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Michael Silah On His Career In The Navy And Time With The National Centers for Environmental Prediction image

Michael Silah On His Career In The Navy And Time With The National Centers for Environmental Prediction

And Another Thing Podcast
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This week, Tony and Jodie spend time chatting with Michael J. Silah. Silah is a retired rear admiral in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps who served as Director, NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps, and Director, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

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Transcript

Podcast Introduction and Host Introductions

00:00:00
Speaker
And another thing. And another thing. And another thing. And another thing. Welcome to another episode of And Another Thing, the podcast that continues to win awards across this great nation and beyond.

Tony's Washington D.C. Experience

00:00:30
Speaker
is Jody Jenkins. And my name is Tony Clement. And Tony, you are joining us from Washington, DC. Yes, I am Jody. So I'm here for another couple of days and the weather is quite nice and I'm going to get a bunch of things done. I'm here. I'm going to be attending the John Senator John McCain Freedom Awards.
00:00:55
Speaker
in the next 24 hours, and they're going to be awarding the Freedom Awards this year to Alexei Navalny, who is our, remember our guest, Vladimir Milov, those two work together as Russian dissidents, and then the other awards going to the people of Ukraine for their resistance on Putin's invasion. So there'll be senators and
00:01:20
Speaker
you know, Congress people and politicos there. I've been to this several times in the past. This is now post COVID it's in person again. So I'm quite excited about going there. If I I'll bring my tape recorder along, see if I can get any comments from Mitch McConnell or, uh, or, or whomever. And, uh, but we'll see. But, uh, in the meantime, that's why I'm here. And I decided to go a couple of days early to get some other business done. I feel like you would be like the perfect roving reporter.
00:01:49
Speaker
for like a late night talk show, like Jimmy Kimmel, you know, when they like send out those slapstick kind of fake, but kind of real reporters. Like, I just feel like you would fit that perfectly. Thank you. I will take that as a compliment because I don't know how else to take it. I think I could just see you being so serious, but yet interjecting some semblance of dry humor and I could see like
00:02:13
Speaker
Jimmy Kimmel or James Corden having fun with it. But I just, for some reason, I just visualize that in my head right now. Like you live in front of the White House doing some sort of roving reporter shtick.

Political Encounters and Historic Stay

00:02:25
Speaker
So I nearly bumped into Jason Kenny, the premier of Alberta today too, because he was down here to talk to the energy committee of the Senate.
00:02:34
Speaker
and he was staying in the same hotel. The storied Mayflower Hotel is where I'm staying. J. Edgar Hoover used to have lunch here every day for 20 years. John F. Kennedy has stayed here.
00:02:51
Speaker
It got Harry, Harry S. Truman and bunch of presidents and a bunch of Hollywood types and so on. So anyway, Jason was staying here and I was staying here. We missed each other just by minutes, but I had a nice chat with his energy minister. So there you go. Everybody's staying at the Mayflower. There's a, I've only been to Washington once and I just remember there was a really good steakhouse I went to downtown. Joe's? I,
00:03:15
Speaker
I don't think that was the name of it, but I could be wrong. I don't know. There were some great steak houses down there. Yeah. So we went to a really nice steak house. The one thing I was blown away with, and if you've been to the White House before or seen, or been to Washington, you might already know this, but you're the first time maybe you felt the same way. But when I went for the first time I had, because every time we see the White House on television or pictures, all you see is the expanse of the lawn and the green space, right? Right.
00:03:41
Speaker
I had no idea that there were so many, that it was literally right in the middle of all these buildings and stuff. Oh, I know. It was blown away. I was like, what? I was like, holy smokes. Well, I had no idea.
00:03:54
Speaker
Well, you've got the executive office building right next door. That's kind of the overflow for people who don't get an office in the West Wing. And then you've got the Treasury Department right next door too. So that's a famous and storied building too. So yeah, no, it's got some prime real estate there. I was walking by the White House earlier today and there was the usual, you know,
00:04:18
Speaker
people setting up protest tents and there was a jazz band that was performing and some other circus-like activity, but no protest

