Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Stephen LeDrew: Toronto Mike'd #338

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

Mike chats with Stephen LeDrew about his years on CP24, his controversial appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program, his firing from CP24 and what he's up to now.

Welcome to episode 338 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery located here in Etobicoke. Did you know that 99.9% of all Great Lakes beer remains here in Ontario? GLB. Brewed for you, Ontario. And propertyinthesix.com. Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage

all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. And our newest sponsor, Camp Tournesol, the leading French summer camp provider in Ontario. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Stephen LeDrew. Welcome, Stephen. Thank you very much and welcome to you. It's lovely to be here. I'm just listening to your advertisements and you have in front of me, Mike,

a case of beer. And looking at the first one I picked out, the cans have great designs on it. There's Canuck Pale Ale. There's one here, Pompous Ass. Big flesh ale. Now, I hope that by the end of this your listeners will

think that I would have more of an affinity with Canuck than Pompous Ass. Well listen, we'll find out in about an hour. I've never been called Pompous. Nothing is by accident. I chose those Oh really? You put that one in front of me first?

What about Tank 10? Have you ever had the pleasure of drinking a Great Lakes beer break? I have. I have. I'll have to admit to you, it wasn't pompous ass, and it wasn't a pour-up. Do you remember which one it was, by any chance? I don't. I just remember that it was Great Lakes, because it's a lovely name, and it was good beer. This is their home turf, as you know,

of these craft breweries. They carve out a turf in southwestern Toronto. That's the, well, all of Toronto enjoys Great Lakes beer. Right. But they're not far from here, like Royal York and Queensway area. They got a nice patio too. And today, like. Good place to brew beer.

Yeah. And when I saw you there today, when I was outside waiting for you, when I saw you pull up and I saw the waiting for you when I saw you pull up. And I saw the day. This might be the finest day of 2018 so far. It looks amazing out there. It's brilliant. It feels good.

It smells good. You notice on days like today, everybody has a smile on their face. You walk along the street and they're smiling as opposed to hunkering down in the cold and the rain. A smile on their face and maybe a little sunburn on their nose, depending on how it's going. By the way, another reminder just that these microphones, I know you're used to these expensive, professional-grade microphones, but these mics, you've got to be right on them. Right into it? Yeah, if you don't mind, even if you want to push the...

I have never been told that I'm not speaking loudly enough. It's simply never happened. First time for everything. There's always a first time, yes. Well, it's because I grew up, my dad was a preacher before they had microphones. So I heard him orate every Sunday. It came by osmosis.

I'll bet that would influence your delivery, right? Absolutely. No, for sure. Absolutely. Both at the dining room table and in the pulpit. I mean, he could muster a voice. And this is like in the old, you watch those movies in the old South or whatever,

and you got the preacher and the pulpit, and it's that kind of style? Absolutely. Cool. Absolutely. Well, most of the matriarchs are like that. And then there's the choir, and they'd come down, and my dad would be bringing up the rear of the choir

as they came down the aisle. And that's when you learned to sing, right? Are you a good singer? I used to be a up the rear of the choir as I came down the aisle. And that's when you learned to sing, right? Are you a good singer? I used to be a good singer. I think probably some scotch and cigars did something to that voice in the past. Well, now you could do Tom Waits or something. Perhaps I could. That would help you.

Are you offering me a new career? Well, I have to hear how you sound first. You've got to drop a line first. Actually, since you already mentioned, let's do the beer right off the top because you mentioned it. So yeah, that six-pack of Great Lakes Brewery, that goes home with you today. Terrific.

Enjoy responsibly. And if you are in the hood again, I'm not sure, whereabouts do you live? What part of the city? I call it Midtown, central Toronto. Today's the day, I think, for everybody to go to the Great Lakes patio. This is the day, the sunny 28-degree day we've been waiting for. Today's the day, I think, for everybody to go to the Great Lakes patio. This is the day, the sunny 28-degree day we've been waiting for.

Today's the day. I have to. You know, people talk about that at the patios. Weather people all the time are saying, great day for the patio. You know, I mean, most people have to work. Oh, I forgot about that. What am I thinking? Exactly.

I won't be finished work until 8 or 9 tonight. And yes. I may have a brew then, but I certainly won't be sitting out trying to get some rays at 8 or 9 o'clock. But nowadays, people can work remotely. Like you bring your laptop to the patio and work there. For example, if you're writing something for, I don't know, for the National Post or something, you could do it with a brew on the patio, and you'd probably be more creative than ever. This might work for you. Well, I think that I'll take you up on that. I'm not sure I'm going to do it on the patio,

but I mean, it sounds like a good idea to get the creative juices going. I did that with coffee this morning at 5 o'clock. Oh, that works too. I was writing my latest rant for the National Post. Okay, we're going to get to that for sure. But since I've given you beer, I need to give you a pint glass for you to pour the National Post. Okay, we're going to get to that for sure. But since I've given you beer, I need to give you a pint glass

for you to pour the beer into. That pint glass, it's actually, I'm giving it to you. I feel like, you know, on Seinfeld when Elaine hands the big salad, but George bought the big salad. I'm handing you the pint glass, but Brian Gerstein from propertyinthesix.com,

that's, he actually bought that pint glass for you. So I want to give Brian full credit here. He's buying things for people he doesn't even know. That's very nice of him. That's very generous. Property in the Sixth, take it home. You're just setting me up perfectly here. Well, there's also...

Can I tell you, though, I have a huge family, and most of them drink beer. So this six... How big is this huge family? Well, I have six children, and five of them drink beer. So this six- How big is this huge family? Well, I have six children and five of them have mates and there are eight grandchildren and they haven't given up yet. That six-pack won't go very far is what you're

telling me. It's pretty good to be 55 and have eight grandchildren. Yeah. Like I'm now doing the math in my head. I don't, yeah, that is great. So how old is your youngest child? Let's go that way.

There's so many of them. I don't keep track of them. You can't keep track of them. But we are going into the birthday season. We've had a few of them recently and a few more. It is the season to celebrate birthdays. Great time to celebrate. Brian doesn't just have the pint glass for you.

He recorded a message with an interesting question for you at the end, and I'm curious about the answer. So let's listen to brian hi steven brian gerstein here sales representative with psr brokerage and proud sponsor of toronto you know the website property in the six.com you know the number to reach me by text or by phone [phone] so what are you waiting for i welcome all real estate inquiries be it selling buying renting or investing stephen one thing i can say about you is that you have never been boring this comes across in your interviewing demeanor, always engaging your guests in debate and entertaining us along the way.

I do have a question about your look, which is also never boring and stands out from the crowd. Your choices of glasses and bow ties easily identify you and just works. Was this a conscious choice to stand out? And have you ever worn a tie? Very tough questions. Well, Brian, thank you for the question. I'm looking at your card here. Thank you for the glass and good picture.

You wear the ordinary tie, I would suggest. Well, it's not ordinary. It looks like it's a fine silk one, but it's not a bow tie. In any event, yes, I used to wear ties, but then I realized that it's a lot easier to have a shirt cleaned if you're out having lunch and you spill than having a whole tie cleaned. It was cheaper, it's easier. And then I found a picture of myself in Petrolia where I grew up with my dad and I had a bow tie on. And so I said, well, this just sort of works. And I just stuck with them and I liked them. Glasses, I was stuck with those. But how many different pairs do you own?

And I'm asking that. Yeah, because your glasses match your shirt, right? Which also, what? Right, which matches your watch. Like this is, for a guy like me, you throw in a pair of sweatpants and an old T-shirt. That pinko shirt you have on? Right, right.

You're not a left leaning pinko though. No, but Don Cherry told me all cyclists are left wing pinkos. So I wear it in honor of the grapes. But how many pairs of glasses do you own? I actually don't know. Not as many as Elton John, but I do have. That's like saying I don't own as many shoes as a Mel DeMarco owns. That's true too.

But I have a number of pair of glasses. I like them. It's my, it's my weakness. My wife would probably say it's my fetish, but I just like glasses. You know, I don't wear jewelry. I mean, men are supposed to have, you know, sort of short nails and short hair and, and not a lot of jewelry or anything. And I just wear, I wear glasses.

So there you go. And all my suits, if you ever open up my cover, all my suits are just dark blue. So the rest of me is all boring. Well, I'm in the market for a pair of glasses and I'm struggling with like, but I don't, I'm only going to buy one pair and I need to find the pair that kind of

suits my face best. Go to a terrific optometrist and go through a lot. Do you have a guy? You have a guy you want to recommend? Most people, well, no, not any longer because I sort of have my, my look and I see them, but, um, uh, most people just sort of stick a pair of glasses on and they, they, they don't get the full Monty. You need to have, you need to have someone look at it and say, okay, well, your face

is oblong, your face is more round. You need this kind of different shape and, and work into it. And, um, And believe me, I've had many pairs of glasses that just don't work. But now that I'm in a rut, I just stick in the rut. Just get what I'm used to. And we are going to

take a photo after this episode so people will see you matching and looking so sharp there. But I will point out... Will you be in the picture with me? Yeah, I'm going to do a selfie thing like this. Oh, that would be great. We'll see your left-wing picture. Yeah, I'm going to try to get as much of that in as I can. I know why you wear that shirt when you're

bicycling, because you want to fit in with the crowd. Is that right? You're being very Canadian. You don't want to make any waves or anything like that. Just fit in. If you wore a shirt out there saying, you know, Ford for King... Oh, yeah. Ford Nation or something. Ford Nation for King.

