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Politically Correct.

And Another Thing Podcast
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Join hosts Jodie Jenkins and Tony Clement in this thought-provoking episode of "And Another Thing" as they delve into the dynamic realms of political correctness, homelessness, and the NFL. In a world where the language we use is constantly evolving, Jodie and Tony share their perspectives on the nuances of political correctness and how it shapes our conversations.

Moving from the cerebral to the visceral, the hosts then turn their attention to the issue of homelessness, exploring the multifaceted challenges faced by individuals living on the streets. Expect a compassionate yet candid discussion that aims to shed light on the complexities of this pervasive societal concern.

And of course, it wouldn't be "And Another Thing" without a dash of sports talk. This week, Jodie and Tony tackle the latest NFL headlines, offering their insights on the game.

Tune in for a blend of wit, wisdom, and a touch of humor as "And Another Thing" navigates through the week's most pressing topics, providing listeners with a fresh perspective on the issues that matter.

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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
And another thing. And another thing. And another thing. And another thing. And another thing.

Introduction and Episode Setup

00:00:17
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. And I'm Tony Clement.

Is 'Barn Burner' Offensive?

00:00:30
Speaker
And we are set for another barn burner of an episode. Can you say barn burner? Is that a word that we're allowed to say? I don't know. That's a good question. It sounds pretty violent, doesn't it? Yeah. I feel like some lefty out there has tied something to it and has tried to cancel that word, but I'm just not aware. Could be colonialist of you.
00:00:57
Speaker
By the way, do I, I, I, is this

Cultural Sensitivity in Communication

00:01:00
Speaker
a thing? I don't know if you've heard about this. Um, obviously we see email signatures that have the, you know, the he, him, she, her, all that stuff. I mean, we're, we're used to that, but I had heard that there is, and I haven't seen it personally, but someone told me about this, but there have been email signatures that, that make mention of the colonialist situation or that they,
00:01:24
Speaker
that they recognize that they were part of this or whatever. And like, it's actually part of their email signature, like their professional business email signature, that they're on occupied land. Yeah. And I don't know if it's like
00:01:39
Speaker
I mean, I don't think it's the declaration, like, you know, how you, you know, before council meetings, whatever they make that deck, land acknowledgement. I don't think it's to that extent. It's literally something where they kind of like recognize themselves as a non settler or sorry, a non indigenous person or something

Tony's Immigrant Experience

00:02:00
Speaker
like that. Right. Very interesting.
00:02:02
Speaker
Huh, I've seen that on Twitter slash X a little bit here and there. But no, I hadn't seen that in terms of correspondence, but it wouldn't surprise me that there are some people who wish to acknowledge that in their in their own way. You know, I'm an immigrant to this country. I don't you know. I guess you could say that I have gained
00:02:31
Speaker
some advantage by whatever institutions exist in Canada, but, you know, that's a, that's a long way. That's a long way of saying it's a law. It's far from saying that I'm in some privileged position. That's how I feel anyway. But, uh, you know, my, my family had to work hard as immigrants to, to make a life for themselves, a new life for themselves here.
00:02:57
Speaker
So I mean, okay, I guess I'm a settler, but I guess we're all settlers from that point of view. Yeah, I know it's an interesting, there's always something, although I will say this, and I would love your thoughts on

Political Correctness and Cancel Culture

00:03:11
Speaker
this. We're kind of kicking the show off with this and we're going to get to our sponsors in a second, but the pendulum in terms of political correctness or wokeness as some people like to call it,
00:03:23
Speaker
You know, it had swung pretty far to an extreme point, I would say in the last couple of years. There's no question. But I feel, and maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like there's a shift where the pendulum is kind of, it's kind of coming back the other way now. Do you get that sense at all? Yeah. Some others have noted that their contention is that peak woke was about a year and a half, two years ago. Yeah. I feel like we're coming down the other side now. Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I think, you know, I'm more for a
00:03:52
Speaker
more nuanced and balanced approach to these things. I think we should acknowledge people who have different points of view than our own, but it's the cancel culture, Jodi, that really got to me. That if you were of a
00:04:13
Speaker
color of a white color of skin or if you were a white male, all of a sudden you didn't have the opportunity to have a point of view, you know, or that it was somehow white supremacist or what have you. So yeah, I think that that's coming down the other end. I've noticed there was an article I read which indicated that there's a more balanced view of Edgerton Ryerson than there was a couple of years ago when they toppled the statue in Toronto and
00:04:43
Speaker
changed the name of Ryerson University. Apparently, there's a bunch of schools and streets throughout Ontario that are still named Ryerson, so maybe that indicates something. Yeah. Plus, there's many schools that are still named Sir John A. McDonald, right? Are there? Yes. Okay. We have one in Belleville still called Sir John A. McDonald. Now, there was a move and it was successful. They removed
00:05:14
Speaker
a statue of Sir John A.

