Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Nick Ainis: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1817

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

In this 1817th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike catches up with proud sponsor Nick Ainis from Fusioncorp. There's talk of Mike's dying skunk, Nick's personal connection to the Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade, Frank Gehry, the paralyzed condo market and a whirlwind of entrepreneurial spirit and gusto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

A lot of improvisation today, but I'm Nick Aeney's from Toronto, Ontario, and I'm here. God's gift to Toronto, Mike. What can I say? You said it all. Toronto. I'm in Toronto, where you want to get a city love. I'm from Toronto where you want to get the city love. Okay.

I'm in Toronto, Mike. I want to get the city love. Welcome to Episode 1,817 of Toronto Miked. Proudly brought to you by Retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store. Save 10% with the promo code FOTM for a limited time. Great Lakes Brewery. Order online for... Order online at greatlakesbeer.com.

See, I changed the script, Nick. for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Visit palma Pasta.com for more. Fusion Corp's own Nick Aienes. He's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success, two podcasts you ought to listen to.

Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his return to Toronto mic, it's Nick Aini's. Boobo Boop Burr.

How you doing, Nick? Nice sound effects. You know, it's like the guy in police academy. I do my own sound effects. here. How are you? Did you like my intro or what? Yeah, at first you said it's time to improvise, and then it looked like you were struggling to improvise. I thought it was ironic. I wasn't sure where you were going to go.

And you didn't say the F word, Fusion Corp. I thought you would throw that in your cold open. Okay, well, next time. You didn't prepare me. Well, that's called improvisation. Okay. Sorry, improvised. So we're going to cover a lot of ground. I just want to say welcome back, Nick. It's your second full episode of Toronto, Mike. Does that correct? Can I see the video?

Why? This is not... I have to see it. I'm not going to... I got notes. You don't need to see. Look, you look great. You see yourself?

I guess so. I'm smiling. You're obsessed with video here. What's wrong of you young people in your video, your pivots? I want to ask you a couple of things here. Sure. One is, last night, my boy had soccer practice at 8 p.m. That's pretty late, right?

But he's 11 years old. So we biked to the L. I dome and he went in practice, but then I bike to pick him up at 9 p.m. Okay, so we arrive home here at like 9.20 p.m. You with me? Yeah. So 9.20 p.m. I don't see anything wrong yet.

I'm putting the bikes into the shed. He's inside. You got a constant. No. And then I'm just, it's dark because it's, you know, dark at 9.30, whatever. I'm putting the bikes in the shed. And I can see in the corner of my left eye, I see, like, low to the ground. Building, Toronto skyline.

I saw. I saw. I saw this little black, uh, furry thing with a white tail. A skunk. Yeah, from behind, came from the side of the shed and it's scurring beside me. Nick, I can tell you, I'll tell you what I did. I, I knew right away that's a skunk. We have skunks around here.

You know that. And I bolted out of that backyard. Like I sprinted like I was Donovan Bailey. You smell funny today, actually. Well, it's not me. It's, there is a smell inside, but I didn't get sprayed. but I ran and the shed door is open and I'm inside now and I'm talking you know I'm talking to the kids about hey look out the window there's a skunk because he kind of got comfortable right in front of the door to the shed and I needed to get back out there to close the shed door and I didn't want to get sprayed by a skunk so I'm watching this thing for the next couple hours okay you with me but it's sort of like staying put I can see it kind of like it's digging for grubs or something but it ain't it ain't moving around so it's stuck there Eventually, I gave up.

I just went to sleep with the shed doors open, and I figured, okay, in the morning when I get the bikes, because Morgan and I biked to school, that skunk will be long gone. That's like, you know, they're nocturnal. You know this. You're practically a zoologist. Anyway, so now this morning, it's about, I don't know, 745 or something, I'm going to go outside to get the bikes, and I see he has moved away from the door.

He's a little bit closer to the gate I enter, but he's still there. The same skunk is sort of really comfortable, like digging in, the same skunk, barely moving. Right. But I got to get the bikes from the shed, and I don't want to get sprayed by a skunk. This is this morning, okay? So I'm like making noises. I'm making a big racket. I'm banging.

I'm like, go to bed. I'm screaming at it. I got some snowballs not to hit the skunk, but to, like, throw it in the skunk's direction. Otherwise, I'll call Toronto Animal Services. Well, we're almost there. So this guy's barely moving, though. And I realized, okay, I got to, I can run, Pat, I googled how far can a skunk spray? And it's like, okay, you can do 15 feet.

So I'm like, okay, I'm going to run by, see, I said the G word, and my phone became alive here. I run by this thing to the shed door. I do everything so fast, and this skunk doesn't spray me barely moving at this point. This skunk, to me, looks like it's there to die. It's just so I go and I do, I bike my daughter to school. I do a little extra 5K. now I'm coming home. And I'm checking out my friend the skunk here,

my new pet almost, barely moving but not dead. Like there's a little movement. It's still there. What do we do about this skunk? I can show you after our recording. That skunk is just still there. Just call animal services.

So just call animal services and say, I have a dying skunk in my back. I have a skunk and it doesn't look good. Doesn't look good. Okay. All right, you know what? There's the advice. You took up my time for a skunk story.

We're going to get to you. Listen, I wanted, this is fresh news. You know, I'm temperamental, you know that, right? Well, I biked to your lovely Brampton home very recently. What kind of wildlife do you get up there beyond the boring old squirrels? Well, let me just tell you, my wife feeds all kinds of animals in their backyard. So I get skunks, raccoons. We recently had like five cats migrate.

So she bought them little tiny electric heated houses. for them to sleep in, and now we're feeding nine cats every day. How many of those nine cats are allowed in the home? Well, she's starting to migrate them in the home, which is, I don't know, I'm losing my mind. But you love your wife? I love my wife, so I just support her, that's all.

Look, I'm okay with this taking in the stray cold cats thing, but I don't think you're supposed to feed the wildlife. I know I, you're not supposed to do that. Well, we're not saying, I'm not really, I'm pretending it's not. true but it's true and she's feeding squirrels she's feeding birds she's feeding uh possums she's feeding skunks and raccoons wow see you never know we would not have reached this point in the conversation well thank you tell you my skunk's story thank thank god we are yes

so i met your wife yeah beautiful woman your lucky man oh yeah you had a great home uh it was a great bike ride to Brampton. Do you think Brampton gets a bad rap? What do you think about the reputation of Brampton? Well, it's got a terrible rap. You know, if you're from Toronto and you think about Brampton, you just like roll your eyes maybe. They call it Bramlaegesh or whatever it is.

Sounds racist to me. It is. It is. It is. It is. There are a lot of non-whites in Brampton, and nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that I'm not a racist. as guy, but there's a lot of Indian people.

There's all sorts of cultures up in Brantam, but primarily there's a lot of Indian people, and I think people, for some reason, uh, don't care for that and they don't get to see actually how great a little city it is. And it's, it's not a little city anymore. It's a big city.

I think you're hitting it, uh, but it's, it's, you know, it's, uh, we're right backing off on a nature trail, which is really exciting, really nice. Uh, we've got some, a lot of amenities nearby. and the thing I like about it is right near the highway. So as a business person,

I can drive anywhere, anytime. I'm near the 407. So it's quite exciting for me. My experience biking to you was, well, how lovely the neighborhood is and how great the trails were. Like, I do think this reputation, which I believe to be rooted in racism,

as if you have a, you're right, there's a lot of new Canadians that make their home in Brampton. And to suggest that somehow a negative to me is inherently, racist. Yeah, I mean, listen, at the end of the day,

I don't really pay too much attention to it, you know, you make, I'm not much of a, I'm so busy, I don't really have time to talk to anyone anyways, but, uh, that's why I'm honored you made the time to visit. At the end, at the end of the day, we support everybody. I mean, that's our country, right? Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely. So. No, but that includes the whites, too. Like, you know, we can't just say, oh, we're white, so, you know, you guys are bad. So we can't, can't, can't think, that way either. No, I mean, what I love about Canada, and you mentioned there's a lot of people of color in Brampton. Well, there's a lot of people of color in Toronto. I think half this city is well, the whole thing is you have, you know, your original ways of immigration. That's what you have. You have Italians. You have Greeks. They came in the 1950s. You have, and, you know,

I'm of a Greek origin, obviously. My great grandfather came here in the early 1920s. And, you know, you just have all these nations and cultures coming to Canada. That's the way it goes. Like, I mean, take it easy. And you know what? If the, I guess the British have been here and they won the war with General Montgomery and the Battle of Quebec, they won. These things happen.

Move on. I'm glad you brought up your ancestors, okay, because I was actually going to go there next. So just last weekend, what is today? Today is December 12. So last Saturday, I was the Grand Marshal for the Atobicole Lake Shores, Santa Claus, 3. Yeah, I saw your picture on Facebook. I thought you said on CNN, but no, it was on Facebook. Right.