They'd push me off my bicycle. Absolutely. They might take it away from me. Well, I don't know if they do that. They probably, I don't know. You're right. But bicyclists can be very, very, very tough. Anybody that drives in downtown Toronto, as I do

occasionally, I try not to, but sometimes you have to, you realize how firm, how difficult many bicyclists can be. It's a tough business out there. We're going to get back to Ford, surprisingly enough. But I'm going to start with somebody. I've been corresponding with somebody you used to work with. I've been corresponding with her for, I'd say, years now via email.

Is this true confessions out of you? Yes. Is your wife listening to this? I think she knows about it. I think I tell her about it every night, and she seems to be okay with it. And it's been a lovely relationship. I get X tell her about it every night and she seems to be okay with it. And it's been like a lovely relationship. Like I get X, O, like it's been going so great.

And this woman, whose name I will reveal in a minute, is coming on this show and she's helping her parents with something up north. Oh, I know exactly who you are. Right. And then the other day...

She's a lovely woman. Right. And the other day, this woman, whose name will be revealed, I'm teasing the audience, but this woman wrote me this nice note to say, I promise I'm coming on very soon,

but in the meantime, I highly recommend my friend Stephen LeDrew. And then she gave me your email address, and this woman's name is Ann Romer. I didn't want to take away your thunder. Yes, Ann Romer, I knew when you said that. I needed a drumroll. She's a lovely woman.

She and I met years ago in TV, and then we worked together, of course, on CP24. And her parents live in Collingwood, General Romer, who if anybody ever gets a chance to read his books or to hear an interview with him, I interviewed him one time, and he told me about flying over France in World War II in an open plane.

And he looked down and he said, I could tell that it was a very, very big shot person in this motorcade. And, uh, but I wasn't allowed to shoot. He said, I was doing reconnaissance. So I went zip fly, flew back to the headquarters, told them what I had seen, which was a big, long motorcade with this huge, huge car, and they went out and they shot the heck out of Rommel.

Wow. He's in his 90s now. He still flies. Not by himself, thank goodness. He goes with a pilot. And Ann Romer herself, she is a Canadian gem. When you interview her, you and I talking today will be nothing

compared to the time you have with Ann Romer. She is a lovely, totally charming woman. Well, I hope so, Stephen. She lies, though. Okay, good. That's good to know.

She lies. She lies. When she said that, you know, you would like me to be on your show. It's just a big fit. She,

I have to ask you, okay, since I don't have her on yet, but we've had, I want to say, multiple public retirements. Ann Romer's retired publicly more than once. And there's been cakes. And I've seen Instagram photos with people giving her gift cards from the keg.

Like, this is a real retirement. I counted two, but then I was corrected by Kevin Frank, as you said. He thinks it's actually three. But these are three public retirements, and that's before she disappeared from the airwaves about a year ago without a public retirement. Do you have any insight into

A, why she keeps coming back, and why did she leave this final time? I didn't see any cake or cake gift cards. Well, first of all, to your first question, she's a workhorse. Secondly, as to why there were two, I think that was just happenstance. I don't think it was by design. I don't think she was having these big ceremonies,

Mike, simply to get the keg. I bet you she hasn't had to pay for a meal at the keg in forever. This is her scam. She retired once, that was it. And then I was at that retirement. It was at CP24 at 299 Queen Street West. And then her parents were there and all the officials were there.

And then they needed her back. And she was talked out of retirement. And then she did retire. And I don't know. But then she came back again. Really? That one missed me. But I know the back again. Really? That one missed me. But I know the first time they really, really needed her back.

The first time, I remember reading in the paper something. She was going to enter the aviation industry. Really? This is what I read. Well, she's taking after her dad. But maybe he'd already shot Rommel. I thought maybe it was a connection to the Porter Airline. I didn't know.

Something with Porter. I wasn't sure. I'm going to find out from her. But do you have any idea why did she leave the airwaves about a year ago? Because she tells me she's coming back. Do you have any insight into where she is right now? No, I have no insight as to where she's going. I'll find out for you, Stephen.

It's a mystery as to why people leave airwaves in CP24. I mean, I have no longer. We're going to get to that. I heard something about you. I have no longer. We're going to get to that. I heard something about you. I have no longer on that. I did some homework. And there's a woman there who is in charge who is peculiar in a way.

I remember one time I had a big scoop with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and she fired me. And then her superior said, it's not going to be very good to fire somebody because they interviewed the prime minister of Canada. Right. Are you allowed to tell the name of this peculiar person?

Well, she runs CP24. Her name is Joanne McDonald. And she has her likes and dislikes. One time I had Pat Gossage on, who most people would know he was a press secretary to Pierre Elliott Trudeau. And I had him on my show, which was the highest rated public affairs show in Canada. And we were talking about the two Trudeaus. And I thought, what a person to have all the insight into Trudeau one and then the insight into Trudeau two, who he advised.

After the show, she came to me and she said, don't ever have him on again. And I said, why not? He was great. She said, well, I don't like him. And she didn't like me. So she finally got a reason to fire me. But I go back onto Fox. I was on Fox last so she finally got a reason to fire me but I go back on to Fox

I was on Fox last week and it's a lot more fun well okay listen we'll call this a teaser because later we're going to deeper dive into this because this was a big deal in Canadian media following the saga because there was this you're right there was this appearance on Tucker Carlson it was like dueling bow ties

and this went kind of viral which I'm going to play a little bit. And I think you got a bit of a raw deal on this front. I still run into people on the street. Just yesterday, two people stopped me in the street, a couple. And they said, you really got screwed by CTV News. And I said, yes, that's true.

Everybody knows that. But she wanted to get rid of me. And you gave her a reason. I gave her a reason. I went on Tucker Carlson and she the next day said, well, they're our competition. And I still laugh at it. I gave her a reason. I went on Tucker Carlson, and she, the next day, said, well, they're our competition. And I still laugh at it. Everybody thinks that Fox News is. Right, because there was a suspension initially. Because I remember I read a Warmington column in The Sun,

which we'll get to. This is a very elaborate teaser, but then you're canned. But we'll get to this. Let's hold that one. Because, OK. You're in charge. Me and everybody else, we get to know you in the public realm. I got to know you in the 2006 mayoral election.

This is where I learned you existed. And then you managed to start a media career after that. But there's a whole bunch of life you lived before the 2006 mayoral race. And it seems most people will have no clue. Like what was Steven LeJu doing before he went up against, uh, uh, Miller and Pitfield there.

Yeah. So do you mind filling us in basically on like your life prior to 2006? Like, like we know you're, you're, uh, um, we know you're,

uh, that you were the president of the liberal party of Canada, but how did you get that gig? And, uh, what happened there? And maybe then we can, were the president of the Liberal Party of Canada, but how did you get that gig and what happened there? And maybe then we can, after the break, we can dive into your media career, if that's okay. Sure, okay. Well, I grew up in Petrolia, Ontario, down by Sarnia. Oh, Lake Huron.

Yeah. As your listeners know, I was brought up in a manse. My dad was a preacher. And phone number in Petrolia was 219. And if you didn't say thank you to the operator, uh, she would phone my dad and say, you know, your son was on today and he didn't say thank you.

It was a very small town. Loved it. And then I, uh, eventually made my way to Toronto, uh, East York collegiate and then, uh, university and then law school, became a lawyer. And, uh, like a lot of young lawyers, I was involved in politics. I was interested in politics and, um, the liberal And like a lot of young lawyers, I was involved in politics.

I was interested in politics. And the Liberal Party was a very different Liberal Party then. And I worked in Ottawa. I worked in Toronto. I got married, had four wonderful children at the time. And they're so wonderful.

I was going to say, what happened? And they're all wonderful. It's just expanded. There's more and more. It's a big family. We meet every Sunday. You got grandkids now? Eight grandchildren, yes. Wow, that's right. It's a big family. We meet every Sunday. You got grandkids now? Eight grandchildren, yes.

Wow, that's right. We have a big family dinner every Sunday. In any event, and then I got into, I didn't want to be a member of parliament or cabinet ministry. It's just too, it just consumes everything. And I was very much a dad. I think the best job anybody can ever be

is a dad or a mom. But I did run to be president of the Liberal Party of Canada. In 1998, I won. I beat a Liberal Member of Parliament. And then in 2000, I ran again and won. And I had the unenviable job of telling Mr. Kretchen that it was time for him to leave office. And he didn't take kindly to that. We had quite a time in an enviable job of telling Mr. Kretchen that it was time for him to leave office. And, uh, and he didn't take kindly to that.

We had quite a, quite a time in, uh, 24 Sussex. Uh, when I told him that for the next year and a half is very difficult, but he wasn't following the rules. Uh,

the constitution liberal party is paramount, uh, deals with leaders. Um, he said at one time, he said, I think the liberal party should get down to hands and knees and thank God that I'm the leader and that I'm prime minister. And I said, that's not the way it works.

Everybody's very grateful that you're here as prime minister, but there are rules. And I said, we have to have a review after every election under the Constitution. I won't get into too much detail about this. He said, well, he said, we'll have it in two years. I said, no, that's not going to work. It has to be within a year. I had a 52-person board behind me. So anyway, Gretchen left, and he and I had to do.

I did have, then I did a lot of CBC TV, and I had a show on Global with Ezra Levant. Once a week, we would pound the heck out of each other. It was a lot of fun. And that's sort of like you'd be like the left winger and he'd be the right winger. Is that sort of the dynamic there? No, he'd be in Calgary and we'd take the news stories

and for five minutes we'd just dance over each other's heads. It's a lot of fun. Whatever happened to that Ezra Levant? I don't know. Well, he's a great friend. I think he's somewhat controversial, Mike, but he's a terrific guy. Would you consider joining Rebel Media?