Debating Historical Figures

00:05:16
Speaker
in Picton. It's called Holding Court. I don't know. Well, you would remember that. I think you were there that night. Ruth Abernathy, who had dedicated that statue, or she was the sculptor. And yeah, you were there that night with Steve Paikin and everybody. I think that was... Where was that? At Royal York? I think it was at Royal York, yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. That was in 2014, I believe.
00:05:41
Speaker
Wow. What a, what a tiny way. Yes. There are still, you're right. There are still, uh, different items, streets, buildings, whatever named after these, um, individuals who were labeled as, um, not need, I guess, I don't know what you, you know, they're not looking at the actual historical record. Like, uh, Edgerton Ryerson's name has been besmirch when he died.
00:06:06
Speaker
20 years before the first residential school was even created. Henry Dundas, they want to rename Dundas Street in Toronto, and Henry Dundas as a British politician was actually against slavery. The guy who was running the campaign to change the name
00:06:30
Speaker
acknowledged as much and said, yeah, it doesn't. Yeah, he was against slavery, but he's white, so I don't like him. Was basically just like, really? Well, nothing surprises me anymore. And of course, we can't forget Chuck Skydome.

Sponsorship Acknowledgements

00:06:46
Speaker
Yes, yes. Yeah. But they changed his name for Roger Center. They did. They did.
00:06:54
Speaker
This show each week is brought to you by municipal solutions. John mutton and the team have been our presenting sponsor since day one. And, uh, yeah, I can't imagine doing this show without the support of John and their crew. And Tony, I know you can expand a little bit about what they do. And then I know we have a couple other great sponsors as well. Sure. We do. And, uh, absolutely you're, you're quite accurate there. Jody, uh, John mutton and the gang have been.
00:07:22
Speaker
are presenting sponsors since we had presenting sponsors. We did a few shows without sponsors at the beginning, but they signed on very early and they are Ontario's leading MZO firm. They are great for development services, project management,
00:07:38
Speaker
development approvals, permit expediting, even planning services with municipalities. They do a lot of work with municipalities, Jodi, and that includes engineering and architectural services, and even things like minor variances and land severances. So go to municipalsolutions.ca for all your municipal needs.
00:07:57
Speaker
And then of course we want to acknowledge our terrestrial radio supporter and sponsor that's hunters bay radio. You can find them at hunters bay radio dot com or eighty eight point seven FM in the skoka every saturday morning they have a whole suite.
00:08:13
Speaker
podcast that they rebroadcast on terrestrial radio, including this very program. So that's great of them to do that. Another sponsor we want to acknowledge is the Harris Legacy, the book, the Harris Legacy Reflections on a Transformational Premier. You can order it today at the harrislegacy.ca. The book is in print now. It is available. It's being available in bookstores, but obviously it's available through online ordering as well. I'm actually going, Jody, to
00:08:42
Speaker
one of the book launches tomorrow for this book and there's a whole.
00:08:49
Speaker
I think on December 2nd, the conservative leadership foundation is doing a whole day with the authors to talk about the book. So it's getting out there. It's basically a series of essays, and the contributors include David Frum, Jack Mintz, Gord Miller, the former environment commissioner, David Hurley, and more. And it's edited by Alistair Campbell. He's been on the program a few weeks ago. So go to theharrislegacy.ca.
00:09:18
Speaker
to order your book now just in time for Christmas.
00:09:22
Speaker
And if you enjoy this show, Jodi, and I know you do and I do, we think you'll love the podcast, Not Reserving Judgment from our friends at the Canadian Constitution Foundation, which is a charity dedicated to a freer Canada. In each episode, hosts Josh DeHaas, Joanna Baron and Christine Van Gein update you on the latest legal news, tell you about legal stories that you might have missed and give their bad legal takes of the week where they take a light-hearted look
00:09:52
Speaker
at legal opinions that didn't quite land. Not reserving judgment isn't just for lawyers. It's a show for all Canadians who care about their rights and freedoms. The hosts aren't afraid for controversial topics, including they've tackled residential school denialism, constitutional reforms in Israel, proposals to require parental consent for childhood, gender transition,
00:10:16
Speaker
Find Not Reserving Judgment wherever else you get your podcasts. Download the latest episode today and just obviously want to make the point that two of those three individuals, Joanna and Christine, were on our program to talk about their latest book, Pandemic Panic. So sad you weren't there for that one, Joads, but it's now on the bestseller list in Canada. So it's doing really, really well. I'm very excited for them.
00:10:44
Speaker
We choose truth over facts. We do. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe, for piping in there. Thank you, Joe. So sleepy. I'm going to put you on the spot here for our next topic, Tony. And I don't think you've ever weighed in on this topic. But I wanted to address something that I think is a big issue within Canada, definitely in Ontario and definitely in communities throughout Ontario.

