The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn -- Your "Rants" on Housing

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Last week, the Random Ranter had his solution for the affordable housing dilemma and this week you respond on what seems to be the issue of the day.  But also your thoughts on climate change, politics and the latest Moore-Butts conversation. Plus this week's Random Ranter take, this time on climate change.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. Your turn and the Random Ranter, coming right up. I love Thursdays. I love Thursdays because I get to hear from you. The good, the bad, the ugly, I get it all. And it all comes in by email to themansbridgepodcast at gmail.com. And I see all the comments on our YouTube channel as well, but they're not part of your turn for any number of reasons, including the fact that most people don't, most people, that's perhaps unfair, but a lot of people don't sign their comments on the YouTube channel.

And a lot of the comments really, they're quite funny. And I don't mean funny from the humorous way. But nevertheless, I read them and we move on. But the letters that come in on our Gmail address are letters that are a part of our Your Turn coverage. So let's get at it today. Last week on the first random ranter of the fall season. The ranter was on about housing. And as it turned out, his rant was extremely popular. People, a lot of people liked it and put the big checkmark beside it.

However, it wasn't everybody. Some people didn't like it. and we'll hear from them as well so let's uh let's get right to it our first letter comes from john dunn from scarabray ranch in cowley alberta and uh all these uh initial letters on on uh your turn today are as a result of the renters rant last week on housing. So John Dunn writes, while most markets are imperfect, market-based approaches will on housing and other consequential issues fare better than government-mandated approaches. Indeed, I've seen my inner city Calgary transform from single-family homes to duplexes and now fourplexes.

Densification is occurring because that is a path for many to affordability. It is enabled by municipal policy objectives, but the market demands it. Okay. A lot of people wrote really long letters on housing with many, many different ideas in those letters. And I appreciate that. And as I said, I read them. But on your turn, we only kind of isolate some of the comments. So Brent Harris writes, he's the executive director of the St. John's TL, whatever that happens to be. And he's a counselor at large in St. John, New Brunswick. Sorry, St. John, not St. John's.

So Brent Harris writes, in part, thanks to you and the random ranter for diving into the housing debate. I'm a city councillor in St. John, New Brunswick, and I have worked in the construction industry in various capacities for 15 years. We have a rapidly growing population here with a 1.2% vacancy rate. We also have 1,600 people on our affordable housing waitlist with more than 30% of all residents, people spending 35% or more of their income on housing. It's a fragile state to be sure. At the same time, we have 140 abandoned buildings that could create 350 plus units for people who need them, most if the provincial government wasn't fixated on protecting private interests. In this province, an owner of an abandoned building is rewarded with ultra-low property assessments,

which means their tax bill is lower than their neighbors, despite being serviced for the same. What's worse is that most of these dilapidated or abandoned buildings have owners who don't pay taxes, and it's taken the province an average of five years to expropriate these homes from their tax-delinquent owners. Meanwhile, if I stopped paying my rent, I'd be out on the street in 30 days or less. The two-faced hypocrisy on this is staggering. This is why I have called for a vacancy tax and for use-it-or-lose-it legislation to be introduced so that every housing asset is utilized. kind of a quiet debate that goes on in Toronto about a lot of these big, huge office towers in downtown Toronto, which since the pandemic, many have been, well, have been empty because people have been working from home.

And still that's the case for a lot of different businesses. And so you have a lot of these big towers that are empty. And people say, well, what the hell? We have a housing crisis? Why can't we put people in these towers? It's not quite as simple as that. These are built as office towers, so it's not like there's a whole bunch of apartments in there.

There aren't. It's not constructed that way. There are no washrooms in most of these rooms. There may be one common washroom on one floor, each floor. Anyway, they're examining this. I've seen it, but apparently some of the things I'm told is it almost costs less to knock the building down and start up again, build a, you know, some kind of apartment building than to try and properly outfit some of these.

