Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - The Toronto Star's Edward Keenan: Toronto Mike'd #1610

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

In this 1610th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Toronto Star city columnist Ed Keenan about what's happening in the city of Toronto. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, The Yes We Are Open podcast from Moneris and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

Welcome to episode 1610 of Toronto Mic'd. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer! Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma pasta enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and Andres from Palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Recycle my electronics dot CA committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today for this first episode of 2025.

Happy New Year! Happy New Year, it's the Toronto Stars, Ed Keenan. Hey, hey, hey. How has your, you know, Christmas time here? 2025 so far so good. I'm basically starting it here, so. But yeah, the holidays have also been good. Like did you work this week? Or did you get some time off like everybody else?

Well, I had I took last week off around Christmas. So Christmas and you know, I've lost track like with Christmas last holidays Yeah, they were last week. Yeah midweek and And and I took the entire week off and then I worked a couple days this week. I had yesterday off for the New Year's Day holiday, and now I am back hard at work here. Well this is where I came from work, and now I'm here. So were you working remotely today, or were you at the well? I was working remotely. So we did Toronto Star office for people who don't know by any chance.

It used to be at One Young for years and years, the Toronto Star building here. Before that, it was at Bay and King, right, where First Canadian Place is now, and it had an iconic, beautiful Toronto Star building that was the model for the Daily Planet building in the Superman comics. Right. But it was replaced. They moved to One Young. And then a couple years ago, we moved to The Well at 8 Spadina. And so I work there one or two days a week, depending. I have an office at City Hall.

The Star has an office at City Hall. So I have a desk there that I work one or two days a week. Or I go by when City Council's sitting or when there's things I need to do there and then I work occasionally from home which is what I was doing earlier today. See I'm keeping tabs on you. Yeah. I'm micromanaging you Mr. Kinnon. So if people are trying to keep track of me. You know I need a GPS device. Can you wear one like around your neck? I share my location with you on the iPhone or something.

Oh, I'd love it. I'd love it. I don't have an iPhone, but we'll figure it out. Okay. How do you feel then about one Yonge Street being demolished? This is kind of news. Yeah, I'm going to try and find the updates on that because we have known for some time that there was a plan to redevelop the whole site, right? And they have been in the places where One Young Street's parking lots were, they have been building skyscrapers for a while. And as part of that complex, the plan was to build additional stories on top of the

One Young Street building and then relad the whole thing if people know it has had that Toronto Star sign that's blue and white at the top of it but that it was this brownish I'm trying to remember the name of the building material it's like that that brown concrete with little stones in it it's gonna like a very 1971 look and I've never found a particularly attractive building.

So I'm not sure, I know there's a demolition permit, and I'm not sure if that's to actually, you may have read further updates since I read the initial stories about it, that the demolition permit had been issued, and so it looked like the building was going to come down and be replaced but I was unclear to me Explicitly whether that demolition permit was to allow for like partial demolitions. I think it's toast I think that's a project raised, but I I will say When when the star moved on a lot of people who worked in the newsroom there, including people who worked there for decades, felt nostalgia and attachment to the history. But nobody really felt like the building was working for us right now.

It we we had like wasps would come out of the vents at certain times of the year. Oh, actual insects. Yeah, and there were like a lot of mice and there's a lot of sick building syndrome there. It needed a lot of work. In a lot of ways, the Well is just a vastly superior workspace. It's much more modern, but it's also like, you know, nicer views, less stingy feeling inside. So, I mean, what we don't have at The Well yet,

and we're developing, is like, the feeling of it being a newsroom, partly because like, people are working remotely a lot. Right. And so you know, you don't always have that frenetic activity and like, oh, there's the guy over there, I'll go and talk to him and there's my editor over there, I'll go talk to her and all of that. A lot of the meetings and stuff are still taking place remotely.

But I mean, much of that feeling, much of those vibes come from the history there, right? And that history is what we make now. So, so I mean, I have mixed emotions about one Young Mean taken down. I never particularly loved the building. I almost never drove there. I almost always took public transit and is not, like the walk down from Union Station has gotten somewhat more interesting in the past 15 years, but is still kind of like in in the winter when it's a wind swept. It's a Whoo? All right. Good riddance. Now I'm gonna explain why I have a You're holding a break a hole in a brace because okay

So this is all gonna tie together nicely as it typically does when you visit every quarter, by the way So this is all going to tie together nicely as it typically does when you visit every quarter by the way So somebody who was moved to Japan actually But was living right beside the Galleria mall when they were demolishing part of the Galleria mall Went out to grab me a brick and I realized oh, I don't need the Galleria mall I actually just need a brick. So maybe you guys all get like a here. You can hold it If you want, this is a brick from the Galleria mall. Yeah, that's from the Galleria mall Is this from the is this a floor tile from the guy? I don't know. He just said that he delivered it and told me he rescued this

I'm red like bricky red that this but it but it's got to get kind of tile dimensions, but I think like here's the thing is that the exterior walls of the gallery of mall, but This is not from the exterior. is that the exterior walls of the Galleria Mall, but this is not from the exterior, I don't think. It's probably from the interior. It's like a more brown. But yeah, the walls and the floor both had that kind of like... 70s brown?

Yeah. Kind of like one Yonge Street, actually. So really, you need a brick, but I... I have very fond memories of Galleria Mall, too. Have we discussed this before? Well, remind me of your fantasy. My dad worked there. Okay, I don't um we have discussed when I was a kid he was a store manager

of for the towers department store chain was an anchor at that gallery a mall that's right as others originally we lived in Riverdale and he would walk to work at towers Riverdale which he grew up in Riverdale and that's why he got a job there and he was still working there. And then they moved him. They actually, he would apprehend shoplifters and then they would follow him home and know where he lived. So then they moved him to a different part of the city on purpose. So he worked for a long time when I was a kid at Galleria Mall and my brother and I would go participate in the Towers fashion shows there for Back to School. Oh I have seen these images. Mark Wiseblood emails them to me every week.

Mike Bullard got a hold of them at some point and and used to refer to me as like male model and I would say like well though I was kind of a child model I guess in a... But your dad worked there. But my dad worked there. That's how you got you know you weren't there for your good looks. Okay, but Mike Bullard shout out to really funeral home. Mm-hmm Yeah, since your last visit he has passed passed on he has passed on okay So you need a break up from one young street? I just want to say hello to brand new FOTM one of the many Talented people you work with at the Toronto Star. Doug Broad. Oh yeah.

Drop by, he wrote a book about the guy who started the Church of Satan, and he came by and we had like a late night chat about it. It was very spooky, it was very interesting. And I would just like you to welcome Doug Broad to the fraternity. I will, and if I see him around the well, I will welcome him even more in person but uh

so now you know I don't know if people know this if it escaped their notice it was like a lot of talk at the press gallery Christmas party where all the politicians and their staff come about I think camp in there okay declared yes December Christian Heritage month oh good we know anybody got that but it was a big deal at the that's like a white pride parade right that's what I was saying it has very like or straight white pride what white history month or a straight pride parade vibes to it right like I don't want anything to do with it because it's like not like but I need

these special months for the oppressed Counselor Nick Mantis proposed this it was like a private members motion that December should be and then there were some speeches about you know how Christianity needs to be like shown a little respect after all this time and and Lily Chang, I'm pretty sure, made a very emotional speech about how what Christianity means to her and how important it is to her, and so despite the objections of some members of council, notably Gord Perks, who shared, I think, your and my sentiment...

Well, it makes me feel icky to think we're gonna have a Christian Pride Month or whatever. The thing is that the way it is observed, the month of December is already kind of a Christian heritage month. Yeah, you got Hanukkah in there and Kwanzaa and whatnot, but it's really like the the month of Christmas, which, you know, the birth of Jesus is like already the biggest... He's a big deal in Christianity. Yeah, yeah, so it's related, right? But so anyhow they declared December Christian Heritage Month, but my colleague and fellow FOTM, I'm pretty sure David Ryder, had been saying, and maybe we should talk to Doug about this, is that like really

you're opening the door here because if you got Christian Heritage Month, the Church of Satan is gonna come along and say we need to have like Satanic Heritage Month. True that, and a quick Doug fun fact is I'm told he's the one who decided, if you see that picture behind you, alright so that was I don't know a few years ago now but I was- That picture behind me is of Mike on the front of the Together section of the Toronto Star Doug tells me this was pitched to him by a young Joe LeBlanc and Doug said that's a great idea

And that's the reason that got published was Doug giving the thumbs up to the Toronto Mike cover story That was a part of his long game to get on the show. It worked. And it finally paid off. It worked. He got himself his Palma pasta, he got himself his Great Lakes beer. All about it's like a big scheme to get to get past. He seemed like a bright guy, pretty bright for an American, right?

So on that note, you were there January 6th for the insurrection. I will remind the listenership you didn't participate. Okay, you weren't wearing a big mask and you weren't, you were there January 6th for the insurrection. I will remind the listenership, you didn't participate, okay? You weren't wearing a big mask and you weren't, you know, in there smoking in some congressperson's chair or whatever. But you were there because you worked for the Toronto Star and you were stationed near DC. I was in Washington DC, yeah. Yeah, I know, you have therebuzz.

And then you were there, so you were covering that. And I'm just wondering for your thoughts considering since your last visit there was an election in the United States of America and I'm told Donald J Trump he won again. Is that true or false? He did. So my first question is he gonna be number 45 and 47 or does he stay 45? I think he's 45 and 47. You get two numbers if you're the same human? Well but he's because you don't you get two numbers 47 if you're the same human well But he but he's like there was a 46th after him right so then he's also the 47th president of the United States Even though he's the same guy who was 45th just food for thought you can yeah yeah, well, I mean that's the thing is kind of like if if I was the Yeah, if you're counting presidents he doesn't count as two presidents, but he is in the

sequence of presidents. He occupies two different slots, right? So to Turmer, but he had bought Biden in the middle. He was the meat in that sandwich. He's the second president to serve. Well, he will be once he serves again, become the second president to serve nonconsecutive terms only the second. So what are your thoughts? Say no more.

It's gonna be a tough, tough, tough few years ahead. And it's back and forth. I think I mentioned during the election campaign that I go back and forth from being really kind of jealous of some of the people who do get to cover it because the story There's so much of it and it's so consequential and so much happens when Donald Trump is around and yet and Yet being so glad that I don't have to go down because it gets kind of depressing after a few years, it just feels like

to Like there's one too many sequels here in this movie and we've kind of seen the beats of the plot are all the same but he's got to kind of ratchet up the crazy a little bit and it feels like that's what he's doing now brought along a billionaire now it's a little different and and so there's a you know yeah that's his um that's his like like like his, his... Cato Cailin? No, I was gonna say, I'm trying to remember the name of him, Pucci. Yeah, Pucci, yeah.

