The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn - Our Weekly Mail Bag of Your Thoughts and Concerns PLUS An Embarrassing Admission From Your Host!

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

Today's program begins with an admission of mine about how I made a fool of myself at last night's Leaf's game. But then, your letter, thoughts, comments and ideas on a variety of subjects from these days that never end.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday, that means your turn. It also means I tell a story about how I made a fool of myself with the Thursday edition of The Bridge. So last night I was at the Leafs game. It was a great game for the Leafs. They won big, 8-3 over Colorado, and Colorado is a really good team. Nathan McKinnon is on the Colorado team. Nassim Kadri is on the Colorado team. Nathan McKinnon is on the Colorado team. Nazem Kadri is on the Colorado team. But last night was another great night for the Leafs. You know, they've won, I don't know what it is now, 15 of the last 17 games, something like that. They are on an incredible rule. However, it's December.

It ain't April. And we know what that means. And in poor old Toronto, all that anybody cares about is what ends up happening in the playoffs. Are they going to get blown out again in the first round? Well, that is what most people care about. But at the same time, it's kind of nice to watch this happening.

They're playing great. They really are playing well. So I'm at the game last night. As I've told you before, I've season tickets to the Leafs. I used to have season tickets for about five years to the Winnipeg Jets. But, you know, I don't get to Winnipeg very often anymore. But Jets also are a great team, and they have a piece of my heart in Winnipeg in terms of that hockey team.

But the Leafs, I've been a Leafs fan since I was a kid, since we came over from the old country in the mid-50s. The Leafs were the first team that I sort of got excited about and became a hockey fan. So there I am in my seats last night with Willie. My son came last night. We were sitting there. You know, all those years that I was doing the national,

I could never go to a hockey game because I was working nights. But I always, it was my one treat that I always wanted to get, and I got it to myself as my retirement present off I left the CBC. I got season tickets for the Leafs, and they're not bad. They're not at center ice. They're at one end. They're kind of in the corner a little bit, but it's a great spot. I love that.

It's fairly close to ice level. It's only six rows back. So we're watching the game. ice level. It's only six rows back. So, we're watching the game. And, the crowd is pretty hyped. Because the Leafs were expecting this was going to be a really close game, and it could go either

way, because Colorado's a good team. Well, Toronto got off to a very early lead, 3-0 in the first period. And a lot of Toronto fans have been kind of waiting for what we like to think is our version of Connor McDavid. I mean, nobody's Connor McDavid, but we like to dream. And Austin Matthews is pretty good. I mean, he won the goal-scoring title last year,

the Rocket Richard Trophy. But he's, for Austin Matthews, he's got off to a kind of slow start. I think last night, going into the game, he had 10 goals so far in the season. So everybody has been assuming that at some point he was going to kind of break out. He's been on a bit of a run lately. I think he'd scored in the last three or four games.

And so when he scored near the end of the first period, people thought, hey, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the game he's going to get a couple of goals at least. And he was hyped, and everybody was smiling and laughing because he just shaved off his mustache, which has been a point of some derision in Toronto. He's had a mustache for the last couple of years, and it's, according to him

and according to a lot of other people, it's made him look older. So when he shaved off the mustache as part of a campaign to raise money for a good cause, he suddenly looked younger. He was going around saying, I look 16. Again, not sure about 16, but he definitely looked younger than he did with the mustache. Anyway, he gets his goal in the first period. And then in the third period, he gets a second one. Another, it was a beauty. And then, you know, there's still 15 minutes left in the period, 15 minutes left in the game, and people are thinking, could he get a hat trick? Has

Nat a hat trick this year? And would that really signal that he's back as a goal scorer. What am I thinking? I'm thinking, this is my moment. I've waited. Well, not waited, but I've always wondered, what would I do if a Leafs score is a hat trick? Am I going to be one of those hundreds, if not thousands of people who throw their hat on the ice. Well, I was wearing a hat last night.