Canada's Homelessness Crisis

00:11:13
Speaker
And that's the topic of
00:11:15
Speaker
of homelessness. It's a big thing. And I will say this, and I'll share a little bit about my connection to homelessness and then some work that I've done. But I will say this, I think this topic, not I think, this topic always seems to ramp up
00:11:33
Speaker
as soon as we start to approach the colder months each year, right? So it's like, I always think to myself, like, we should not be surprised when cold weather arrives in Canada, or you know what I mean? Like, we know when it's coming. No. So anyway, it's just like saying, like, oh my gosh, Christmas is on December 25th again this year, you know? Like, it's not a surprise. So anyway, basically, Cole's Notes version, in 2007, I was part of a small group that opened up a men's
00:12:04
Speaker
shelter here in Belleville, literally just opened the doors on a building, felt to do something about the issue. And we started to welcome men, didn't get any permits from the city, didn't get any zoning, just literally opened the doors. And it wasn't too long before the city was cracking down on us. But in those years, I was a little bit more brazen and it was kind of like, yeah, well,
00:12:25
Speaker
Come and shut us down. I'd love to have a front page story of the city kicking homeless people out of a building. They were trying to help them. Anyway, that went through for about half a year. It was more of like a pilot project. Then in 2015, I was part of a group that started the visioning process in terms of opening an actual emergency shelter.
00:12:47
Speaker
And in 2019, we opened a 21 bed shelter called the Grayson, which I know you're familiar with. And in 2021, we actually opened up a subsequent building called Shilohouse, which is a six bed transition house for men.
00:13:00
Speaker
that are in a much better position to get back on their feet and get back into society and just giving hope back to people. Sure. We've seen a lot of great things. I say all that to say that I do have a little bit of a background in terms of working with the homeless population and what it takes to tackle some of these
00:13:22
Speaker
these things. And I also proudly say this, and I'm not bragging, I'm saying it because I'm very proud of it. We opened our 21 bed shelter with literally little to zero, I would say very minimal money from the government. In fact, I don't think we used any government money to get that building open. It was all privately funded. And then obviously with operations and stuff,
00:13:47
Speaker
Um, the County of Hastings saw what we were doing. They recognize the value and they, they actually said like, you know, what, what can we do to help assist? Because, you know, we're, we're helping the community. We do, we do receive funding now through the province and the feds, but that building, it was, uh, it was close to a million dollar project back in, I think we started in 2018. Um, but anyway, it was a big project and I'm proud to say it was no.
00:14:14
Speaker
no public dollars. It was literally privately funded, public in the sense of government funding to get it open. I just want to say that, but I'd be interested in knowing because again, these issues aren't any surprise to you with your government background, with your advocacy work that you do. I know you've come across things like this in your past.
00:14:38
Speaker
Like, what do