Is that something you'd consider doing? No, I'm not interested in that, but that's his deal, and he's done very well. He's built it up. And Ezra is a solid guy. I don't always agree with him, but he doesn't always agree with me, but he's a solid guy. And then, as you've already pointed out to your listeners, I ran for mayor of the city of Toronto. A bunch of us were really, really upset with what Miller was doing to Toronto. I knew Jane

Pitfield. I knew that she could not mount an effective opposition to Miller. And a whole bunch of us were there. And I guess I got the short straw one time in a meeting and they said, okay, well, one of us has to run just to debate, just to argue, just to point out to people that Miller is leading Toronto down the wrong path, which a number of us thought that he was doing. And so I ended up running. We had hardly any money. It was more of a just to debate, to bring the issues up. I remember one time, actually the first debate at City TV, and David said to me, he said, Stephen, why are you doing this?

I said, David, I'm doing this to show people that you're doing a rotten job. He said, I'm doing a great job. I said, that's why I'm running, because you're not. And so we brought up a lot of issues, and I lost. Well, you lost. I mean, you got 1.3% of the vote, but I will say this. Can I tell you this?

As an observer of media, a guy watching on TV, kind of a genius move on your part, I would say, because you got a heck of a lot of coverage. It was always the three of you that I saw in the coverage, right? And even though you got 1.3% of the vote

and you said you had a very limited budget, that's the best bang for the buck, I would say, because this is basically what essentially, and I know you said you had the show with Ezra. I'm sorry I missed that on the Global Network, but this really launches your Toronto media career, right? It's a great

platform to kind of launch something like that. But is this ever part of the strategy? That was not the strategy at all. In fact, I lost my job at Global because I went back to Global afterwards and I said, let's start this up again. They said, no, no, no, no. You're politicized.

And I said, well, I was politicized before. I was, you know, President of the Liberal Party of Canada, the biggest job you could have in the party, a volunteer job, by the way. And they said, no, no, no, no, no. We aren't going to be doing that again. So it was a tremendous cost, not only financially, but as far as a career. It was never intended to do this.

But it was Yvonne Fetsan, who was the head of CTV and owns CTV, who brought me into CP24. And he said, well, I knew him, but he said, I've seen you on TV. And he said, you're very smooth and professional. And he says, CP24 is supposed to be an urban station. He said, we want someone chippy to give opinion. I said, I can do chippy. And so then we started. All right, pause that because CP24, we all saw you on CP24.

There was a high-profile gig, and we're going to deep dive into that. But first, you mentioned you have four children. I have four children as well. I have two stepdaughters. Okay, six, of course. Yes, so six. Any of these six take French immersion? No, no.

No, and how are their French skills today? Would you say they have the typical high I took, you know, high school French, that type of level? Because what I recommend to everyone listening right now, if they have children between the ages of 4 and 14, send your kid to French camp this summer. This is how their skills will blossom over the summer. The biggest French camp provider in Ontario

is Camp Tournesol. They've been doing it since 2001. You can go to campt.ca and see all the different programs they offer. They got the day programs. They got the overnight programs. It doesn't matter if your child is francophone in French immersion or have no French experience. They have an experience for your child. So go to campt.ca and when you sign up your kids for, and you've got to do it now. This is late May. I'm only going to be playing this jam for another week here.

You've got to get your kid into summer stuff now. Now's the time. Go to campt.ca, sign up for a French camp, and use the promo code Mike when you make your purchase, and you'll save some money right there. M-I-K-E, Camp Tournesol. What a great idea, though, to learn French at camp. Outside, it'd be a lot of fun.

I was not, and you don't use it. If one doesn't use it, Mike, then you lose it. Sure. But you get it back quickly if you're in such a circumstance. But in 1998, it was a French senator asked me if i was a bilingual and i said i'm not i'm taking lessons and i said i you know i'll be able to talk and to understand that he says he says steven he says the only way to do this have a french girlfriend yes if you do yes which which my my wife at the time was very amused by that.

Because she was not French. No, no, no, no, no, no. But what a great idea. Absolutely. French summer camp. I highly recommend it. My two teenagers are in French immersion. And yeah, French camp was one way where you basically send them off to French camp,

which is good anyways. They're outdoors doing activities that'll help them anyways during the summer instead of hanging around with their whatever. Better get them off the video games and get them out in camp. But then when you get them at the end of the summer, suddenly they're fluent. They're speaking to you in French, and it's very rewarding.

So I highly recommend Camp Tournesol. Stephen, we have something in common here. Let me play some Pink Floyd. I hope we do have lots. We have lots in common, lots in common. But I'm sure one of the things we have in common is that we both have to pay bills we got to pay bills we got cell phone bills we got tuition property taxes rent all these bills we got to pay paytm canada is the only app in canada that gives you rewards for bill payments and you get to choose how you pay you can pay your

credit card like i do i use my master card to pay everything you pay. You can pay with your credit card like I do. I use my MasterCard to pay everything through Paytm Canada. And then I get points on the MasterCard for using it so I can get free groceries. I got this President's Choice MasterCard. But I also get my rewards from Paytm Canada for using their app. So I'm double dipping, triple dipping.

It's just fantastic. And here's the most amazing thing. If you learn nothing else from this episode do this install the app from paytm.ca and then make a bill payment with the promo code toronto mic one word toronto mic you get ten dollars on the spot paytm gives you ten dollars to use towards any bill that's free money just sitting there pick it up i did i use my own promo code i got ten bucks why wouldn't i i think that's terrific money just sitting there. Pick it up. I did. I used my own promo code. I got $10. Why wouldn't I?

I think that's terrific. I'm just trying to think of what year this song was out. Was it 1972? 71? I don't know. It's around then. It's around then. I haven't heard this one for a long time.

Great song. Absolutely, yes. Do you want me to do the vocals? No, I'll spare your audience. Well, I do need to, at some point, maybe actually here, let me tease the audience with something else. At the end of this conversation,

Stephen and I, we're going to play one of his favorite songs of all time. He's going to tell us why he loves it. And maybe he'll sing along. Maybe we'll do a duet. We should get everybody warning of that. Yeah, so that's right. So you'll want to stop this episode

with 10 minutes remaining. That's when you want to shut it down so you don't have to hear that. All right, so you's right. So you'll want to stop this episode with 10 minutes remaining. That's when you want to shut it down so you don't have to hear that. All right, so you mentioned CP24. Well, first, before you get to CP24, I actually want to talk to you about something you did at 1010. You did a show with Michael Coren, right?

Two bald guys with strong opinions? That was a fun show. It was the highest rating show, highest rated show in Toronto. It was at 3 o'clock every afternoon, and we didn't even need a producer. I would walk in 10 or 15 minutes ahead of time. Corin would be there. And I'd say,

Mike, what's really bugging you today? And he would, of course, I mean, he was he would just say, oh, and he would bounce off five or six ideas of things that happened or he'd read them off. And I'd say, great, there's our show. And we would just duke it out.

I still get people, how long ago was that? That was probably 10 or 11 years ago. I still get people who talk about that show. It was a good show. He's a really smart guy and a very worthy adversary. And we would try to kick the heck out of each other, but then we'd also have a laugh too. And he and I still chat.

So you still chat. So you were friends as well? This wasn't just one of those partnerships where the red light goes on and then you do your thing and then you go your separate ways. But were you friends? Yeah, we became friends. I mean, I like to be friends with everybody.

Not just bald people. You'll be friends with the Hirstude amongst us as well. Absolutely. We didn't know each other before then, and so not just bald people you'll be friends with the Hirstude amongst us as well absolutely we didn't know each other before then but we got to know each other fast

and we were friends and we still are friends and that was a lot of fun but again it was an exchange of ideas if you have an exchange of ideas

I think people like to hear you know both sides or other sides alternative arguments and if it's done without rancor, you'll be seeing, hear people on, on radio or something

on TV and they get nasty. Well, no one wants, you know, just enough nastiness in the world, in the real world, just enough nastiness without creating more. Even with Ezra, who I, you know, I just disagree with him all the time, but you got to throw a little humor. You got to have a laugh.

And, um, and I think that's one of the good rules of public debate and also of public discussion. Don't take yourself too seriously. Throw your ideas and let it roll. Now, at the time, Michael Korn was very conservative, and you were the liberal, right? So you'd be on the left, and then Michael would be on the right. But it's almost like as time has passed,

it feels like you might have switched spots. Am I honest? Because Michael, he's quite different today in his beliefs than he was back then. Oh, absolutely. He was a firm, staunch Roman Catholic. He's left the Catholic Church. He wrote a book one time, but I always accused him. I said, this is just marketing.

He said, one of the titles was Why Catholics Are Always Right. Well, I said, you write a book like that, and all Catholics are going to buy the book. He said, yep. He made a lot of money on it. But then he left the Catholic Church. I think he's an Anglican now. He actually may be in

divinity school. The last I spoke to him a few months ago, we crisscrossed when I was doing a show on 1010. And he was either threatening or had just started Divinity School. He could be a heck of a preacher. He's an extraordinarily bright man and so well versed in, uh, in debate, but he has, uh, and he used to be, he used to be horribly anti-gay, horribly anti-gay. He was, he was nasty. And now he's pro-gay. He had an epiphany, if you will. He had a few of them, I think, Mike. Yes, I know. Quite interesting. I know, I, you know, that you, we talk about Michael Korn. I realize I need to reach out to him at some point. See,

if Ann Romer would just tell me to contact Corin, then I'd get him on too. I do whatever Ann tells me to do. Really? Whatever Ann is. I think you should watch yourself. With Corin or with Romer? No, with Ann. Okay.

