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The Mole.
104 Plays1 month ago
Why would anyone want to breed a GIANT mole? We discover that answer plus we chat about the Tragically Hip doc, No Dress Rehearsal and we discuss the tension on Parliament Hill surrounding non confidence motions! Don't miss this episode!
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Transcript
Introduction & Success Reflection
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that continues to set the bar in the world of podcasts. My name is Jody Jenkins. My name is Tony Clement. And we are on the heels of a banger of a show last week. Woo. Yeah. With like feedback. Seems great. Yeah, the feedback from having Blake Richards on. Yeah. Man, he's like a ratings machine.
00:00:48
Speaker
It was great to have him on again. We had a nice chat and you you guys have a good rapport because you've known him for a long time too. Yeah, yeah we've known each other for, not either you've known him longer obviously. Yes, but still, yeah. Did you know him well when you were in there? Yeah, because we ah he chaired the Uh, the tourism caucus. Okay. Yeah. And of course, which was big for Banff Airdrie and also big for Muskoka. So we had a lot in common that way. Okay. Excellent.
Sponsors & Partnerships
00:01:21
Speaker
Yeah. Well, each week this show is brought to you by municipal solutions. Of course, our presenting sponsor since day one, John mutton and the crew doing a wonderful job there. And Tony, I know that you can expand on municipal solutions and what they do.
00:01:35
Speaker
Yes, they are your project management team for rezonings and development approvals. Municipal Solutions cuts through the municipal red tape to bring your project to fruition. Go to municipalsolutions.ca and they will help you out.
00:01:55
Speaker
And we also want to thank our our other main sponsor KWM Consulting. ah They have been in the lobbying and advocacy business for over 23 years. They support companies ah to deal with governments on all issues. The company believes in honest and ethical advice and the value of hard work.
00:02:16
Speaker
contact Kelly Mitchell at KWM consulting dot.com or just call Kelly at 416-728-8287. And we also want to thank our terrestrial radio partner. That is of course, Hunter's Bay radio, Hunter's Bay radio.com. Every Saturday morning they reproduce and rebroadcast our and many other fine podcasts.
Evolution of Radio
00:02:42
Speaker
You know, speaking of terrestrial radio, there's an industry site I follow and Tony, if you're in, you're in radio, you like being following everything broadcast and you should check it out as well. It's called milkmanunlimited.com. Okay. Not sure if you've ever heard of that, but no John Milky is the name of the guy that, uh,
00:03:01
Speaker
that runs that site. And it's literally everything to do with broadcasting and in many capacities. But what what I was going to say is talking about terrestrial radio is the hits keep coming. And we've mentioned it about how the landscape of radio has changed. And I noticed, you know, just a couple of days ago, you know, there was a newsroom at West that was given that basically everyone was released and then there was, yeah I think it was Stingray.
00:03:22
Speaker
uh radio had released some people as well like it just it seems to be a non-stop line of downsizing ah within some of these entities and i'm not sure that's going to end anytime soon but it's it's interesting to follow that to follow that business it is and i think i've mentioned on air before how am radio is under threat completely as a medium because uh the electric vehicles don't like including AM radio cars because it interferes with the electric currents in some way, just not those frequencies. So I think there's a bill before the US Congress to mandate EVs include AM radio in their mix, ah and in their technology, ah but you know who knows whether that's going to pass and meanwhile they're churning out
00:04:15
Speaker
all these EVs without AM radio. So yeah, it's ah it's a tough time right now. You're absolutely right. You were in the radio business. Did you so did you see it? like ah did you did Did you get a feeling that things were dropping off a cliff when you were there? I think i mean i think it's it varies across different entities. I mean, you had the corporate radio, then you had the independent radio. And I worked with a group that would be classified as independent. I mean, they have 20 plus stations. The group was called NBC Media, but I think that even they experienced growth, but they were doing things. I will say this, NBC was doing things that other stations kind of turned their nose up at, but eventually they started doing it as an example, because I started at NBC in 2008. And eight and
00:05:04
Speaker
One of the things they were doing was they had a morning guy. His name was Jamie. I was doing multiple stations from one location. right Right. Right. And at the time, you know, the bigger radio stations were like, oh, that's so lame because, you know, they worked at entities where, you know, if you had, you know, if Rogers had 20 stations, well, they had 20 morning crews. Well, you know, NBC had, you know, say five or six stations at the time, they had one morning crew. Right. So eventually that the 20 morning shows, the price of that caught up to those big corporate entities. Right.