I was wearing a toque, my Raptors toque actually, but it's one of my favorites. And, you know, it, I can't remember how much it costs, but it was outrageous. You know, one of those things you buy at the arena and I don't know, it was 35 or 40 bucks for a toque. It was crazy. But that's what I was wearing, so I'm thinking in my head, okay, this is nuts. I can't understand why people, you know, spend that kind of money and end up throwing their hat on the ice to never see it again.

But I'm thinking, okay, I'm going to do this. So I was pumped. And just something in me said, he's going to get that third goal. He's going to get the hat trick. It's a breakout night for Austin. It's going to signal that he's back in the goal-scoring game and will take a run once again. The leaders are way ahead of him.

Dreisaitl from Edmonton, I think, is 20-21 goal, something like that. So Austin's got number 11. He's got number 12. He's got number 12. And he's gunning for number 13. And sure enough, Jake Muzzin, one of the Toronto defensemen, gives him a pass as he's breaking down the side of the rink. And he comes in with a clear shot at the net.

And poor old Colorado had a rough time with their goalie last night. Anyway, Austin picked it perfectly. Hit one post, which glanced over to the other post and into the net. Hat trick, boom. I didn't wait a second. I grabbed my hat. And I put my arm back with a great throwing motion. It's going to be the Whitey Ford of toque throwing.

Whitey Ford was a pitcher for the Yankees in the late 50s, early 60s. Anyway, I took the toque and I threw it. Didn't get to the rink. Didn't get to the ice. I couldn't believe it. I looked like a total wimp. I threw this toque and it got caught at the top of the glass and fell back down into the pathway where people go in and out of the stands. I think eventually somebody picked it up and threw it over the ice

and onto the glass and onto the ice. But that had been my moment. That had been my big moment to celebrate. Austin Matthews and his hat trick. And I gassed it. You know, and there were some awkward chuckles around and my son looked at me like, Dad, seriously? Next time, give me the hat. I'll throw it for you.

It was not a great moment. But it was a great moment for Austin and it was a great moment for the Leafs and there you go there's my little Toronto Maple Leafs story for this day and I know how many of you just love to hear any stories about the Leafs if you know anything about the Leafs you know who Steve Dangle is now Steve Dangle he's all right he's a real character has a great podcast and guess who he's invited on next week that's right I'll be there

okay moving on we're getting into the letters and we'll get to those in a moment. There's a few good ones today, but I wanted to just bring you up to date on a couple of things. You remember last weekend was the so-called Black Friday weekend, right? It started as a great shopping weekend just in the United States, but now it's gone worldwide. Everybody does Black Friday, even though it's not a holiday in countries like ours. Even I was down there at the Eaton Center in Toronto with my granddaughters the other day. And it was an absolute zoo. I couldn't stay long.

It was just like crazy. Anyway, every year they calculate who the winners and losers were on Black Friday in terms of the retail markets. So there's a website called Retail Dive. And here's how they judge this year. So 2021 Black Friday. This year saw some clear changes from past Black Friday shopping, while some trends continue to shine through. On the upside, large retailers took a stand against having employees work on Thanksgiving with many, we mentioned this last week, such as Walmart and Target shutting their physical stores and allowing for online shopping only. And those same retailers with large supply chains saw a 22% growth in revenue since last October.

New technologies such as, and I haven't heard of these two, Klarna and Affirm, allowed customers to buy now and pay later for gifts, seeing an uptick of 422 percent in usage in november of this year and curbside pickup continued to shine as a way for consumers to get their goods quickly supply chain issues continue to figure prominently with out of stock messages up 124 percent and i see that a lot you know i was in a staples store the other day because I needed to pick up

some stuff for this podcast in terms of software and equipment. And, you know, row after row after row had out-of-stock signs on certain things that I was looking for. This led to fewer discounts across all retailers, seeing a 20 cent percent average discount on most items down 7% from last year and average order value up 11%. Like last year, foot traffic continued to decline, falling 90% compared to two years ago, as most shoppers prefer to shop online or in-store

before the big holiday rush. CNBC also has a piece on this. And I'm telling you these stories because they have an impact on the bigger story that we're talking about, which is the economy and inflation. CNBC, more than half of shoppers are going into debt this holiday season. On average, consumers plan to spend almost $1,000, just $2 shy of $1,000, for themselves and their families this year, down from the pre-pandemic high of $1,047 in 2019.