Was it on CNN? I don't know. I don't get CNN. I don't think they're going to. Keep your eyes peeled. But I was an honor, and it was great. You know, you walk from first to 35th, but I'm hoping you'll share with us a story about your family's history. And how it relates to the lakeshore, or sorry, the proper title of this is the Atobico Lake Shore Santa Claus Parade.

Okay, well, that's a good story. So my great-grandfather, so there was a Balkan war in, in around the early 1900s, and Greece, and there was a portion of northern Greece that was annexed by Greece. It was part of, I think, Bulgaria at the time, and he had a mixture of cultures there. But our family was my great-grandfather. He was, you know, technically Macedonian. And, you know, the Macedonian language is different from Greek. It's more of like a Slavic language.

And so they were not generally looked, you know, they weren't very accepted by the Greeks. You weren't allowed to speak Macedonian. You weren't allowed to dress like a Macedonian. So you had to speak Greek and you had to sort of blend in with the Greeks. So, you know, under that sort of environment and, you know, even my grandmother, her brother was killed by Greek soldiers and partisans and this and that. And so my great-grandfather left Greece and he came into Canada in the early 1920s or 1900s. I would say.

Okay. Maybe even sooner. So I hear he's, he went back to the 1895. He started off in, I think, port credit or maybe he worked on the railroad's roads too at the beginning. These are the stories I heard.

I don't know what's true. But I do know that he was naturalized in 1920s. I still have the document. And, and actually, so he settled, eventually he settled into, I think he went to originally to,

downtown, he was downtown Toronto or Ronsesville area. He had a partnership with someone, didn't go well. And then he settled in in New Toronto. New Toronto, the neighborhood you're sitting in right now. Yeah, New Toronto was an industrial arrival to Toronto for industry. And so they were trying to compete for businesses and for the industrial sector. Good year was very prominent here. Yeah, Good Year and Campbell Soup has been here for years.

I think they're still here. Nope, they're gone. Oh, they're gone. Okay. But they were here forever. There were a whole bunch of industries at that time. So having those industries, you needed houses for the workers and eventually it started to populate it a little bit better.

And, you know, basically they built a theater across the street called the Capitol Theater, very famous place. And my great-grandfather established a business, a restaurant business there, called the capital tea house or capital restaurant. And it was very successful for many years. And he built a whole bunch of buildings on Lakeshore. So a couple of them are still in existence. And we own them in the family for years.

Wow. Yeah. And there's a few houses. And we still have a few houses in New Toronto as well. So, and I'm not going to say where they are. Oh, because I want you to stock my extended family. Don't docks your extended family. Yeah, so my, and my grandmother, she was very poor in Greece,

and she said she was discovered, she was working in the fields, and a lady came out to her and said, okay, you're going to marry my grandson. So the old lady came and said, you're going to marry my grandson. So she didn't ever meet him. And she said to her father, let me go so you don't have to feed me anymore. Wow. And at 16 years old, she traveled right before the war, too. It was in 1939.

And she traveled and arrived in Halifax. And never met my grandfather, and they got married here in Canada. And my mom was born here, and my uncles were a little bit in the restaurant business and had some businesses here in New Toronto and one of them was called Chubby's Deli was a famous deli in New Toronto at the time. My uncle was a pretty popular guy and he used to insult all the customers.

Kind of rubbed off on. Oh, that's where you get it from. Yeah, I probably rubbed off on it. The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. Yeah, yeah, he used to insult all the customers and everything like that. I used to work there in the deli as well, and it was a nice time.

He was a happy guy, and he was also to eventually, the president of the New Toronto's Business Association. Not sure if it still exists. It could be called something else. Lakeshore Village, BIA, because they put on that parade. But he used to be called New Toronto. So New Toronto Business Association, he was president for many years.

And little did you know that he established. He was the one who started the Santa Claus Parade here in New Toronto. Okay, whoa, well, back up the truck here. First of all, what was your uncle's name? Peter Ramos. Peter Ramos. So think about this. He played Peter Ramos.

He passed away recently. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he was buried at Ridley Funeral. Not buried. Had his services at Ridley Funeral Home. Yeah, we did. Yeah. So shout out to,

I'm sure that when Brad Jones listens to this episode, he'll recall that, of course. Yeah, and I went to school with the Ridley guys. Okay. Well, Ridley, they've been here since 1921. I had a different name at the beginning, but it's been a Ridley funeral home for a very long time now. Also, you know what?

Sorry. No, it's a ward, ward, ward. Oh, wait. Let's fix that in pose. We'll fix that in pose. We've been to the Ridley funeral homes many times. My grandmother was, I had the service there.

Okay. That's right here on Lake Shore, too. 14th in Lake Shore. Yeah, yeah. They gave me hot chocolate. I did a plug for Ward. Apologize. Well, Ward.

Apologize, Ridley. Screw word. I think that they got gobbled up by a conglomerate. Ridley funeral home remains fiercely independent. But let me just put a little, like let me just take a moment here. So take a moment because I just said. My uncle is the one who started the new Toronto or what do they call it now? They call it the Lakeshore Village Santa Claus Parade.

Actually, they call it the Etobico Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade now. Yeah, well, that's my uncle started it. So that's an unbelievable story. Your uncle started that parade. And here I am here with Toronto, Mike. In 2025, did you know you would be friends and partners with the Grand Marshal? I think that's unbelievable. about it.

I think this is an unbelievable. And I'm actually really glad. A coincidence, right? On the live stream, because we're live at live. Toronto mic.com. Oh, we're live streaming this thing? Everything gets live stream down here.

Jeremy Hopkins is on the live stream. And he is the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast. Is he here? Is he going to join us? He says it's very cool to hear your family's history. And I'm sure he's taking notes in some of these establishments. And he can update me next time because he visits once a quarter to do this or that.

He can update me. on what's going on with your family's developments. I believe that theater... Am I frozen here? Where? I don't know. It looks like I'm... Oh, that's... Don't worry, but that's the live stream. I'm recording this. You're fine.

This is the real one. You're too... Can I tell you this? I believe you're too focused on the video when it is the audio that is... Well, you know what? Let's... Of course, the content audio-wise is very important. People are listening to it.

However, when you're speaking with human beings, it's a visual connection as well. Well, tell that to the radio. Because we speak with our eyes and our emotions and, you know, this is a, this is, as an intelligent, intelligent human beings, we have to watch all signs of communication. Okay, well, I'm always taking notes. Because I can tell when people are lying, so I'm watching you. Okay. Also, I, listen, I know that we do record, and we're going to get into all of this. We record episodes of building success and building Toronto Skyline, and you visit for that,

but I'm just here friendly reminder that this is Toronto-Miked, okay? So it's a little different animal here. I have to be nice. You have to be nice, for sure. Am I being nice? You're being delightful. Like, so far, good advice on the skunk. Beautiful ups for Brampton, which is a city, I believe, is far nicer than the reputation it has.

And I think that reputation is based in racism and I don't like racism. I have zero tolerance for racism. them. If you had a buddy who said something blatantly racist, would you let it go or would you just call them out and say that's a bullshit sentence? What does it mean? What do you mean? I don't want to... Depends if it's a joke or not. Like, I mean, you know, I work in construction, so we've got a lot of ignorant people in construction. So I won't have, I won't have, I won't have, no, if there's malice, you can't say anything. That's unacceptable. You'll stomp down on that.

Yeah, I'll say, shut, shut your mouth. because I I would have swore even I would have swore just now you can swear on this show no like I mean listen we all joke around like you know

I have an Iranian guy that works for me I bug him about I'll say listen I'm gonna chop off a finger if you don't if you make another mistake so like you know

you're talking about like the Iranian regime in Iran and you know we we kind of joke around about it right busted chops yeah but we joke I mean we joke

people joke about me being Greek people I joke about my super's being Portuguese and pork chops and so that's should that's like a little bit of fun like a Russell Peters type Yeah

Yeah you have a little bit of fun You make fun of each other That's and you know what That happens on the job site There you've got a bunch of construction guys They don't know any better They just That's the talk on the site