00:05:36
Speaker
And so anyway, I just say that I think it's, I think the the landscape continues to evolve. It's how you move with it. But I fully expect that you're going to continue to see, it's not a business I would certainly get into if I was talking to young people. Yeah. If you're going to radio school, cause there are radio, radio colleges in, in Toronto. Yeah. Well, even at Loyalist, I took it at Loyalist, which was a, you know, a, an award winning.
00:06:01
Speaker
broadcasting program and guess what it that prop program was eliminated i think two years ago yeah yeah it's gone or sorry put on hold but i doubt it comes back yeah exactly and uh you know uh maybe there'll be podcast courses or something like that well that's that's kind of what you know, you could see maybe, um but even then, I don't know how close we
Podcast Growth & Content
00:06:21
Speaker
are to that either. I mean, I know you send me a lot of articles on the podcast thing and the monetization seems to be growing and more and more people are listening to it. I don't doubt it. It's just, is it, it's not, you know, it's not, you know, it's not the same. And obviously, I mean, for a podcast company, you don't need bricks and mortar, right? No, you don't.
00:06:39
Speaker
No, you don't. It's just the reality. That's the reality. You need ah you need a decent mic and ah good content is what you need more than anything else. Well, hopefully at hopefully you don't show up for one of your rocking shindigs at Hunters Bay and you're like, wait a sec, my key doesn't work. I don't get, and oh yeah, about that Tony. yeah We want to have a chat with you.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's i was I did my show last Saturday and the ads were still there, Jody. We had lots of ad content. I can assure you of that. And ah there were even government of Ontario ads, they're there're all of a sudden advertising a lot. There might be ah an election in the offing, who knows? Yeah. I want to chat in a couple of seconds about the the political showdown that was happening, you know, a couple of days ago in parliament and So there's more
The Tragically Hip Exploration
00:07:25
Speaker
to come. But one thing I did want to mention right off the top that maybe you, I'm surprised we haven't talked about it because obviously we chat quite a bit off off the show, but I've been binge watching a show as of late and I just want to see if you can guess what it is. Okay. Is it Bridgerton? Just came out. I think there's only, I think there's only four episodes. Only four episodes. The tragically hip.
00:07:51
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. so Sorry. Yeah. And i've i've i've ah I've watched the first episode so far ah and um it's on. I'm going to complete the entire thing. I couldn't get over how long it was. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. I don't know whether they used an abridged version or whether they did all four. No, I think it was all four and then that's what people were like. Holy, a four-hour documentary, but then it was and then it was put out there that it was actually four separate episodes that will come out. but wouldn have I was blown away. i mean It was great. I mean, the first episode, which was the beginnings of the band in Kingston, was and I saw them in Kingston in 1986. Yeah. at at the I think it was at the Kingston Arena or somewhere like that.
00:08:35
Speaker
And ah I happened to be in Kingston for something or other and we just went we went to see them and they were just sort of breaking at that point. But it yeah it just brings back so many memories and the funny thing ah is that their first managers were Jake Gold and Alan Gregg. You yeah saw them both being interviewed, right? Alan Gregg was one of my first summer ah summer job bosses. I worked at his polling company called Decima Research.
00:09:08
Speaker
And but meanwhile, he was doing this side gig for the hip and I have one of the original tragically hip t-shirts. It's actually a long sleeve t-shirt from that era but that I got from Alan. And, ah you know, i when he he hired me in the summer of 1984.
00:09:28
Speaker
And he was doing all of the polling for Brian Mulroney, who was the opposition leader at the time when he had a crushing majority of 211 seats ah in September 4th, 1984. So all that summer I was working on the polling as a summer student.
00:09:44
Speaker
ah for for the decimal research. And I remember showing up, Jody, the first day on the job, like I was like, wow, I'm a decimal research. So I showed up in a three piece suit as a 23 year old. yeah And then my office was sort of just this small cubicle, but it was right on the way where Alan would go into his CEO office. So I'm there in a three piece suit the first day.