Sponsors and Podcast Availability

00:04:30
Speaker
today. No protest. Well, that's disappointing. We should thank John Mutton and the team at Municipal Solutions for being our presenting sponsor each week. Couldn't do the show without them, so thank you so much to them. And I know that
00:04:46
Speaker
Tony, you're just itching to share.
00:04:49
Speaker
about the MZO work they do? Yeah, they are the provincial experts on MZOs, that is municipal zoning orders, Jodi, and they can help their clients get to, yes, when it comes to MZOs, those are very important to get those development projects approved and get built. So they do a lot of that kind of stuff, whether it's permit expediting or architectural services, planning services, but the MZOs is what John wants us to concentrate on with
00:05:19
Speaker
with our audience and so go to municipalsolutions.ca and you'll get the whole picture there and I know John Button and the gang would really appreciate it. The other thing I just wanted to remind folks is you can also listen to these podcasts on terrestrial radio. Hunters Bay Radio in Muskoka rebroadcasts our podcast at 8.30 a.m. Saturday mornings. Go to huntersbayradio.com for that. Yeah, like I'm huge in Bracebridge now.
00:05:48
Speaker
I heard that. Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty big in Brooks Falls. Yeah. I've got asked to do so many events in Bracebridge since we started broadcasting the show. Good for you. Yeah. It's crazy. But also got to thank loonypolitics.com. You can get exclusive content there by becoming a subscriber. Use the code podcast to get 50% off.
00:06:12
Speaker
an annual subscription. Once again, lunipolitics.com. You can get our, when I say our, Tony and I, we do election recaps for the provincial election here in Ontario. That is available right now, but you've got to be a subscriber and check that out, lunipolitics.com. Speaking of