Seems crazy that that would be the answer, but nevertheless, that's one of the things you hear. Anastasia Sparling writes from Grey Highlands, Ontario. Today's random rant was right on. Basic, no-nonsense housing is what we need now. If you didn't hear the ranters rant from last week on the house, you should dial back and get it. It's concise, straightforward. You may agree with it. You may not, but it's there, and it's a, straightforward. You may agree with it, you may not,

but it's there and it's a good one. Scott Clement in Ottawa. More often than not, I find myself in disagreement with the random ranter's views, but appreciate the time and research that he clearly puts into each topic. That being said, I couldn't have agreed more with his views on affordable housing.

Too often is our real estate compared to other countries on the price per home rather than the price per square foot. Vancouver, Toronto, and Canada as a whole are habitual global top 10 places for the most expensive real estate. But when looked at differently, measuring the price per square foot, we fall way down on those lists of most expensive real estate. Vancouver becomes one-fifth the price of Hong Kong when measured this way. I believe only Australia and the U.S. have a larger floor area per person than we in Canada. Paula Seidenkrantz in Canada. Paula Seidenkrantz in Hamilton. I like the random

ranter's position on affordable housing. However, back in 1955, land was cheap. Part of the ranter's argument was, you know, go back to those post-war years. We built houses much smaller. We didn't need big, huge homes. Why can't we get back

to smaller homes? Anyway, as Paulo says, land was cheap back in 1955. A small local builder that I'm acquainted with told me that he's not permitted to build small bungalows, only stacked townhouses, or Russian homes, as he calls them. The government would have to change the rule. Also, the builder is required to do archaeological and soil testing, indigenous consultations, submit permits to the city for every step of the process, and adhere to building and fire codes, which are always changing. All of this costs money, and the builder would like to make a profit in order to earn a living. Affordable housing is not easily attainable.

Not sure we want to abandon fire codes. And I'm not sure that's what Paul was saying, but it did kind of stick out a little bit. Jason Price in Mission, British Columbia. I enjoyed the ranter's take on the housing issue, found myself nodding and agreeing with the whole rant. We should absolutely be building smaller homes to fit the needs of the typical family in Canada. I will back up the ranter's statement by adding that people are living

in their parents' basements longer because their parents have worked long enough to afford their multi-million dollar home. Live within your means, is what my folks always said. My ex-wife and I raised our two kids in a 1,200 square foot townhome in the lower mainland, which was totally adequate for us. It's one of the points that Jason Price price has to make in his his letter on housing christine mcdonald um i sure missed this podcast over the summer thank you for saying that christine a lot of actually a lot of you have said that and it's nice to hear. However, Mainpoint and Housing totally agreed with the ranter and nice to hear him once again. Barb Demaree in Vancouver. I was very interested in

the rant regarding the housing crisis. Recently, I've been directly affected by it after learning that my son and his wife and child have to move from the apartment they're renting in the next two months. The landlord is selling, which puts them in a position of having to potentially pay close to $4,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. After a lot of contemplation and discussion with my family, I've decided to rent them my townhouse and I will move into my daughter's one-bedroom condo, which she rents out. Unfortunately, it means her current renter has to relocate. I know many parents like me are doing what they can to help their kids get a roof over their heads. We're truly experiencing a housing while I try to separate these pages.

I should note there was a housing announcement of a kind yesterday by the federal government in London, Ontario, but it's not a new announcement. They announced these funds were going to be available a year ago, and they kind of made it try to look like they're responding right away in the middle of the housing crisis with a new program. I don't think they actually said that, but it kind of looked that way until you dug a little deeper.

It's an old program finally being initiated with its first movement of money. Marty Zylstra from Maple Ridge, B.C. The ranter is simply wrong. I live in the lower mainland of B.C. and a one-bedroom condo is $600,000 or more everywhere in this area. Small houses is not the problem. The ranter simply doesn't understand the cost of land in Canada. Thanks for your work and thanks for a new season. See, I told you not

everybody likes the ranter's solution. This is kind of related on the housing thing. Derek Andrews writes from Fredericton, New Brunswick. My comment is related to the conversation on Sean Fraser and the Liberals' biggest challenge, housing and climate change. I think we need to get to the point where everyone agrees there is truly one issue, it's climate change. We have a housing problem because of climate change. My belief is that for the rest of this decade and beyond,

everything needs to be seen through the lens of climate change and how it will affect us. And this housing problem shows just how ill-prepared we are. Okay. Ken Brownlee has the record this week for the longest, most detailed note on the housing crisis, it turns out. Ken writes from Kanata, which is that community just outside of Ottawa. I think it's, what is it, just west of Ottawa? It's where the Ottawa Senators play.