Solutions for Homelessness and Mental Health

00:14:40
Speaker
you see as a solution for this? Because it's definitely getting worse. There's no question. Yeah, yeah. Or is there a solution? I mean, and it's so connected to the addictions and mental wellness issues, right? Yes, 100%. Not all of it, but some of it's socioeconomic as well. But, you know, there's definitely other things going on in a person's life.
00:15:03
Speaker
if you're homeless. And so we've got to tackle it from multiple fronts. If you just build more shelters, nothing wrong with shelters, don't get me wrong, but if you build more shelters, but a person is feeling paranoid about going into the shelter, they're not going to go in. And that could have mental wellness
00:15:25
Speaker
connotations, or it could have addictions, connotations, and these tense cities that are popping up in our urban downtowns, they don't help people because the addictions are actually fueled in those environments. And so, yeah, we really do have to have a multifaceted approach to this. I'd like to get actually
00:15:50
Speaker
A friend of mine who moved to Newfoundland and Labrador, I think he's in St. John's, Lee Bursey. He's a big homelessness advocate. I think he lived in Brockville or somewhere in Newfoundland. We should get him on the show because he's really passionate about these things and he's won all sorts of awards for his work too. I think the two of you would really get along. But
00:16:14
Speaker
No, that's the way that I see it anyway, that you have to tackle the mental health issues and the addictions issues too. Now, what do you make of, there seems to be a discussion that's going on about the return of institutionalization in terms of
00:16:34
Speaker
And again, you probably know more about this. This was a little bit before my time when I think, was it the province that kind of closed those down? Bill Davis's government back in the seventies. Yeah.
00:16:48
Speaker
Okay. So tell me a little bit about like, can you, as much as you are able to share, but I noticed this, like I've listened to a lot of pundits talk about this, the issue of homelessness and a lot of them come back to the idea of we need to get these institutions back up and running. Um, I think, I don't think it's a bad idea. I think, and I think most would agree with this, this next part is that the, I'm sure the cost would be just outrageous to do this. Right.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, at the time, I mean, I know where people were coming from at the time, which was that these institution places were not ideal and they were just sort of a way where you would warehouse people and not deal with their addictions or other mental wellness issues. Right. So they they closed them down. It wasn't even a cost issue. It was just like a philosophical point of view that these were not working. So the idea was to have
00:17:46
Speaker
community health and access to community services while you transition these people away from institutions and into other housing. The only problem being that second part really wasn't done very well, if at all, right? So you close down the bricks and mortar
00:18:07
Speaker
And then these people were kind of cast adrift and there was some attention, but not really enough to deal with the issues.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's, it is, as you said, a multi-pronged approach that is required and it's, um, yeah, it's definitely not easy, but yeah, let's, uh, let's set up that your friend there. I'd love to have a, yeah, I think you guys would really hit it off. I, and, and, and, uh, you're coming at it kind of from the same direction, but, but, but you know, he's, he's just been really involved. And I think even when he moved to St. John's he can, he has continued to be involved in that. So it would be interesting to get a,
00:18:46
Speaker
a different provincial perspective. So we'll set that up. Shifting gears, and I don't mean this to be rude or sarcastic, but is there still a war in Ukraine?

War in Ukraine Update

00:18:59
Speaker
Yes, I think there is. Because honestly, I had to hear nothing about it. And as we're talking, I'm thinking that's a topic that was a big topic. But I literally, I hear nothing about it anymore.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah. The US sent their Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Kiev a couple days ago just to reinforce the point that we're standing by Ukraine. Nothing has changed and all this because it's just been totally dropped from the news. Russia, Putin's not an idiot, so as soon as the Israel Hamas stuff was going on, he
00:19:39
Speaker
ratcheted up his attacks on Ukraine because he knew that no one was paying attention. And so, yeah, it's still still going on. It's a war of attrition now, Jodi.