00:10:09
Speaker
Alan walks by to say hello. He is wearing ah leather shorts and ah and a Hawaiian shirt. And i'm fit I said to myself, F this, I'm not wearing in this suit ever again in this office. It felt so weird. But anyway, ah he was a great boss and it was ah great to see him being interviewed for, you know,
00:10:32
Speaker
And I don't know if you caught this, but the reason Alan Greg was interested in the tragically hip and managing them was because he received a tape from one of their performances from ah the late former Senator Hugh Siegel. Yes, I did see that part. Yes. i Who resided in Kingston, of course. So, yeah, anyway, it was ah i'm i'd learned to I I'm learning so I thought I knew a lot about the hip. I'm learning so much more about them. So it's great. Yeah, I just like the um the footage that obviously has never been released, learning about the history of the band. I didn't realize, again, I wasn't aware of them until the late 90s. Basically when I lived in Kingston, like 98, 99, when I was going to St. Lawrence there, working working in the hub, but i I was blown away. I didn't realize how old they were. but yeah What's his name? the Is it i
00:11:26
Speaker
ah Bobby Baker, or Rob Baker, whatever. that Yeah, yeah. Like he said, I just looked him up on Wikipedia because I was interested. He's 62. Not that that's crazy old. It's just like, I was like, oh, shoot, I thought like these guys are the same age as me. So. Yeah, no, it's very interesting. And I'd totally forgotten about the the the horn guy that they had in the band for Davis Manning. Yeah. Yes. Forgotten about him. I didn't even know about that. I was watching that. I'm like, what? I hadn't even, yeah. Like Ion, it's funny because when I first got introduced to the hip, I think it was on the album fully completely. Okay. ah Maybe Road Apples, but it was interesting because I didn't even know, I think it was fully completely. I didn't even know that they had albums before that.
00:12:11
Speaker
Oh, up up to here is a still hanging out. Yeah, I know. this That's the thing is I didn't. And that's when I started. Oh, wow. These these guys have been around for a while. And then, of course, when you're in Kingston, you hear about all these places. They've played like, you know, like they say in Alfie's pub and yeah all these like just little, little hole in the wall spots. And it's kind of cool. And then you see the video and the footage and I'm going back to where they started. And it's just interesting. And it's a great, it's a great, really well done, I guess, by Gord's brother, I think. is Yes. Mike Downey, I believe. mike Yeah, yeah, yeah. So i I really recommend it. And it's just a piece of Canadian history that music history that should be
00:12:51
Speaker
should see the light of day. So I'm glad. And by the way, i when I saw his brother, Mike Downey, because I think he makes a appearance a couple of times on the on camera, ah because most of the times he's obviously behind the camera, but he looks exactly like Gord. I thought. Yeah. that's Good point. Pretty uncanny. So anyway, it's a good good good watch if you're into it. I mean, it's funny, they and without giving too much away, they they they talk about the whole um premise that why you know that people say, why didn't they ever make it in the States? They addressed that in one of the episodes. Yeah. And I'm sure that's something that you've probably encountered before anyway and read about, but it was interesting to hear them on packet because that's that's the one thing I always talk about with the hip is like, how come they never made it in the States? And it's interesting to hear what they have to say and kind of change my outlook um on it. And were in that in mind with are in line with that, I saw a funny post this morning.
00:13:47
Speaker
Someone posted a Beaverton clip that said, you know, new Tragically Hip ah documentary is is is is amazing, doing well. A major question remains, how will it do in the US? That's funny. Of course, that's the big divergence between them and Rush, right? Yeah. The other great Canadian band. So Rush was able to break through and are seen as a classic rock staple on the US radio stations.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yeah, just a lot of- They were broke. they you know that Maybe this is ah an interesting point. It probably didn't come up in the in the dock, but you know Rush was broken. like they they They made it onto to mainstream radio via a Cleveland radio station, not a Toronto radio station. Wow. So that may that may have been the difference right there. Who knows? Yeah, you just you just don't know. But all in all, definitely worth watching, I'm sure.
00:14:42
Speaker
Uh, some of you have already started the, the, to watch it. And some of you have already probably finished the entire. Let us know what you think of it.
Canadian Politics Dynamics
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah. Tell us, give us some feedback. You know what? Not that long ago, just a couple of days ago at the time of this recording, the showdown on parliament Hill has begun, I guess, kind of round one with the non confidence motions that are starting to be thrown out on opposition days and.
00:15:05
Speaker
it's It's getting very testy and very tense up there. and I'm sure. have you been Have you been in that situation with those types of? Well, we were on the receiving end. of You were on the receiving end, yes. that emotions but not Not pushing them through, but the the the difference is,
00:15:24
Speaker
Like, I remember ah Stephen Harper, I wasn't in the House of Commons from 2004 to 2006, but ah Stephen Harper ah did throw out non-confidence motions. Famously, one of them failed by one vote because Belinda Stronik crossed the floor. Remember that whole incident? Oh, yes, yes, yes. And that was the vote that the Paul Martin needed to save his government. But then the next non-confidence was successful.
00:15:49
Speaker
But the thing in those days was if you did a non-confidence vote motion and it failed, the egg was on your face as the opposition leader. you know That was a big win for the government. I don't think that's the same case now. No, it's almost reversed. It's reversed. Okay, I lost that one. I've got another one next week.