But for the first time, 45% of shoppers plan to use the Buy Now, Pay Later services, the BNPL. You know that? You buy now, you don't have to pay for 18 months, leaving many spending more than they can afford. BNPL has become more mainstream, but 46% of shoppers admit that they would spend less if BNPL was not an option. And 56% of them said they have made purchases that they can't pay off. Crazy.

But that's life in a world of credit. And here's the final one on these stories. And this one's not about the economy per se, but it is about the pandemic and how we're impacted by it. As Omicron emerges, a tired public has little appetite for new restrictions. You're seeing that in the way governments are reacting. Have you noticed the lack of the L word in all the restrictions that you're hearing of most countries, whether they're here in Canada,

whether it's the UK, whether it's the US, whether it's many countries in Europe, not all, but many, the L word does not exist. Lockdown. You don't hear about lockdowns. They're not introducing them. After nearly 21 months of COVID restrictions, says the Washington Post, there is little appetite in the U.S. for strong government-announced restrictions. The political will to push for unpopular but effective mitigation measures is waning,

which likely could mean that people are willing to take more risks and accept more challenges. The general public is less willing to accept more restrictions. You see that and you hear that a lot. You know, last night at the game, in our section, most people were masked and stayed masked throughout the game if they had a you know a beer or a hot dog or something they'd you know pull the mask away a little bit to either sip or or bite um but i'd say overall because i you know i did the scan and looked around

i'd say it's more like half at best and in some areas there were whole sections where i didn't see anybody wearing a mask that's not good and that's that's changed from a couple of weeks ago when the games first started uh with full crowds and most people were wearing masks. Not so much anymore. And I find that troubling to a degree. Everybody in there is double-vaxxed, at least, if not triple-vaxxed. Because you can't get in without being so. But even in light of Omicron and rising numbers anyway, as we head into the winter, But even in light of Omicron and rising numbers anyway, as we head into the winter,

people are relaxing the restrictions they had been a part of. Okay, we're going to come back with letters. And there's some good ones this week. Take a quick pause, then we'll be right back. And hello once again. Peter Mansbridge here in Toronto today for the Thursday episode of The Bridge. You're listening on SiriusXM Canada, 167 Canada Talks or wherever you get your podcasts and wherever and however you're listening to the program we're glad to have you with us I probably should say at this moment that I was busy yesterday, man.

I did a lot of book plates, a lot of them. And I'm happy to do them for you. I do warn you that we're just about, not out of book plates, but just about out of time because I've got quite a few things I've got to do in the next few weeks before the holidays reach their high moment. So if you're planning on getting a book, you better get it now. And if you're planning on getting a book and

want me to sign it with a book plate that I'll have sent to you, I need to hear from you at the Mansbridge podcast at gmail.com, the Mansbridge podcast at gmail.com. You can get my new book off the record, anywhere books are sold, or you can get it online. But send it in with proof of purchase. I need that. And if I see all that, you will get your letter in the next little while. All right.

I appreciate, by the way, all the wonderful comments that many of you are making about the podcast about the bridge um listenership has really gone up in the last few months i guess basically since the election campaign it's gone up significantly and uh as a result um you're saying some uh some nice things now sometimes i look at that and say are they just saying that so they get their book plate you don't have to say that to get your book plate but i appreciate what you do say and from wherever you're writing in different parts of the world um who write in for the bridge you know almost all of them uh canadians some non-canadians who

listen to the bridge but a lot ofCanadians who listen to the bridge, but a lot of Canadians who connect to the bridge because they feel like it's helping them connect to Canada, Canadians who are working overseas or have moved overseas, what have you. All right, here we go. And speaking of that, here's's one Robert Donaldson or Denelson

he's at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and he says this is based on yesterday's podcast when we were talking about the remember Aaron O'Toole was talking about going up to St. Lawrence or down to St. Lawrence, and we figured, Bruce and I figured he had it wrong way around. I guess we were right. Because Rob writes, Gordon Lightfoot had it right.