If you're going to do everything that Ann tells you to do, just be careful. You're right. Curb yourself. Vulnerable that way. You're right. Now, some of the things you said on, and I like the name of this show.

I think that's a great name. Two Bald Guys with Strong Opinions. I think that's a great name. Two Bald Guys with Strong Opinions. Yeah. That's a great name. But you got, is it, there's some situations where maybe you got in trouble for things you said said, I'm named, I think he's retired now, an Anglican bishop or something who was chairing a company. And the company had been accused of and then was found by the courts to be acting illegally. So I said, well, you have this bishop running an illegal company. Well, they all got their fur and a feather in a nod about that. But I said, here, read the decision

from the Supreme Court of Canada, Superior Court of, sorry, Ontario. But there weren't too many times that we got into serious trouble. I mean, depends on the definition of trouble. If you say controversy, or as Corn would say in his best English accent, controversy.

That's weird how they say it over there, controversy. Yeah, sometimes there is that, but not too often. And I'm glad that you're still, I know you said you like to be friends with everybody, but I just like the idea that you and Korn are buddies still. The only one who I really have, who really, I just, we have mended fences.

Maybe we will someday. It's that guy Kretchen. He tells people he still thinks he'd be prime minister, but for me. But there was a controversy at the time. I wonder how much of this was political. You got in trouble for possibly some tax evasion. Tell me this is a... No.

There's something. Oh, yes, there's something there. And I always wondered, like, when you piss off somebody as powerful as Jean Kretchen, I always wonder if there's going to be some ramifications going on. Well, that was a ramification. So what happened there, in a nutshell, before we bring it to CP24? There is no tax evasion. I had separated from my wife. I was volunteering thousands of hours a year with the Liberal Party of Canada, especially at the last year and a half

negotiating Kretchen out of office. And it was tumultuous. And I declared what I made and what I owed in taxes, but I needed money to, to deal with my children. It was a very expensive time. I know this story. Yeah. And they, um, they needed certain things and no mother or father would, uh, would deny it. And I said, okay, you know what? I went to revenue. I said, here, I owe this. I will pay this off so much per month. And they said, fine. And I was paying it off with interest, a huge deal, but it was a lot of money. There's nothing undeclared. And it was all good until, um, I, uh, Gretchen and I started duking it out and I was called into revenue. And, uh, they said, we want all the money now. And I said, well, you know, everything about me, you know, every, everything. And they said, well, we want it all now.

And I was, and so that was a problem. And, uh, I had one creditor, which was a revenue. They forced me into bankruptcy. I didn't declare it. They forced me into it. It cost revenue. I did an access to information over a million point two in legal fees for the outside, not even counting the number of bureaucrats. When I was in bankruptcy court, there was something like 10 people from the federal government being paid for by taxpayers to deal with this case.

The court ended up saying I owed less than I had offered in writing, which was totally bizarre. Okay, yes. Like in Monopoly, when you get that card that says bank error in your favor, I think that's what the Monopoly card says. Yeah, well, I mean, that's what the court said. I said, you know, I offered to pay more than this in writing ages ago.

And as it turned out, a reporter spoke to me and he said, you know, I got a tip the other day from somebody in revenue. They, every now and then, throw me a story about somebody getting a sweet deal from revenue. And there's some of those all come around. And he said, I thought I was going to have this big scoop about LeDrew getting a sweet deal from revenues

before all became public. He said, instead, what they said, the source in revenue was saying, I'm showing you this file and these papers because this guy is getting the shaft. And we were told by the center, which means the prime minister's office, to give him as much difficulty as possible. And that's what they did.

You run up against the prime minister, you pay a price. I paid the price. Yeah. Proud of what I did, though. Yeah, no, I mean, you had me. You got to take care of your children first. Like, that's number one with a bullet. I'm going through this all right now.

It's like, that's priority one, two, three, four. And then... Yeah, if your child, anybody listening, if your child needs something and it's legitimate, it's not just, you know, for fun and games, it's a real need, then you do whatever you can to get it. You're absolutely right.

Now we're taking you to January 2009, and you begin co-hosting a weekday noon news program with the aforementioned Ann Romer on CP24. They called this show Live at Noon, and you were also a political analyst. So now tell us in detail how you managed to score the gig at CP24, which I think for those that don't follow municipal politics as closely as I do, I think this is when people

see Stephen LeDrew for the first time on the TVs. In all the freaking pizza shops and donut shops and this and that, CP24 is hard to avoid, actually. It is. It was a great privilege. As I said earlier, Yvonne Fitzsand was the president of CTV.

They were switching out CP24. Different ownerships had come along because there was movement in ownership at the time. And City TV, the CRTC said that City TV could be owned by the same people as were owning CP24. So City TV was sold to one of the last things he did before he had his untimely death, Ted Rogers. He bought City TV, moved it over to a building he had at Dundas and Victoria Street.

And CP24 was relaunching. And I was doing just commentary on it. I had been a guest before sometimes. And it was Bob McLaughlin was the manager of CP24 at the time. And he used to have these wonderful meetings where everybody said, okay, gather around everybody. And it was everybody, not just on air. It was people who did makeup, people who did all the technicians.

And he'd have these meetings where everybody got their say. And he said, by the way, we're going to start a noon show tomorrow. Drew, what are you doing at noon? I said, I can be free. He said, good. We're going to start a noon show tomorrow. Drew, what are you doing at noon? I said, I can be free. He said, good. We're going to start it. And that's what it is. So I did the news and I did guests and I loved doing that show.

I did the interviews and the commentary. Then later on I did more commentary during the day. And made many friends, had a great audience. And I just loved it. It was terrific to bring in everybody. As I said, if you're running for office, really anywhere in Ontario and sometimes in Canada, I get emails from Newfoundland.

I get emails from BC. I get emails from people in Mexico, wintering in Mexico, would get the show. Right. And so it was lovely. And you were a big personality on this channel. Right. And so it was lovely. And you were a big personality on this channel. So this channel is omnipresent.

It's all over the place. But, you know, you had the distinctive look and you had, I mean, Brian said it well, your presentation style, what I would call you were a big personality. You are a big personality. Well, I, yeah. Which is, I mean, in television, Stephen, this is a good thing. This is not meant to be an insult. Well, I, I, I, yeah. Which is, I mean, in television, Stephen, this is a good thing. This is not meant to be an insult. No, I'm not.

I don't feel insulted at all. I just, I don't, I mean, it's just, it's just the way I am. And you could ask, and people do ask all of my children all the time, is he like that at home? They say, he's worse at home. But it's, it's always good to involve people

and get the, get the other other side of not only just politics, but any controversy or any public story. I've interviewed thousands of people and love doing it, and I love talking about the issues. That's what I'm doing for National Post now, and I'll be doing it for other media as well. In other words, I didn't leave CP24 because my ratings were down.

I left because a woman who ran it just doesn't like me. And she told me she doesn't like me. She told others she didn't like me. It's just a personal thing. And, you know, I'm gone. No, we're going to get there. But first, let's spend some time at CP24. First of all, it sounds like you had to quit

the 1010 gig with Corin because of all this television commitment. Like, there's only one of you, right? That's right. It was, they came in. You couldn't make them both work, considering it is the same family, right? You're all Bell Media. Well, it is now, but it wasn't then. And when I started the regular noon show, they called me in at 1010.

They said, well, you can't do radio and TV. I said, why not? People do it all the time. And they said, well, your TV show is actually being broadcast on 1050, Chum. And Chum owned CP24 as originally the ownership. What year did Bell Media take over? Do you remember when that went down at all? No. No, not 2000. 11, do you remember when that went down at all?

No, no, 2011, I think, or 12. All right, gotcha. In any event, they said, so we want you to quit your TV show and just do the radio show because it's our highest rated show. And I said, well, no one quits TV for radio. And that was that. That was my last day.

I just said, but I think it's ridiculous. And I think history has proven me right in the sense that, and even in TV now, in the States and Canada, they won't. But in the States, you'll often see on CNN, well, so-and-so was on Fox last night, and here's what he said or she said. And they'll have that clip, and they give it credit. And they aren't embarrassed that somebody was on a different network than them.

They want their viewers to get that information in Canada that you will never, ever see CTV saying, well, you know, on CBC last night, this happened, or on Global. Well, where I really noticed this, and you're right, this seems to be an unfortunate Canadian phenomenon, and I really noticed it in sports media, because I'm a big sports

fan, and I'll notice, for example, if I'm going to listen to 590, which is a Rogers-owned sports station, you're not going to hear from anybody that has anything to do in the Bell Media empire. Like, we'll never be on the air. And that includes all these longtime personalities from TSN,

for example. And it's just like, come on. Like, we know TSN exists. You know what I mean? Like, don't worry so much. No, that happened one time when I had a guest who actually just mentioned CBC. Really?

Even the public broadcasters? The same woman. The same woman said, never have them on again. I said, why not? Well, he mentioned CBC. Is that woman still at CP24? She's still in charge. Interesting.

But that will change over time. I mean, it's been relatively recent, Mike, that that occurred in the States where they get away from this slavish sort of loyalty to their own brand, to the exclusion of others, and now it's changing in Canada too. And it'd be for the better. We're just a little bit more slower in Canada.

Well, I've noticed that in the podcasting world as well, so I noticed that. Now, let me let you in on something that people, some people like to call CP24, they like to call it CP20 Ford. Have you heard this before? No.

Actually, I heard it once. That was when Rob Ford was mayor. Right. Well, because you show up at, this is pretty good timing. So I think God's gift to CP24 was the Rob Ford mayor years. I mean, so you show up at CP24 in 2009. And well, Ford 2010, right, was the big election he won.