Canada's Economic Challenges

00:19:52
Speaker
And another topic, Tony, that we can probably talk ad nauseam on, and that's the issue of affordability. The financial picture, of course, I think it was, you know, just recently within the last day or so by the time this show comes out that
00:20:09
Speaker
Christian Freeland gave a fiscal update and we could talk about that. But I was talking to a friend of mine today and there's been a couple interesting items that have come out recently about some of the future economic issues that are going to affect this country. One of them being, and I
00:20:30
Speaker
I'm kind of paraphrasing and I might have the stat a little bit wrong, but one of them being that 40% of mortgages, I believe, I don't know if it's Canada or Ontario, you might know, come due next year. The second thing is, we all know during COVID that the hospitality industry was affected greatly.
00:20:51
Speaker
And there was tons of support given by the feds and the province as well. But in December, although I think they got an extension on this, but in December, a lot of these loans are coming due. Yeah, the CBA loan. Yeah. And the reality is that, I don't know if you're aware of this, but the percentage of restaurants that have declared bankruptcy year over year since 2022 has gone up 116%. Wow.
00:21:21
Speaker
So that's just two things. So I'd be interested in getting your thoughts because you've got all those mortgages coming due next year and you've got restaurants. I'm just using that as one exit because it's a very clear example of what's going on out there. But I'd love to hear your thoughts on, I don't think we've seen, I don't think we've seen the peak of this tidal wave, if you will.
00:21:46
Speaker
No, and the ability of the federal government to deal with these things. I know they have their fall economic statement. They put a bit more money into their housing initiatives and so on. But Jodi, because of all these deficits of the past, including during the COVID lockdowns,
00:22:10
Speaker
Our debt servicing charges as a country have doubled since 2021. So what that means is that when you're spending $46.5 billion on debt servicing charges just from the federal government, it means you're not spending it on defense. You're not spending it on housing. You're not spending it on health or any of these other things. And in fact, I think that
00:22:40
Speaker
Ottawa will spend $29 billion on the Canadian Armed Forces this fiscal year, and they're spending
00:22:49
Speaker
$46.5 billion on debt services, just to give you an idea. This fall economic statement, they're not doing a whole lot because they don't have the fiscal room anymore. It's all the overhang, not all, because Trudeau was running deficits before COVID happened, but they really ratcheted it up during COVID.
00:23:19
Speaker
They haven't run a surplus since they got elected almost nine years ago. And it's interesting because, you know, I mean, I'm assuming that the left would, you know, kind of pour the liberal supporters would point to the, you know, what, what would you do in a pandemic? We didn't know that was coming, right? And no, no, fair enough. Yeah. Fair enough. Give them a little bit of benefit of the doubt. But let's also be honest. And some will say with what I'm about to say, that's just classic conservative messaging. But like,
00:23:48
Speaker
In 2015, I can remember being at many events where, at the time, Prime Minister Harper was, and he literally predicted exactly how this was going to unfold under a liberal government. Right. Right. As a result, quite frankly, of some of the work that I did at Treasury, we did balance the budget. We had to look hard at over 650 government programs, and where they were non-essential, we made some reductions. We made some cuts.
00:24:17
Speaker
Uh, and then we got to a balanced budget in 2015 and then Trudeau ran, he ran on modest deficits of 10 billion a year and he won the election. So he, then he ran deficits of 20, 30 and 40 billion a year before we even got to COVID and this year it's 40 billion. And, uh, so it really hasn't gone to a more fiscally
00:24:43
Speaker
a situation where you can manage your fiscal situation. And people should realize it has all these knockdown effects. It means taxes are higher. It means there are fewer jobs. It means when you're spending that much money, the Bank of Canada has to keep interest rates higher for a longer period of time, which affects those mortgages you mentioned, Jodi. So it's not one of these isolated things
00:25:07
Speaker
government spending doesn't affect. It affects everything, affects inflation, affects cost of living. You name it, it affects it. So this is we're on a we're on a fiscal cliff right now. I've actually just written an article that I'm hoping to be published fairly soon on this very topic because it's it's quite alarming. And, you know, M.P. Ryan Williams, I don't know if you saw his private members bill recently.
00:25:34
Speaker
about, uh, opening up the banks, uh, in terms of competition. Had you seen that? Well, he's putting it forth where basically there are some, there are some other countries that do this that, you know, it just, it's, instead of having a, um, the bank's having a monopoly on.
00:25:51
Speaker
the country in terms of our options, opening it up to different lenders and competitors that would make it more competitive for the consumer. I can tell you firsthand because our mortgage is coming up next month. I tell you, I'm not going to name where my mortgage is, but
00:26:12
Speaker
I don't get i don't get the warm and fuzzy like if they really are interested or i should say care but it's like they don't seem to. Energize to try and keep my business which to me is frustrating because deep down it's like i wanna shop this around and i have shopped around but i.
00:26:30
Speaker
You know, I want to go where I can get the best rate, but it's like, I'm also going, but I know the hassle of moving my, you know, the mortgage over cause it, it is annoying cause it's just, it's very annoying. And I think banks know that it's, it's kind of frustrating. So I think if there was more options, more competition, better for the consumer as MP Williams, uh, is putting forth, I think that would be a great thing. I would like to see that. And I would like to see more competition when it comes to our.