There was itchy, scratchy, and Pucci. Elon Musk is the Pucci. It's like he needed a new character for the, to keep the new season lively. And so Elon Musk gets to be that. Like Cousin Oliver. Yeah, but yeah, I mean I think we got to hang on tight and hope that we can somehow narrowly avert disaster because I think and I probably

won't be as surprised anybody and probably there are many of your listeners who already think this so but um that I don't think that the threat Donald Trump posed to like the integrity of American democracy in the entire American system of government was overstated by the Democrats. Maybe it wasn't a message that was resonating with people, maybe a lot of people are like, ah, Trump derangement syndrome, he just makes you guys crazy and so you're all screaming about authoritarianism when Biden's the real fascist or like the puppet of the real fascists and all of that but I do think that that he has like real strongman authoritarian tendencies and no there's no boundary in government but

also in the rest of his life for his whole life that he won't just push against and push against and push against until somebody pushes back and the systems of American government and especially the Republican Party that he leads have shown almost no pushback, right? And so I think this time he comes in with more experience, more knowledge, but also, and I think this is important right just to take a step back at the risk of rambling on which is what I do but um but is that like if there's this picture of Donald Trump always trying to like born into wealth

but not into New York old money high society right he's never like accepted by the establishment. The great guest. As it and so he's kind of trying to prove himself all along to the people who get to admit you into the club and say, okay, you are one of the elite. You are one of us, right? And even as a rich guy and a famous rich guy, he never really got into that. He was always this boorish and like, you know, decorating in solid gold and like hosting a reality show about based on the concept of how rich and ruthless he is and all of that. It's like it's all this kind of act and

and he but he's made several gestures that are trying to like make them respectable and I think when he first became president he was at sort of an extreme for American politics from the beginning but like the people he appointed were people who knew how Washington worked and who had a certain level of respect among the Republican political establishment right like people like Bill Barr and his like first chief of staff and he was choosing level of respect among the Republican political establishment, right? Like, people like Bill Barr and his, like, first chief of staff, and he was choosing experienced generals for important positions because he thought, oh, those are clearly tough guys, right? But he didn't like his experience of that was that, like, oh,

these these professionals, they try to enforce like constitutional conventions. They try to put rules on me. They're not like blindly obedient to the president and and I think he's learned from that mistake and he's appointing a lot of like absolutely ridiculous people, but I think they're very ridiculousity. There's a sense in which you could say, okay, well maybe they're being incompetent boobs. But there's another sense in which not only are they, a lot of them like cuckoo, but beyond that they owe everything to Donald Trump. Like they are nothing without him. It's not like they had some established, successful career and a legacy of public service that he is

gonna, you know, call into. And so he's pointing people who won't push back. And so I think this time he just barrels over a lot of it a lot harder. And I don't know how the system recovers from that because just to conclude, like, and this is true in Canada, true everywhere right like most of the guardrails and constitutional rules of of our whole society exist Like basically because

We agree they exist right there's no um police department who comes and says oh You can't overstep your constitutional bounds like and if the Supreme Court decides on if you like a point even Supreme Court decisions are basically upheld by our collective respect for the court right and to the extent that the US Supreme Court has lost a lot of its integrity because of the way the appointments were were rigged up and and the partisan nature of their decisions recently even still like even there the the only thing keeping the president from overrunning that is is the president's own sense of respect for the Constitution and shame

and the order of government and then ultimately at some point whether the military is willing to stand up to him or not. Because that's the other thing, he's the commander in chief of the military. You were right out of the hopper there, buckle up. Like this is gonna be a hell of a four year ride here. And for Canada it's gonna be, oh boy. Like I don't even know,

like even as we speak by the time we end this, who knows if true to still be clinging to power and not but is certainly like whether it's a liberal leader or whether it's Pierre Poliev or whether it's a like an NDP leader or somebody else like I just don't know what the right strategy for Canadian prime minister trying to deal with Donald Trump is because you don't want to be like a minion of Donald Trump. You don't want Canada to become the de facto 51st

state that Donald Trump keeps musing. We maybe... Yeah, which I don't find those jokes funny at all. Yeah, but also like you don't want to give him any reason to try and prove himself, right? Like and it's's this weird thing of like, how do you stand up to him without making him feel like you're publicly insulting him? Because honestly, and this is not about Donald Trump, it's about the United States in general. Like, we don't have a lot of cards to play in a head-to-head confrontation with them. Whether that's a military confrontation, whether that's a economic confrontation, like however you want to play it, like we don't, we don't fight in the same weight class as them. And so we're not going to How do we stand up to them without making them feel like, okay, it's time to give these guys a solid beating? And I don't know the answer. No, that's a tricky balance, right? You want them to be distracted by other things. I think

that's the strategy, right? Even when I think he went off on a Panama Canal or something, and then I was like, okay, there's something shiny over there to focus on. Stop looking up here. Like I just want him to like forget we're here. Yeah. Yeah. Like remember when you were going to buy a Greenland? Right. Like maybe maybe maybe you could do that. Maybe that's the start talking about that again. That's it's scary shit, though, because there's no checks and balances there. Right. They got the House. They got the Senate. He's you know, he's got his yes, men lack. He's got no checks and balances there right they got the house they got the senate he's you know he's got his yes men lack he's got no checks and balances appointed yeah so we have to kind of hope i don't at this at this point you're waiting out the four years hoping the democrats get their shit together and can win a democratic elect you're hoping there is a democratic election in four years well and yeah yeah i mean that's that's it Lynn Cheney who was

like as loyal a Trump vote in Congress before January 6th as Existed right and whose father was dick Cheney who you might remember from an earlier episode Oh my goodness this evil mastermind of the Republican Party is running the country And so so not like a raving liberal lunatic. Right. But Liz Cheney was saying with a straight face that she worried that if Donald Trump was re-elected, it might be the last election, or the math, last legitimate election in American history.

So you do worry about that. And what's much more likely than that he declares himself dictator for life and there are no more elections is the kind of like soft democracy in name only authoritarianism that we've started to see in other countries. Like Putin. Like in Turkey. Where the elections are increasingly rigged and it becomes more

of a one-party system but they're still like the widespread observance and and happy talk about democracy and democratic institutions but that they function more and more as like a rubber stamp for whatever the boss says because and you and you see last time he was there Donald Trump expressed publicly his frustration that his Attorney General and Justice Department would not pursue his political vendettas, right? That is how he thinks the government should operate, is that the President is the boss. And of course, the police department, the federal police are going to be weaponized against his political opponents.

Of course they are! And, and, and that's the way he thinks it should be. And last time, and I don't want to belabor this point, but when John Bolton was named his Secretary of State, people were like, whoa, he chose this right-wing cuckoo like Warhawk. Like John Bolton was a career professional and an intellectual of sorts, or like a thinker or a speaker like a guy who's known to talk about foreign policy and whatnot but he was not sort of like any kind of centrist mainstreamer but there's a point where he started trying to extort the president of Ukraine Donald did, for dirt on Joe Biden, like I want you to dig up this information about Joe Biden and tell me what I want to hear.

And John Bolton was one of the ones who, you know, he said, tell, tell, I'm not participating in this whatever drug deal these guys are kicking up, right? Like, I'm not a part of that. He was like like ultimately one of the one of the whistleblowers on it he wrote a book about it right um and so like it's not like he chose like we need consensus like middle mushy middle-of-the-road people last time but he did choose people with enough integrity to say like even Bill Barr saying but like no we're not we're not pursuing these political vendettas on your choose people with enough integrity to say, like even Bill Barr saying, but like, no, we're not, we're not pursuing these political vendettas on your behalf. Right. We are not like, I'm not dropping investigations into you just because you

tell me to like that's out the window. So anyhow, and glad you see you're committed. You're going to be here every quarter of 2025. I feel like we need you more than ever to as long as going on as long as the calendar alerts keep coming up on my phone I guess I'll keep showing up who okay a couple of notes from the live stream because we're live at live dot Toronto Mike dot com One is from YYZ gourd who just wants us to know that they're still talking about recladding one Yonge Street So I've got it demolished, but what do I know, right? So apparently that's still the talk. Yeah, well this is what I thought, this is what I was saying earlier, is that I think there were news reports, including one in the Toronto SAR, about the demolition permit being issued. And I just read them the day that they came out. Right. But it was like, I guess they're tearing it down

now. Was the gist of those news reports? right? That's what confused him and and when I was reading it closely, I'm thinking well maybe a demolition permit is issued because they're gonna demolish the like some of the exterior facade of it because they're gonna demolish some of the interior to build up and all of that and so the building may still exist but it's not gonna look anything like it does now and it's not gonna is gonna still be a new place but right now back to the Trump thing just for a moment since we're all hoping he doesn't you know come and take us Because who's gonna stop him right? I'll be at the border with me like my hockey stick Yeah, yeah, cuz I had a hockey stick and a hockey mask and I was ready to go

I don't know. I see you got it. You got a hanging up here. It's a shock plug Jason mask which will just scare them away. All right Canadians to go, but I don't know. I see you got it. You got to hang it up here. It's the Jock Plot. I am ready. Jason Mask, which will just scare them away. All right, Canadians, I'll be broadcasting to Canada their orders. Okay, grab your hockey stick, go to the border. We're going to defend this place. Moose Grumpy wants to know, what are your thoughts on world support? Right now we're all like, oh, he's joking, right?

And we're all just kind of hoping these are just bad jokes. But at some point, what would the world do to support Canada? Should there be something more real to this noise? Or would they be afraid to support Canada because that would tick off the all-powerful USA? This is a very scary future. I feel like I'm in the middle of like a dystopian future movie and this is what lies before us. Just to be clear, I like I don't want to lead anybody to believe that I think it's likely

that Donald Trump is gonna send troops across the border to occupy Canada or to formally take over our government, right? But I do think his joking about it formally take over our government, right? But I do think his joking about it is one of those things where like whenever Donald Trump like, he tells the jokes but it does reflect how he thinks of us, right? 100%. Calling Justin Trudeau, governor of the 51st, the great 51st state of Canada, shows where he thinks we are in the pecking order, where our leadership is in the pecking order. He doesn't, he doesn't he doesn't make those jokes about russia and flat a mere putin because he

respects latimer putin and thinks russia's a big heavyweight country right right and and so that i think the the concern is less that they're actually gonna physically try to take over can and more that they're just going to try and like kick us around like a like a kid on the playground and

Do that economically do that in many other ways? You know, but it theoretically could come to even more drastic than that but I and I do think there's a still a threat to Canada's sovereignty in that is that if we're treated as a client state We're treated as a minion who will do the bidding of their master or else, we just become that, right? De facto that. And now the question about how the rest of the world reacts is like an interesting one because I do think there are other countries in the world and an international community that has legitimate respect, not just lip service respect to like international law, to like the way you negotiate things, the way we follow rules in our interactions with each other through trades and all of that.

But I also think that, like I worry, and I think we've seen some signs that like, in the same way that the institutions of American government, in the same way that the Republican Party as an institution, lots of people talked big about standing up to Trump all the way along. And then when Bush came to shove, did not stand up to him. In fact, often not down and kissed his ring. Once it was clear that they weren't going to win that fight, or that, you know, they

would be a high cost for them to pay. You know, like Kevin McCarthy, right after January six, right? It was the leader of the of the House Republicans right the House of Congress so he was one of the people who was under siege he was there when the You know Insurrectionists took over the building he was with the others like barricaded You know behind doors worrying that he was about to be hind right he called Donald Trump Reportedly and said like you have to call off these people like you're the only one who can stop this

You and and he said you know maybe you should have been more loyal Maybe maybe they have a good reason to be angry with you Maybe you should have done what I said right and and so after that he was like we're done we're done even he was standing up to say you know Donald Trump is no longer and within a month he was at Mar-a-Lago begging for forgiveness because he realized over the the masses of the Republican Party will never let me you know live this down and all that like and and Trump was no longer president at that point and I think in the international community There's a lot of that where people are kind of trying to manage him like they don't want to piss him off

They don't want to provoke a confrontation with him They're trying to steer him towards thinking he's there on his side. And so, you know, I have a good idea that you came up with. Remember how you came up with this good idea? Like, oh, we've all worked with personalities like that. Um, but but I, I do think that if he puts his foot down, I don't see a lot of countries in the world who will stand up and and make a point of it like it it's just hard to see and you do you do think that maybe through an institution like the United Nations you know maybe or the things like the g7 that these fellow countries

would figure out a way to like with the European Union would figure out a way to sort of like get together and stage an intervention and yet it is hard to see when especially the other kind of super power ish kind of countries like including Russia and China would not be opposed like they like a chaotic authoritarian American right like and and so I'm hopeful but I'm not certain that it would like and it's you we have these institutions like the United Nations like NATO like the World Trade

Organization right they do the World Health Organization like the interesting thing about these institutions is how quickly you start to realize, and look at NATO as a prime example, that they depend, like they work really well as multilateral institutions, as long as the United States is operating in a spirit of goodwill, right? If the United States is a good faith player who is as good as their word, we signed this treaty, we will all defend each other come

what may. Right? As long as the United States is the most, is the strong power in that, and the biggest player, and everything hinges on their participation. If they decide, screw that treaty, I hate this idea, well, like, are Canada and Great Britain and France gonna get together and, and, and what? And what are we gonna do? Right. I mean, we can try and shun them, but like, in terms of military defense, like a mutual defense pact, we don't have a lot of cards to play because they are the defender, right? And maybe it was a mistake for the rest of the world to let them grow into that position unopposed or with the only opposition being, you know, authoritarians and whatnot.