And we're going to play a clip in a minute of something. But I mean, it was all Ford all the time on CP24. And what do you think, what would you say to somebody who said to you that it felt like CP24 lobbed softballs at the Ford family? Like maybe we're too invested in the Fords having power because of the eyeballs it brought to the station.

Any truth to that at all? I don't think that's the case. In fact, one of the toughest questioners of the mayor was Katie Simpson, who was with CP24, then she went with CTV. CP24 is run by CTV News, not CTV, but CTV News. Okay.

And so then she went to CTV News in Ottawa and had to leave, and she's now with the CBC. But she used to, we used to call it the elevator shift, and she'd be over at City Hall. And she would be, you know, Katie is just irrepressible. She'd be out, and she'd be talking in front of the elevator. She'd go, oh, here comes the elevator. Let's just wait and see if it's the mayor right now.

And sometimes it wouldn't. And she'd keep on talking and she was always there, you know. And sometimes it wasn't. And she'd be, boom, right in there with her microphone in his face. And so she wasn't, she was no pushover and she was very, very tough. And I asked very tough questions of the mayor and his brother. I'm never, you don't, you don't, I don't think

get the right response out of someone if you're acerbic, if you're snarling at them. You can, you can ask a tough question without being snarly and get, you know, get their answer. If you're snarling, you're going to get a response, which is snarly. But did you ever receive criticism that maybe when you had an opportunity to talk to Rob Ford, who was mayor of the city, and there were a lot of unanswered questions that us citizens wanted answers,

is it possible that you received criticism from people that thought maybe you didn't challenge him enough on these, on these, the wide array of unanswered Rob Ford questions. There was one time someone said, well, that was just too easy on him. But I said, well, look and listen to what I said. And, and I asked him very, very tough questions. In fact, there was one time with his brother, I, there was something in the papers, I called him in on a Saturday and I put it to him, point blank. He said, no, that's all false. I said, so, these stories are not true. And then I carried on. But you have

to ask the tough stuff. I mean, the thing with Rob Ford that became increasingly apparent towards the end is that he was a very sick man. Actually, I think the pressures of the office. I don't know what he was like as a counselor. I'd heard stories. I think he probably had a few excesses.

But the pressures of the office of being mayor, and it's a big job, I think that just really put him over the top. Now, you're referring to dependencies on alcohol, for example? Drugs, yeah. Drugs and alcohol. I mean, he was poorly behaved. There's no question about that.

He was poorly behaved. There are a lot of stories out there, and it's not the way that the CEO of even the smallest Hamlet should behave like that. Right, right, right. Now, was there ever any fear in your mind that if you were too tough on the Fords that you would be sort of blacklisted? I remember, for example, they blacklisted Toronto Star. Right. And was there any fear?

Because if you can't get the Ford family to play ball with you in your show on CP24, it's sort of noticeable by its absence. But they had to come on to get a message out. play ball with you in your show on CP24. It's sort of noticeable by its absence. Like this is sort of. But they had to, they had to come on because to get a message out. And I remember one time it was, uh, that guy who's running for premier of the country, of

the province, um, went on 640 radio and just threw, uh, threw me under the bus. Uh, he said, and that was a day after I interviewed his mother and, said, and that was the day after I interviewed his mother and sister at their home. And he said he had no right to do this. And I phoned him up. I heard that. I phoned him.

I said, everything you said is absolute baloney. No, it's not. I said, go back and check your phone. You will see that I phoned you five times before the interview. Well, you never got me. Right? You know, I can't just wait around forever. Can we talk about that interview?

Sure. Because that was a big, I remember this vividly. Yes. So, yes. I'm going to play, maybe I'll start. Let me play a little clip. It's got the sound bites. Just a short clip.

This is the interview you did with Rob Ford's mother and sister at the mom's home in Etobicoke, right? Right. It was so bizarre. The whole term, Rob Ford term, was bizarre. It's almost now as I look back, did that really happen? Do you know what I mean? Did that happen in this city? I just can hardly wait to hear this.

I want all your listeners to know this is not rehearsed. What clip do you have? It's the beginning. So let's just get a taste here. It's got the stingers and everything. Let's hear it. And then we'll talk about how this came to be. Well, the Ford family is a close-knit one,

with the mayor admitting he hid the crack cocaine secret from everyone, including his brother. His family is now speaking out exclusively to CP24. And CP24's Stephen LeDrew joins us now live from Etobicoke. Stephen. Hi, Stephanie, and thank you very much. I am in Etobicoke at the home of Diane Ford, the mayor's mother, and Kathy Ford joins us, the mayor's sister.

And thank you very much for joining us tonight. And your daughter called me and we started talking this afternoon. I said, well, you have a good story to tell. And so I'm glad that you have the opportunity to meet with us to tell that story because there's a lot of reaction to what your brother, what your son, the video today. And let's just talk about that video. He said afterwards, he said, obviously in that video I was totally inebriated.

How did you react? Obviously disappointed. Thank you, Stephen, first of all. I really appreciate you listening to me. I was so angry. I guess before this, first of all, Rob, my brother, I love him to death. I will support him to his dying day.

My dad always said, united we stand, divided we fall. And we have lived by that as a family. And it's hard sometimes. But to see the people jumping on the bandwagon and the people that did not support him and just taking this for all it's worth robbie is not a drug addict i know because i'm a former addict or an addict if you would want to say um and as an alcoholic if you want to consider binge drinking once every three months and and you get totallyed, which he just makes himself a fool out of himself. And I've even asked him to leave my home at one time, I saw him.

Fine. But he has done so much other things than this. And it seems that he has nobody, I mean, unfortunately, yes, this has all come out, and it's horrible. And the first person that was upset was my mom. And I've always said, well, you know, Mom, he's human. Kathy, he's the mayor. And that is what we have to respect. And we have a lot of people that supported us.

Well, you know, yes. I mean, he is a public figure. Absolutely. And you understand that, as you just said, as Kathy said. He's the mayor. Yeah, he is the mayor. So you've obviously had some words with him over the last few weeks. And we were chatting, I mean, let's just be candid and frank here. We were chatting before the cameras were turned on, and you said that, you know,

you stand by him of course that's not no it's not acceptable behavior he is the mayor of the city but he knows that better than anyone i could you know it's so strangely compelling like i could listen it's just so bizarre and compelling and did that happen yes you were there How did that come to be? Well, it was a call from his sister to the office of the CP24, and she was watching me, and I got on the telephone with her. She said, you know, we've never spoken, but she said, I always watch you. You're a fair person.

You've given a person an opportunity to put their, as I said to you earlier in this, Mike, to put their views forward or their position forward, and I like to you earlier in this, Mike, to put their views forward or their position forward. And I like to do that in an open way. And I can challenge them afterwards, but give a person a say. And she said, I'd like to talk to you about this. And my mom would like to talk to you about this.

I said, I'll be there. I was going to say, because listen, what a coup. That was a scoop, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. It was a big deal that had huge ratings. People were talking about it for ages and ages. But I went out with three senior female producers to, you know, we want to have lots of witnesses and make sure everything here is,

all the I eyes are dotted and uh we went out there and uh we had a chat and you heard his sister first and then his mom and his mom and she's um she's i understand she's campaigning for her uh her other son in this uh i heard he's running yeah no she's a she's a force and she's a mom and uh i wanted to hear what she had to say about her son. But she also said, you know, like, I know he's screwing up. And I told him that later on in that interview. She said, well, you know, she's also generous in the sense that, you know,

you aren't going to sit there and completely throw your son out. She said, well, he's got a bit of a weight problem. What? A weight problem? This is no surprise. But it was quite a deal. It was very nice that I got the interview and they said, because I'm always fair to people. I hear that all the time. In fact, it was Anthony Wilson-Smith, who was the editor of McLean's, stopped me on the street a while ago and he said, boy, that was quite something when you got fired by CTV News. I said, yeah, it sure was. And he said, what you should really like, though,

is the talk and it's still going on about how fair you were. He said how good you were at it and how fair you were. And I was trained as a lawyer. I practiced for over 30 years. And part of being a lawyer is to see the other side and to exhibit fairness and

to be proper about it. That's what I always try to do. Right. Now, in that clip that we only heard the first two minutes, there was a... It went on. Yeah. How long was the...

I think, I don't know. No, it wasn't quite an hour. And we were cutting into the news. I think it was probably around 40 minutes, if I recall. Yeah, cutting into news. Don't worry. I think all was probably around 40 minutes, if I recall. Yeah, cutting to news. Don't worry. I think all of Toronto wants to hear live discussion with Rob's sister. She kept saying, he's not an addict. I know.

She says, he's not an addict. I would know. I'm an addict. I know, yes. Well, she was wrong. There's a lot of things. It's just kind of in retrospect, until his dying days, little did we know Rob wouldn't live much longer, really. It's all kind of a tragic tale. This is why it's so Shakespearean, this flawed leader and his fall from grace.

And the whole story, it's just so bizarre. It is a bizarre story, and it's a sad story. And she said, oh, he's not an alcoholic. He just likes to get blitzed occasionally. And you know what? From their experience, he's not an alcoholic. He just likes to get blitzed occasionally. And you know what? From their experience, that could have been true. But as I said to you earlier, Mike,

I think that the pressures of the office really complicated. So maybe he was at one time somebody who blitzed or drank or whatever it was every now and then. And it just became more and more frequent and obvious. And they didn't live with him. I don't know. Interesting. It is an interesting chapter in Toronto.

And you were there. I mean, you were part of that. So forever, I'm surprised you haven't written a Rob Ford book yet. Is this in the making here? No, not at all. No Rob Ford book. Maybe someday in the long future, because I've been around a lot of politicians a lot of times.