Everybody makes fun of each other And that's a sort of commotery Is what we're establishing there Okay let me tell you what's bothering me And you can give me some more advice Before I get to a late breaking story But racism is unacceptable. You shouldn't make someone feel bad based on their skin color or their ethnic

background or their culture. Like we, you know, we accept at Fusion Corp and Nicayne's, we accept everybody. Beautiful. Most of the time. Put that on a t-shirt. Put that on a t-shirt. Seriously, sell those things. But I'm concerned of a sense. There's a, you know what FOTM means? You're an FOTM friend of Toronto Mike, okay? I am. I had on a young woman who was on the radio and I liked the cut of her jib in her name was and is Dalia Kurtz

she had crazy hair she's a shorter woman she didn't have to watch your head down here crazy hair you know I like the crazy hair and a good rap on her which means we had a good chat

like I really enjoyed it she's the daughter of survivors of the Holocaust it was all very interesting actually Dahlia Kurtz and then somebody another FOTM named Lanrick Bennett Jr he sent me screen caps of Dalia Kurtz

on the app known as X, formerly known as Twitter. See, I'm not hanging out there anymore, and I miss this completely, but Dahlia Kurtz posted full-blown racism against Somalian people. Like just gross, horrific statements about Somalian people, but then I actually noticed she had reposted it, so she had actually, not only did she not have, like, maybe I was, I don't know, a couple drinks in me,

or maybe I was just in a bad mood, I'm going to delete this. No, she actually reposted it because she was proud of this, and it's still there today and I'm just sort of personally disappointed that somebody could have such blatantly gross racist views in 2025 Dalia Kurtz so just Well you I don't know if anyone

Usually that's ignorance to be honest with you Especially if she comes from something like Her background Has suffering in the Holocaust and something like that Clearly that was they destroyed Almost destroyed a whole culture and race but you know racism exists I don't know what to tell you

but I think if you don't know any better and you're actually attacking people you're hurting other people you're hurting yourself to be honest with you I think what's happened is I think obviously I'm not you know naive I know racism has always exists and I know racism exists of course but I think what I'm noticing in this day and age

is that it seems like people are sort of no longer ashamed of their racism in fact they seem rather proud of it Maybe that's a social media thing Maybe that's your buddy Trump In a second term here I feel like people are emboldened to hold Inherently racist views

In a way that maybe they weren't feeling that way In the 90s or whatnot Am I out to lunch? You can tell me if I'm out to lunch Well, I think people have been racist for a long time But now, yes, people have been racist But now you have a social media platform It's all over the place

So No shame anymore I don't think I really don't I just look at the person at the end of the day. So, you know, you've got to be able to distinguish differences, though, in cultures. So if you have some culture and they're completely ignorant and they don't have any manners or they don't try to have any manners, I'm not going to like that person, right?

But you're basing it on the person, not their culture, right? I always base things on the person. Okay, see, that's different. It's like, you're not going up. So, you know what, for example, I hired a guy from, Nigeria. People told me don't hire people from Nigeria. There's

scammers and everything like that. And I said, what kind of person am I going to be if I don't hire this guy? I got to give him a chance. I'm glad to hear you gave him a chance. And this guy is phenomenal. It has all my social media. The guy's like a whiz. I told, and I proved everybody wrong.

You should never judge a book by its cover or its background. But I gave him a chance and that's the kind of person I am i just i couldn't do it it's not in me you just earned yourself a large beef lasagna from palma pasta it's in my freezer right now two you want two i shouldn't take two you know what you're always on you're always a business man somebody offers you a free lasagna you're you're negotiating for two what can i say why not three okay i'll take three i'm gonna need a bigger i'm gonna you know you're gonna need a bigger boat to be honest with you my wife probably will kill

me if I ring three home, so. Okay, well, I'm going to need a bigger freezer, but you're definitely taking home some Palma pasta lasagna. On that note, and we got an important note regarding a architect who passed away. Frank Gary. Frank Gary. But before that, why did I not see your beautiful face at TMLX21 at Palma's Kitchen a couple of weekends ago?

Well, you held it on a Saturday, I guess, right? Yeah, I did. Yeah. You can't come out and play on Saturdays? You know what? It's life is challenging, Mike. What can I say? You were busy.

You had other things to do. Things are always happening and, you know, things get in the way sometimes. Because you would have loved it. It was a huge crowd. It sounds like I looked amazing. I always kicked myself when I don't go to events. Well, I only record the one time. I always see the best.

I go to the worst Toronto Mike events and not the best ones. Okay, I'll translate that for the listeners. He goes to the events that are capped at 40 people. Literally, that's the old, I get all the weirdo Toronto mic listeners. No, they're all weird. That's part of the joy of this community. All the weirdos. But we cap the G.

BLB Brew Pub events at 40. Okay, but that's a rule from GLB Brew Pub. But when we go to Palma's Kitchen or Great Lakes Brewery, there's no cap. Like whoever shows up shows up. So you're just, you're going to smaller events. I missed out. I missed out. Or intimate events.

You're missing out here. So there's breaking news here from the aforementioned Jeremy Hopkins. And this will tie into Frank Gary, who I want to talk to you about. But this is the news right now this morning coming from Jeremy. You ready? Okay. You brace? I notice your phone keeps going off.

Yeah. Everybody's calling me right now. Well, maybe that's, okay, so Frank Gary, you know that here in Toronto, there's the former condo on King West. It's a beautiful design by Frank Gary, and I guess, did you get me my bookings? I'm working on it. Now I think I know why they've been unresponsive to talk publicly with somebody like yourself. You're such a journalist. They have just announced this morning that they're going to put a hold on the, the project?

The Devils, the second tower. Oh, the first tower is going, though, good. The first tower is going, but the second tower, this morning from Jeremy Hopkin, this was released by the people behind Forma. So the reason is, according to them, is poor state of the condo market. Well, that goes without saying. Well, you're the expert. Before we talk about Frank Gehry specifically, and then we can talk about Forma, how are you doing? So Fusion Corp, when you and I first met each other, we talked quite a bit about condo developments, but that

industry, by all accounts, is frozen, like the skunk in my backyard. So can you talk to me and the listenership? Well, condos, the sales of, oh, I mean, we had a, I guess you got to rewind a little bit. So we had all these projects, a lot of cost escalations and projects where interest rates started to rise, and I think a lot of people got into trouble. And, you know, I guess the whole affordability issue comes up, and people, you know, people, People can't afford their mortgages anymore. You were there.

I was there. We heard everything on the news. So you have this lack of demand. It creates a lack of demand for everything. Developers started going into receivership in some cases, and projects got stalled or canceled. And then you have a bunch of inventory units on the market. And, you know, we had a huge investor market, too,

that was fueling the condo industry. So that died. that died, they couldn't make those numbers work anymore either. So that, the whole market, just, the whole condo industry died. Now nobody will, we don't know, people probably don't want to invest in condos right now. They don't want to buy a condo anymore. Some people, I think people in general don't want to buy housing to some degree and it's, and I think it's also an affordability issue. So I think as, you know, demand decreases and, you know, projects get canceled, um, It's going to be a long road to recovery in the condo industry.

And as a business, you know, it's affected me because I had projects that got canceled or on hold. And at the end of the day, what am I going to do? Cry? You pivot. That's what I did. So everybody's going to rent. Like the common thing is that people are going into the rental market. There's all this missing, they call it missing middle housing.

you know, but I look at everything. I mean, you got to look for opportunities no matter what. Here's an opportunity to say, hey, you know, it's a bad market right now. So I've got to double down and look at other opportunities wherever they are and reinvent Fusion Corp. So that's what I'm doing. So I'm pushing for, you know, to distinguish myself as a builder because I've got a lot more competition now.

you know if you don't have all these condo buildings you got everybody competing for a rental market so what do you got to do you got to make yourself competitive you have to distinguish yourself from another company and you know at fusion corp we we changed our tagline it's called building now it's called building through uh building through innovation and um i think that's a testament to where we we want to showcase fusion corp and what we're all about now we're pushing uh module Constructions and speed to delivery and, you know, we're getting fast approvals. We're all about action and executing. So, you know, I want people to know about that and we're using all the latest technology

out there. You know, I got lots of things on the go and... Well, actually, I'm going to spend some time with you before we wrap up talking about these things on the go because only the things I know about, this is quite a list of things. But it is interesting here. So in South Atobico, of course, where you're... your uncle started the Tobaco, Lake Shore, Santa Claus parade many moons ago. The big, couple of big things.

One is, of course, the Cloverdale Mall. It was going to shut down and there's going to be a big development. And then they said, they canceled it because they couldn't, I guess you need to sell, what is it, 20% or something before you. No, no, you've got to sell like 75% to 80%. Before you put the shovel in the ground? Sometimes 65 if you're a big developer. Really?

Oh, geez. Nothing's going to get built. Okay. And then the other thing in South Atopico, you know, in my backyard. Sure. Well, what was planned for Sherway? I don't even remember. I just condos, but they were big boys and they're going to just wait.

They're going to wait. And then the Islington Queensway movie theater was basically going to be shuttered because of a development that was going to go there in that space. And we got word, of course, that, hey, that's been paused. So the theater will be around for several more years at least. Yeah, there you go. So now we learn. Forma, I've been trying to get a hold of somebody at Forma to,

talk to you on building Toronto Skyline. But that's a Frank Gary condo. So my question for you, I want to talk about Frank, but Frank Gary, and I had a episode of Toronto Mike earlier this week. I don't want to talk too much about Frank because I haven't done the podcast, so. Okay, well, just teaser a bit. I had Jim Shetton on to talk about his experience working with Frank Gary. And it was a very interesting episode of Toronto Mike.