So if you live in Ottawa, you actually got to drive way out of town to another community to watch your team play. They don't call them the Kanata Senators. Anyway, here's a part of what he had to say the federal government can influence the price of new homes in canada to the tune of 13 percent by reducing in prices by no longer charging the hst on new. New home prices are based on the cost to build a new home, and new home prices influence the price of used homes, which for political reasons are not charged the HST the same way a new one is.

In other words, make them all the same. New homes, old homes, no HST. That would be something. Mike Rego from, Mike, when he writes, he always makes a point of saying, I live in Cambridge, Ontario, like sort of most of the time, but I also live in Avondale, Arizona. So he's back and forth. It's kind of like me where I'm sort of in Southern Ontario or I'm in Scotland, back and forth. I think he wrote this while he was in Cambridge. Land cost is simply an issue of constrained supply of land approved for development. We need to open this up and show much more to be approved based on the merits. Currently, all municipalities approve development adjacent to

their current build-out boundaries and only extend these a little at a time, so everyone knows where the next development is going to be, and so land speculation takes over. As a contrast, a developer in Arizona can get approval for his parcel even if it is several kilometers away from the current town. He just has to put in the services connection to services to support it, like, you know, water, sewer, etc. In some places, developers build a master plan community where they essentially create a small town. The province here should change the zoning to allow this. I love it when people use other experiences that they've witnessed in the country, in the province, out of the country, to suggest ways of dealing with an issue. Dawn Dufour, she's in ottawa loved the rant last week and totally agree with his ideas on the

greed of builders and what we really need to be building right now i too grew up in a small semi-detached house in northwest toronto with my parents and two siblings it was a great place to live and grow and plenty of room and comfort for us all. Our 23-year-old son recently moved to Calgary, where he was able to get into the housing market, buying a lovely semi, part of which he's renting to a newly arrived Ukrainian family. Great for him and for his tenants, but too bad that Ontario has lost his brilliant mind and skills and that we now need to take a plane for a visit rather than our car.

Okay, all that, and that's just a smattering of the letters we got on the ranter's rant last week on housing. And great to hear from you on it. We've got lots more letters, but I think now is probably the best time to bring in the random ranter for this week's rant. And this week is one of the things that we're trying to say something about in some way at least a couple of times a week.

So why don't we have a listen to see what the random ranger has to say today. There's something special about bird songs when you're out for a walk in the woods. I don't know if you've noticed it in your neck of the woods, but in mine, the volume and variety of birdsong has most certainly been turned down. And it's not just birds. I can't tell you the last time I saw a bumblebee. A billion wasps, yes, but those big fuzzy bumblebees? I don't remember the last time I saw one. Same for butterflies. Back in the day there were so many that kids catching them with nets was a thing. But this summer, I was out hiking through a field of wildflowers and I didn't see any. And

no, it wasn't raining and it wasn't night. I'm talking the middle of a warm summer day, surrounded by flowers and no butterflies. Then you start looking at the trees, and they're not doing great either. Disease, invasive species, they're taking their toll on forests. It's sad because I have fond memories as a kid seeing that first robin of the spring, or getting up early to go fishing with my dad and hearing the whole neighborhood come alive with song before sunrise. It was magical. So why this walk down memory lane? Well, I think we've hit the tipping point where you can actually see climate change without looking that hard. And I'm not talking about the big macro events like the floods and the fires and the smoke and the storms and the drought. You can look in your garden or you

can listen with your ears and climate change is there. But the sad thing is we're still discussing what we can do about it and debating every action we take against it. Gas versus electric, the carbon tax, pipelines, pesticides, pollution, the list goes on. And the way it's going, by the time we stop arguing about it, it's going to be too late. And that's only if it isn't already too late. The bottom line is, it's never going to be cheaper to do something, to do anything about climate change than it is right now. So it's time that we stop playing politics and end the debate once and for all, because the time to change our ways is now. So I say bring on the carbon tax, bring on the hydrogen, bring on the renewable future. And for

those of you who don't agree with me, I suggest you take a long walk in the woods with your eyes and ears open and think about it. You know, I love the random ranter. The thing about the ranter is he's not an expert on anything, but he has thoughts and ideas and opinions seemingly about everything. And he throws them out there for us to think about, to think and discuss. Some people challenge him and say, no, you don't get it. It's this or that. Others say, yeah, you know, you're right. That's what I think too.