NFL Season Highlights

00:26:59
Speaker
telecoms industry too, since you're mentioning that. And speaking of the lack of competition, it's a great segue into the Las Vegas Raiders. Oh, what? What are you gonna say about my Raiders? Well, didn't they lose? Yeah, they lost. Yeah, they lost. They lost to the fish.
00:27:19
Speaker
They were riding a little bit of a high there with their new coach. Right. And then, I don't know. I don't think, but Garoppolo's out, right? He's gone. Yeah. Yeah. Who's their quarterback now? Is it O'Connell or something like that? O'Connell. That's it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who? I like him. He's good. He's got a, you know, he's kind of got poise, but.
00:27:40
Speaker
Anyway, they lost to Miami, but the, you know, their record is, it's five and six now, I think, but you're Browns. Congratulations. They're doing, what are they seven and two or something like that? Seven and three, but like they're just, they're just machines right now. Although we're coming up against a juggernaut.
00:27:57
Speaker
the Denver Broncos have turned it around all of a sudden. It's an interesting season, isn't it? It's very bizarre. A lot of parody. Can't predict a lot. Other than it looks like the Eagles are very good. But outside of that, it's like, with the exception of
00:28:20
Speaker
So with the exception of Carolina, literally any team can win. Although, although I think the Bengals are in big trouble for the season. Our quarterback's out for the season, but we happen to have the best defense in the NFL. So that helps the Browns. But outside of that, like there's any, any given Sunday, right? That's what they say. Yeah. Hey, did you watch any of the gray cups, sir?

CFL Grey Cup and Personal Tribute

00:28:45
Speaker
I'm going to be honest. I don't really follow the CFL. Okay. But I did. The only reason being was because I wanted to see Green Day. Yeah. You want to see the Green Day show. Yeah. I thought that was a great, like when I, I knew they were coming. I was like, man, that's a great pickup for the,
00:29:02
Speaker
for CFL, like the halftime show great cup. Cause I'm like, I got to watch this. Yeah. And they were, I think green day was excited to be there. So they, they put, they put something into it and, and it was, he listened. It was a great finish. I got to say this is not unusual for the CFL to see last minute touchdowns determine the result, but the Montreal Alouettes last minute last second or 10 second touchdown. And, and they, they sunk the blue bombers. So congratulations to the Alouettes.
00:29:32
Speaker
Yeah. And I just, I just can't stand three down football. I just, I know it's just so chaotic, isn't it? Yeah. It's just, I, I don't know. It's like probably because I don't watch it a lot and maybe I'd get used to it, but I just, I just find it so like not even close to the NFL, like not even close. I always joked because I just find like the CFL is like, what was, what was the joke I always had? I remember doing this when I was on air sometimes and I
00:30:01
Speaker
ride CFL fans is like you got points for the stupidest things. Like if you came out with your uniform on properly, your team would get a point, right? It's like, you know, you can get a point for like almost anything, like kick it close to the uprights. That's a point, right? Yeah. I can't tell you the last time I was at a CFL game. I'll be honest with you too. You know who loves the CFL though is Steve Paken.
00:30:25
Speaker
He does. Well, he loves his tiger cats, yeah. Yes. Osky-wee-wee, so. Yeah, exactly. And I know that he listened to the last show. Yes. And he had a great post. You would be able to comment better than me on this, but he wrote a wonderful post today, or yesterday, I guess, by the time this show comes out, about his mother. Yeah. Who recently passed away. Passed away. And I tell you, I barely know Steve. You know Steve way more than I do.
00:30:53
Speaker
and, and whatever. And I barely know him. We joke around and had some fun with emails and on the show, but the guy is the way he wrote, did you end up reading that? Facebook and I don't know. You got it. Yeah. I should, I should get to find a way to send it to you or whatever. Cause the guy, the way he wrote it is just like, first of all, you could just tell, you just tell the authentic, the guy is Steve Paken is just the most authentic, genuine guy in terms of,
00:31:21
Speaker
is kindness and caring and you can just sense it. I just read that and I was like, holy smokes. Like this guy loved his mom, right? Like it was just no question about it. And I'm not, I'm not saying that to pump them up or anything like that. And, and, but it's just like, I was just blown away and you just, I just, I, that's, you know, I've always, I've always been trying to put my finger on what it is about him because he just, I'm just like, this can't be, this guy cannot be this genuine, but he is, he's just like,
00:31:45
Speaker
Yes. We wish him all the best. I know it's- Yeah, I know it's a tough time. Yeah. Marnie Paken, I didn't know his mom, Marnie Paken, because when I was a student at the University of Toronto, she was the chair of governing council, which ran the university. And I got to know her a little bit that way, but she was like,
00:32:07
Speaker
I think she was on the Atomic Energy Board and did all sorts of stuff. The accolades, the achievements, the awards, the boards, I read through again that post and I can tell you that it does not surprise me the depths
00:32:24
Speaker
of Steve's awareness, intelligence, his, you know, his ability to grasp things, he absolutely comes by it, honestly, because there's no question it was instilled in him by his family. And you were interested to know that they were one of their close family friends is Marty Short, too.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah. Cause he posted a picture of, uh, I guess one of the first phone calls they received was, uh, or his dad received was from, from Martin Shorten. I just, it's just, yeah. I mean, uh, it's just, yeah. So it was just, it was just, again, we wish them all the best and it's, uh, it was just, if you have that opportunity and read that post, cause it was, it was, it was very well done. Everything he does, everything he does is well done. Well done. And he did a, he did a creditable job for.
00:33:12
Speaker
is the memory of his mother and good for him for doing