People can find it in the Toronto Mike feed from this week. But for a Toronto guy, how come there's not more examples in Toronto? of, you know, Frank Geary designs. Like, there's not, there's not, you have the art gallery. You know what? I think it's because he went to the U.S. did a whole bunch of work there. He became American.

He came more international. So, we had to share him with Paris. But he's from Toronto and he's a Toronto guy. So can you give us a nutshell? Nothing wrong with that. No, I mean, it's just, it's interesting that, you know, hey, Toronto born Frank Gary. Maybe it was a Trump supporter.

Who knows? Okay, but this old, he lived a long time before Trump was a, I'm just joking. I highly doubt he was a Trump. Do you want a Trump segment? I can add it to the end of the show. No, I don't want. No, Trump We'll skip the Trump segment here. But any, maybe you can even tease a future episode of building Toronto Skyline, but what are your thoughts on the late great Frank Gary? Well, I mean, listen, when someone with a legacy dies, you want to learn more about him. You want to learn about his life. I mean, I think that's with anyone at the end of the day,

to some degree. Anyone who's called it famous or has done something incredible in their lifetime, you want to learn about his life, you want to learn about what he created. And you want to learn,

you know, for many reasons. Maybe it's because you want to do something that, you know, learn about how this gentleman, extraordinary person, created so much success.

And I guess that's the point of building success. We're interviewing the most successful people in the world right now. And you have, you got to book me some, some new guests as well. So start, start getting to do it. Why don't you get to reach out to your CNN guys? Well, I'll get Audie Cornish on the program.

Get me, uh, get me Don Lemon. He's funny, I think I know Don Lemon just because he's a very famous person, but is he still at CNN? I haven't had CNN on my cable box for a very long time. So I got Jake Topper or whatever his name is. How much time do you spend, you're busy guy? How much time do you spend consuming American network? news like CNN or Fox News or whatever.

Well, I never said which one I listened to. Well, I can see you having both on. I'm not much. I used to be a full-time CNN guy. And then, you know, everything kind of just went crazy. Is that code for Trump got elected? Yeah, Trump got elected, yeah. And then what?

You started. Well, no, I think it's just because the news has been just insane. Yeah. It's, you know, we're no longer reporting news. We're reporting too much opinion. and gossip and he said she said I don't know

I just couldn't watch it anymore You could always consume PBS news Well they're government sponsored as well right Well it's different It's mainly It's a bit of government sponsor But what's it different? You don't think CBC

or BBC And these other public broadcasters They're terrible, they're terrible TVO They're awful So tell me why TVO is okay probably Well because they're too

Well I mean listen I'm not a big, I'm not a left, they're very left wing oriented and they're pushing, you know, various ideological, um, you believe this. Yeah,

I truly believe it. Do you think it's, you're suggesting that it's that way because the liberals are, okay, I'm going to ask you a question. Yeah. Did you ever see this when we're, like, in the 80s and the 90s?

Was it really that bad back then? No. I'm not sure what we're talking about, but I can tell you that Stephen Harper was Prime Minister for a decade, not that long ago. Did you detect a editorial shift on the CBC when Stephen Harper had a majority? Honestly, I rarely look at the CBC.

I'm not interested, well, I'm interested in Canadian News, obviously. But, you know, I just, I don't know. I find it too much of a left-wing ideological view, viewpoint. And, you know, they're just, everybody's stuck with their view. And instead of doing some real journalism. Now, TVO, the public broadcaster here in Ontario, we've had, what is it now, three majorities in a row for the Progressive Conservative Party led by Doug Ford. So that's okay.

But, you know, prior to that, McGinty and Wynn were in power for a long time. Well, we're talking about actually politicians. I mean, you know, we're not really, I'm not, I just, if you're talking about the news organizations or the politicians the politicians are the politicians I mean what would you like to me to say about that no I guess I'm just wondering I haven't again you're going to tell me it's because I'm a lefty but I didn't detect any change at all when a conservative party was in power because they're always yeah because the news organizations are always left-wing kind of crazies do you think

we should defund the CBC um I don't know why we're funding them in the first place. Why are we funding them? Well, it's a very, it's a very big, not every part of this big country is Toronto, which has a wealth of media. Well, there are parts of this, where the only news, the only people checking in on, you know, council meetings and this and that is CBC. Like, this is such a vast country. Well, I mean, isn't that, doesn't that say something about our news organizations? Like, I mean, that's it, though. If we leave it to the private sector, they're going to pull out of these smaller markets because there's not enough revenue. and then the only people

getting news is going to be like oh yeah Montreal honestly I don't really I don't really know much about it but I don't know why we're supporting one news organization okay well are we paying for it is the public broadcasts to be

is it yeah okay okay so we'll move on because I don't think we got I mean listen then you're not really getting you know sort of you know unbiased news are you although later I won't put you on the spot now

but please send me the CBC article you think is biased and why. I just, I am naturally curious. Wow. I mean, listen, okay, sure. Okay, that's your homework. Let's move on. Let's move on. But you never did answer my question about Frank Gary.

So we good. What would you like to know about Frank Gary? I want to know you as a guy who studied architecture, right? Remind us about your schooling for architecture. Like you almost became an architect. Well, not really, but you went to school for architecture. I went to school for architecture. So, I mean, listen, I was always fascinated with, you know, my early start was art and an art history.

So that's where I was in high school. I did some art, and some art classes. I learned about art history and then architectural history. We did a stint in high school of architectural history. I was always a big history buff and I love to study, you know, ancient buildings and, you know, older buildings. You know, always fascinated me of the time of their construction, of their design. and yeah I mean if you're not learning about different types of system building systems and you know it's part of my industry and part of my passion so I think you know I'm also on a bit of an opportunist I'm looking for a good story so I have a podcast right it's my job to look for good stories and this came all you know obviously unfortunately this came along in the passing of a great Torontoorian and how do we how do I as a good podcast? podcast host of building Toronto Skyline not take sort of seize the moment and

and talk about his story. Well, you absolutely should. And when I was talking to Jim, I point, I did. You stole my idea and you reached out to someone you knew already. I did, but I did tell you. I stole my ideas. You stole my C and Tower idea. I stole two, I've stolen two guests from you because Jim Shedon, who was at TMLX21,

unlike you, my friend, he was there. That was going to happen with her. without you. But the two episodes I definitely stole from you, Les Klein. Yeah, you stole, there's Les Klein. You said, you stole Jack Mosley from Jack Mesley. Yeah, well, okay. And the CN Tower. Yeah, same guy, Jack Mesley from the Seattle. Mosley, Mesley, Mesley, Wendy Mesley's cousin. Yeah, speaking of the CBC. You see, you were stealing all my ideas already. So when I, obviously you didn't listen because the opening remarks, I believe, are full credit to Nick Aienis who introduced us when you

a guest on Building Toronto Skyline. I give so much love and credit. Credit and love and praise to you when I borrow your guests. So there's only been two. Steel is a better word for it. Jack Masley who was great, the iron worker on the Cien Tower

and of course, 299 Queen Street West. That's why I had Les Klein over here. But Jim Shadden was mine. If anything, maybe you can steal Jim from me. It would be great. So I guess because You got to get me those book those guys.

Yeah, well, Forma sounds like they had some huge stuff they were going to announce, and it just came out. So did they want to do a, you know, a podcast with journalist Nick Aeney's when they had the second tower that was going to be put on hold a week after the gentleman who designed it dies? And I just want to say something about Frank Gary, and I said this to Jim Sheddon. I played a clip of Frank Gary on the Simpsons.

Frank Gary was a voice on the Simpsons playing himself. Wow, isn't that interesting? He's the only architect. who can make that claim. And I believe he was, and still is, he's only died recently, but the most famous architect in the world. I believe that more people know the name

Frank Gary than any other architect. What do you think? Well, I would say there's many famous architects. Who is the most famous architect in the world if it's not Frank Gary? There's just too many. Too many of them, Mike. Frank Lloyd Wright.

The problem is, you know, not many people know all the architects out there, right? Well, and that's why. That's why you have many architects on your fine podcast building Toronto Skyline. So I want to ask you about your podcast and some stuff that's coming up for you in Fusion Corp. But I want to tell you like a pro tip here, which is if you need to buy somebody in your life a Christmas present or a holiday gift, okay? Honestly, go to retro, well, that's, you're good at this, but Palma pasta to feed them. Mama Pasta.

Retrofestive.ca, but they have a store in Oakville. So a short drive to Oakville, you can visit with Ty the Christmas guy and his lovely family. Yeah. And you can check out. Go to Retrofestive. C.A. and see what they have. I'm going to buy those glasses from...

Moose mugs? Those moose mugs? Where are they? Absolutely. They sell moose. I don't have any on me right now, but I know you've got one. From Christmas vacation, right? From Christmas vacation.