But the whole idea behind the ranter when we started it a year ago now was that the ranter would provoke us to the point where we engage on subjects and here we are in the first two weeks of this new season we're dealing with housing got lots of thought from you from across the country. And now he's weighing in on the climate change debate in some of the most simple ways, right, that we can all engage on. You don't have to agree with him. But you listen to what he has to say.

All right. I'm going to get back to your letters on a number of other topics um but you know what now's the best time for a break so why don't we take one and we'll come And welcome back. I'm Peter Mansbridge. This is The Bridge, the Thursday episode, which is, it's about your turn, right? Your opportunity to weigh in on a variety of subjects. You're listening on Sirius XM, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or on your favorite podcast platform, wherever you're listening, we're glad to have you with us. So let's get back at it.

One of the shows last week, we deconstructed an exchange between a reporter and Doug Ford. The reporter was trying to get answers and accountability on the issue of the Greenbelt, which is a big environmental topic, big housing topic, big land topic in southern Ontario. Some people felt the reporter was too aggressive, others felt it wasn't aggressive enough. So we have some letters on that thought. And they came from right across the country, not just southern Ontario.

In fact, here's an example. Tim Vandermeer from Nacoose, British Columbia. Reporters are scared to push a question further. It's like they're afraid of being punished for embarrassing a leader or important person. What the reporter asked Doug Ford, and how he asked it, needs to be done. Ford gave his answer, but the reporter didn't say after the answer, but Premier, we have tons of land not in the Greenbelt where we could have built homes. I'd have loved to hear Ford's reason for not building in the areas available.

Reporters need to grow a spine and push hard by saying, tell the truth, answer the question exactly as asked. Canadian folks are tired of leaders skirting a question with garbage government lingo. Okay. Ian Hebblethwaite, Moncton, New Brunswick. Questions with specifics like employed in the exchange with Doug Ford seem to serve two purposes in my mind. One, when you lay out the exact scenario, it becomes harder and thus more obvious to others when the person answering has pivoted and not answered the actual question. Two, not everyone who listens to this clip is intimately

familiar with all the particulars of an issue, so it's setting the stage also for the person that they are delivering the news to. This is all done in the newscast and in print, but sometimes it's just seeing the actual clip. So I say kudos to the reporter. As for the Premier, I generally think his response while flirting with personal attack was on the right side of the line. And this coming from someone who really dislikes Doug Ford. Anne-Marie Klein in Toronto. Where are we going? I appreciated the discussion about the Queen's Park reporters

and agree with you that the press covering Doug Ford has been timid and meek since his government was first elected. I think that was, and you've got to be careful the way I phrase that, right? I was saying it was generally perceived that way on the part of the majority of the Queen's Park press gallery. I'm not sure it was, it certainly wasn't true of everyone there. And they're much more challenging these days than they used to be. Listening to my favorite British politics podcast, The News Agents,

over the summer has reinforced my opinion that our press really doesn't do enough pressing, and that our politicians have come to expect that it's acceptable to skate through questions without answering questions directly. There's rarely, if ever, any follow-up to demand clarification or to say, you didn't actually answer the question. Can you please address what I have asked? I agree with that. There's not enough of that.

But to be fair, in many situations, follow-ups aren't allowed. You know, so you've got to sort of break the rules and butt in and say no no wait a minute you didn't answer that question please answer the question um but you know in many occasions reporters agree to certain conditions and um when having a news conference and sometimes for the simple fact of timing and sometimes for the simple fact of timing, and others for the simple fact of trying to escape being challenged, one of the rules set might be no follow-ups or just one follow-up or something like that.