Conclusion and Announcements

00:33:15
Speaker
so. So, yeah, we're going to, I'm going to get together with him, you know, when the dust settles a little bit, but he is also wanting to come on the program. So we'll get that set up. We've got Tim Hudak coming on soon as well, the president of the Ontario Real Estate Association. He's agreed to come on. So we've got some great guests to entertain and inform our lovely audience.
00:33:41
Speaker
And I was thinking that we could get the new Minister of Labour for Ontario, David Pacini. He should come on and maybe he could read some recent job postings. Let people know what's out there and available. Yeah, sure. Exactly. It would not be something. I'm David Pacini and here's your on-air job fair. He should do that.
00:34:06
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, I can't, I don't see him. I will get, actually we got a yes. We got to get him on the show. Yeah, sure. We will get our dear audience. Don't worry. We're working on it full time. Anyway, that's a, we'll wrap that, wrap it up there. Uh, as always, um, people can share their thoughts and comments through our platforms. Spotify seems to be the best one in terms of giving us feedback and, uh, but you can catch us everywhere.
00:34:33
Speaker
Um, a lot of, we have a lot of people that listen on iTunes and Apple and, uh, I will say this, so we talked about this, the Google platform for podcast is actually moving to YouTube, I believe at the beginning of next year. Interesting. Yeah. You knew, you knew that, right? I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Yeah. I didn't do that. Google podcast. I didn't know that. I did well cease to exist, but, uh, it's, uh, yeah. So anyway, and we do, we do appreciate the support and I got to give a shout out to, uh,
00:35:03
Speaker
Mike Stiff, if he listened all the way to this point of the program, I'm very impressed. And Mike, you text me and let me know that you actually listened to this far in the show. Nice. That's how I'll know. Is there anyone you want to say hi to, Tony? No, we appreciate all the feedback. So just keep it coming. And we're doing this and we love doing it and we love our audience.
00:35:29
Speaker
As always, thanks to John Button and the team at Municipal Solutions for their continued support presenting this show each week. You can find them online at MunicipalSolutions.ca. And of course, we've got a couple of these newer sponsors, the HarrisLegacy.ca to order your book on the Harris Legacy Reflections on a Transformational Premier and then Not Reserving Judgment Podcast. You can find that wherever you consume your podcasts. And again, thanks to Hunters Bay Radio,
00:35:58
Speaker
dot com for replaying our show every Saturday morning. All right, Tony, we'll do this again in seven days. Enjoy the rest of your week. You too.