So I have lots of stories. Before we talk about this Tucker Carlson appearance and what happened next, do you have a quick quickly maybe rundown, if you don't mind, off the top of your head, maybe some of the best or your favorite guests that you had on CP24?

Oh, what a segue. Yes, one of my favorite guests that you had on CP24? Oh, what a segue. Yes, one of my favorite guests was Jeremy Irons. Oh, yeah. The famous, famous, successful actor. And he came onto the set and he had two or three handlers, as they usually do, and fussing with the hair and all kinds of stuff. And it was, and when I say it apropos,

it was a segue because it was a noon show and Ford was up to something. I don't know what it was. That's every day, right? This one was more. And Katie was over there at City Hall and we were waiting for Ford for an announcement. Maybe when he said, you know, I do smoke crack. I don't know what it was, but it was

a doozy. It was a big one. Oh, the one where you guys, you didn't ask me the right question or something? I don't know if it was that one or not, but it was a doozy. It was a big one. Oh, the one where you guys, you didn't ask me the right question or something? I don't know if it was that one or not, but it was around that time. And Jeremy Irons, as I said, this famous, famous actor. And so I had him on the couch and we kept waiting and then there was something else at City Hall and they're in my ear.

No one ever told me what to say or to, I've never had a script. But of course you have instructions for the producer. The producer's saying, we have to stand him down. Okay, I get it. And so my mic went off and we went over to City Hall and I said to Jeremy, I said, I am just so sorry. But you know what?

We have to stand you down for a minute. We're going to come back in five minutes and have you on. Are you okay? He was a total gentleman. Some people would have taken a hissy fit. Right. But he was a total gentleman. I going to come back in five minutes and have you on. Are you okay? He was a total gentleman. Some people would have taken a hissy fit, but he was a total gentleman. I had to do this three times with him. We kept having him ready to go and then, oh God, back to City Hall. Thankfully he was a decent chap about it. Yes, but then they're saying,

okay, this is just getting too complex. We aren't going to have him on at all. I got off the set and I phoned and I said, we have to have him on. I said, he has been just such a total perfect gentleman and we're going to make time. We're going to get him on here. And we finally got him on. And I said, I want the audience to know

that you have been here up and down, up and down. And you're such a wonderful gentleman. And I said publicly where some stars would have been done a hissy fit and jumped up and ran out up and down, and you're such a wonderful gentleman. I said publicly where some stars would have done a hissy fit and jumped up and ran out. You were terrific. And he said, he was so magnanimous. He said, oh, no problem.

And he said, and what better entertainment in the world? He said, I was just sitting here watching and listening to CP24, and it's great stuff. Live breaking news drama. Nothing beats it. Oh, absolutely.

A mayor on crack and everything else. And he was terrific. But most people are lovely. Anderson Cooper was terrific. Most politicians. I mean, Stephen Harper was, you know, when you got him out of his shyness, he's a very gracious man. Smart man. We've heard him sing.

I'm still waiting to hear you sing maybe later when we play your jam. But Stephen Harper liked to get on that piano and do his Beatles songs. Absolutely. Absolutely. And he's back, I've noticed. He kind of, you know, he disappeared for a while. And I guess he's got a book to promote,

so he's making the rounds, as people tend to do. Now, the Tucker Carlson, let's get to this right now. You've already touched on it a couple of times, but let's do the deep dive here. So I'm going to play a short clip of you on the Tucker. Tucker Carlson has a show on Fox News. Eight o'clock. I was on it last Thursday night

talking about giving us a Statue of Liberty. Yeah, I know. I did see that. I did watch that clip. I watched that clip. That's right. Well, I was defending Canada, and I was saying, you know,

the United States, you're closing yourself off. It used to be the beacon of hope for immigrants. And I said, if we can get people into Canada, I said, we've got an empty country, let's do it. Just do it properly, though. It's just not good to have people crossing the border into Vermont. That's why I said, you know what, you guys should give us a Statue of Liberty. I said, we'll put up in Toronto. That's right.

I did watch that clip. So, was this appearance that I'm going to play this clip from, the one that gets you canned, is that appearance your first time on Tucker Carlson's show? First time in years, but I want you to know, and there is a lot of stuff on the internet buzzing around afterwards. In fact, there's an article in the Toronto Star saying I was suspended because of what I said.

And not once, not once in any conversation with the officials of CTV News was there a mention of what I said. It was only that I was on Tucker Carlson. I watched it at the time because it went viral. This is before you were let go. I watched it a few times then, and I watched it again last night.

Again, I watched the entire interview you did with Tucker Carlson. You need to get a life. Yes, I do my homework here. Come on. Brian Linehan taught me that. You got to do your homework. Yeah, well, he was very good at it. Right. And I will so I'm going to play the short clip, which I think this is the part that people like to pick at and make suggestions about. So that's

I'm going to play this short part and then we're going to talk about the content and then we're going to talk about the what happened, like what really happened with you and CTV News. So here we go. And I think I have a right to non-judgmentally ask what they're talking about. So, for example, what's Two-Spirit? Well, Two-Spirit sounds like they're someone that don't know whether they're fish or fowl. They don't know whether they're frick or frack.

So they're clearly confused. And, you know, again, if you're confused, what better place to go than to be at school? It's a very short clip. And I think if I watched it, that seemed to be, if you're going to isolate a clip to make it seem maybe more controversial than it was, I think that's the clip you pull.

Yeah, of course. But that wasn't, as I said, that was not mentioned once with any of the officials, either at the time or since then. And in fact, the Star wrote an article and they corrected it the next day. And the reporter who re-interviewed me, actually the first reporter didn't interview me at all. Who was the reporter? I have no idea. Okay.

But the first story was written by somebody who, and I spoke to Michael Cook, the editor, who immediately took action. I said, you know what? This person never called me, never tried to call me, never spoke to me. That's interesting that they wouldn't try to contact you. And there's this story out there, which is complete rubbish. But did they write it based on speculation? They wrote it based on, and the second reporter said, where do you think this came from?

I said, well, I understand it's on social media, but it's all- Yeah, the zeitgeist. Yeah, it's all this Twitter stuff, and it's just complete, utter garbage. Not an ounce of truth to it. And then she wrote an article which was correct and had the facts down. Okay, so yes, and we're going to get those facts from you because you're going to tell us the facts in a moment. If you want to talk about social media and just regular people kind of speculating,

and you know how it is nowadays, there's a speculation, and then at some point, speculation morphs from like, I think this is what happened to, this is what happened. Like, this is how the social media works. And only the savvy amongst us, though, can look at the source and say,

well, that's built on speculation. Let's find out what happened. The masses, I want to say, the average Joe and Jane out there don't take the time to sort of look where this originates from and see if it's based on fact or not. They just sort of go with what they heard, which is that clip I isolated. That's dangerous, though. Very dangerous.

That's why with the National Post, we're trying to say, okay, social media, it is irresponsible. It's like going to a coffee shop or to a bar, listening to everything that's said, and say, oh, well, that's the truth. And I teach at Ryerson every now and then, and I always talk to the students, and they are realizing, while three years ago, four years ago, people said, well, I read it on social media, or I heard this, and that's the gospel, and now they're realizing that, well, you know what?

The gospel isn't exactly the gospel. And that's where journalistic qualities, standards, you know what? The gospel isn't exactly the gospel. And that's where journalistic qualities, standards, should come into play. I could not agree more with you. But here's what that erroneous speculation sort of determined, is that

that statement there, the frickin' frack confusion, somehow there was, and I can't quite see what it is, but maybe that was insensitive to insensitive? I don't know. Very few people. I know lots of

gays and lesbians and transgender people and no one I know was offended by it. And the thing is, this was the whole point of Tucker. There's a list put out by a school union or something. Which was meant to kind of create some attention, which they got, of Tucker. There's a list put out by a school union or something. Which was meant to kind of create some attention, which they got, of course, more than they ever bargained for. Yeah, but all of these titles and names, and there's a new one a week sort of thing.

And they're saying, well, I mean, how should anybody know that? And that was exactly my point. Well, you know what? It doesn't matter that everybody should know this. I mean, you treat people with respect. And whether they have a name that they want to stick to themselves, well, that's fine. You know, they can use it, but just don't make everybody else use it. It's like taking away the pronoun he and she and saying, well, they, or one school, there's somebody that wants to be referred to as your majesty.

Well, you know, fine, you know what, give it a whirl. If it makes you feel better, go for it. Just don't make, as sometimes in politics in Canada, particularly today, don't force it down someone else's throat. Political correctness has got too far. But you're here to tell us the content of what you said to Tucker Carlson was never mentioned in a negative form by CTV News during this ordeal.

Never once. Never once was the content mentioned. Never once. They said the next day. Tell us what they said. Next day, I was called in by Joanne McDonald, and she said, you were in Tucker Carlson last night. I said, yes.

She said, what's not allowed? I said, why not? She said, well, there are competition. And that's when I laughed. I said, I can't believe that CB24 is in competition with Fox News. And then that, it was a Thursday, that Thursday night,

they called me and said, I was suspended for a week. Okay. And then I was suspended for a week. And of course, people say, well, where are you? So, I mean, I didn't do anything particularly. I just said, well, I've been suspended for going on Tucker Carlson. But you told that, is this the Joe Warmington? Is Joe a buddy of yours, Joe Warmington?

Or just contacted the son? Good guy. Most people in media are decent people, and I know most people in media. He contacted me, and I told him exactly what I told you and just told your viewers. You should have come to Toronto, Mike. I think that would have been where you should have gone next time.