And yet, but here we are. are and so Trump is not wrong that that Canada should be paying Spending more on its defense right when he talks about NATO Do's and stuff you get the impression that there's a protection racket where we're paying money to the United States That does not actually how it works and most of like what we're behind on there is actually our own spending on our own defense like our the Canadian defense budget is very low part of our GDP right which means we're we're not at all that useful to our allies when they get attacked and we say okay we're gonna help defend you like we don't have a lot of firepower to send over we don't have a lot of

soldiers and technology to send over and so the US has to pick up the slack. And so Trump didn't originate this can't this complaint of Barack Obama used to make the same complaint. Presidents before him of both parties made the same complaint. Canada needs and you know, other NATO members need to pull their weight in this organization. Trump's the only one though who made it like a mafia protection racket where he's like, if you guys don't pay up, something bad might happen to you, and instead of defending you, maybe we won't. Right? Like what if Russia comes through the Arctic to invade Canada, who's gonna defend them if not the US? But if you haven't paid enough, why would we come and defend you?

Good point. Good point. Oh, good point. I'm thinking of Simpson's episode where the the Springfield inst met the Shelby Villians of the lemon tree or whatever. And and Martin Prince was protected by Nelson Muntz. Remember, and he was kind of being annoying. But Nelson's like, I got to I got to protect him. He was the bigger guy. He's he's a Springfield guy. And I'm like, yeah, for for too many decades, we've been like, I gotta, I gotta protect him. He was a bigger guy. He's a Springfield guy. And I'm thinking, yeah, for, for too many decades, we've been like, you know, don't fuck with

us because our very strong, powerful neighbors, they've got our back. You come in our space, they're going to stomp you down. That's too close for comfort for them. And you do get that comfort and that reliance. And that can be a bit, so you can kind of mouth off a little here and there because you don't got to worry about the protecting yourself because you're going to just let your big brother to the south do all that. Exactly. And this is what happens.

This is in the Marvel comic or with the DC comic. This is what happens. Okay. So we had to move on. So we're going to get hyper local now. We've covered world affairs there. Stay tuned every quarter when Ed Keenan's calendar alarm goes off, he's going to come over here to do hyper local.. We're gonna get hyper local.

So okay, so we spent a lot of time on this show. We shit on things for two hours every quarter is what I think it all amounts to. So I'm gonna start things off with a little positivity and then I'm gonna segue to a nice note about you and something you wrote that was very positive. But what I just wanna share with everybody is the other day, I think it was the 29th of December,

it was only a few days ago, my wife and I and our two little ones decided on a whim, let's go to Niagara Falls. Okay, they have this great light show at night and they got the falls, of course, and there's fireworks at eight o'clock. So we're like, okay, here we are, not too far from the Mimico Go station. Let's go get from there. We'll go to Niagara Falls. And I'm just here to say that we and again, people are like, yeah, you just discovered the go. No, I bike everywhere. Okay. But we have a car. We have a car. It's in the driveway right now. But so I think typically like in the past, we'd probably drive to Niagara Falls, but we're like, I don't want to drive. So we got on the Go station, the Go train at

Mimico. We took it to Burlington and we jumped on a go bus and we took it to Niagara Falls and it was so damn slick and pleasant and economical that I don't think I'll ever drive to a destination like that again. Did you go right into the go train and go right into Niagara Falls like or did you? So I had an eight-year-old with us and it was like a nice walk like it wasn't too freezing. There's a bit of a walk it drops you off. So it's not like you're getting off in St. Catharines or something. No, no, no, no, no. No, you're in Niagara Falls. You're in Niagara Falls. But there's a little walk if you want to go to the falls in Niagara Falls. There's a bit of a walk,

but it's nothing too bad. I don't know. We walked for like 15, 20 minutes or something like that. And it was so affordable and slick and so pleasurable. And you go, you had the kids had wifi because they don't have data plans and they could plug in their crappy devices when it runs out of I just found it so enjoyable that I don't see why I'd ever make that drive ever again in my my life So I'm sure some positivity. Yeah. Well, no, that's great I mean I find it a mostly pleasant drive unless you're making it rush hour Like you're saying get your ass off that go bus no no but like I think oh go bus

Well, the train only takes you to Burlington right okay, and then you transfer on to a bus to a bus Yeah, okay, but no I'm glad to know that that's pleasant. I'm glad to know it's a good option I didn't know that but I have a long thought that like proximity to Niagara Falls is like This this great thing about being in Toronto and maybe everybody already thinks that's great But I don't I went on a couple school trips we went now and again but it was like only after I started making family day trips there when my kids were young that I was like this is legitimately a wonder of the world here and amazing at night they got it so well lit and everything and it was

a kind of a mild evening and they did the fireworks at 8 p.m. Which is a good time for the eight-year-old in there. Do you hit up like wax museum or we didn't do any of that Clifton Hill stuff. Yeah, I love the Clifton Hill stuff. So we got the hot chocolate It was mainly walking we we actually got a hotel room for the night because we came back the next day No Clifton Hill stuff, but in the past we've done that. We've got a hotel and we've done that. Were you doing the hitting the casinos? I never touched the casino. Never touch it, but yeah I was there. I'll clarify, I love, when I say I love the Clifton Hill stuff, like what I actually like doing and my whole family likes doing is just like walking

up and down Clifton Hill. Like we, oh yeah, very seldom actually pay to do any of the attractions, but they all have displays in their lobby in that and And so we do those and like sometimes we ride on those go-karts or play the mini golf in the summer But yeah, anyhow I'm gonna ask you about a Toronto death that just broke a couple of days ago And then read that nice note that came in from a listener who read something you wrote. It's very positive Okay, so that's like a teaser. I'm doing like a radio thing now. You know radio things. Right. Right up. Yeah. Right up after the break. What did one listener say? Yeah. The five things you should

do on New Year's Day. Okay. So this is about sweet daddy Seeky. Yeah. So you and I are vintage here. We're going to talk about this because you're one year older than me. So I always know you'll kind of connect to the things I connect to. And Wrestling Legend and Toronto Resident is real name with Reginald Siki. Sweet Daddy Siki. Who was like a karaoke master in the East End. And he had a country music album because I was listening to it on YouTube the other day and he was like a stampede wrestler in Calgary in the 60s and you'd see him if you're of a certain vintage you'd see him at Maple Leaf Gardens and he lived near the Dufferin gates of the C&E so he'd sit on his porch and he'd wave to people coming into

like the Blue J game or the Argo game of the C&E that's in the 70s and 80s he played a mean guitar like he's just kind of one of those characters, fascinating characters, gone. But I feel like, you'll speak for yourself, Ed, that's why you're here, but I am one year younger than you, and I think we missed the bulk of the Sweet Daddy Seekie. Like, I didn't see, I was of a WWF early 80s thing. I was gonna ask you,

because I thought maybe you would have big memories of it or something, but- No, I missed it. Because my wrestling years years and I was never like a huge huge wrestling fan But I got into it, you know this kind of King Kong Bundy Steal Hulk Hogan Andre the giant years Macho man Randy Savage. Oh, I have a question about that and and so so what I knew about sweet daddy Siki actually a lot of it came from an article that somebody wrote while I was

working at I weekly I was editor at I weekly and I commissioned the article because it was sounding so interesting to me and it was like this former professional wrestler who you can now see it like I think at the time it was like the Duke of Earl pub in the East End or whatever running karaoke nights every once a week, but it was like a fascinating profile of him and I I got so into it but I Was gonna ask like was he on all-star wrestling was he like where so where would you because I didn't go see live wrestling at Maple Leaf Garden I did but I saw in that era you're talking about with Andre the Giant and Big John Studd and you mentioned Macho Man. So I don't know what promotion he was.

He was gone by then. He was gone by then. But he did train guys like guys that came after my era, but I know of because they're famous. The Edge. Oh yeah. Okay. Christian.

He got his own month in December. Right. That's heritage month. So he was like training some big names from more recent history, but he was a legend in like the 60s and 70s. But I think if you're our age, you missed the Sweet Daddy sweet spots. So I'm just remembering a great, a lot of people just like 10, 15 years older than me are talking about this guy and their memories of this guy.

And I feel like we just missed it. Yeah. All right. So rest in peace. Shadow to Ridley Funeral Home, sweet daddy Seeky, kind of a Toronto legend who we learned about his passing just a couple of days ago. Okay, Walk of Life is a gentleman on Blue Sky. By the way, I saw you liked one of my posts on Blue Sky. Are you checking in on your mentions on Blue Sky? Yeah, yeah. The plan is to do that

much more frequently than I have been. I'm watching have been watching you had the holidays and all of that so you know if Anybody's just catching up. I used to like use Twitter a lot and I was like and then I was more of using it as a reader because I was finding the level of engagement I was getting with my own tweets was like more noise than signal like and the fights I was getting into were affecting a lot of people picking a fight on like random strangers and all of that and so and then after a while I was just like yeah so the account is still there but I haven't even opened the app like to see if like in in months right so you know when everybody made the group great blue sky

migration right I like went inside of her account and I spent a couple days you know I skied it or whatever you want to call it a couple times but I also was like finding it useful like and fun to like read along and you know my the people the Leafs people I followed there were there and during games if I'm just at a home watching by myself it's it's like sitting in a bar you get to hear other people's commentary It's like oh a lot of what I used to like about Twitter is here, right? And and so I'll use that more often and then I kind of got busy around the holidays and that and I just haven't really Opened it, but I I actually opened it to check if you had

Promoted from promoted this but you know just cuz I I don't like to break our, I'm like superstitious about actually like, texting you to say, hey, are we still on? Cause it's there on my calendar and I assume if it's a problem, it will disappear from my calendar. But I also just like, so yesterday I saw that and I liked it. And you went, whew. But people can find me there, they can, you know, message me there, and as it stands now, I'm not like a daily power user, but I think I'm gonna start using it more in the way I used to

use Twitter, which is to like share my own thoughts. Well, we need you there Ed. I'm enjoying it. But also to follow along other people's, because what I miss most about Twitter, and this was what made it absolutely necessary when I was in the US covering the US government but also before that was like super valuable in Toronto is that like journalists will make the mistake of thinking that that social media represents popular public opinion and all of that right but what it is very useful for it's not right it's it doesn't It's not a stand-in for the average person on the street.

But what it is useful for is that all these average people on the street and also powerful people are sharing real-time thoughts and images and reports of what's happening where they are. And I used to love that in Toronto. It's like you keep tracks on all these things. And as a journalist, what I would often see is that somebody would say something was happening somewhere and then I would do more investigation. I would either like go there or I would phone the people involved or I would like just get ideas and keep tabs on what's happening. And keep track of

multiple meetings or things that are, like, Matt Elliott is a essential source of like coverage of Toronto City Council meetings because he's just you know live tweeting through it he has every vote there he has every whatever there so it's like that's what I love most as a in my work was most valuable about Twitter and and I am hoping that that kind of community and that kind of responsiveness is like emerging on blue sky. It'll be like Valuable to me that way and also I can contribute to that value for other people. So we'll see well I think it is the Keenan wire everybody and then follow at Toronto Mike calm. I got the domain name

So, you know, it's the real me except no substitute So follow at Toronto Mike calm and follow the Keenan wire Andrew Ward before I read the walk of life's note, I've teased it four times now. That's it. I'm going to just tease it the whole freaking episode. I'm never going to read it, but Andrew Ward wants to know if you would please do another Randy Macho Man. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good. Cause you know, I, I talked over the first ones, he gave me a second one, and I said, he gets it, this guy gets it here. So thank you to Andrew Ward, he has another note later in the show,

but Walk of Life says, Ed Kenan's piece on reasons to love Toronto was a great read, please pass along my thanks. Oh that's nice! This is particularly reasons to love Toronto in the wintertime. And thank you Walk of Life. And what I will say about that piece, which I came up with 17 reasons, is that I partly wrote it like in large part. I mean so a little behind the scenes here is that often when you're gonna have a holiday, you write a column or two that can run when you're gone, and they're not ripped from today's headlines, they're not breaking news, they're kind of like, what's a concept that can last? And I didn't want to do a like, top 10 things that happened in 2024 or whatever, right? But I was actually feeling like I needed somebody to

convince me that winter wasn't gonna be a big drag, that there are good things in Toronto in the winter, and so I kind of came up with a list of like my favorite things, but also like, you know, I asked around some other people, but like what do you love about Toronto in the winter? And it, you know, because my kids, when we moved to Washington DC, or the DMV, the Virginia, DC, Maryland, metropolitan region, which is south of the Mason-Dixon line,

it's not really in the deep south of the United States at all, but it is, you know, south of the Mason-Dixon line. It's not really in the deep south of the United States at all, but it is, you know, south of the Mason-Dixon line. The climate's a bit different. You might get one or two snowfalls a year. It's a big deal when they happen. The snow doesn't really stay around. I didn't actually use my snow shovel the entire time I was there, but we did get to go tobogganing once or twice in three years. It's like, basically it's like 10 degrees Celsius warmer there all year round than it is here, more or less, right? So it's like, it's not like it's tropical in the winter,

but it is like you could get by in a light jacket. A lot, you know those vests, those like, it's like a parka but with no sleeves? Of course. And Michael J. Fox wears one in Back to the Future and my whole life I have looked at those. My dad used to wear them with like a sweatshirt but then he would wear a parka on top.