So that's important to keep that in mind. Okay, moving on to some other issues. Lauren Finkelson from Cumberland, British Columbia. All day long on the newscast, we've heard conservative operatives and Pierre-Paul-Yves Syncophants crow about their lead in the polls over the despised Trudeau liberals. Perhaps they should consider the observation by the noted American philosopher Yogi Berra, who advised, I know, you know it,

it ain't over till it's over. That's true in baseball, it's true in politics. You never really know until the ballots are counted. You may think you know. You may see the deep trend that's happening. But until the votes are counted, those polls are worth what John Diefenbaker said they used to be worth. They're only worth it for dogs. Adam Stone Lake from Mississauga. I don't think Pierre Polyev will be able to run on the economy as his previous statements about things like Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

will hurt him badly. When running for the head of the Conservative Party, he made a comment saying to invest in Bitcoin to avoid inflation. I think come election time, if the Conservatives are running on the economy, there will be attack ads run on that exact point, and it will be brought up in debates in order to brush off Pierre's points. I'm sure they will bring up the Bitcoin thing, but, you know, that's almost like the distant past now.

There's all kinds of different things on both sides, or all sides of the political equation, that will be dragged out about things that have been said or done in the past. And Canadians will have to weigh their way through it. And, you know, if there's no election for another two years, which is possible, just think of all the little goodies that are bound to happen in the next two years. Zach Shalala from Moncton, New Brunswick. Welcome back from your vacation.

I quite enjoyed the two summer check-in good talk episodes you did over the summer. I particularly enjoyed your thoughts on the cabinet shuffle. If Trudeau had Bruce Chantel and yourself as advisors, he might be in better shape politically. However, we must remember that as long as the liberals play nice with Jagmeet Singh and his New Democrats, the federal election is still over two years away. Let me tell you something, Zach. If Trudeau had a bearer, Anderson or Mansbridge, as his key advisors,

he'd be in a lot more trouble than he is now. Let's say that. We'd have fun. It'd be a good time had by all. Not so sure that it would work, though. Devin Peacock, who forgot to tell us where he's writing from.

I enjoy the podcast. Keep up the good work. The end of your episode with Chantel and Bruce, where you talked about Copenhagen and Norway and their vision, made me think of our country in the current state of 24 Sussex Drive. It's embarrassing what we've allowed to happen at the PM's official residence. The fact optics get in the way of making the necessary renovations at 24 Sussex tells you all you need to know about our current politics. If our elected representatives can't take care of the small things,

how can we trust them to responsibly handle the big things? You know, I don't know where I stand on 24 Sussex Drive. I love heritage homes, and I've been in that one many times through different prime ministers over the years. And I remember driving up to it with Justin Trudeau on the day of his swearing in as prime minister, and he knew then he wasn't going to be living in it. He didn't seem to be too sad.

I'm sure it brings back any number of different memories of his time there as a child. Anyway, I look at that building and I go, it's a shame what's happened to that. Whether it's a national disgrace or not, I don't know, but it's a shame that that building is left to the rats and mice and whatever that's crawling through there right as we speak. There were quite a few letters on the Moore Butts conversation number 10,

which was Monday of this week. If you didn't listen to it, dial back and listen to it, because it is a very good one. They're all good, the Moore Butts conversations. Darren Neal writes, I'm very happy the bridge is back after the summer break. All of your episodes are interesting and on point, but the latest Moore Butts conversation was the kind of discussion

Canadians need to hear via our news media. I, like many, grow very wary of the constant reiterating of polls and speech ratings as if politics is high school debate competition. That's not to say polls and speeches don't require analysis, but maybe a lower percentage. Today's more buts discussion included opinions on leadership and governing and how maintaining what we hold close as Canadians takes effort and dedication by all Canadians and how important it is for a governing party to reach out to those who didn't support them. Politics, leadership, and governing are not games.

They are the devices combined with good journalism by which we progress, maintain, or God forbid, we devolve like the USA. In my opinion, if news media continues to provide coverage for politicians who attack rather than suggest alternate opinions, who make personal attacks rather than policy disagreements, then we may very well be headed down a dangerous wormhole like the United States. Thanks, Darren. And again, you know, if you didn't hear more buts from this week, go back to Monday and listen to it. It really is, you know, I'm so glad we do that program. Go back to Monday and listen to it.