And they sell those. See how I can connect the dogs? You see that, Mike? Do you have a leg lamp in that Brampton home? Remember the leg lamp? A leg lamp? A leg lamp? What's a leg lamp? Well, it's from a Christmas story. It's a major award. Oh, yeah, okay. You can get a leg lamp. At TMLX, we got little leg lamps. They were really cool.

But I urge people to save 10% at retrofestive.com with the promo code FOTM. That's your marching arts. But go to Oakville and check out that store. Oh, sure. Pro tip for you, Nick. This works in Brampton. It works across this fine country of ours. If you go to recycle myelectronics.ca and you put in your postal code, you can find out where you can drop off your old cables, your old phones, your old electronics, old devices. You drop it off to be properly recycled so those chemicals don't end up in our landfill.

What do you think of that, buddy? I never knew. Yeah? Well, now you know. Just to smash it on the floor. I can see you doing that. That blackberry blowing. That's your audience out there.

Smash it on the floor. Tell me, please, about the two podcasts that you have and how they're different. Just differentiate. So, Building Toronto Skyline. Well, let's talk about Building Toronto Skyline is the premier brand in my opinion. It's the most, I guess, successful. It's the most relevant podcast I have. It integrates well with Fusion Corp.

So, and we're easy, it's easy to book people on that show because I'm sort of very intertwined in the industry. So that is, that's pretty amazing. And, you know, I love doing the podcast. It's my sort of, it's right in my wheelhouse. And like I said, I love talking about, I want to learn everything I can about the industry. This is the best way to learn is to talk to people. Find out that's the way the Greeks learn. They philosophize with each other.

And that's why we're seeking somebody from Forma to talk with us about the Gary Towers. But I just got sent the article in the Toronto Star that Jayho was referencing. It's from today. The major headline says, second Gary Tower paused due to market. And that's going to be a great building drawn skyline episode. So let's get back on to that. Forma developer has also halted sales until the first condo. building is finished.

Yeah. So we'll see how eager they are to talk. Absolutely. But tell me about building success. Yeah, I think we wanted to sort of broaden the audience. That's why I created a building success. And, you know, it started off being mostly about making money and real estate and investing in real estate.

It's kind of been sort of organically growing. And now we've, thanks to you, we've met a lot of success. successful people like famous people and and I think that was that's been an interesting take on it and you know getting these booking these sort of high profile guess and talking to them about what it takes to be a successful person and that's something that I wanted the audience to learn what does it take you know because there are many paths to success and it's sometimes it's luck meeting the right people at the right time and I'm I'm you know I would say that there's many parts of me that I would say that I've been successful but there's many it's not

enough for me obviously you know I'm always I'm looking for more more more more just my nature I always want to find new avenues things that excite me ideas that excite me I'm using a lot of AI today to sort of help that path and and I think that's you know yeah it gives you like this amazing energy to wake up every day and you know get charged on ideas because ideas really charge our brains I don't know why maybe there's a science to it and it's not every day there's day because you know things like as an entrepreneur and building a business it's a grind too

it's a freaking grind can I say F-U-C-K on this show yes you can Nick well I don't want to, but my industry is really a grind. You've got to wake up every day. If you don't like what you're doing, you are dead in the water. There's a lot of pressures. There's a lot of issues that come up. Look, I'm getting like eight or nine phone calls already this morning. It's a lot of stress. And it's, you've got to go through, do the little things that, you know, to create opportunities. And it's not always fun. But there are exciting moments, and, you know, I guess sometimes that's why I like new ideas, because, you know, I'm always coming up with new ideas.

Well, can I pepper you of some, like, notes I've taken. I've known you now for over a year, I'd say. I've known Nick Iini's. And I'll be honest with you. I dig you, man. You dig me? Yeah. Like, you come off like this tough exterior and you'll be like, let's defund the CBC and that's it.

I never said defund CBC. I got to pull the tape. You're trying to... I said that? Pretty sure. You pretty much said that. I'm not saying defund CBC, but you know what? But why are...

I don't know. Because CBC, if you don't fund it, it becomes just another CTV. And if you've noticed, CTV, if they don't find a smaller market in this country to be profitable... But that's their expectations, yeah. They pull out. So you're saying, uh, everything... Let somebody else figure that out. Everything needs to be a revenue generator.

Well, that's what business is. Yeah. Yes, but we live in Canada, right? Which is, I'm not going to say it's... So, we live in Canada. So, for example... Well, I mean, listen, PBS is also subsidized by United States. Yeah, not nearly as much as CBC would be...

And again, CBC not nearly is subsidized as BBC in the USA for... NCR. Did I say that? In England, for example, right? Look, they control the narrative, too, and it's always the left wing. But if I may, I'm going to say one last word on this, and then I do want to ask you about some new things, but I just want to say, do you really... Do you really believe Mark Carney and his government are somehow dictating the editorial nature of CBC? No, not really.

Okay, because it sounds like you're suggesting. I think people are just well intertwined in that industry, and they've been working there for years, and all the journalists, they're all the same. You know, I guess they share very similar ideologies to Mark Carney, though. I'm not saying Mark Carney is a bad guy. He's doing a lot better than... I would have thought. I thought you could say better than his predecessor.

Oh, way better. He's busy with Katie Perry. A hundred times better. At least he's trying to do something for businesses. You know, that's a... Another MP across the floor yesterday. Yeah, I know. So he's like one, I think one MP away from majority again.

That's right. That makes Elizabeth May the most powerful person in the country. Oh, you think so? Not for very long. She's the prime minister now. Someone else across, I think they're going to get somebody else. across eventually and it'll be over. Do you think that's because of how

unpopular Pierre Pollyav is? I'm not quite sure what's behind it. Because they're probably not spending enough time on that on CNN. Are they wooing people away from the Conservative Party? I think they're getting something and they're probably going to get something in return.

I don't have this insight, but I feel like this is tied to the leadership of Pierre Pauley. You watch Lincoln? There was a, what was it, Lincoln, that movie? I did see it. Yeah, Stephen Spielberg directed this. Daniel Day Lewis. Yeah, great actor.

I love that guy. You kidding me? Get him on the show. He's in a great movie by Paul Thomas Anderson called There Will Be Blood. Have you seen the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie? One, what's the name of this? One battle after another. I was kind of, I don't know.

Oh, you didn't like it? I think that's going to win best picture at the Oscars. But what for? Well, why was it so great? It was tremendous. It was about ice. it was ice adjacent okay all right i want to speaking about you so no i want to ask you and i want to it was okay it was okay there are no great movies there will be blood was a great movie and he was a

great actor in it absolutely and he should have won for gangs of gansling in new york too but denzel is a great actor too i love denzil there's some great actors out there i i don't know a little movie talk in here i like i never know where it's going to go and we chat i like it and i'm going to pick up some things i i've heard so we're talking about but i want building Toronto Skyline and building success, yeah. Yeah, so those two exist today, so I want to be clear. And I haven't even really tried to monetize them. Like, I don't have time.

It's hard to even focus on that. Well, it's all part of the brand, the Nick Iini's brand. I could try to monetize if I could. But you mentioned AI. Yes. Any possibility of, I don't know, a new AI podcast or something regarding AI technologies? There might be something coming down the road about AI, yes. And I have some ideas with, you know,

You know, we're doing a technology company, software company. I'm not going to mention the name. Okay, I won't mention it. I have it here. Oh, you have it there. It's very, it's in development. I've created a white paper on what I'm proposing. Did you create it or did AI create it?

Well, with the help of AI, because I've never created it. Listen, you know, you need AI to help you. Right. I can't, I've never done a white paper before. if let's say AI didn't exist I'd have to hire someone to do that for me that's right a technical writer so I did I did look into that

because I was going to do some kind of blockchain idea that I had and I went out to this guy in from Poland I don't know how I found him but I found him on the internet and he was going to charge me 10 grand US for a white paper on blockchain technology

in construction or real estate so you know it's all these things that now can be done on your own at home if you but you have to input the right information to AI otherwise it's going to spit

out all sorts of nonsense well how can you tell the difference between the well you're the interpreter so do you do fact checking on the what AI produces we don't use words like fact checking but we are verification well you just look at

the I'm going to at some point I'm going to sort of critically analyze the document to make changes if I need to. And so that will be formed the basis of my idea. And I'm going to go to the marketplace and see where that lands. And it could be a billion dollar idea. It could be a multi-million dollar idea. Again, these are all long shots, right?

Everything in being an entrepreneur is a long shot. But it's also time. I've got Fusion Corp takes a lot of my time. I do the podcasts. and I have a bunch of other ideas that I haven't, you know, gotten around to. Well, let me ask you about one. So AI is something I want to talk about a lot in terms of entrepreneurialism. So there's a place for it in building success.