But I was always like, what is that for? Like when is there time? I don't want, but they're really popular down there because it's like, it's kinda like just cool enough that you'd like an extra bit of insulation, but not so cool that you need to like bundle right up. And I kind of miss that like winter, but my kids were like, they love skating outdoors, they love playing in the snow, they love tobogganing, they just like there being snow.

They really missed the winter season. And so when they were talking about that I was like let me talk about the things that that I some of the things including like how many free skating rinks there are everywhere that like I didn't know how much I like them until I moved somewhere where they didn't have them right so very nice so some positivity there's still things to love do you have a favorite thing about Toronto in the winter? Oh, that's a good question. I know you barely I mean, I bike. So today I'm I've already had 30 K and I have another little ride left to do today.

So I'll end up today at like 45 kilometers. And that's but there's very little winter I find in Toronto. Like right now it's compared to what there used to be. Right. Like I just the snow doesn't seem to stick. We had snow for a few days. I actually shoveled once Yeah wild, but I mean like my thing is that we really start getting winter in January and then it lasts through early March Whereas there are some other places like DC where your winter is really December in January and spring starts in February, right? but uh

Yeah, our February's can suck. Yeah. But so what do I like? So we all know the distillery district has that great winter. They call it the winter market. Not to be confused with the Christmas market. But now there's a Christian month. They don't need Christmas.

But before four o'clock, it's free on a weekend or whatever. So we'll like time it. So we'll be there before four o'clock. You get there during the free time. Absolutely. Because now you used to always be free by the way. But we were just there. I do like the Sam Smith in the South Etobicoke. They got the Sam Smith skating. That's really nice. And we'll go there. And we're still like my daughter, my eight year old biked to, well, it's not school right now because school is Monday, but it's a YMCA childcare type program I pay for that we biked to it and we'll bike from it.

So like we're still biking around the city when there's no like ice on the ground. And even then just I go out. I don't bring the kids so they can live to fight another day. But this I don't know. It's not a particularly cold city. I find. Yeah. You know, so I mean, what are my favorite things to do in the winter? I don't know. Just last week, I met a couple of friends at Sugar Beach to drink Great Lakes beer out at Sugar Beach. Like, I'm still living like it's June. Have you lived in a colder city? No, I've never. I've only lived in one city. I have no I have no frame of reference for anything.

That's not a particularly cold city. Compared to what I'm doing in St. Joe's. OK, I have no I've never had this is the other thing it was because my wife's from Edmonton in yeah that's colder in Edmonton we'll hear about like in October her family because her parents live there and she will get reports her brother lives there I don't know they had 20 centimeters of snow and it's like October and then I'm always like oh that sucks yeah yeah yeah no that's I mean I know the people in those places like make fun of us right you know. For black people to be called the army that one time. But also beyond that like

whatever you call that cold that's not cold. There was a there are all these people from Edmonton who I once insulted Edmonton in a column like on purpose because I was like we're playing the dozens right like we're doing yo mama jokes like because the government of Alberta Started putting ads in the DTC saying we moved to Alberta because Toronto is a crappy place to live that was a gist to those ads So I started saying like the problem with with the cheap housing prices in Edmonton is then you have to live in Edmonton I mean, it's an easy joke, but you gotta make it cold with with the cheap housing prices in Edmonton is then you have to live in Edmonton. And I made some cracks about how cold it was there and everything. And then these guys would be sending me weather reports like every week talking about how I like how I had it all wrong. And yet and yet then if it ever snows here and we complain that we got a lot of snow,

people in Edmonton are like, you call that snow? That's not snow. Well, I've been that you've been Edmonton are like you call that snow that's not snow I've been to you've been Edmonton no okay why being a well not since I was a like a kid infant yeah okay I don't know if that counts but so I would have been in Edmonton in the last decade my wife's my brother-in-law got married and I went to the wedding in Edmonton and I mean I don't want to get in trouble with my Edmonton listeners okay I've got a lot of Edmonton listeners who tune in for Toronto Mike. They hate listen Toronto Mike tear

But there's not much going on there I was born and raised in this city and there's always a lot of shit going on despite what Elvis said on Festivus and Edmonton was just just kind of quiet and Sleepy and they had a kind of a cool this is gonna tie in nicely with something I'm actually I'll bring it up now, but they had a street called White Road I think White Avenue White Ave. It had white. Was that Christian Heritage Month Street? 12 months a year in Edmonton. Okay. Christian Heritage Month, 12 months a year in Edmonton. That's another fun fact. But White Ave. I think it was,

but it was kind of cool. And I said, Oh, I kind of dig the street. It's got some like 90s Queen Street vibes. This was my thought, but it's a very small, it's one of a couple of blocks in this Fonkin city, right? So Queen, well, now that I brought up 90s Queen Street, I'm wondering, did you read this article? And I didn't copy and paste it. Today in the star, I believe, about what happened to Queen Street, right?

Right, okay, so yeah, so I'm wondering for your thoughts on this, because it ties into a few other things I wanted to bring up, but essentially, it was talking about what happened, I wanna get the right headline here. Yeah, Queen West used to be the heart of Toronto. How did it go so wrong? This is a Toronto Star article.

We'll chat about this. Then I have a couple of other Toronto Star articles and then a few other topics. But I used to go to Queen Street all the time in the 90s. Like this was the cool place. No, no, yeah, I worked on Queen Street. I spent a lot of time on Queen Street in book. We're modeling, right?

For some of the years. So here's what I want to say is like about that just as a preamble, just as an introduction. And this is article is time to the basically the the old city TV building, which has been operated by CTV Bell Media. Two ninety nine Queen Street West. Two ninety nine Queen Street West. They've

they've moved their TV operation out of there. Right. And so the building is kind of like vacant now for the first time in decades or it's like not being used for television production anyway and it's kind of like whoa what? And so I think that's the occasion for this article but I I want to say, and I like Mark, Collie who wrote it, and I don't have any... What's his last name? I'll go look it up. You keep talking and I'll find it. So when I was a student at Toronto Metropolitan University, which was then called Ryerson, and I worked at the student newspaper, somebody wrote an op-ed at the time. Mark Colley. Mark Colley, yeah.

Colley, right. Yeah. Okay. He, somebody wrote an op-ed for the Eye Opener in, must have been 1993, saying, what the hell happened to Queen Street used to be so cool and now there's a Luchato and a Club Monaco and it's like H&M. It's like a mall now it's not cool at all and guess what people still continued finding it cool well into the 2000s and I'm sure my 16 year old

daughter doesn't go there like to hang out it's not the epicenter the way it maybe used to be. But she still goes down there because some of the coolest shops are still on Queen Street, right? Like the places where you want to be, they literally line up to go in and buy a sweatshirt. So but, you know, there's still some stuff there. And obviously the Cameron House and the horseshoe are still there and whatnot. But it used to be the place right and I think over time you know stuff moved west because it's following real estate prices and I was into maybe

and yeah yeah out out to the first it was like Queen West West and then up Ossington Dundas and whatnot and I think that's just the nature of kind of how cities gentrify to some extent. But yeah, like the Black Bull closing, which I think you and I talked about after I wrote about it, like that to me was one of those, not even like what happened to Queen West, but really like, OK, this is a milestone in the evolution of of this as an entertainment street, right? And certainly that 299 Queen West, the former site of Speakers Corner and the former site of Electric Circus and all that much music stuff, all that City TV stuff, all that more recently like CP 24 stuff.

I mean, it's it's weird to not have it there, right? But that's the way that's the way she goes. That's the way the cookie crumbles. I mean, I guess, Ossington is that and King West is kind of the my higher end bar district now and all of that, and I'm not really in that scene anymore. So I don't really know how vibrant things are, but like that's my bigger concern is is less like whether one neighborhood is trendier than another or is more happening than another. I do want to say goodbye to the treasured landmarks, but at the same time like my bigger concern is like if if

they're being replaced by something else. Do the people who want to go out and do all those things that we used to do on Queen Street West, do they have a place to go and do that now? And this is something my friends and I have been talking about, people in their 40s and 50s who used to be sort of into the nightlife and the art scene and the like really into the Toronto like the music scene the visual art scene the the club scene and all of that and some of these people just on social media there's chatter just kind of about how you know boy aren't we getting old that we don't do that but also I just missed a sense of community but but is now that

everybody's been forced by expensive rents, either to move to Hamilton or somewhere else and disperse out all over the place, you don't have like everybody living in abandoned warehouses out in Parkdale. You don't have people, you don't have galleries renting cheap storefronts all along Queen West West. You don't like,

storefronts, all along Queen West West. You don't like, like the art scene community seems to have dissipated and lost a lot of energy just because nobody can afford to live in the city. And the store, the cool boutique shops or whatever can't afford the rent of that way higher proportionally. So you got all that going on. In the meantime, I always look back,

oh, what happened like from the 90s? Like, what is the big change? Oh. In the meantime, I always look back, oh, what happened from the 90s? What is the big change? Oh yeah, the internet, right? So the internet, you could literally point to internet, A, there's communities online now. Literally, that same community is talking right now on Facebook or wherever the heck they're meeting. Probably not Facebook.

Well, the 40, 50 year olds. The same community as the 40, 50 year olds. I noticed that the, yeah, there's definitely, the boomers are all on the Facebook, I've noticed, which is why my kids want nothing to do with it. But okay, so they're all meeting online. But there's another thing too, like, like, like we also, 299 Queen Street, I mean, no one more than this show celebrates 299 Queen Street. I had Retro Ontario on for a 40th anniversary of Much Music Retrospective and it was freaking amazing. That was just this past quarter

because Much Music turned 40. But there is no Much Music today, but at the time you know if a big artist, a big musician were coming to town, they would make their way to 299 Queen. There would be close the street for I don't know, Much Music, video awards and it depends who was dropping by. You had Steve Anthony throwing the Christmas tree out of the window at 299. You had Speaker's Corner, as you mentioned. You could watch things happening. This was a big deal.

But much music's been gone a very, very long time. Much music's been dead for a long time. So I think the internet killed much music as it completely changed everything. Yeah, streaming of videos and music on demand. Right, so the internet is why this Queen West, which may have had this cooler vibe back in the 90s for sure but again I had a cooler vibe in the 90s. Yeah like also like live music venues are struggling and partly that's the internet as well. It's rents and all

of that but it's also like this is the thing is that today's... I was trying to Today's day. I was trying to explain to my kids, like teenagers, right, that. In the olden days, like if a if you want to become a professional musician, like first you would like or like a like a rock star or whatever, you would like first, you know, learn to play your instrument or write some songs or whatever, you get some friends, you form a band, you practice, but then you start booking gigs. And so at the El Macambo, it might be the Rolling Stones playing upstairs on a secret show, or it might be like the hot British band who's in town, you know, that they signed. But downstairs, it'd be your friends from like geography class playing

for like $2 cover. This was big at Leeds Palace. And this was everywhere, Leeds Palace. But there were like 35 bars on Queen West you could go to on any given night and see people in there, like teenagers, but more so people in their twenties trying to form a band. And you were hoping that like somebody from a record label

or some music critics, or like you build up a base of following, you'd have your little independent CD that you'd sell at Sam the record man or whatever maybe yeah Yeah, a little cassette like the bear naked ladies with the little right sandwich on the front and all of that yellow tape But like so you you were gigging right? Yeah, and so that was how you became famous is that? Is part of that scene you got a record deal and developed your local fan base and then you'd move up to the next level and you get a radio airplay and all of that right and now you don't do that you right you record your music the weekend in Toronto has produced very few bigger stars than the weekend he he

was famous before he ever played a single live show, right? He created his music at home, he released it like mysteriously online, found an audience for it there, and then got his record deal that way. And that's like Shawn Mendes from the Greater Toronto Area, like was a Vine star, right? He put music in little short videos on the Vine social media network. Like people on TikTok, on YouTube, on Spotlight, you just release your own music. Even Justin Bieber was like a YouTube guy before Usher. You got a whole Usher. What I'm saying is that the like live music element of it, the like the basement of our like nightlife ecosystem was that

like people like was that the live music would be like a cornerstone and all the people who were trying to become famous, the people who were famous, the people who would never become famous, the people just having fun, like they'd be out gigging because that was like what the whole music industry was based on. That's all transformed. Like the industry is industry was based on. That's all transformed. Like the industry is no longer based on that, right? If anything, your live performances are a way to earn money later, but it's because you sell out stadiums and you, you know, Roger's Stadium at Dansview Park. Yeah. For

example. To be discussed. Oh, so yeah, so I thought I wanted to shout out the article because it's one of those conversation starters. Yeah. You know, where you can talk about, you know, the rents went up, the, the, the, for, for both the people and for the businesses, the internet showed up clubs, clubbing changed. I mean, I don't think clubs in the nineties clubs were a big deal, right? My kids aren't really, I don't know.