Up to St. Lawrence, all the way to Gas Bay. That's from the Canadian Railroad Trilogy, of course. So Rob, your Canadian fan in Aberdeen, Scotland, writes to give Gordon Lightfoot the big heads up, and he wasn't alone. Tony McKinnon in Hamilton, Ontario. Some may say Aaron O'Toole doesn't know up from down. On the issue of which terminology is correct

for the direction of travel on the St. Lawrence River, of course, the best reference point is the great Canadian troubadour Gordon Lightfoot's song The Canadian Railroad Trilogy. Up to St. Lawrence, all the way to Gaspé, swinging our hammers and drawing our pay. Among his shortcomings, it seems, Aaron O'Toole needs to listen to a little more Lightfoot. We could all listen to a little more Lightfoot. The man is

amazing. Just amazing. I love my Lightfoot story that I... I don't know whether I've told this one on the podcast before or not, but I was doing, I was emceeing a show at the Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto where there were a number of big-name Canadian artists performing and the biggest name was Gordon Lightfoot. And I got around to introducing Gordon Lightfoot, and I said, you know, what can you say?

All you can say is, ladies and gentlemen, Gordon Lightfoot. And so I turn around, and out onto the stage walks Gordon Lightfoot. And he's carrying in one hand his guitar. And in the other hand, he's carrying this little speaker. A little one. You know, it couldn't have been more than maybe a foot by a foot. And it's plugged into something backstage, and he's walking out there, he's carrying it.

Gordon Lightfoot carrying his own little speaker, and he plops it down on the stage beside him, and he starts singing. And it may have been the Canadian Railroad Trilogy that he sang. But to me, that's so Lightfoot, and it's so Canada. Like, really, can you imagine Bob Dylan walking out on the stage carrying his own speaker? Can you imagine Paul McCartney carrying out on the stage carrying his own speaker. Can you imagine Paul McCartney carrying out on the stage carrying his own speaker?

I love that story. All right. A few letters here. Man, I've been rambling today. Jane Resnick. Dr. Jane. We hear from Dr. Jane every, I don't know, a few weeks. She wanted to make a point about third doses because she heard Dr. Bogunch and I talking about them and Dr. Barrett talking about third doses in the last few weeks so jane dr jane writes from saint catherine's hi peter people should not feel guilty about getting a third dose of covid vaccine when they fulfill the criteria

of being at higher risk we have vaccine here in canada already we cannot ship it to poorer countries who need it. It's a complicated transportation and storage issue. Vaccines need to go directly to those countries. If people want to help, my understanding is that UNICEF is doing donations directly to provide COVID vaccines to those who need it. All right. Barb Demaree writes from Vancouver. Peter, I just listened to your piece on the percentage of people who do not want children, stating health and finances as the main reason. This is an interesting new trend.

On the other hand, I think it's good that people now feel they have a choice to not add children to their lives without feeling a huge amount of societal pressure. On the other hand, I'm with you when it comes to the enormous amount of pride and joy we experience watching our kids grow up and make their own lives. Yes, raising a family is hard work. There's absolutely no doubt about it. Do I regret making the decision over 30 years ago? Not for a minute. And now having a grandchild is a joy beyond description. Kathy Wills writes from Calgary. It's always an edge to Cathy Will's letters.

So tell me, Peter, you seem to know it all or you know those that know it all. Tell me, how did those cases of the South African variant get into Canada? From Nigeria,

don't all airline passengers need a 72-hour test before getting in the plane? From anywhere, coming into Canada, regardless if they are Canadian or not? I'm confused. How did this happen? Well, two things. First, it's not the South African variant. That's like calling the pandemic of 1918-19, the Spanish flu. It wasn't a Spanish flu.

