, sure, why not? All guys in those days. So they pulled into, you you know something like a coffee shop and they go in they sit down at a table and the waitress comes up and and uh charlie says uh we're going to order in a second but first i've got to ask you this question and they've got the cameras rolling and everything and the question is how do you pronounce the name of the place we're in right now be slow be very slow in

giving me this pronunciation because i want to hear exactly how it sounds and the waitress looks at him and says, okay. And she looks at him and she says, Dairy Queen. Well, I thought it was funny. I thought it was hilarious when I first heard it. And a fellow told me that in the cafeteria at CBS. Because we saw Charlie Kuralt sitting on the other side of the cafeteria. And he said, I've got to tell you this story. Anyway. thank you.

I will say goodnight in a moment. Let's quickly go through this letter. Small print. Judy Skeen. I'm an 83-year-old who had high blood sugar readings and had ballooned to 206 pounds. When I turned 80, I gave myself an iPhone. And when I turned 81, my parents, my present to myself was an Apple Watch.

My doctor gave me three months to get my blood pressure, blood sugar, under control. Sorry, the print is very small here. I made it a daily practice to complete the rings on the phone and my readings came down, but not enough. Most of the time, closing my exercise ring, I would put in my AirPods and listen to the bridge while walking circles around my apartment. So for the next three months, I kept closing those rings, and I found it on the kitchen scale that I put out and started weighing all my food that I tracked on lose it. That is a bit extreme, but it has worked for me.

My blood sugar is down to normal levels. I weigh 158 pounds this morning, and I no longer use a EPAP machine. It was recalled last year and I'm still waiting for repairs. Enough about weight. This is great. If I could lose like 40 pounds or whatever that was by doing that, I doing that, I'd sign up. Next, I would like to point out that since December 19th of 21 to January 4th of 23, I've completed 11 cruises and visited 30 countries. One of those cruises was with Adventure Canada to visit the Arctic and Greenland. I know you love the Arctic, but you do have to take time to get to Antarctica. My visit there was with Star Princess, captained by a Canadian from Alberta. I thought I was too old for an expedition ship,

so I waved to the penguins and whales and birds. Turns out I managed the Adventure Canada ship, but wish I'd gone many years ago. My travel agent scouted out Regent Seven Seas on their ship to Antarctica and loved it. I live in Sault Ste. Marie on the river and a Viking on Octanus spends summers on the Great Lakes then does trips to Antarctica during the winter. Both of these cruise lines have submarines that are included in the fare. Give it some thought and do it while you can. Still enjoy the expedition ships. Keep up the good work on the podcast out there. She's 83.

I love it, Judy Skeen. Good for you. You're an example for all of us. And, you know, some of those expeditions you've been on, good for you. That is just fantastic. The Arctic and the Antarctic. I haven't done them both. I've only done the Arctic a number of times.

I ain't going to do all I can to do the Antarctic. And partly based on your letter. Okay, that's it for this week went a little longer than usual dear re queen come on you have to at least smiled on that one tomorrow it's good talk Chantel and Bruce will be here I'm Peter Mansbridge thanks for listening on this day

we'll talk to you again in 24 hours