My daughter in Montreal goes to some kind of club type places. For food and electric. Yes, exactly. Still there, baby. Okay, so she's doing that or whatever. Although she's gonna be here tonight to watch Wicked with Morgan. That's the plan tonight.

Michelle's gonna drop by and watch Wicked with Morgan. Okay, so quick question and one more before we say goodbye to this article from the Toronto Star. And then I have a start. I got one more thing to say before we say goodbye to it article from the Toronto Star and then I have a strike I want more than you say before well you buy to it my last you do right after this which is that uh You know CP 24 is now broadcasting out of aging court. This is a man, okay They're all I think the radios on their way out because I don't know they were like next door and the radio guys I think

1010 You ever heard of the station 1010? I think they're gonna be moving out to aging court I think it's all like are they really I? I think so. Is it on Channel 9 court there or whatever? In Scarberry. The old CTV building. That's the building. Yeah. So they're going to be there somewhere. I think I don't know if John Moore likes that or not, but he's going to have no say in that matter. I don't think, but the truck is still there. So you remember the yeah, I think that was protected by a heritage thing or something. So I was reading it was suggested though that the truck might

stay yeah I think it is but if Bell media vacates the truck I'm just here to say that when that truck was put up there it used to say live I city TV it said city pulse yeah city city pulse which of course they don't use any Rogers owns it I'm sure but they don't use it anymore but city pulse became city news but of course city pulse and then when Bell and CTV Globe Media the whole whatever whenever it ended up in Bell's hands at some point that big they repainted it okay so it's no longer City Pulse which is a Rogers brand it's CP24 so shouldn't we bring change it back yeah yeah if if it's protected by the

if it's a heritage truck, you would think that the heritage colors and the OG paint scheme, it should say like City Pulse Everywhere. Yeah, like it did when it first... It should have the voice of Mark Daly coming out of it 24 hours a day. 100%. All I was gonna say, and this is tied into um The move out to agent court feeling like and and you know, I I did a lot of broadcasting at 1010 I have done a lot of appearances at CP 24 studio there and all of that and I I do think I I like agent court, but I have been to that studio in Agent Court as well and it's in a like industrial mall, right? Like it's um back hidden away and I do feel like Even when you're doing radio like having the windows that you can look out your downtown

You're in the heart of the city your guests can come by in the morning and it and John Moore Less so since the zoom era began but used to be like all those panelists would show up in person the Zoom era began, but used to be like all those panelists would show up in person every day for their little 15-minute slot. And it's like, you've got this like you're at the, you're in the heart of it. And I feel like if you're in a suburban industrial mall, you lose that. And this is what my one point that I wanted to say was that I think Moses Neimer has done a lot of things, and he's been a very influential guy in television and Canadian media in general for a lot of different reasons right there are a lot

of things he was innovative in back in the old channel 57 on UHF days and then you know launching much music here which was you know it's not like MTV didn't exist is not he invented Mitch music but like a lot of the stuff they did and the way that they did it became standard across North America, including you know those CP 24 adopted them, but the City Pulse, you know, videographer, the reporter who carries his own camera, Dominic Shulow, in the window and stuff, but in terms of like the city of Toronto, the way they built that studio so that the windows opened up onto the street and that their newscasts and their VJ spots

for both Much Music and City TV back in the day, all their live talk shows and stuff, would all have people on the street could see it happening there. And then Speaker's Corner was part of that because it's like this little video machine there that you put a dollar in you get to say your bit and is like there was no YouTube so you just put it in there and hope the producers will put it in their weekend show and that was your way to have your say but I

feel like as a contribution to the city that buying 299 Queen and then structuring it that way like so that all of our like our local media coverage was happening where we can see it and they could see us in the background and all of that like Huge in terms of the long-term contribution to the city and maybe more significant to me as a Toronto guy Than any of the other things Moses Neimer did in media that that may or may not be influential to other people like just and to the extent that that building is going to move on to a different life that that does something different I think that's that's a real chapter in the city's history that maybe as you say technology and the march of time have have made a lot of that redundant and it wouldn't work anymore

it's not working anymore like it's maybe it's just time to move on, but it was like, man, that was a very significant place for a long era in this city. And you know, we have Moses to thank for that initially, but it's, and it is kind of sad to see the passing of it. Or to note that it's already passed. The city was their newsroom, as Moses would say. And here is the the voice.

The following program contains adult themes, nudity and coarse language. Viewer and parental discretion is advised. Yeah, maybe when I'm like 12 years old, that's what I'm looking for on a Friday night. You're going to watch Porky's. Yeah, darn right. Yeah. All right my friend okay I have a few gifts for you Ed and then I want to tell you about a conversation I had last week with my city councillor Amber Morley. So I have in my freezer right now a palm-a-pasta large lasagna that's going home with you.

All right. All right. That's why you're here. Be well received in my household. Oh, and before I give you the next gift, because we talked about the City Pulse truck and I want it back to its, what do you call that, livery? That's called livery, I think. Oh, right.

The paint job or whatever. Livery. Okay. So restore that truck back to its original livery if it's going to stick around at 299 Queen Street. Quickly though, Honest Eds, that's Bathurst and Bloor, so we're off Queen Street for this one. But seven years later, the sign is in pieces in a warehouse in Orillia.

And although official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast, Jeremy Hopkins, tells me he had a conversation this past summer with Jacob Mervish and he was assured that one of the two large Honest Ed signs was still being restored, but that was the plan. I'm just saying don't keep, don't take your eye off this. If we give a shit and you know Toronto loves its freaking signs, right?

These signs are, we're many, we're way past the COVID pandemic right now and we haven't seen these signs. So I don't know what the plan is. Yeah, now my understanding is that that Honest Ed sign, one of the two big ones, it's not going back up at Blue Room Bathurst where Honest Eds used to be. It's gonna go on the back of the Ed Mervish Theatre, the Ed Purvish CAA Theatre, whatever it's called, the old Pantages Theatre, which is right near Young and Dundas. So the back of it on Victoria Street, which sort of like you can see sideways from Young Nundah Square. It's an appropriate place for a tribute to Honest

Ed's. His family owns the building. He was a, he, he helped bring it, revive it back. The theater scene is big. It's, you know, so it's good, but I like, but yeah, let's get on with it. It's been seven years. What the heck you doing? So just making sure, you know, that's why we're here, Ed. We don't forget these things. We keep people, uh, hold their feet to the fire. Okay. Speaking of holding feet to the fire, I invited my counselor Amber Morley on because here in South Etobicoke, she, her ward includes the, uh, the bluer bike lane that you get in the, uh, South Etobicoke. That's right. Okay. Controversial. So I wanted Amber Morley, I wanted to talk a little bit

about 212 now You know you can if you can do I don't know if it's possible We can we don't want to spend too much time on this I don't want to upset Alan's why but we do need to discuss 212 in particular What? It's already passed. This is a provincial legislation that they can basically that we can say goodbye at some point Maybe you know when two Parts of this blue or bike lane and then the university and young bike lanes and I

use these on the reg. I'm very interested in what's going on with the passing of bill 212. All right so I think maybe we were talking about this as a proposed use of legislation the last time I was here. Yeah, 100%. But like, basically this says that if a bike lane is going to be installed on a street in, that it's going to take away a lane of car traffic, then the province gets to say whether or not it's allowed. And then specifically the province is going to take out sections of the Bloor Street bike lanes the University Avenue bike lanes and Young Street bike lanes because the premier has particular beef with those ones in Toronto University

Because I think some of his cabinet ministers drive up in there from Brampton and stuff And and so they don't like driving there But Bloor Street because they have been very controversial out here. So I had heard that the western section of Bloor... So this is like a thing where there's negotiations taking place between the city and the province, and within the provincial government of like what it's worth doing, especially because part of this whole bill is an election stunt for the provincial government. But is it the conversations between our civil servants who are experts in these things or is it with politicians?

Well the politicians are ultimately making the call but they are talking to the civil servants and part of it is about logistics but part of it is also a political decision that they're making about how much, man, I was going to use that, how much juice you get from the squeeze, like all these, everybody's saying that now and it annoyed me the very first time I heard it and it still annoys me. But that concept is like how much value are we going to get for the controversy of this, right? And so how much should we remove? I think the section of the

Blue or West bike lanes west of Jane Street, that's phase one. That is coming out. It's a matter of when. And there is some activists filed a lawsuit to try and prevent this from happening and that may have delayed it because otherwise they may have come out before Christmas is what I heard but there's there's still some talk about it now the section of the bluer bike lanes that runs say through the annex into downtown it's not clear that those are going to be whether those are going to be removed or not they may be safe because they're popular with the people who live near there and

and they're not nearly so controversial. I don't think there's any justification to take out the University Avenue ones honestly when you go down there and just watch. They are not causing any traffic. They are well used by cyclists and and you know University is congested like it's a downtown street but it's not worse than the surrounding streets but also it's not gridlocked like and this is the thing is like you're at a red light when you're looking across you just got clear roads so it's the red light holding you up and then when it turns green you and the

other trials move until you get to the next red light. Like there's no, there's nothing that an additional lane of car traffic is going to get you anywhere, anywhere any faster, right? But I don't think they actually care about that. I think they think they're very visible. That's a key statement. You got all these doctors and nurses riding to the hospital in them. What kind of image is that projecting? What are they small children? Are doctors? Are they under on kids toys out there? This point you're making very humorously that they don't actually care about reports or studies or any kind of you know science-based analytics or evidence or such.

Because here's, and I wrote this down here and I didn't write it, I copied and pasted it, but I can't remember who wrote it. But downtown Toronto, this is regarding Doug Ford, downtown Toronto is a lost cause for him. Alienating Torontonians doesn't hurt him. It's the 905 vote that he wants to shore up. Pounding away at bike lanes is a sure win for him

And it distracts from what should be larger provincial issues like health care housing the environment transit, etc I think that's a pretty good summary of Where we're at where he's you wrote down that quote. Is it for me? Is it is it for you? I wrote a column that's the thesis of so those may not actually my words So they put it into my Ed Keenan section, but I didn't like attribute it. So maybe I thought I would just know it was you. That's something I wrote, but I don't know that that's exactly my thing. No, that's you then.

I do think that that yeah, Doug Ford, it's like Donald, it's like Donald Trump and the border wall and all of that too. It doesn't matter if it's feasible, right? And it is a feature, not a bug that it pisses off people downtown, right? And it is a feature, not a bug, that it pisses off people downtown, right? Like, Donald Trump thinks that among the voters he cares about, an election fought, or in which like you and me and other downtown Toronto people, like with bike helmets on, wearing spandex, go out and call him a fascist, that's good for him, right? Because his voters think like that's a plus, right? I don't own any Spandex.