The Spanish discovered it. Other countries, including the UK, the US, and I assume Canada, had kept it secret. They'd censored the information. It was in the dying days of the First World War. The Spanish, who were not affected by censorship rules, they put out the word, there's this flu, it's dangerous, it's killing people. And they called it the Spanish flu, where it could easily, just as easily, have been called an Asia flu, a US flu, a UK flu. But still, here, 100 years later, we still refer to it as the Spanish flu.

And the fear here is they're going to end up calling this the South African flu, when there is no evidence of that. What there is evidence of is that the South Africans and their leadership in science were the first to come across the Comicon virus and warned everybody else about it. They were totally transparent when they discovered it within their boundaries.

Where did it start? We don't know. We don't know. It may have been somewhere in southern Africa. It may have been somewhere else. We don't know. Because it's all over the world right now. You know, every hour, it seems, another country reports they've got it.

Now, to Kathy's point about how did it get here from there, or from Nigeria, when they're supposed to check on the planes, here's how it works checking on the planes. You get a test three days before, and when that test is taken, you may well be negative. Because you may have picked up the virus, or you may pick it up two days before you get on the plane, or one day before you get on the plane.

But it wasn't found or determined in that test that it had been taken three days before. So it's entirely possible that you could be positive when you get on the plane, even though you've been tested. I don't know if that's the case on these, but it may well have been. Those pre-flight tests can be a real pain depending on where you are in the world

because sometimes it actually takes that long to have the test, get the result, have the documentation so you can present it when you check in at the airline. But there's always a risk there. Well, Kathy didn't want to stop there. She also took a swing on the password story we told the other day. Remember how we told you that the most common password in Canada, the most common password in the world, is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. That was from one of the major tech security firms. So Kathy writes, that password stuff, that can't be true.

It didn't matter how small or innocuous the site requiring a password is. All passwords required uppercase, lowercase symbols and numbers. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as a password can't possibly be the most used. That's just old stats. Sorry, Kathy. They're not old stats. They're new. And I can tell you that most of the, you're quite right,

many sites call for one lowercase, one uppercase, one number, one symbol, but not all, and the majority of passwords that I have are not required to have those. And, you know, it's a big world out there, and there were 100 million uses of 123, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, according to this latest survey. So I'm going to go with the firm on that one. Robert Decker writes from Ottawa.

I listened this morning walking to work to your bit of information on the naming of the COVID variants. I was aware of the use of the Greek alphabet for naming the variants, and I had heard from your recent chat with Dr. Isaac Bogoch on the number of variants. It was interesting to hear about skipping certain letters to avoid cultural stigmas. Hearing that, there was a variant named the Moo variant. Do you think the Who should have skipped over Moo to avoid any concerns that might come from the cattle industry? Wink, wink, says Rob Decker in Ottawa.

You know, Rob, it's nice to have a little bit of humor in our COVID coverage. And that may well be the first one in two years. They obviously skipped that concern. But maybe they shouldn't have. Moo. Moo. Moo. Melissa Hillman. Melissa's writing from Sydenham, Ontario.

The wind is battering the side of our home here, midway up the hill on a small village in southeastern Ontario. The wind hits differently in the early days of winter, don't you think? Carrying leaves and the dried flower heads from my hydrangeas, pelting windows with little ice pellets, a cruel reminder that summer is over. It feels ominous, or maybe I'm just projecting the ominous vibe from all around us. So much has changed in our little lives in our little town since I last wrote you. Isolation and a sense of loneliness sent me from my cozy little home-based wood shop on our hill back into the workforce in Kingston. Isolation