00:16:10
Speaker
ah and And no one's saying you're a big loser for you know losing the non-confidence vote this week. It's like, yeah, okay, that was the first shot at it, but let's let's go at it again. And so that's that's the difference that that I noticed in the psychology of these non-confidence votes.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting. The liberals are trying to paint the loss of that confidence motion as a you know a huge huge issue for the the opposition and saying that, you know well, we've just shown that the conservatives don't have the confidence of the country. like They're kind of painted that way, right? like But no one's no one's buying that. No, I don't think so. And I've been in Ottawa the last two weeks, as you know, and I was teaching a class this week at the University of Ottawa that I do as a guest lecturer now and again. But the mood in Ottawa, not that that's the country, far from it, but it's very interesting. You get the sense that it's like the end of the road, like that there is that palpable sense that things are ending for the current government. Hmm.
00:17:14
Speaker
Well, it'll be interesting to see. Apparently there's, well, no, their second one is today, isn't or it was is coming up next week. Coming up next week. A couple days. And then there's three more, like they have five opposition days before Christmas or something like that. so right That's the thing that people should know is that as part of our parliamentary tradition and the parliamentary rules, I should even say, the opposition party controls a certain number of days per month of the House of Commons business. It's not all 100% controlled by the government. And so they can, as a result of that, the opposition knows that on certain days, they can schedule their own motions and their own bills. ah and And those would command the attention of the House of Commons as nothing the government can do about it.
00:18:05
Speaker
Interesting.
Critique of Trudeau's Media Appearance
00:18:06
Speaker
And sticking with federal politics, I did watch a clip of Trudeau on Stephen Colbert, the late... Oh, you watched it? Well, I watched a clip of it. I just wanted to see. And I was... I mean, I... Oh my gosh. I mean, ah look, I have no...
00:18:23
Speaker
no problem saying obviously that I'm not a fan of the liberals, but I was watching that and I'm just like, really? like That Colbert is just like throwing him softballs and I don't know. Did you see any of it? No. i i Well, maybe I saw a clip on Twitter or something, but you know look, he's the prime minister of a country. he's yeah he's he's They're not going to throw him hardball questions. Let's be serious. They're going to be appreciative that he's he's on the program in the first place.
00:18:51
Speaker
So I wasn't surprised at that at all. And it also accords with Colbert's philosophical outlook. Oh, a hundred percent, because that was the other interesting thing I was noticing too, is like every time Trudeau said so anything, literally anything, yeah the crowd went crazy and like hooting and hollering and clapping for him. I'm like, who's in this audience? Now, now if if Trudeau really had cajones, he would have gone on Bill Maher.
00:19:15
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah you know and that was and Yeah. And and and Bill Maher is a liberal Democrat, yeah but he's tough on issues of wokeness yeah and those kinds of issues. And so he sees the, you know he's tough on Trump, he's tough on conservatives, but he's also tough on liberal Democrats too. yeah So that would have been, if if Trudeau would have gone on Bill Maher, I would have given him props for doing that.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, but there's no way that would have happened. There's no way that would have happened. and Exactly. I think Bill Maher's in LA too. I could be wrong. Now, what if he had gone on Oprah? would she have Would she have given him a hard time? I don't think so. Not many would have in liberal Hollywood. anyway so Yeah, I never, that's probably, I don't watch much Colbert. Actually, I don't watch Colbert. I don't even,
00:20:05
Speaker
What's his background again? Was he he was on like was he a writer or something? Well, he was on The Daily Show. The Daily Show. John Stewart. Yeah, he was a big big guy on The Daily Show with John Stewart in the early Daily Show, not the the later Daily Show.
00:20:19
Speaker
And you know he did well there. There's a whole you know bunch of alumni from the Daily Show that that did well for a while. So there you go. Interesting. And you are you're off for a little bit or you're going all
Personal Plans & Future Guests
00:20:31
Speaker
the way up? Yes, I'm off. i I got a friend who's got a boat in the Mediterranean. and so Don't we all?
00:20:38
Speaker
And then now that I'm no longer a politician, I don't have to worry about, uh, optics or, uh, he's paying for what. Uh, so, uh, yeah. So he's, uh, he's invited me three years in a row to hang out with them. So I'm doing it for a week, uh, flying to Athens and, um, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. A nice little break from it all. And then back at it, when I come back, I've got a conference I'm speaking at in beautiful downtown Edmonton, Jodi.
00:21:04
Speaker
Okay. Now, when you're in the Mediterranean, will you be going to the island of Mykonos? I don't know what the agenda is. I just wanted to say that. Oh, you just wanted to say Mykonos? Yeah. It could be Mykonos. It could be Rhodes. It could be Santorini. I do not know. What about the Amalfi Coast? No, and i'm not we're not going to the Amalfi Coast. That's in Italy. Turks and Caicos.