I just want the listeners to know that. Neither do I, but you know, but this is, if you've got a bike helmet on, it's a feature. There's a certain number of people who see Spandex, whether you're wearing it or not. But yeah, it's a feature, not a bug. Like, it's actually the standard traditional wedge politics is that if you're enraging the people who will never vote for you right

that often is a good thing red meat for your base it's rallying the rest of them to your side right right but yeah there are like what I wonder is like if I lived outside of Toronto I mean I've spent way too much time at St. Michael's Hospital and Michael Garand Hospital recently with my parents and whatnot. It's not like the emergency rooms in Toronto are like smooth sailing, but my understanding is that hospitals in the rest of Ontario outside the city of Toronto, like the amount of hallway medicine, the waits for room, the delays, like if you live in one of those places that does vote for Doug Ford and that hates Toronto cyclists like on principle, like why is it good for you that we're talking about this instead of talking about the hospital system?

Like, like, and I'm, but mean, I just don't know how you, is one of those things where like, you don't wanna take the bait so that his wedge politics pays off, but you don't wanna just roll over either, right? Like, there are things worth defending that we have to defend, but is there a way to like keep the eye on the prize

and look at like the province has big big issues that it could be solving and and this is not one of them. Right and then we could fold into this brief segment here, well as brief as you want it to be. This since your visit there was a scathing report on Ontario Place and what's happening there. Yeah, are you talking about the Auditor General's report? Yes, right. Yeah, so I mean... Oh, yeah, so as it turns out, the process by which they decided what to do with Ontario Place and who to award the contract to was not a great process. And people can look that up the other general's report and say that, you know, it was conducted

in many ways improperly. But quite beyond that too, the whole moving the science center there like this is now going to be more expensive for the province than it then they thought it was going to be first of all and like allowing thermahed to build there is going to cost the province like a billion dollars or like hundreds of millions of dollars right way more than estimated like multiples more than estimated. And part of that is that the cost of retrofitting, like some of those old features of Ontario Place to be the new Ontario Science Centre, inadequate, though it will

be as a Science Centre, is going to be radically more expensive than just fixing the old Science Center would be. Right? This is like one thing that really jumped out to me on that is that like the whole justification for moving the Science Center away from the still under construction Ontario Science Center subway station and moving it down to

Ontario place is is that we can't afford to restore the old building. But guess what? The new building is gonna cost more than restoring the old building was gonna cost. Of course, of course. Of course, and in the meantime, as you know, you're in South Etobicoke right now,

so I have made a visit in the past month to Sherway Gardens. Kids ate free at Eataly. This is not an endorsement because I only ate poma pasta. Yeah, so we had to goway Gardens. Kids ate free at Eataly. This is not an endorsement because I only eat palma pasta. Yeah. So we had to go enjoy this kids eating free at Eataly. People think I'm saying Italy, but I'm actually saying Eataly. But I've said too much because palma pasta is what we prefer. Of course, of course, of course. But of course there's a, the Science Center is like, I just saw it there and I was like, oh, like as a joke, I went on Blue Sky

And then it was like, I just saw it there and I was like, oh, like as a joke, I went on Blue Sky months ago and I made a joke that the Ontario Science Center would end up like as a kiosk in the Cloverdale Mall. That was my joke. Close, close. Really close. It's kiosk-esque in the part of the Sherbrooke Gardens that's the least traveled in my experience at that mall.

But anyway. I haven't gone out and seen it that mall. But anyway, it's- I haven't gone out and seen it yet, but- Well, it's just kind of a hokey little thing. Yeah, I don't know. It's a little display there, right? So there you go. It's not like the actual Science Center is like on the move here on display.

It's like, they could have done these mall kiosk displays at any time that they wanted to, right? Like, it's like, ah. Oh, and Jeho says, with the rain and snow that's fallen on it, he just wants to point out that the roof has not collapsed. But okay, it did need, it may needed repairs, but there were a number of people raised their hands

in places that said we will repair this for, we will pay for the reparations and fixes. It was clear that the government wanted an excuse, if you will, to shut down the Ontario Science Centre and move it to Ontario Place Possibly allegedly because they need to help justify the costs at Ontario Place I think I think a big part of wanting to move the Science Centre down there is part of the Ontario Place revitalization, it's not as much about

What whether the old Science Centre is like neither here nor there? But yeah, it is a big ship. Like when you have an old building, it needs to be repaired. You need constant work. There's like a life cycle cost. But it's so seldom is it going to be cheaper to erect an entirely new building or even more expensive retrofit like another old They didn't fix it yet, but they are going to fix it. I don't know because now I'm a Mimico Arena man, but yeah, it will be fixed. Mark my words here. Okay, so we

have again, we can spend a lot. I mean it's back open now and it's certified safe, but there's a big new roof installation coming soon. I know it's open because my buddy Murray was playing there the other day, so shout out to Murray, my plumber. But okay, so we have the Ontario place which the Science Centre We got now bill 2 1 2 I feel I need to move off this but on my way out I'll just let you know because I started this sentence about 45 minutes ago. I have fresh craft beer for you at Great lakes brewery. I just want to say shout out to Great Lakes Brewery the first sponsor this podcast ever had all they do is renew They host us a couple of times a year. We don't only have an event now at the

brewery, which is in South Etobicoke. And it's tough for me to say brewery, but we also have an event at the GLB Brew Pub, which is at Jarvis in Queens Key, which probably reminds me because I was going to ask you for a Toronto Star update. I'll do it right now. But okay. So measuring tape also from Ridley funeral home pillars of the community Life's Undertaken is their podcast. Can I get a quick update here before this time gets away from us? How are things at the Toronto Star but in particular? I'm wondering about podcasting at the Toronto Star Do you have anything you can announce or I have no no update at this time So is there any nothing you can even tea I anticipate well here

I will tear your minute to Toronto mic'd in in three months I expect we'll be able to talk about news then or you heard it here first things that have evolved Okay, so things are moving nothing you can say But not in it not not at a stage yet. We're not at TMDS pace So where we decide at 11 o'clock we have an idea and we launch it at this matters I was on a long hiatus as a podcast that I used to be one of the hosts of it and it sort of went on a long hiatus what we made some of the different plans and now we I have periodically brought it out of hiatus for some special episodes

since that one or one or two over the last month or so and you know I may do that again over the next few weeks but then I expect that in the nearish future a more permanent plan for a podcast that I'll be involved in will be announced but I don't have any specifics to talk about yet well honestly because but in because things are still in the work and still up in the air a bit. And it's like. It's all moving in the right place, but there's a few different ways we might go. And it's just now in the new year to make the decision and just start planning. Well, you know me, I got to ask these questions because I appreciate it.

Since your last visit, and I won't name names here, but somebody that's involved, heavily involved with Toronto Star Podcasting, like sent me a nice note, like an email, and we went back and forth, and he's like, hey, would you meet me for like a drink or whatever? And then we literally, it was in my calendar

to be at the GLB Brew Pub for a beer with this individual. And it was very interesting, I guess we're gonna pick each other's brain on some things or whatever, and I'm all set for it. And this individual needed to cancel, but it never got back in my calendar. So this was something that almost happened. So I have nothing to report either, except that maybe in 2025, this person will reach out again and we'll meet for that beer at GLB Group Pub. And see if anything comes of that.

And then I'll have something that maybe we'll all talk about this in three months here. Okay. So that that'll be very interesting. Andrew Ward, who's on the live stream. He wanted the Macho Man impression. That's right. You gave. Oh, yeah. He is another update on Big Daddy Seeky here.

I want to pull this up. He says that it was Atlantic Grand Prix wrestling that sweet promotion that you and I were like what the hell's that like I actually don't know what that is except it sounds impressive so Atlantic Grand Prix wrestling was where you'd find sweet daddy Alright, and he shouts out You know back to the Toronto Star of course because I got Ed Keenan here in the basement Norm DeCosta would write pieces about this for the Toronto Star. Excellent Norm DeCosta.

So there you go. Recycle my electronics, Ed, you know this, but if you have old cables, old devices, old electronics, TVs, printers, whatever the heck is going on there, you don't throw that in the garbage because the chemicals end up in our landfill. You go to recycle my electronics dot ca put in your postal code and find out where you can drop it off to be properly recycled. You got it Ed? I got it. Another note from Andrew Ward, but this was sent a while ago and then things have rapidly changed since he sent this in here. During the course of this podcast? Yeah,

well in the course of the past quarter, because it's every quarter you drop by. He actually requested the Moncho Man impression months ago, but then he says, how in the name of F, he said the F word, Ed, I won't repeat it now, who knows who's listening at home, how in the name of F, and again,

he wrote this months ago, does Metrolinx chair Phil Verster still have a job? So that's what he wrote and on that front there is news from the last quarter regarding Metrolinx CEO. Yeah, he does still have a job it's just somewhere else. He resigned from Metrolinx to go take another job so So he's leaving on his own terms, but he was not fired. Certainly didn't get the projects built. Like Metrolinx runs the Go system, but it was created basically to build these large-scale transit

projects in the Greater Toronto Area, and it has been a comprehensive failure at that. I'm trying to remember as I speak here, it built the UP Express. Bink! Success. I'm trying to remember if there's another one they've opened. Huh. I can't think of one off the top of my head. I mean they have done some, a few new GO stations. They've been slowly electrifying some of the lines to increase service but you look at the large-scale LRT projects that were begun 12 15 years ago you've got the Eglinton Crosstown still waiting to find out if and when it's ever gonna open anything new sometime this year we expect the TTC has it budgeted to open in June because but they

they clarified that they don't have inside information they just need to have money in their budget to start operating it once it opens so they picked June as a likely potential possible date. Finch West now in the same limbo. In Mississauga the Here Ontario LRT also in the same limbo. In Mississauga, the Here Ontario LRT, also in the same limbo, right? It's just like... I, my understanding of this is that like, and it, this is like not Doug Ford is the bad guy, this is like Dalton McGinty's liberals created Metrolinx and and first oversaw the the start of all of this but the the infrastructure Ontario model behind it which the Auditor General in addition to Ontario Place had a lot to say about infrastructure Ontario and how their

procurement has been going and how disastrously these projects construction projects often work out in terms of their timing or their budget or both and it just seems like the whole premise of this kind of like public-private partnerships in the way that Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario have pursued them is a disaster that can't get anything built on time, seldom gets it built on budget, creates all kinds of problems and so there were problems with the older model where the government ran its own construction projects, like the TTC oversaw its own

construction. There were problems with that and things would go over budget and over time. But not to this scale. And even if it did happen to this scale, we had something we could do. We could fire the people responsible directly because that's the politicians, right? Now we don't have that. And so anyhow, Phil Verster has moved on and we'll have some other new Metrolinx CEO. Michael Lindsay. Well, Michael Lindsay is at least the interim head now, at least. He's supposed to be pushing the cross down overhead. He has been the president of Infrastructure Ontario for the last few years. So he's the guy who shut down the Ontario Science Centre. Is that what I'm hearing there? That's the guy.

Right. Well, or he's the guy who was overseeing the construction of the new one. Okay. Yeah. A sudden closure. Okay. So that's that. So Michael Lindsay is he did you say interim or is he the he's the new? My understanding there was he was appointed in an interim basis. Well he's lucky I think like to follow like the guy. Try and push the Eglinton cross down over the finish line while I think I imagine they're

they're seeking a new permanent head. Now it may turn out that he winds up being the permanent head, but I'm not sure that heading up Metrolinx is a promotion from heading up Infrastructure Ontario. I think he may... Like, that's where I... I don't have insider information, but my understanding when he was appointed was that he was going to immediately be overseeing this in the short term while they find a new CEO in the long term.

Okay. Okay, Stacey, he's got a little bar there. I think, you know, it's, what do they say, under, overachieve, under promise, overachieve or whatever. Like, I feel like a little bar there. He can show some success. Well, you know, they solved that. Rick Leary solved that by just stop promising anything.

Right, that's right. You start the construction projects, but just don't don't make any claims about when no dates open. Yeah. Right. Here's a team. So Toronto's got a new and I'm gonna ask you in a moment about the Toronto Scepters, our PWHL team, but the WNBA team has a name and I'm curious for your thoughts on the name Toronto tempo you know it's all right you don't think of that a Ford car now I do know I mean it not to be confused with the topaz as I recall these four yeah of the yeah he's topaz I was just considering that as a name for a Toronto basketball team too so

they should rename the hockey team. I think Toronto Tampa will be okay. I mean I think my personal weird, like it's like a personal preference but I like things that are like, like I'm less of a fan of abstract concepts as a name for your team. So like the Utah Jazz or the Magic, Ottawa Charge or the Orlando Magic or the Toronto Tempo. I like, like, I mean the Leafs is a weird one because a leaf is a strange thing to name your team after, but still like the Leafs or the Canadians or the Yankees or the Red Sox. Like these are a thing. Right. Like and the plural has an S on it.