There's definitely a place for it for construction. You know, we're using AI every day as a productivity tool wherever we're needed. You know, it's an extra help that we didn't have before, and it's useful. But you've got to be careful when you use it. Well, I want to ask you mentioned blockchain, et cetera, but we're actually, maybe this is a plea for the listenership. If anyone out there can connect me with a person who is successful in the crypto.

Crypto investor. Investment world. We'd love to talk to a successful crypto investor. Do you invest in crypto? I have a few crypto holdings. Yes. Okay. Can you spend a moment here talking about potentially, you know,

crypto and crypto build and where you could see. yourself going. You mentioned you're pretty diverse with your entrepreneurial. Well, listen, I don't know a lot about cryptocurrencies. I guess there's various types of currencies that you can invest in. Some are more volatile and others. Some are basically worthless. You know, you have to be careful. However, it's probably going to be a form of money, currency in the future. That's what I'm banking on. and they all are different and they all have different purposes for them so I'm not going to get too much into it Mike

because I'm not a big crypto expert as of yet and but I'm doing a lot of research I am investing in a bit of cryptocurrencies and you know I think it's an exciting you know new you know if you look down in the US there's a lot of support for cryptocurrencies now and I see that's

going to probably explode in the next, you know, 10, 20 years. I think it's going to be more commonplace. I think it's probably going to replace a lot of the current finance systems that we're using today. It's faster technology. And there's a place for it in the construction industry as well. I'm not going to get into that either because there's something that I'm developing on that side too.

It's a blockchain technology for construction. and it's a method of payment for all the stakeholders and participants because our payment systems are very, very challenging and awkward and difficult. And, you know, if they're not done correctly, it could lead to delays and all sorts of other issues. If you tell me any more, you're going to either have me sign an NDA or you're going to have to kill me. Well, I feel I already know too much. I'm going to be easy to kill you because, you know, your audience will kill me. That's why I got a live stream in these visits, because at least somebody,

Jayho or whoever else is tuned in right now, at least somebody, Jaylo? Jaylo, yeah. Do you know Jaylo? Who's hotter, J-Lo or Katie Perry? Just curious. Well, Katie Perry has lost all her beauty now that she's with Trudeau. Ouch. What if, I don't know.

I can't even fathom what's going on there. Well, you know, two attractive single people can have some adult fun. You don't think he's attractive? He's, uh, I don't want to get into that. Okay, well, I can't. You know why? Because I'm going to say something very nasty. Okay, well, you can, this is the place for that.

I think she's dating a lesbian, but that's okay. Wow. I don't even know where to go of that. Okay, well, let's all over the internet. I never, see, I'm not on this part of the internet. Seriously, that didn't make it to my Reddit homepage. Okay. Let's that one.

You can tell me later. one. Speaking of developments. But I watched a Diddy documentary. Wow, that guy was nuts. Well, he probably still is, from what I understand, too. J-Lo, he dated J-Lo. Yeah.

That's why I'm bringing him up. Okay. Well, yeah, I said J-ho, and I think it sounded like J-Lo. J-Lo. Speaking of developments, okay, so again, just, you know, we talked about the existing podcast. Of course, Fusion Corp is your prime, you know, daily grind. That's bringing, paying your bills, so you can feed all the cats.

And then we talked about things like that. like crypto and AI, but you have a development. Can you speak a little bit about this development in Owen Sound? Yeah, well, that's the FC, that's my other company, FCA Entertainment and Hospitality, Inc. It focuses on, you know, primarily is the main venue, which is in Owen Sound. It's called the Royal Rose Court.

And it's essentially a, you know, a historic venue similar to a Casilloma. But I know and sound. It's an old courthouse, 1800s courthouse in jail. Wow. And we're converting it to an entertainment complex. But right now it's a tough market. Like I said, it's hard to get financing for projects. It's, you know, nobody wants to invest outside of a GTA.

I've been, you know, it's been a bit of a grind recently. Whereas you can get money like crazy, like, you know, four or five years ago. Now it's hard. And, you know, the location. doesn't help either. But I have designed a multi-entertainment complex. So I've got a couple of restaurants. I've got a main kitchen hub,

which is going to also be a catering company. I've got the venue, which is renting out spaces for weddings and corporate events, which includes a glass pavilion that will hold up to 3 to 400 guests. and also the old courtroom venue, which is about 2 to 300 people. And, yeah, so by day, the courtroom is also going to be a private club, similar to something like the Albany Club.

It's going to be a business and social hub. We're going to call it Bishops Club. There's going to be a cocktail and speakeasy bar in the back where all the jail cells are. So you can actually sit in a jail cell and have a few pints with your friends. and it's going to be a great theme, and we're going to have a speak-easy entertainment area on the third floor. There's going to be a shared workspace.

It's very exciting. We really maximize all square footage of that property and convert it into this amazing place. And, you know, it's going to be a grind to get started, but I think I'm going to be in this project for quite a few years. Well, it sounds amazing. Like, I've been hearing you talk about this, and you've had some guests on building Toronto Skyline

who have, you know, in business with you. you on this. It's amazing. So keep me posted because I'll have a TMLX event in Owens Sound. And we have a couple of other venues

that might be coming up as well. One being in Brampton, I'm not going to say too much about it today. And also we have one that's out on the West Coast area, which is even more excited. British Columbia?

I'm not going to tell you which province is in. Well, you think, okay, that's too much of a clue? Yeah, it's way too much of a clue. Oh, boy. Even everything under I'm sorry to do this, but you have to be very careful with what you say,

because number one, when you tell people things, you kill the idea. You have to be very careful when you're... You got to hold those cards closer to your chest sometimes. All right, so we'll see what you'll say about this. So I have in my hand a couple of... Because then it's out in space, you know? People are listening right now. Then they're going to say, oh, you know what?

These ideas, they're going to take my ideas. You're going to take my ideas. They're getting 1%. here. But I have in my hand a couple of books written by Nick Iini's one of them he had a co-writer on, but this one's Building Toronto Skyline, of course. And then you have this book called

Battle of the skyscrapers. Is there any truth to the rumor? And again, we'll see what you'll say about this, but you might be involved in a skyscraper museum? Well, they have one in New York City and I love the idea and I thought my whole purpose of writing the books originally,

well, first I said, okay, I want to write a book. Okay. So I said, oh, this would be a cool concept. So it was building Toronto Skyline. So I've taken it from that concept. And then I say, okay, well, you know, nobody really makes money selling bucks these days.

So I said, let's take it. And I don't really focus on promoting my books to a certain extent. But I said, let's take those themes and build on that. And we turn them into a podcast. I did that with Building Toronto Skyline. I did it with Building Success. You know, I've got that podcast. And I said, okay, now, what can I do with Nick, sorry, Battle of the skyscrapers?

It's a good learning about skyscrapers around the world. And it's a great story about, you know, competition, global competition and wealth. And, you know, and say, okay, well, how can I make some money off of this? Because, you know, because my concepts are somewhat limited sometimes because there's only a support. you know, a certain group that are more interested in that. So New York's got this great skyscraper museum, and I'm interested in creating maybe something a Canadian version of that.

Speaking of Canadian skyscrapers. We can learn all about the major buildings. And you know what? There's also, I came up with this idea to do an immersive event for skyscrapers, which I think would be really cool. I mean, they did it for Van Gogh. And they've done it for, I guess, other sort of artists. But imagine going into an immersive experience,

where, you know, they're sort of this amazing experience about the birth and the history of skyscrapers all over the world. I think that would be a great concept. Now, I tried to make something happen on that, but it didn't work out. There's a lot of things going on here, and you've got the, you know, the core, pun intended, is Fusion Corp, but then, you know, the podcast exists. People can subscribe and listen right now.

I just want to point out one episode of Building Toronto Skyline and then I tell people about all the time is when you had on the chap from a pinnacle one regarding the sky scraper in Canada. I'm watching it grow on my bike rides at One Young Street, and it's already, yeah, it's already the tallest skyscraper in this country. And it's going to be 105 floors,

is what I learned on that episode of Building Toronto Skyline. That's amazing. That's the same. Just so if you had a penthouse suite, which is available for like, I don't know, 40 grand, 40 million, 40 million. but like if you're at the penthouse you're the same height as the observation deck of the sea and tower yeah that's right mind-blowing stuff that's going on here and you know in your book you kind of talk about how Canada kind of lags behind with these skyscrapers like it follows the money and you got a whole bunch going up in the Middle East and New York and like I said and I guess we're a smaller country and maybe we don't have the population for this or or the funds sort of the you know it's a different it's a different dynamic here we have a democratic government right it's private industry it's uh damn democracy ruins everything

yeah look at the middle east they there they just say you can get things done if you look at you know we're going to do we're going to do this and they did it they don't human rights be damned you know they have the money they have the power they can do anything they want over there right forget human rights forget human rights forget building codes just get her done we're just different that's all but in the united states is is uh you know obviously they got all the money So, number one economy in the world. But it is nice to see. You can expect that they're going to build something pretty crazy.