It really is. I'm so glad we do that program. I'm so glad those two guys give it their time to talk to us and leave the partisan shots aside and talk. I've had people say, this is like taking a post-grad course in politics being able to listen to these conversations with more in butts that may be something that some post-grad profs disagree with but nevertheless it is what it is. And if you have the opportunity, I hope you listen to it. Pamela McDermott writes from Burlington. I was hoping they were going to answer that question as Canadians in general, though.

Do Canadians feel safe? This was the question about, you know, do you feel safe in this atmosphere as polarization and harsh things said? Do Canadians feel safe next to a sleeping behemoth that is growing in a more restless and violent vein a country that seems to have a gun fetish and they could vote in someone as unstable as trump i know that that was an eye-opener for me our 8891 kilometer border which, open, and generally unmanned, is a gift, and I hope it never becomes a liability.

I suppose that's where alliances like the Commonwealth might come in handy. Go back and listen to it. Jill Keenly sighed. Wakefield, Quebec. This was an excellent conversation, Moore Butts, on so many levels. Gave me a lot of comfort, once again, about being a Canadian. Moore and Butts represent what's good about politics in this country. Steve Lindsay from Victoria was a little upset because he wanted to hear More and Butts throw in somehow in that conversation

discussion about electoral reform. The Western provinces definitely need a larger voice in Ottawa, as almost all policy seems eastern-centric. Quebec and the PQ have a way oversized influence on our politics, and it gives rise to a good deal of western resentment. We need to knock off the appeasement for votes and get on with just governance. As an example, how is it that the BQ, a separatist party, wins 7.64% of the popular vote and 32 seats, but the NDP wins 17.82% of the popular vote but only 24 seats? It's past time for a system of proportional representation that better reflects the makeup of Canada. I think this would be a good step in lowering the political temperature.

Well, you're not alone, Steve. A lot of people feel that electoral reform has been skated over just too many times. Austin Ziegler, he writes from Toronto. Excuse me. Leadership, and this is about more butts, leadership is staking out positions and pulling people towards your positions. Good leadership, especially good political leadership, understands that there are certain positions about which one must not compromise or reach a consensus view. For me,

there's no compromise or consensus to be reached on fundamental human rights. Wholly rejecting ethno-nationalist violence. Climate change deniers. Anti-vax, anti-max conspiracy theorists. Just part of what Austin had to say. And the last letter on the Moore Butts Conversations comes from Michael Wan in Toronto. Thank you for another outstanding More Butts podcast. Jerry and James provide such insightful, introspective,

and respectful political conversation. I learned more about politics from these two gentlemen in 60 minutes than from 10 years of politicians repeating the same talking points ad infinitum. The story about James' son was difficult to hear, but heartfelt and meaningful. Maybe it's no wonder that more good people don't enter into, or stay long in, political life. Okay, we're getting near the end here. Don Mitchell writes from Ottawa.

They worry about the blowback from Canadians over said purchases. He's talking about Armed Forces purchase. I'm just condensing down what Don has to say here because I don't agree with a chunk of it. The decision to buy F-35s, not a peep since the announcement. That's not really true. We have F-35 stories up the yin-yang for years now, and it's going to be years before the planes are delivered, so we're in a pause during construction.

The eye-watering costs of the new warships. Most Canadians think we have a Navy. Yeah, we have a Navy, and we tell you about the Navy. And I spent time on one of the new naval patrol vessels going through the Northwest Passage two summers ago. We did a whole documentary on it. The list goes on and on. And I would argue that 24 Sussex Drive, if the leadership just made a decision,

there would be a day of whining from the usual suspects and that would be it. I don't think the decision on that is based on whining. It's based on whether it's actually the right approach to take in building a residence for the prime minister. Somebody told me the other day, we're the only country in the free world that has a residence for the opposition leader. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

You know, I can't think of a country that does have one, an official residence paid for by you, for the opposition leader, but whatever. Instead of another story of old rundown and broken equipment that costs more to repair than it is to replace, Canadians would continue to ignore foreign and defense issues, and those of us tasked to defend this great nation would be using gear that was new when we were 25 years old instead of being new when our parents were still in diapers.