and the constant nagging from their daughters uprooted my parents from their home outside of London, Ontario, and into the foothills of the Alberta Rockies to be Sunday dinner distance from my two sisters and their families there. It was a big change for a couple of 71-year-old long residents of Middlesex County. A strong gust has shaken the house again, and I'm pretty sure our barbecue cover has taken a leap over the side of the deck again. It's a cold wind that gets in my bones and drives me inside, reaching for the remote, watching as the nightly news reports on the ever-expanding climb in COVID cases here. I've had to remove myself from social media, delete it from my phone and devices. It was becoming unhealthy. It's amazing how even without those pushers of endless information, the news of our worsening situation still reaches

midway up the hill here. Maybe it's the wind. Cases in our community are at an all-time high. ICUs are packed with locals this time. Ventilators are doing the work that lungs can no longer keep up with. Two more families are working on obituaries for loved ones lost. 85% of parents polled by our local global news affiliate said they were hesitant to get their kids vaccinated. While our kids' schools call nearly daily, the automated voice informing us of another positive case as COVID flanks my children's classrooms. We're waiting on an appointment

for my son to have his brain tickled yet again because a headache and sore throat can't be dismissed with a comment about the cold wind and a Tylenol anymore. I'm just holding out hope we can make the long journey west for Christmas, and I'm unbelievably thankful for the third dose our 12-year-old was able to receive last week. Even strong winds can reveal silver linings sometimes. Thanks, Melissa. It's Sydenham, Ontario. thanks melissa and sydney montreal here's your last letter for this week it's from sarah mcdonald she's in toronto peter i've written to you a few times now, and I was looking back at those emails.

One detail from the letter I wrote to you in June 2020 jumped out at me. June 2020. Man, that seems such a long time ago, doesn't it? It's only a year and a half ago, but it seems like a lifetime ago. Back to Sarah's letter. In that letter, I said I had a three-year-old and an eight-year-old. Those kids are now five and ten. It struck me that we've been doing this pandemic thing for this long.

My younger son started this by leaving daycare in March of 2020 and now he's in senior kindergarten he's never gone to school without wearing a mask he's never had a holiday concert had pizza day or gone on any field trips other than a walk around the neighborhood my older son was in grade three when he was first sent home from school and he's now in grade 5 He remembers what school used to be like This would be the time when more school sports would be available to him but they are still suspended

And my kids are privileged enough to have had other opportunities outside of school for fun There are many kids that only have school other opportunities outside of school for fun. There are many kids that only have school for their source of activities. However, hope is on the horizon. Both of my sons received their first vaccine dose on Friday evening, and I am encouraged by the number of doses being administered to children in our city and elsewhere. Although it will take several months for rates to reach a comfortable level in the public school-age children, I trust that we can make progress in time to give these kids more opportunities at school.

Thanks for continuing to keep us informed. Sarah MacDonald in Toronto, and Sarah, thank you for keeping us informed and Sarah MacDonald in Toronto. And Sarah, thank you for keeping us informed and reminding us about the transition of time that we've all witnessed in different ways over these last couple of years. Always like hearing from you. Always.

And I know this is a smaller selection of letters than we're used to, but I wanted to catch up on a couple of other things as well. But I love your letters, all of them, including the critical ones. And sure, I do get some of those, and I try to respond to those directly. If it's, you know, if it's a something worthy of discussing. So that wraps her up for this day, this Thursday on the bridge. Tomorrow, of course, Friday, the most popular podcast of the week.

Good Talk with Chantal Hébert in Montreal and Bruce Anderson in Ottawa. And I look forward to being a guest, as I said, on a couple of podcasts coming up. Steve Dangles, sportscast, or podcast, sports podcast, Leafs talk, Leafs whatever. And also my good friend Kathleen Petty, West of Center, one of my favorite podcasts. She must have really been hard up. She must have been going, oh, my God, we need another person on our panel this weekend. I can't get anybody.

Phone Mansbridge. He'll do it. So that's what weekend. I can't get anybody. Phone Mansbridge. He'll do it. So that's what happened. I'll be on that one. Okay. That is it for this day, for this Thursday. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been The Bridge.

Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.