Right. So it's like Rob Del Mundo who covers hockey. He agrees 100. He was by I think he's a big PWHL supporter and then we were talking about the tempo and he agrees with you 100%. Yeah. But I mean but I don't hate it the sound of it and I'm pretty sure that it's gonna age well as a name like it's gonna feel like Like those teams we were just naming like the magic or whatever that right then it's gonna come to To define the team like the Raptors. Yeah. Yeah, we all hate I think most well Raptors was ridiculous when they named it But then it becomes less ridiculous the further we get from right Jurassic Park and Barney the dinosaur being the pop culture elements of the moment. No

Absolutely, I was at a Raptor game recently And they they broke the quarters into decades So like the first quarter was the night was the 90s, right? So you had a lot of like Damon Stoudemire and stuff they were celebrating and then they did the 2000s and then they did the 2010s and then which is of course that's it. That's the decade we actually won the championship and then the fourth quarter was the 2020s and I thought that was kind of interesting how they broke that down now now, okay

So the Toronto tempo, how are the Toronto scepters doing? Well, they're having a rough go of it to start the season here. They only have two wins in their first seven games. Oh, but and it's an interesting I mean, so Natalie Spooner has been out in injured all season. I understand she skated with the team for the first time. Like in the within the past week and that she feels like her recovery is on track, but there's been no time or date given for when she's coming back.

She had like ACL surgery after having her knee injured in the playoffs last year. And that is after like one of the most dominant seasons any Toronto athlete has ever had in any pro sport, right? Like not just leading the league in goals and dragging her team to first place, but like, like, like she scored more goals. Like, like her, her... The margin by which she led the scoring race, proportionally, was as high as, as Austen Matthews scoring 70 goals in the NHL like she scored like

More than double as many goals as anybody else in the league, right? It's like she was just a dominant This is like when Babe Ruth was hitting like 27 homers and the rest of league was hitting like 21 homers like there's yeah Or like the size of the gap and so Toronto really misses her and in particular because like we haven't had a lot of other shooters on the team the Toronto Scepters and so You know the game against Ottawa the other day was a good example where they outshot their opponents 36 to 13 and Lost 3 to 1 right um and and lost three to one, right? And so they need some

finishers. Like I just started to notice, and maybe this is too granular for like this kind of podcast, but I like, they're dominating like possession and they're getting a lot of shots, but a lot of their shots are like bristers from the point. You know, you ever watched the Toronto Maple Leafs powerplay and you're like, how after a minute and a half of passing it, back and forth and back and forth and up and around, do we wind up with Morgan

Riley as the shooter and why is he taking a wobbly little wrist shot? Why? Why? And I don't, I don't, I feel like a lot of Toronto scepters plays wind up with that same wobbly little wrist shot. And I think't, I don't, I feel like a lot of Toronto Scepter's plays wind up with that same wobbly little wrist shot.

Some often they're making one too many passes. I counted in one game the other day like probably five times that they whiffed on one timers, like just bobbled the puck. So but they're still playing well and they did make a big trade just within the past week. Jocelyn Lerock, who was the first player Toronto ever drafted Is the oldest player in the league was a number one defender for the Leafs? She went to Ottawa

alongside Victoria Park who was more of a fourth lines forward for us and and in return we're getting Two players a defender and a forward who are sort of younger. The defender, forgive me, I just encountered her the other day. I'm trying to remember her name because it's just slipping out of me. But she was, she's subbed right in at the first line. She's more of an offensive defenseman and she, alongside Renata Fast, is probably our first pair right now and she looks really solid. And Skamura, who is the forward, hasn't scored a lot with Ottawa this year, but is like

maybe more of a scoring threat than Victoria Bach is. Maybe has some finishing... I have names for you, by the way. ...of both of them on Team USA. Yeah team USA yeah go ahead okay so the defender is Savannah Harmon Harmon right yes and the power forward is Haley Scamura yeah so so that's what I think I think they're just shifting some things up we got a different style style of defender here who can maybe quarterback a power play and we've got somebody who can be a forward on the top two lines and maybe has some potential finish and you know but I mean I think the coach Troy Ryan too just has to make things work like come up with a system like Jamie Watts who has been a

pleasure to watch on this team, she led Ottawa in scoring last year before signing with the Scepters in the offseason. You almost said relief. She scored a couple goals this year. But she was like a dominant scorer with Ottawa last year and she's such a dynamic player to watch. She almost like, she has some of that Mitch Marner not in that she's a big passer although she does pass the puck but she's a good shooter as well but watching her sort of

dance like how she how she goes around people the way she dangles back and forth like it's it's kind of got flashes that there and and so and then I think with like Emma Maltes who was like a powerful part of the team last year and continues to be this year and Sarah Nurse like they should be able to figure out how to put the puck in the net right and Hannah Miller and and so I just hope they start to be able to do that soon because if they're still a fun team to watch but last year they got off to a rough start and then they won 11 in a row and and placed first overall right so healthy spooner though so yeah we'll see we'll get another big

thorough update from Ed Keenan in three months time because I learned all my stuff just news from you okay home stretch here are you okay we got like yeah yeah yeah you're rocking right cuz I am assigning you homework which is that you're gonna listen to the Amber Morley episode of Toronto Mike I just think it oh boy okay so she was only here. It was like December 20, 20, 24. And we talked for like an hour and you should listen. So you talk about that bike lanes.

Yeah, we talk about she's going to barricade. She's going to solve it. Yeah, I mean, yeah, we're going to chain ourselves to something. I'm going to find something to chain ourselves to. But it's I want you to listen to that and then let me know your thoughts. And speaking of that episode, in that episode, I once again told Amber Morley how desperately I'd like to be able to bike to the island, the Toronto Island. Like this is a thing. So, and I think it was since your last appearance. So you want a bridge or a tunnel?

I want a bridge or a tunnel. Like, yeah, at a bridge. And you wrote, I think you wrote a piece about that Toronto ferry crash that injured 20 people and that it could have been much much worse and we need to shore up that ferry service anyways. But we need to add a bridge. What say you Ed Keenan? Yeah, I mean I agree. Like I think we should have some kind of fixed length there where pedestrians and cyclists can easily get over there. It's ridiculous that our ferries, first of all, are so old and have so such little capacity and it's ridiculous that it's taking years and years to replace them. But in addition to that, I just think it's ridiculous that we just don't have some way to walk or bike or get emergency

vehicles over there that doesn't involve these hundred-year-old ferries, right? And especially given how short the gaps are on both the east and west side. Now there is a tunnel that allows you to walk over to the island right now, but only to the island airport, right? Yes, yes. You can easily walk underground to the island airport, but because of the security of the runway and all of that, you would have to walk across the runway to get to the other part of, like even if they would open the fence and let you out onto Hanlon's Point Island, like you just, it's not viable there. So unless they close the airport, which they're

not doing. But it does seem like on the east end there should be an easy enough way to build a bridge or a tunnel. However, every time I suggested or anybody else suggested, I hear from lots of people who say it's gonna be much more logistically difficult than you think because the bridge either would have to be like raised and lowered every ten minutes or whatever. But or also it would have to be like raised and lowered and they have those ten minutes or whatever But or also it would have to or else it would have to be like astoundingly high and yeah now I've seen proposals for a floating bridge I've seen other things but I just think like it makes so much sense to me that it would just that that and it

And we should just make it happen like or at least what what the city's doing now I understand at least and maybe amber morally talked about this is like At least getting a report on it as an option she mentioned right because It's it's fine for people to say oh, this is not feasible But I'd like some like expert opinion on how unfeasible it is like what would it cost what would be involved because then it then We're looking at a thing where we say, okay, it's not going to be easy, but it would cost X amount and this is what it would look like. Now we're making a decision on whether it's worth it or not, right?

That's a debate we can actually have. Right. Versus, oh, too hard. Like in what way? Right? And like what exactly are, so I'm glad we're getting that report in principle It seems to me like we're long overdue to have that and and in general whether it's a fixed link a bridge a tunnel or something else

The islands should be far more accessible to people and like anybody if you go to New York City as a tourist mm-hmm people will tell you What you should do Instead of taking the ferry to the Statue of Liberty to Liberty Island where you pay a lot to go on the ferry And it's like a tourist trappy thing and then your view from the base of the Statue of Liberty is like It's like you're not really saying much of the statue. Instead, get on the Staten Island Ferry, which is free, and it takes you across to Staten Island. It's a commuter ferry. It's not, its primary purpose is not tourists like me riding on it, but then you drive right past the Statue of Liberty and have the best view of it, get great pictures from

right up close on the way to Staten Island, then you can have a like Shake Shack Burger and get back on the next ferry back to Manhattan. You have got these great views of Manhattan, of Battery Park, like lower Manhattan from the water, you know, and so it's actually great, but if you've ever taken that, you realize like, oh, this is a different class of vessel than what we call a ferry in Toronto like this is like a giant boat that fits thousands of people on it they walk on one side they walk on the off the other side like it's it's the size of like like like an apartment building right and it comes

like every ten minutes or something and then you just walk on and you you go over and walk off and then you well when we're replacing our ferries to like because they're way over capacity and people have to line up for hours and hours why don't we get something big like that why don't we get something that's so fast to load like that and my bridge and how come how come the ferry for commuters who are going to and from work in New York City can be free? And our ferries to the islands are not free. Yeah, and any any how. Well I have a kayak now Ed, so I'm gonna be kayaking to that

island. Okay, so J- I mean I do find the old ferries we have charming to ride on. There is like an old-timey kind of like, it makes it an event. But I don't think that overwhelms all the other. Well, here's a fun fact. You might know this of course, cause you're a learned individual, Mr. Keenan, but J-Ho says the islands used to be a fixed link, a spit until a big storm separated it in the late 1800s.

So we were just kids back then. So we don't remember, but that's a fun fact. Yeah, ways before my time, separated it in the late 1800s so we were just kids back then. Yeah, ways before my time but it is true that you used to be able to walk over there. Right and he also reminds us and we've mentioned this in the past but the late Raymond Moriama who we spoke about when he passed away but he did build that science center to last 200 years. So that was his plan. Yeah. And he said, and his architecture firm has repeated that they think it, there's no reason it shouldn't last 200 years or a thousand years if it's properly maintained.

Right? Again, there's no room for this sensible logic in this administration. Okay. So, and Moose Grumpy, cause we were talking about Metrolinx, Moose Grumpy, who lives in Mississauga, says that the Mississauga LRT has become a lingering joke. So I guess that that'll replace the Eglinton Crosstown or whatever. That's that here Ontario one. And yeah, it is it is now in the same category of garbage fire as the crosstown.

Speaking of garbage fires, there was a picture that was taken yesterday of a cyber truck on somebody who had explosives in the cyber trunk outside of Trump Tower. Did you know those cyber trucks, they lock when they're on fire and explosion? They actually lock. This seems like a bad idea to me like this is a problem that's been with Tesla's in particular I understand and so there's like software that that obviously got computer yeah right. And so when they lose power or the software malfunctions, you can no longer unlock the doors. And from what I've heard, and I am not an expert in this, but I was reading about it

in the case of another fire where bystanders were trying to rescue somebody who was trapped in their burning vehicle here in Toronto. Right. That there is like a manual override, but it's not easy. It's not like a handle in the door, like you and I might have in our car where you just pull the handle. Like inside the trunk, if you're locked in the trunk,

you can, yeah, yeah. But in this case, you have to sort of like remove a panel and like reach in and pull a lever. It's not intuitive. It's like the sleek design of this means that that's hidden away and you would have to know in advance and you'd have to have the wherewithal in an emergency and remember it and find it. So it does seem like this is a significant shortcoming.

Apparently it's supposed to unlock in those cases. I think, I think, because I'm not looking this up. I'm not reading from notes. I wasn't prepared to talk about this, but my understanding from what I've read and what I've just described to the best of my memory was that in the best situation in an emergency, it should unlock, but it like. But this terrorist activity, this gentleman loses.