But not as crazy as what we're seeing in the Middle East right now. So when we hear about, you know, Forma is going to put that second tower on hold. And we talked about, you know, a sure way. And we talked about clover day. I just shouting out the topical things. We talk about different developments that are paused because everything's frozen. It is nice to see that I witness with my own eyes every week that they are going to finish that one. pinnacle one at one young street that's happening that's happening and it sounds like

they're going to that trauma star building but if you look at Canada right now it's not happening too much uh I think we've been intertwined how does it bounce back like before we say goodbye and I this scary right now I'm not quite sure I think um you know it's a it's a scary time right now because you know you talk about you know this is we've been there before and we've well we've been there before it's different it's a little bit different now um we have underlying economic issues. We have this issue with the Trump and the trade and everything like that. The tariffs.

The tariffs and our economies have been too intertwined and I guess they're being on one on what on what I guess uh untangled untangled I guess yes right and that's going to take time and it's not it's going to take uh decades to be honest with you and it's not it's not going to be painless. The only way you can do it is say okay uh countries of all over the world We're open for business. Get your ass over here. Free tax, no taxes, invest whatever you want.

Here's our resources. Come and exploit them. Now, that's a way to do it quickly. But that's not going to happen. Well, I know how. There's too much, you know, we're worried too much about the environment and indigenous groups and getting permission.

Humanity. Well, I don't know. Is it? See, everybody has different sensibilities. Some people would give up, like some people, like myself, would happily leave money on the table for the betterment of humanity. To what extent and to what extreme? Well, everything's, there's a balance to everything.

I don't want to have my four kids living under a bridge, okay? So, but within reason, I don't need that extra $100,000 at the expense of the big blue marble. We need to, I mean, at the end of the day, it's, you're, Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I'll get to write that down. Don't. Don't if you do. Damned if you don't.

If you don't innovate, if you don't keep up with the rest of the world, you're behind. That's your society becomes behind. You start to stagnate and, you know, I don't think that's good for Canada. So we need to innovate. Why don't we have any pipelines? Why don't we have any refineries in Canada? You know, why don't we have a military? So I, why are we manufacturing our own war plans?

Well, we know the answer, which is we were too closely, intertwined with our friends at the time, anyways, our friends to the South, where we felt we didn't need to worry about this military. They'll protect us. They're our buddies. That's right. We got burnt and never again, Nick. That was a mistake. And you can't

blame Trump for that. Well, we can't blame Trump for our reliance. But we've been way to reliant and less innovative in Canada. I agree. And we should have been. I 100% agree. We should have a military. We should stand on our own and have our own military, and we shouldn't rely on an untrustworthy neighbor

to the south. I heard, I read somewhere they're trying to put together some kind of citizen army in Canada or something like that. Well, let me lead that thing. 300,000, I think it was announced on the CBC, wasn't it? I'm, yeah, but you're hearing there is announced on Toronto Mike.com, and I am leading the rebellion. So stay tuned, Nick, we're going to be in partner here.

So on our way out, though, Nick, because we talk a lot about money, money, money, money, money and money is imparting. Not yet. Over an hour here. great, but I want to close with the human side of Nick Iini's, and two topics in particular, I hope we can speak to on the way out, because

even though you want to make money, and you've got all these, what do you have in the fire? Stokes, what's in the fire? Everything's in the fire. Okay, there's a big fucking fire here. Call, call the socialist, the socialist organization, no one is the fire department. I know, there's one. They're asking a million questions before they come. But at the end

of the day, money, money, money, money. At the end of the day you're a human being. Well, it's not about money. It's about creating okay that's what i'm that's what you measure the success of your creation based on how much money they make like that's your measurement of success right not not all the time no good well that's where i'm going here i want to ask all it's not two topics i mean you want i want money so i can do the things i want to do okay two things i want to talk about if i had 60 million dollars i would be in a much better position you had 60 million dollars you'd want 120 million dollars if you get one lasagna you want to yeah exactly yeah so if i said here 60 million dollars would you just go

chill out in Belize or something? No, you know what you would say? No, I wouldn't. I would. Let me make another 60. Well, I wouldn't be about making another 60. It would be, you know, change sort of all the things I want to do. And I would travel more and I would probably be in

Belize a couple of times, but work out of there. Right, because you got to keep the hustle going. This is what drives you. But here's where we're leaving. This is what we're going to talk about before we say goodbye. This is for the Nick Aeney's heads. Get through it. I'm getting there, brother. But I'm going to tell you now a big thank you from me

for your partnership and support I enjoy working with you on both sides at the coin here. I love working with you on the... Don't cry. I want you to cry. I want you to be humanized, okay? Your wife takes care of stray cats, okay?

Maybe I'm a stray cat you're taking care of, I don't know, but I love working with you on the Nikainis, the Fusion Corp stuff, but I love the fact that you support the show and you fuel this real talk. We don't always agree politically. in fact, often we're on the opposite ends

of a political spectrum, but you and I can talk about it, and you still support my right to have these conversations with everybody on the political spectrum. Why not? You're doing great work. Thank you. Because some people, I honestly get notes, and people are like, oh, you had Brad Bradford on, and I'll get

notes, and why are you having Brad Bradford on? He's this, that, and the other. Brad's a great guy. And I'm saying, I don't have to... We never talked about Brad, Robert. Well, do a little Brad before I get these two things, because Brad was at TMLX-21. You weren't. But I I want to talk about Brad, because Brad's running for mayor. In fact, when you pose for the photo by Toronto Tree,

I want you to have a bat in your hand, the way Brad Bradford had the bat in his hand on the cover of the Toronto Sun. I like Brad Bradford as a human being, and I like talking to Brad Bradford, even though I don't often agree with him politically. This is a fact, but I like talking to you, and I like having a Great Lakes beer with you,

and we don't agree politically on many things. I like having conversations with civil conversations with people. Regardless of the political, I don't want to talk to somebody who's going to tell me about racist things about Somalians. I don't want to have that conversation. I won't have that. But we're all open-minded, reasonable people. We're having a conversation.

I love it. So thank you for supporting this. Tell me about your recent beer with Brad Bradford. What did you learn? What did I learn? Nothing that I didn't know already. But it was nice to be in person with Brad and have a beer with Brad. And it was right across from Carmelina Condos, where it all began.

That's our first major condominium development from Fusion Corp. And it's just nice to be an authentic person. Listen to an authentic person. And what I like about Brad is he's got good ideas. He's practical. He's very smart. And he's connected. He's politically connected now.

He wasn't originally. But he's like a working man's kind of politician. And that's what people are looking for. I that appeals to me I want someone who's going to you know come up with good ideas that are like normal forget all this

socialist bullshit okay I mean excuse my language like the fire department I mean get rid of these stupid ideas just focus on stupid ideas well I think they're smart ideas so listen

I don't think they're stupid no of course not but maybe there's too many of them in the wrong places. So you have to gauge what's where to have them, where not to have them. For example, I have them in Brampton. Yeah, I wrote them. They're fucking doing nothing.

I've never seen one. I was on them last month. Yeah, you're probably the only one. Okay, okay. But you know what? I don't agree with where they put them or why they put them. In Brampton, I don't even know if you really need them. I never see anyone ride their bike, Mike.

don't look at me like that I'm not there to tell you you're wrong I'm just getting one last word of bike lanes is one last word of bike lanes but Brad I don't want to make this about we're not going to do a bike lane thing we need we need practical he's got some great ideas

he's ready he's ready to lead I am my opinion he's going to take control of Toronto he's going to make it great again oh shit if he uses that he's going to lose no he's going to make Toronto practical again

how's that Well, we're going to work on the slogan, Brian. And, yeah, work on that with him. Don't listen to me. But you don't get a vote just for the record here. No. I'm just pointing out. You don't get a vote.

I'm going to move to Toronto if I have to. You're going to vote anyway. Yeah, I'll find a way. Brampton's close enough. But all I'm going to say is that he's good. He's practical. I want to help him. I'm going to help him.

We're going to do some things in the new year together. Who introduced you to Brad Bradford? Well, you did. See, that's a partnership here. Give me a big fist bump here. Okay. Oh, no, I got to say. And you know what?

Let me say something about Toronto Mike, too. First of all, you're a good conversationalist. That's very important in your business, obviously. Like I said, you don't always agree. We don't always agree, but we never really disagree either. We just, like, listen to each other, and we take it with a grain of salt, and I say things, and sometimes what I say doesn't make sense. Sometimes you say something that's kind of, you know, silly at times.