You know, Don, I often agree with some of the things you have to say, but I don't agree with that. You imply that you're in the forces, and if you are, thanks for your service. I'm kind're in the forces. And if you are, thanks for your service. I'm kind of in the forces. I'm sitting beside my uniform as the honorary colonel of the Special Forces Command in Canada. I was up at Petawawa with the JTF2 folks just a couple of weeks ago.

And I'll tell you, they're not using used equipment. They have some of the finest equipment in the world for their force. Specialized equipment. Everything from the scopes on their sharpshooting rifles to the vehicles that they move around in, to the helicopters they've dropped from. Anyway, moving on. Suzanne Shear from Orillia. Love listening to the podcast, love the show today,

and may write you some of my comments about it tomorrow. I have a question for you right now. Last year, I bought Ted Barris' book, The Battle of the Atlantic, for my husband, and he really loved it. That was after Ted had been on the show here. My question tonight is a long shot, and I apologize if it seems crazy, but I wonder if you could recommend any other books on World War II. I know you love to read about history and World War II

and just wondered if any really good ones come to mind. There are thousands of good books about World War II. Start with the history from one of the people who was so involved. Read Churchill's six-part series on the Second World War. That'll get you hooked and drive you to all kinds of other books. But listen, just go to a bookstore, pick up anything by Tim Cook, the Canadian author, on either the First or the Second World War. One of the best military writers, historians in the world,

Jack Granatstein. Same thing, Jack taught Tim. Both have sat with me on doing some of our broadcasts over the years. Jeez, I better hurry up here. I'm never going to get through all this. Jerry McDonald writes from Grand Prairie, Alberta. Did climate change occur in the distant past? Of course it did.

But when it did, it took tens, even hundreds of millennia rather than just a few decades. And there were no sentient beings occupying a built environment to be displaced by its effects. Dinosaurs or saber-toothed cats or woolly mammoths could not look at a wildfire or a flood and think, I think this is something we could have prevented. Only humans can do this, but we choose not to. Well, Jerry will probably like the rant today as well.

Christy Hummel from Burlington. I'm writing to ask about your book tour. Are you making appearances? Mark Bulgich and I have a new book coming out this year. If you read Extraordinary Canadians a couple of years ago, it was the number one bestseller. You're going to like this year's book from the two of us it's called how canada works it's coming out in the middle of november there will be a book tour the final places haven't been

nailed down yet but uh you know it's not going to go to every city in the country but it will go to some of them and i'll be doing lots of interviews as well. Linda Johns, just wondering if you could direct me to a website that lists the destinations for your upcoming book tour. Don't you like how I'm kind of slipping in? How Canada Works, book coming from Simon & Schuster, mid-November. Book tour will be announced at some point from somewhere, and hopefully it'll be coming to a community near you. Meanwhile, you can pre-order the book right now.

Go to any bookstore in the country. Say you want to pre-order it. Simon & Schuster, How Canada Works, Peter Mansbridge. The book's there. You can get it. Or just go online, you know, Indigo or Amazon or wherever. Do the same thing. Final letter. Pablo Sobrino.

I'm finally compelled to write after the last segment of Good Talk this past Friday. My family also spent the better part of three weeks this summer in Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki, as well as other parts of Finland. I came back a little taken aback in the same way that Chantal and Bruce did, at the very least reflective and maybe a little depressed. We have a lot to learn in Canada about social justice, environmental stewardship, building of public infrastructure, and economic investment. Needless to say, sometimes I think we in Canada live a little bit on the laurels or a mythology of our past standing in the world and not in the reality of our current living experiences.

Sometimes a trip abroad allows us the opportunity to see ourselves a little more clearly. Ain't that right? Thanks, Pablo, and it's a good note to end on today, because you're absolutely right. Those experiences of traveling, and it may be traveling onto the other side of your province or the other side of the country, or, as Pablo suggests, to the other side of your province or the other side of the country, or as Pablo suggests, to the other side of the world.

They give you a better understanding of yourself and where you live and what you might consider changing or what you might cherish keeping. So there you go. Tomorrow, speaking of Chantel and Bruce, good talk comes back. We'll be here, and I'll be here. Thanks for all your comments this week. I'm Peter Mansbridge.

Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you again in 24 hours.