I didn't have the pleasure of knowing you then. That's right. And Romer had not introduced us. And hadn't introduced us. That's right. So then I did say that I guess I shouldn't have laughed when they said I was in competition. Well, that just fired them up and then they fired me for

as they said, I was fired for ridiculing their decision to suspend me. And I didn't really ridicule it, but just thought it was odd that you get suspended for going me. And I didn't really ridicule it, but I just thought it was odd that you get suspended for going on. As I said, this woman, she's fired me before.

She's tried to get rid of me for years. And she finally had a reason. So you believe there's a personal agenda at play here by the rest. Okay. But let me just set the facts though. This is not professional at all. As I said, she'd fired me for Harper.

She'd tried to fire me many times. She told people, mutual friends, she said she just fired me for Harper. She'd tried to fire me many times. She told people, mutual friends. She said she just didn't like me. But your ratings were okay at the CP24? They were terrific. So, okay, interesting. They were sky high. There's a lot of assholes out there,

not that you're an asshole, but there are assholes out there with high ratings who keep their gig because they produce revenue. They generate revenue for the company. This woman finally got her way. She's been trying to get rid revenue for the company. This woman finally got her way. She's been trying to get rid of me for years, and she finally got her way. Okay, so I understand now. I'm not the brightest light, but I think I got this.

Suspension is because you didn't get permission to go on Fox News. Well, they wouldn't have given it, but the fact is you didn't get permission to go on Fox. This violated some competition thing. I lecture. I lecture. I give talks. I gave a lecture at the Law Society last year for lawyers. I did one at University of Toronto, one at Ryerson.

Right. They would never give me permission to do anything of that nature. I've had CP24 people, multiple CP24 people have been on this show, and I don't think any of them are asking permission. So I fly so low. Is that just this guy in his basement who cares? But Tucker Carlson with a clip that's going to go viral, something there, that one she could act upon, I guess.

Gave her a reason to fire me. Well, no, as I said, it gave her a reason to suspend me. You were suspended for that. And then you were fired because you talked to Joe at the Worms at the Sun? Worms. It's a great guy. I spoke to a number of people.

I got home and they called me. My phone was ringing off the hook. My emails were just rattling away. I got, by the way, more than 1,000 emails when I was fired from people saying, you know, this is just ridiculous. And one woman called me at 7, 3 in the morning at home and I said, how did you get, I don't know who she was.

I said, how did you get my number? She said, well, I know you're a lawyer. I didn't realize it's a law society. You can go on the website. Oh, and it publishes your number. All the numbers. All right, let me read the Warmington thing real quickly. Warmington writes, I want to say, and I've never met Joe.

I'm sure he's a nice guy. He does, to be honest, I wouldn't say I'm a left-wing pinko, but he does, sometimes his tweets and what he writes about seem a little bit caveman-esque, I want to say. I'm not sure he's a very progressive.

It is a Toronto Sun, which is essentially at this point by their own, they didn't admit it publicly, but we've seen, essentially this is a PR arm of the PC party in Ontario. I think the Sun is

clearly doing everything they can now to get Doug Ford elected. And at first that meant going after Wynn, and now it means going after the NDP. Just as the Toronto Star is doing. Not quite the same, though. Oh, absolutely. But the Star broke the whole gas plant scandal that everybody likes to point at.

That's the emails Hillary had. They pointed, everybody points at that, and that was broken by the star. Every columnist, every reporter, much less columnist with the Toronto Star, you read this morning, it was Tim Harper. He's bending over, turning himself into knots, trying to support Wynn.

You have, who's their guy? It's a funny pronunciation. But if the sun had a big- Martin Craig Kahn. Okay. Raising the star. And he is turning himself into knots trying to support Wynn.

And we're going to get the worms here. But if the sun had a story right now about Rob, I'm going to, like, okay, so let's say this. Doug Ford, of course. Rob passed away. Doug Ford, let's, this is making the story up, everybody. But if Doug Ford had

a lover that he had put up in pain for a condo downtown for his lover, and the son had the details on this, do you think the son would go to print with this story? Sure, because they're in the business of selling newspapers first,

and that's such a story, would sell newspapers. And then maybe they would bend over backwards to make a combination. But they're not going to hide a story. You don't think they'd sit on a story that was... I know Adrienne Batra. She was the editor. I know many, many other people there.

Laurie Goldstein. I mean, they are... I heard his daughter on the radio this morning. She's in July Talk. Oh, really? Laurie's daughter's in July Talk, yes. So they would put the story out. But, I mean, it's quite clear.

There's politics rife through the newspaper business in this town, and the Toronto Star is out there shilling for liberals. But everybody knows it. What I was going to say is I like, so Joe writes, when he writes these columns, Joe Warmington, it really reads like, I think my four-year-old could read these columns. He writes at a, I want to say, I would say grade three level,

but I think he writes at a senior kindergarten level, Joe. So I'm just going to read it. It's really quickly and easy to read. Stephen LeDrew was so sure he would be back on his popular CP24 Live at Noon show, he had two special guests lined up for the day of his return following a one-week suspension. TTC boss Andy Byford and former Foreign Affairs Minister Peter McKay were booked.

LeDrew had his coloured glasses and bow tie picked out. The comeback didn't happen. Instead, the former Toronto mayoral candidate said he was called into an office where people were snarling at me. It turns out the suspension for his appearance on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program is not the only punishment. I was fired, said LeDrew, fired for cause for violating our competition clause. Merry Christmas. Well, it's true. They said come down for a meeting with the president

of CTV News there was no such meeting she wasn't there there was a bunch of people and the letter they eventually came up with said that I was fired for sensationalizing their decision to suspend me and brought them into disrepute and I said

wait a second folks you're the guys that made this decision I mean this and everybody's laughing at your decision. You just shared the facts. Don't blame me because people are laughing at your journalistic skills. Well, that made it worse too.

In retrospect, any regrets that you went to reporters with the story about the suspension? Do you now wish you just lay low for a week and then came back to work? Or is this a 2020 vision? No, they would have found something else to fire me. This woman, she told mutual people, she doesn't like me. Well, that's fine. And she is the boss, so she gets her way in that place. There's many people who she doesn't like, as I said.

And they don't get back onto CP24. Tell us what's happened with you. So this all happened, I guess, in December. Yeah, you said Merry Christmas, right? Merry Christmas. I went into the beer store in December, and there's a fellow there. I've met him once or twice before.

He said, so how are you doing? I said, you know, I'm fine. I'm great. I'm great. He looked at me, and he said, so how are you doing? I said, you know, I'm fine. I'm great. I'm great. He looked at me and he said, bullshit. And I said, what? He said, I had a job

one time I was fired from in December. It's the worst thing that can ever happen to you to be fired just before Christmas. And I started to laugh. I said, I have a great family, a great wife, great children, and thank you very much. Was it the nicest thing?

No. No. Was it the best thing? But you had a good support system, and that makes all the difference. And so I'm doing stuff now, and I'm back out in media, and I will be back on TV. Do you want to give us a, who are you talking to?

I can't imagine a news organization wouldn't want you back on TV because you're a recognizable face. But it's a small world, though, in the media world in Toronto. If I wanted to go to the States, that would be a different matter. But, I mean, we're all here. You've got eight grandkids and six kids. Holy smokes.

You know, and CBC has far too many people right now that they've had around they're trying to find jobs for. So it's a difficult situation. That's a good point. Bell Media is your persona non grata right now at Bell Media. So that's a side. And then you're right, the CBC situation. So you're pretty much down to...

Global and City. And Rogers, yeah. And so they have excellent people. They have wonderful people. So it's just a matter maybe of somebody retiring or somebody moving somewhere else to open up a vacancy. By the meantime, as I said, I do these rants. I'll be doing one tomorrow morning, another one for...

These are National Post videos. They're on the front page of National Post Digital. And one was posted this morning. It's about actually a former... Well, he's a great guy and a citizen. It was Bill Blair, our former top cop. And he said just recently that, yes, marijuana is going to be legalized this summer.

However, we may not have the rules as far as impairment. I think this is out today. I think I saw it this morning. This is Trudeau's rush to legalize pot gets dangerous. Why? It's like driving a car without brakes. What's the big rush? If there's a rush for disaster relief,

if there's a rush to build hospitals, if there's a rush to build hospitals, if there's a rush for some social program where there's a need or some new drug, I get that. Why is there a rush for the prime minister himself? He says, well, it's a recreational drug. So it's fun. I mean, like, where is the rush?

I just think it's, it just is ludicrous to have this and to put Blair out there because they're, well, it must be fine because he was a top cop in Toronto. It's idiocy. So, I mean, that was my rant on that. I'll probably be doing one tomorrow about the Ontario government race, which is fascinating. What are your thoughts on that?

Because, I mean, first of all, Trump won easily. And as I said to my teenage daughter, Hillary's going to win easy, I told her, because I went to all these New York Times and all these prestigious polls, and it was like, oh, 95% chance Hillary wins. I'm like, don't worry. Trump's not winning. Trump won easy, as we all know. So polls, schmoles, right?

But again— He actually didn't win easily. Well, it's... I mean, he... Electoral college... Yes, when Florida came in and then when Wisconsin came in. Right.

As Hillary's husband said... But it was early in the night that we knew... The writing was on the wall pretty early in the night. Well, as Bill Clinton said, you spend too much time in Manhattan,

not enough time in Madison. Right. Wisconsin. And I mean, I predicted Trump was going to win the nomination. And I predicted on air and in writing that he was going to win the election because he, with laser-like accuracy, he knew what was going on in the States. I mean, he knew that people, Obama, I'm sure, is a decent guy. He was a terrible president.