00:21:28
Speaker
That's near Turkey, isn't it? No, i don't actually, I don't know. No, it's in the Caribbean. I'm just throwing things up there. here Have you been to the Amalfi Coast? No, I just like saying that too. Oh, okay. I've never been there either. but There's just certain places that sound like you just places you want to say that I'm going like, i'm oh yes, we're heading to the Amalfi coast. Yeah, no I know. It's pretty pretty ritzy around there actually. And did I tell you that I did, I was in touch with Patrick Brown and he said he wants to come back on the show. Okay, good. We've got some guests we are lining up for our faithful loyal listeners. And I got, oh, also did you get the invitation from Steve Paken?
00:22:09
Speaker
ah you About what? He's got, he's hosting a dinner in January. No, a lunch, sorry, a lunch in January, uh, to, uh, in honor of, uh, the late premier John Robarts and the late- Yeah, I don't get, I don't get the invite to that. Yeah. Okay. I'm just wondering- Are you going? I might. No, I know. Cause he posts that on Facebook and does a wonderful write up and,
00:22:35
Speaker
I think that's an annual thing he does, a tradition. Second annual. I don't get, I don't get invites like that. Oh, okay. Well, now that we've talked about it, maybe you will. That's, no, you're just like, I was, I was having a great day. You, I think you just put that in there. I know. I know.
Speaking Venues & Toronto Traffic
00:22:51
Speaker
I'm just, I'm just. I noticed, I noticed too, speaking of Steve Paken, because we haven't mentioned him in a while, I did notice through my Facebook channels that he was hosted, uh, uh, Ontario NDP leader, Merritt Stiles at.
00:23:05
Speaker
Oh, what was it? Some club, not the Olympic club. Oh, the Empire Club. Empire Club, yes. Yeah, which is a speaking club. It's not a physical location per se. Oh, it's not. Oh, so there's not actually an Empire Club? No, it's a speaking club. It's like the Canadian Club. The Canadian Club and the Empire Club are two speaking clubs in trouble. I thought Canadian Club was whiskey. That's what most people know it for, but no, there's also a Canadian Club speaking club, yes. Gotcha. I did not make it to that.
00:23:35
Speaker
I'm sure that she did. Well, I don't know. I'm sure you weren't planning on making it. No, I was not. I was not. Actually, one final thing I will say, what do you think about the tunnel, tunneling under the 401 idea?
00:23:47
Speaker
Oh, right. So this is very interesting. He floated that out. He floated that out. ah And ah i thought I think that's it's going to be expensive, but i they' all they're doing is just the initial studies, right? Yeah. But I think we should take a look at that. Why not? like it the for a one By the way, now is the time where ah people not from Toronto or people from Toronto complain about the traffic in Toronto.
00:24:15
Speaker
There's this meme going around that, did you know that, uh, it takes you an hour to go from Toronto to Toronto? You know, and it's the, I was in Toronto yesterday. It's insane. like gridlock it It is crazy. The traffic in Toronto tunnel would have helped you is what you're saying.
00:24:33
Speaker
i Because I did have to go on the 401 and it was jammed. It doesn't matter what what hour of the day it is now, it's always jammed somewhere along the line. So, hey, as ah as a driver. And the other thing that Doug Ford was talking about was ah restricting municipalities ability to- Like lanes, yes. Yeah, remove lanes of traffic for bike lanes. Yeah. so Which is also a be in my bonnet for and for many other drivers as well. so No, it'll be interesting to see how that rolls out and if it goes anywhere, but my only question on the tunnel would be like, cause I mean the whole process would be a long time, but how long is it going to take to breed that, like a mole that big? That's all. Good point. yeah I think it's got to be huge. With big teeth. A huge teeth.
00:25:20
Speaker
Maybe they need the sandworm from Dune or something. oh You're a funny guy. I wish, I wish premiers would say stuff like that. Like that the imagine how much of you totally just threw that out there was just to get people going. The media would eat it up. Yeah. they You believe the premier wants to breed a giant mole. They'd say something about that on Twitter.
00:25:44
Speaker
Oh, anyway. Anyway. Enjoy your time away, Tony. We will be back soon. We look forward to it. And of course, this show is brought to you each week by the great team at Municipal solution thanks Solutions. Thanks to John and his team for their continued support. You can find them online at municipalsolutions.ca. And Kelly Mitchell, KWM Consulting, www.kwmconsulting.com or 416 728-8287. Thanks again to our terrestrial partner, huntersbayradio.com. All right. We'll do this again in seven days. You got it.