Yeah, yeah. So they. This terrorist, yeah. Yeah, so yesterday at the Trump Tower in Vegas, outside the Trump Tower, which is, you know, a lot of people spoke. This is really on the nose for the first day of January, 2025, to have the cyber truck on fire outside of the Trump.

Kind of two on the nose, right? The writers need to be more creative with this one. But the fact is they had to, the quote I saw from the emergency person said that they that Elon Musk Did them a favor by unlocking the vehicle like something? Yeah, like I don't know if there's some code or whatever like and I was just thinking that You probably don't want to like auto lock your car if there's a fire inside. I gotta just say like Like maybe we were getting old but I am also a guy

who's uncomfortable, like I'm uncomfortable with the fact that the computer will lock my car, lock me in my car, right? And that there's no physical, easy physical way for me to override that, right? Right. I'm also uncomfortable with the fact that an executive at Tesla gets to decide whether my car gets unlocked or not and can remotely just unlock my car. Right. Like has direct control, like can like reach into my vehicle and override the decision I'm making. It's smart anything right? Like even creepier though than the system just being able to do it. Like it's like, like I find there are shortcomings to like oh Apple is updating the software and now my phone is down and all of that. But it's like there's this automatic process.

Whereas the real sense that like you're part of this weird surveillance state is like, Elon Musk gets to do a manual override on your personal vehicle, right? Like is like, this is weird. Like for the first time in the history of Tesla I believe this 2024 was the first time in the history of Tesla that they didn't increase Sales year over year like and I mean you can connect the PR over the trump was PR But also this big push this big the noise and I've been seeing them quite a bit in the GTA because I noticed them because they're Really really ugly, but cyber trucks have arrived. Okay, they're really really ugly but cyber trucks have arrived okay they're really ugly and my kids will say if I see one I'm like what

an ugly car well they just look so mean and destructive they don't look like they have good sight lines I don't trust them when near my kids when we're biking or driving I'm walking column I went to see one before they were before I ever saw they got shipped here I saw one at the car show yeah and I went there specifically to see it because from the drawings and it's just like, like it looks like a cool thing. Like what I would have drawn thinking it was cool in grade four. Yeah. If you were 10 years old. In 1985. Yeah. Right. Let's say after you saw Back to the Future and you were like, let me make a big pickup truck version and it's gonna be all steel and then you draw the

lines, it's like you could make it out of like blocks. And so like maybe that's a bit on the nose of Elon Musk as like an overgrown rich baby. Like is that a giant troll? Oh, and it's armored, it's made of steel and it's bulletproof and all of that. But beyond that like so One of the frustrating things I thought because they really are ugly in person. I think yeah I mean my taste is subjective but like I I

Am somebody my daughter and I was only 16. So she was she's not lived through a lot of other eras of cars, but like, it's just like why do all the cars have to look the same now? Why do all these cars have the same general air dynamics? And there are reasons, like gas mileage reasons and all of that, but it's like we look at these old classic cars and we've gotten sucked into a few reality shows where they restore classic cars on TV and it's just like, there are so's so many beautiful weird different shapes of cars and some of them are ugly and some of them whatever so like in principle i'm really a fan of like even if it's ugly at least it's different

and yet the cyber truck is like obnoxiously uh different well it's three things it's ugly it's impractical and it's expensive like it's allractical, and it's expensive. Like it's all three of those things. So if you're like two out of three that ain't bad right? Like me let's head or whatever. But it's apparently anybody who needs that kind of a pickup uh there's better value and you'll have it's not good for that purpose. So it's not functional at all. So the only reason you buy all these videos that are viral of them getting stuck in the mud in the snow, like they're incapable of- The defroster will brick it or something.

You get all, you know, it's just, you know, get her popcorn and watch the show. But to me, the only reason you're gonna buy a cyber truck is because people like me fucking hate it. Like that's where rad is like, right? Am I right? Yeah, I used to think that of a hummers too. Like part of the reason to have a hummer

is to just tell everybody, I'm a fucking dick. Deal with it, right? So I've got the money and this is a status thing. And yeah, I like Donald Trump and I like Elon Musk and I'm gonna drive this because it drives you bat shit crazy or whatever. A lot of people have, apparently there's a big business now

in Tesla bumper stickers that say, I bought it before we knew, right say, I bought it before we knew, right? Or I bought it before we knew. And again, I try to separate because you're right, because humble Howard Glassman just got a Tesla. I got a guy across the street who drives a Tesla. And it wasn't that long ago.

You can only go back maybe six, seven years when a lot of sensible people I know were very excited that they were saving up because they wanted to buy a Tesla. Yeah, yeah. I think you don't even have to go back that far. Like basically Elon has the world's biggest troll and slash now Lex Luthor like... How far back you gotta go? Because I think you only gotta go back... When did he buy Twitter? Yeah, I was gonna say when he bought Twitter so like probably three four years ago. Four years ago. But before that it's like there was some perceived virtuousness to buy an electric right

fuels the Highest and most advanced kind of electric cars that were coming out of your time. So it's like yeah I'm I'm making an investment in the future, right? Right, but now I do now I think if there's somebody I I cared for and liked them, and then they said, hey, I got a new car. I'd be, oh, what'd you get? Oh, I got an e-vehicle. I'm like, okay, which one did you get?

And they said, the Cybertruck. Honestly, God. And again, I don't think there's any Cybertruck owners listening to Toronto Miked or reading the Toronto Star. I don't think these are things that Cybertruck owners would ever do actually. So we're preaching to the converted here, I think. But I would basically, like their stock would ever do actually. So we're not we're preaching to the converted here I think. But I would basically like their stock would absolutely plummet. Like I would be like, oh you're a cyber truck owner. And that would be kind of like finding out that they were like

anti-vax and pro-Trump and they wanted to be the 51st. They wanted us to become the 51st state. It's all of those things bundled up in this ugly, ugly car. So it's a car that makes a statement. It makes a statement. There you go. It's worth the 75K. Although I did read today because they're very, you know, Tesla's tricky with telling you sales per model. Like they group a lot of models together.

And so I was reading this publication that kind of tracks it closely and they were trying to find out how many cyber trucks were delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024. And they've narrowed it down, they think between nine and 12,000, they think, okay. And the crux of this article, which I only read this morning, was what a low number that is compared to expectations, okay, because I guess Elon was touting half a million at some point or whatever. And now, so nine to 12 of these things were delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024. But'm reading this article and all I'm sitting there thinking is I can't believe 9 to 12 thousand people Forked over whatever it is 75k or whatever to own one of these now. Where do you put it? Where do you park it?

Oh my goodness. Okay, we can't keep going on shiny. It's shiny as hell. Don't use the Defrost or though because that will brick it. So I was gonna hear again. It's like, it's like if, but it matches the ROM. Oh, the crystal. Yeah, yeah. They're kind of like, yeah, it's similar design sensibility. They're both chromie, I guess shiny things. Okay, so we like I said, we're gonna do 90 to 120 minutes. I see we're at 120 minutes, but I wanted to ask you on the way out and then you you have like a period where you can you can share anything that was on your mind on your drive here and maybe we covered everything. But I'm just wondering as we enter 2025, how's Olivia Chow doing?

Uh I think she's doing okay. I spoke with her before the Christmas break and she seemed to be doing alright. But no, I mean I think we're going back into budget season and I think we're going to find out now. I think there are a lot of people who are progressives in this city who in theory are Olivia Chow supporters who may have voted for her or or either enthusiastically or reluctantly because they thought maybe Josh Matlow or some other progressive candidate was their people but like Who are disappointed that she's not picking big fights with Doug Ford right that she's not more visibly standing up for them on the on the things that they think she should be there, standing up for them on. And her answer on that would

be, and I think like explicitly, but I also think the more I've come to understand her philosophy of how political movements should work and how change works and all of that is that she's she's got a few things that are really important to her that she thinks she can move the needle on less controversially right as long as she doesn't become too controversial and so those are things like the school nutrition programs and affordable housing rent supplements and and like getting new homeless shelters opened and and a bunch of other things that like last year's monumental tax increase which is really the biggest political battle she took on

and it turned out to be easy easy win can can like fun and that those will be lasting things and then she's trying to keep peace with the premier and upper levels of government and get them to fund more of the things like transit expansion and and more affordable housing projects and all of that and so she's trying to get more with honey than she would get with vinegar right and and so the thing about a strategy like that is we have to start seeing it pay off right like we have to

start seeing more of that results. And then I think the other thing is that she's coming into her second budget now. And last year she did the thing that for generations no Toronto politician whatever, whether you would say it was impossible. You just can't do it. You can't raise taxes 10 percent, 9 percent, right? Like it does, you know, and she did. And now I think a year later, maybe there are a lot of us who were trying to evaluate, did I get, like did city services improve enough? Are the potholes filled? Like are we catching back up? And like maybe it's too soon to tell that after less than a year

of paying that higher rate of taxes. But again, it's going to be interesting to see if she's looking at another 10% increase this year or if it's back to closer to the rate of inflation. So I mean, I think she's been doing okay. I think she's been disappointing some people because she hasn't taken on... she hasn't done big flashy things of her own yet. She's done a lot of smaller things that are meaningful to her. And she hasn't, you know, fought the big fights that she won. But now the next big thing is going to be this budget.

And we'll wait and see how that goes too. So. Well, I can't wait for your next visit, Ed. These are always educational, informative, entertaining. You're the real deal, man. I hope so. I hope so. So, yeah, I'm like a windup doll though, right?

You just like pull the string and I'll just keep talking about whatever it is until you're distracted or something else. You know me, I make sure I get my stuff that I want to talk about, but then you know we have a little room to dance a little bit. On the note of the Cybertruck though, and I agree 100% with this comment from YYZGord, because it's all I think about when I see the Cybertruck. He says that the Cybertruck reminds him of the Homer, And you might remember when Homer's brother ran the car manufacturer in Detroit or whatever and then let Homer design a car for the everyman. And

whatever Homer wanted for that car went and they ended up with a car that was ugly. It wasn't useful. What's the word I'm looking for? It was impractical and it was expensive. And that was the Homer. And YYZGORD cord says this but I agree. That's what happens when you let an idiot design a car So if I see you next quarter and driving up in your new cyber truck, I'm gonna tell you to park it somewhere else There's no room for it here. But I think I think You know if they understand their market properly like what happens when you let an idiot design a car? Could be their tagline. Nine to 12,000 people got theirs delivered last quarter.

And I would love to have a beer with those guys at Great Lakes and just find out if there's any regret that you spent this money on this big thing. You don't know where to park it. I bet you it's only a matter of time before underground parking lots ban it because it blows, it's got like fire issues or whatever. And I would be curious whether it was worth it just to own the libs, just to make people like me go, what an ugly, ugly car, maybe it is worth it.

Depends on which money you have. Well, you get a lot of attention anyway. And you get to be associated with Elon Musk and all that cool stuff. Hey now, and you get to be associated with Elon Musk and all that cool stuff. Hey now. And that! Elon's living on the property. Not just associated with him, but he can personally come in and unlock it. Yeah, yeah. I lost my code. Elon. Elon, baby. You just tweet at him. He is smart enough to stay. Hey, could you get the engine warming up for me? He's smart enough to live on the property of Mar-a-Lago in like a like Cato Kaelin because

as you might know, the last person to talk to Donald Trump is the one who has the most influence. So if Elon ever went home to see one of his 25 kids or something, Trump would hear from someone else that Elon thinks he's the president, get rid of that guy and that would be it. So he's gonna live. What a time we live in. Can you believe this is real? It's like we scripted this.

I wouldn't believe it if it was a script. Yeah, well, because it's not even a very good script. It's just like absurd. And that, that brings us to the end of our 1,610th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. That brings us to the end of our 1610th show. Go to torontomike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. Go to torontostar.com and subscribe. Do it. Good people like Ed Keenan and David Ryder

and all these wonderful people are there. Much love to all who made this possible. That's Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, RecycleMyElectronics.ca, and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow when Cam Gordon and Tyler Campbell, the VP of Sales drops by for the quarterly FOTM cast.

We'll discuss everything from the last quarter in the TMU. See you all then! Music