And people just want to, just like with Brexit in Britain, they just want to say, I don't want all you people telling me what to do. And we have that similar in Ontario now. I mean, the only thing I can compare it to would be 1995 in Ontario when Bob Ray was premier. He'd been premier for five years. I remember discussing in 94 with Jerry Kaplan, the NDP majordomo. He said, oh, well, we can win this.

I said, you can't. You can't possibly win this election. People wrote you off last year. They wrote Bob Ray off as premier. There's no mass insurrection. I mean, we're Canadians after all, but I mean, we're just going to look at, and going into that election, people didn't know whether it was going to be

Lynn McLeod or Harris. At the end, they picked Harris. And this one, Horvath is doing very well. She's a lovely, charming woman. Well, that's what the polls, which I don't believe anymore, but the polls show, in terms of popular vote, they show recently a momentum for the NDP,

and it seems to be Doug, I want to call him Rob, but Doug's popularity is declining. The fact that Wynn's still leader, to me, baffles my brain, because they should have is declining. Wynne, I mean, the fact that Wynne's still leader to me baffles my brain because they should have replaced her a long time ago because she was so disliked in this province. She had no chance of winning this election, and they would have been better. And she was quoted a few months ago saying, well, her whole party and cabinet

told her to stay, which is absolute baloney. It just shows their bad judgment. It's interesting, though, what she's done to herself because she is a very intelligent and extraordinarily likable person. If you sit down with her, you just can't help but like her. As to what her government has done,

she's made some colossal mistakes. There's a guy by the name of Ed Clark who was a great banker. He was the guy who created the National Energy Program for the federal liberals in 1981, and he screwed the Federal Liberal Party. The NEP was terrible. So at the start of his career in public life,

that was the NEP. At the end of his career, it was selling hydro. And Wynne herself, in an interview with the Globe and Mail two years ago, said, when I first heard this idea, I thought it was crazy. But he talked me into it. I think she should have just stuck with her original. But she's made some...

I could go on for hours, Mike. You don't have enough time. Your kids would be asleep. All the mistakes she has made. Again, the polls I don't trust say in the popular vote... You're right. She's finished. The popular vote shows it really tightening between PC and NDP. But of course,

when you look at it in terms of ridings, which is what matters here, how many seats you win, it still looks like a healthy lead for the PC party. What say you, Stephen LeDrew? Because we're only a couple of weeks away from this. We're two weeks away.

I think that any, I know that anything can happen in the elections. Anything. I mean, it's a long time. And most people haven't made up their mind, which is why you're right to say, notwithstanding the polls, Mike, you know, things can change. Yes, things can change an awful lot.

But they aren't going to change in favor of Wynn. There's no question about that. People just count her out. So between Horvath and Ford, Ford is, I think, promising things are more in keeping with what Ontarians want. Wynn has already made that, what is it, $1.4 billion mistake in her cost accounting? Horvath, yeah.

Sorry, Horvath has. And that's a typical NDP thing. And she's talking about cradle to grave. And she's talking about, I mean, some of her candidates. But it's funny how that sticks. Doug can keep spouting off about the billion dollars he saved Toronto, which has been, you know. Disputed.

More than disputed. Anyone who looks at the numbers will tell you this cherry-picked, strange, convenient math that it's bogus. It's bogus. And he repeats it to everyone who says, oh, that's a billion dollars,

a lot of money. Great job, Dougie. So it seems this one side, it seems to be like, oh, look at this. It's a math error on the platform, which isn't even governance. And then this fib on the other side, it just seems to be.

Who knows what's to happen in the elections? I mean, you saw the other day the election returns in Venezuela. I mean, that's one of the most poorly run countries ever. They reelect the guy who is putting them all into the poorhouse. A lot of people protested that. That's a little different, though, because a lot of people protested that vote. It's a statement because it's like a dictatorship pretending to be a democracy. Sort of like an election in Russia.

We know, an election of one. But I mean, we just look at it and say, what's going to happen in this election? I don't know. It's going to be close. What's this? I get to kick out the jams here with Steven LeDrew. It's a dream come true. What do we got here?

One fine morning. Woo! Listen to that. And of course, with the CanCon regulations, no Canadian could grow up listening to FM or listening to music on the radio without hearing this jam, a staple, if you will. One fine morning, girl, I wake up

Wipe the sleep from my eyes if you will. Tell us all why you love this song. Well, I love most music. I mean, I like all kinds of music. Currently, I mean, Chris Bode is a great jazz trumpet player. We're actually friends. I love his music. I love some European music. I mean, I just love most music.

But you asked me to have one, and this was a terrific one. It was a time of year. It came out in the summertime. Everything in Canada was bright. Our Prime Minister's father was the Prime Minister of Canada. Trudeau Mania was... And all the music we had in Canada.

Lighthouse. Remember Bash McCann? Yeah, of course. Yes, absolutely. I mean, we had great music all over the place. I have a box set called Oh Canada, which was put out by the Juno, whoever runs the Juno Awards, whatever.

And it was, this song's on it. And as a young man, it was four CDs. And it was basically like your, a beginner's guide to CanCon, essentially, like all the great Canadian songs. But it was very sophisticated, though, as well. I mean, you listen to this, and it's sophisticated orchestration,

and people say, wow, this is Canada. It was a time of great opportunity and great spirit. And so, yeah, it's one of my favorite songs. I just thought of, yeah, I have thousands of favorite songs, but this one was terrific. Great. Now, it sounds like you like all kinds of music, but do you have a favorite,

an absolute favorite genre, or you can't define it? No, I mean, I like American musicals. Like Oklahoma? Like this kind of stuff? Oh, Oklahoma's a great one, but there's one that I had the great privilege

of seeing in New York this past winter, and it was Donna Summer. It's not out on Broadway yet, but there's a musical about Donna Summer. I mean,

she just had for weeks afterwards, my wife and I are humming. She was a hit maker, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just,

some people say, oh, well, it's just disco stuff. I know she has some terrific music. She's a pit maker, yeah. Yeah, I mean, some people say, oh, well, it's just disco stuff. I know she has some terrific music. Now listen to this part. Tickling the ivory here. Yeah, well, no, it's just great stuff. And it's great for a day like this.

This is a sunny, wonderful morning. We're together. You're looking summery in your orange shirt and your orange glasses. I hope we can see it on the picture we're going to take. But this is a great song for this moment. Well, I'm glad you like it. I hope your listeners like it. Many will not.

I'm always amazed, too, with Kissing. I just heard this song, and it's a great song. Oh, yeah, that was 40 years ago. Who are the Beatles? Well, we had all this stuff. In yeah, that was 40 years ago. Who are the Beatles? In fact, that happened two years ago. There was an American producer who heard a Paul McCartney song and he was quoted as saying,

this guy can really play. Oh, is it like a young producer? Yes, he's going to be something someday. That's hilarious. Well, you know, Paul McCartney appeared on a Kanye West and Rihanna song

like pretty recently in the last five years. And it was like Paul McCartney's first hit since whatever, mid-80s or something like that. And a lot of, like my teenage daughter,

this was their kind of, like a lot of people's first, young people's first exposure to Paul McCartney is six seconds, I think it was called, one, I can't remember.

But anyway, great song. And yeah, the Beatles were amazing. And this is a great jam you chose here. I'm glad you chose Lighthouses. I actually hope, Mike, that my friend Andy Kim is listening to this because he's a friend of mine and I didn't pick his song.

He has some great songs. Rock Me Gently. And he did the Sugar Sugar, right? Yes. He lives in Toronto and a great lives in Toronto. And a great personality in Toronto. Everyone knows Andy Kim, and he does that great Christmas concert every year. At the Mod Club.

Right. On College. Yes. It's been a great pleasure. Stephen, I got to say, yeah, I think I told you 60 minutes. Well, is it okay if I took 90? You can't say no now because it's done. This has been a lot of fun.

Thank you very much. I guess thanks, Ann Romer, for introducing us. And good chatting with you. Thank you. So just to bang home this point, because I think this is great exposure for you and what you do, but National Post, the videos are available on National Post's website.

I've watched a couple of them. There's the Doug Ford campaign issue that kind of pushed him to the promised land and the one about pot today. And then you got one coming up on this Ontario, this election, we're in the midst of it. But, yeah, so that's what you're doing right now,

and hopefully we see you soon and your bow ties on television soon. Very kind of you. I think it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of issues and a lot of great people to discuss those issues with and get out there. Here we go. And that brings us to the end of our 338th show. You can follow me on Twitter.

I'm at Toronto Mike. Stephen, are you at Stephen LeDrew? I am LeDrew at StephenLeDrew.ca. Some guy in California. So what is it? LeDrew. I couldn't have Stephen at Stephen LeDrew. It's LeDrew.

My email is LeDrew at StephenLeDrew.ca. But what about your Twitter handle? I don't tweet. You don't tweet? I don't tweet. I don't tweet. Oh, you're missing out. Well, I might be. On the other hand, you know what? I'm back on TV. It's okay. You're not alone. That's right. That's right. Our friends

at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Raptors Devotee. PayTM is at PayTM Canada. And Camp Ternasol is at Campors Devotee Paytm is at Paytm Canada and Camp Turnasol is at Camp Turnasol I'd say see you all next week but actually Friday John Scholes from Q107 drops by

and we'll ask John John was also let go from his gig he's going to come and talk about it maybe this will be the show where people come to the show when they're let go from their mainstream media gigs maybe that's my role here see you all Friday to the show when they're let go from their mainstream media gigs. Maybe that's my role here.

See you all Friday. See you all Friday.