We all say stupid things sometimes. But at the end of the day, it's about just being able to have a conversation with someone, being interested in hearing someone else's point of view. Right. That's what I love to do. I'm a good listener. That's why if you're not listening, you're not learning. I witnessed this, by the way, at a TMLX event at the GLB Brew Pub,

when you were kind of coming in all anti-bike lanes and people like Lanrick, who I mentioned earlier in the show, people were kind of just having Leslie and other people were just telling you why they're important. and you were listening, like you weren't shutting it down, like, no. Like, you listened, and I think at the end of that conversation, you were enlightened to a point.

And I think that's the whole thing. The world's not black and white. We should listen to people, hear their thoughts, why this, that and the other. And I'm glad that you and Brad Bradford have a friendship. I have a friendship with Brad.

It'll be interesting to watch the 2026 municipal election. Libya Chow versus Bradford. And of course, there's that... Are you going to vote for Brad? I'm not going to say that comment on that right now. I want to hear a right. I want to hear you right now.

Tell your audience, don't be shy. I'm pushing you. I want to push you on this. No, it's highly, it's almost, it's highly unlikely I vote for Bradford. But at the same time, I'm going to have Bradford on the show to talk about it. Well, let's see who's running first. No one else has announced they're running yet except Brad Bradford. And it'll be interesting to see how Brad does if John Torrey decides to run again.

That'll be fascinating. All of this will be discussed with Ed Keenan in early January. He's 10 times better than John Torrey. John Torrey's, you know. Yeah, but you know how this popularity contest works. Yeah, that's good. The right goes to some candidate and they decide we're working here. It's all about political connections.

And you know what? At the end of the day, the elite group that's sitting in the back, making the backroom deals, they all make sure the right, their candidate wins. Well, shout out to FOTM, Daniel Tate. That's the way it goes. Okay. So, Brad Bradford needs to win for Toronto to be saved. Hoist that bat for the tree photo.

I want him to make sure he see. He'll be listening. And Brad will be on Toronto Mike in 2026 to talk about all these things. I'm going to convince you to vote for him. Okay, well, I have the only vote in this room, so you're going to need me. Okay. So I do want to close just with the human side of you, particularly your commitment to martial arts. Oh, wow.

And the spiritual side of Nikaiinis. because there's a lot of bluster from Nikainis. You come across like, you know, a jerk? Not a jerk, but a bit blunt and a bit harsh. And I feel my role in here. We're going to have a very long conversation here today, 75, 80 minutes. I hope people do listen to it because we're going to cover so much ground, and you're going to get a little bit more taste

that this initial bluster shouldn't dismiss the fact that you're doing interesting things and you're kind of a key cog in the whole wheel. And he would do step up to sponsor Toronto Mike. So you are doing what I think is above and beyond. But tell me about the role of martial arts in your life. And if you could, a little bit about your spirituality. And maybe we're close on this very human aspect of Nick Aienis.

Okay. Well, it's a long story, but I'll try to make it short. Like, you know, I guess when you're in your early 20s and you're going into the big, bad world, You're looking for answers. Maybe I was smoking too much dope back at the time. That's possibly another reason. But you're looking for answers. You're looking for changes.

I went into martial arts for, you know, self-defense purposes to stand up for myself, so to speak. You know, there's times in your life where you need more spiritual answers. So I studied the martial arts. I love that. It's good for fitness. It's good for fighting. It's good for all sorts of things.

It's good. I'm doing it again after 20, 30 years of not doing it. But I took a long time reading the philosophy. So I studied mixed martial arts at the time, and it was a form of Bruce Lee's martial art. It was an integral combat system, but I had a Kali as the – Kali is a Filipino martial art.

and that was the sort of the root of the mixed martial art system. And it's based on Bruce Lee's jikundo, which is translated way of the intercepting fist. But Bruce Lee, a lot of people don't know, was not just a great martial artist, but he was a philosopher. And he studied philosophy, I think, in, I think, Berkeley or university in California somewhere. I don't know exactly where it was. but he would study his Chinese philosophies and, you know, some people like Lao Zhu. Sun Tzu is art of war, of course,

not really spiritual, but very brutal, by the way. If you want to learn about strategy, the art of war is very important. And, you know, I started to sort of start reading some of the things. He was reading Zen Buddhism and Taoism and Jidu Krishna-Murdi, which is another Indian philosopher. And I started reading these books and tried to understand, you know, and together with history, try to understand what this is all about.

You have to ask yourself that question one day and say, okay, you know, people have so many, you know, if you base your life on the society that's surrounding you, It's dreadful. There's no value in it. It's materialistic. And you know what? There's a saying in Zen Buddhism,

no doubt, no awakening. Little doubt, little awakening. Great doubt, great awakening. So you really have to be awake in this life because you've got to look at it in the greater context that we're alive, this very extraordinary to be alive in this universe. And you truly have to learn to live life properly because you can't live your life based on the rules of this society.

You're doomed if you do that. It's empty and there's nothing there. So you take a little bit from your culture and you learn from other cultures and I took that time to sort of understand what's reality, what is real, what is what is this life around me how did I get here you know you learn a lot about you know how the what shaped you know you have to look at history as well and what shaped this sort of society that we're living in right now you know based on you know world war well the events in world war two and the international order these are things that are just like sort of new in the

20th century so you know you take all that into consideration and you learn a little bit about that but at some point you also have to forget about that because you have to live and part of the the Chinese philosophies is like you know stop thinking and do you know you have to do things so my life is about you know a lot of action and there's a lot of reflection you have to have compassion for people and you know you've got to be a good person you don't want to hurt people that's one of my greatest philosophies in business. You know, you can be so cutthroat if you really want to.

But you're going to hurt yourself if you're like that. So I try to do the best I can. I try to have ideas that don't hurt other people. And that's kind of the basis of who I am. It's probably where I came from when you asked me where I came from from my family background. All comes from a good background, but being lucky to be sort of surrounded by these great

ideas as I developed over in my lifetime. So very deep and I think you're about to cry right now. Too late, brother. Pass me the Kleenex. Glad we could humanize the beast. And I'm glad that you're a part of the TMU,

the Toronto Mike universe. We welcome all. That was great. Just like you welcome all sorts of people to Fusion Corp. I welcome all. And I'm doing it for a reason because you're a great guy and, you know,

we were able to come together. And we're creating something together, you see? It's all about creating things together. But now we've got to make some money, though, right? Well, absolutely. We've got to make some money. You're right. You wanted me to, in the last time you were on Toronto, Mike,

you encouraged me to charge an admission fee to attend TMLX, and I kept it free. So I'm leaving a whole bunch of money on the table. We've got to stop doing that. Yeah, we'll make some money doing some other things. We already have some ideas. You didn't mention them. Did you want to say anything real quick here?

We did 90 minutes. You'll be back on it. again. Your sponsors get an episode every quarter. You and I are going to, we've got some ventures hanging in the background who can make it happen, right? Well, absolutely. I know exactly what you're talking about, but just like you, I like to keep some cards

close to my chest. Don't say it. Don't say it. Will you check out the status of my skunk before we take that photo? Can I show you? I'm ready to stomp on it. I won't let them come on. I just humanized you and now you're stomping on this.

Four, six skunk. Okay, we're going to check in on my skunk. See how my skunk is doing. You're going to have the bat. We're going to take the photo. You're going to get a lasagna. And I didn't point this out yet. Two lasagnas.

But you wanted IPAs, so I've loaded up your Great Lakes beer with IPAs. That's right. I love that burst. It's one of my favorite IPAs from Great Lakes. And they make delicious fresh craft beer. I think we met at Great Lakes Brewery, if I remember correctly. We did. We did.

we met at Humble and Fred, right? Well, yeah, but that was virtual. I waited for you and you were, no. Oh, we went to their beer party, you remember? Okay, yeah, that's right. Yes, another brewery on the lake shore. You were late and you biked over. I did bike over.

I had to get my kid to soccer. I think I came straight from the soccer match. You know what? My life is all balancing how to make these four kids okay and take care of them. And at the same time. Make a lot of money and hire a nanny. A manny named Nick.

And that! brings us to the end of our 1,817th show. 1817, go to Torontomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible, especially Nick Iienes from Fusion Corp. Much love to Nick. Retrofestive. Let's see.

You can listen back on your drive back. Merry Christmas to your audience. Merry Christmas from Nick Ieemes. Are we allowed to say that or happy holidays? Yeah, you can say that. I was just in a parade with Santa for goodness sakes. So shout out to Retro Festive. That's where you go for Christmas stuff and pop culture stuff.

Great Lakes Brewery, delicious craft beer. Palma Pasta, you got your lasagna coming to you, buddy. Recycle MyElectronics.ca. And, of course, Ridley Funeral Home, they're pillars of New Toronto. And it turns out the Aieni's family has a great history in New Toronto. I just learned about see you all Monday when my special guest is Michelle McAdory, making her triumphant return. Michelle McAdory was in the video for Blue Rodeo's Try.

Oh, wow. And I love that video and had a crush on her since then. It's going to be good, brother. She's coming back. Get the Kleenex out. See you all then. Let's go.