Ontario Provincial Election Commentary

00:06:31
Speaker
The provincial election, Tony, quickly. I just want to mention this. I don't know if you watched much of the debate last night. I watched it from the airport waiting for my flight, which was delayed by five hours. You didn't miss much. You didn't miss much if you didn't see all of it. But Mike Schreiner, leader of the Greens, did give a shout out to Perry Sound Muskoka. You know why that is, eh? Apparently that candidate is pretty good.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, he is. Yeah, Matt Richter is pretty good. Not as good as the PC candidate, of course. But the other key thing you should know about the Perry San Muskoka race, Jodi, is guess who the Liberal candidate is.
00:07:07
Speaker
I think you you told me this before. I can't I don't know. I can't remember. There is no liberal. Oh, that's right. That's right. They never did have one. That's right. They did. And then wait, that was the guy that had the commentary on babies or something. Yeah, that they breathing the wrong way and therefore became gay. So they had to kick him out. And so they liberals were running around.
00:07:30
Speaker
trying to get another candidate on the ballot and didn't happen by the cutoff they were twelve signatures short and so there's no there's no liberal candidate what was the last time there hadn't hasn't been a liberal candidate in that writing. Confederation yeah i was gonna say that does not happen often.
00:07:47
Speaker
No, no, no. Wow. So, so yeah. So the Greens are looking at this. There's no incumbent MPP because Norm Miller retired. There's no liberal candidates. So they're licking their chops for sure. So, and I know you've been working hard with Graydon and of course he's been on our program before. Does this, does this change the land? Like, does this change the game here? Like, is that?
00:08:11
Speaker
So far, our research indicates that we gain a couple of points, the NDP gains a couple of points, but the Greens do gain some points on this too. It makes it tighter. I cannot tell a lie. It makes it tighter, but Graydon, I still feel confident, will be the
00:08:31
Speaker
successful candidate. He's very well known. He was the mayor of Bracebridge, very well liked. Uh, and frankly, Doug Ford is well liked too. Uh, you may be finding this too. Uh, you know, I've been in change elections where the premier or the leader is not well liked. And believe me, I know what that feels like. And this doesn't feel like that, at least in Perry, San Muskoka. And I dare say in other parts of the province that I've been going to as well. Yeah, I would tend to agree even on the heels of that debate last night. I mean, my,
00:09:02
Speaker
overarching summary is like, I mean, I think it was just sad all the way around. I think that, you know what's funny?
00:09:12
Speaker
Well, actually, Shriner was like the best speaker out of all four of them. And even even he wasn't that great. People say that, but I found him a bit whiny. I got to tell you. Yeah, no, it's you're right. It's his voice. The sound of his voice is annoying, but he delivers and he speaks the best. Like understand, like, OK, I am amazed at how sloppy Doug Ford still is. Stephen Del Duca is not strong. And Andrea is just I mean, she's two elections too long and they're like, she's gone.
00:09:40
Speaker
Uh, a little while ago, but you know, I, I don't know. Doug just still stumbles a lot. Like it's, it's kind of at first it was kind of folksy and appealing, but I find it annoying now. So do you think that he lost ground? Cause I, no, no, no, no, no. I saw what I'm saying. I'm just saying, I'm just saying none of them are very strong. Like honestly, like, I mean, this, this is going to sound self-serving, but I literally think I could do a better job than they, than they do.
00:10:08
Speaker
Like on there, like I just thought it was, I thought it was like a college style debate and Steve Paken was great. I don't know who that other woman was. I thought she was terrible. She's done, she's done debates before. She used to be a Huffington Post reporter when I was on the Hill. And now I think she's with CBC or something like that. No, I literally, it felt like I was watching a college style debate put on by students.
00:10:35
Speaker
That's how I just thought it was like really Mickey Mouse, like, yeah, absolutely could tell it was Canadian. Well, that's because we didn't have the sad trombone sound like, well, no, but you know, do you ever watch, have you watched Canada's Got Talent? Have you watched any of those? Never. No, like there, there's like, I mean.
00:10:53
Speaker
I hate to say this about our country, but for some reason we can't do things to the same level as what other, like the States does for America's Got Talent. Like you watch the two shows and you know that Canada's Got Talent, it's like, uh, this just isn't as good. Like production wise, like everything, like, anyways, that's how it felt last night. I was like, aye, aye, aye. It's like, am I watching something on Kojiko right now or? Hey, did you find it weird that they were so scrunched together too?
00:11:21
Speaker
the whole thing was weird like they were so close to one another like they were like a foot and a half apart like did they not have a good studio space or something i don't know i thought the whole thing was weird but no i don't think anybody i don't think anybody won i don't think anybody lost i think uh use the classic line
00:11:38
Speaker
I think Ontario lost. No. Um, but doesn't the tie go to the incumbent? Sure. Yeah, I guess. I mean, honestly, I don't, I'm like, yeah, I don't see how Ford loses this to be honest. Yeah. But yeah, but this is probably the polls have tightened up a little bit in the last couple of days though. Have you noticed that? What is that? What is that? I don't know. I mean, I, I honestly, I just don't know. I thought, I thought Dell, Duke is lying there where he tried to zing them. Oh, Jack Leighton line, not showing up for work. I was like,
00:12:09
Speaker
Uh, yeah, that might've worked 10 years ago, but like Ford's been out on the road for two years during COVID. He's been shoveling snow, man. Like who cares? Like I don't care about if he's in question period or not. I actually don't consider that the work. I think the work is done, you know, in the committees it's done on the ground. It's.
00:12:31
Speaker
done meeting people where they're at, but that's my opinion. Plus the other thing was Layton's line was directed at another leader of the opposition, not at the prime minister. So again, it wasn't going to work against Doug Ford because he's a busy guy. Yeah. And even the fact that even said like, you know, if you had, if you missed 82% of your work days, would you end, would you get paid or would you keep your job? I'm like, this is so lame. Don't do, give me a break.
00:12:58
Speaker
Anyway, it's got a little bit of a bump. I don't know whether that's just, we're kind of in the middle of the election and there's a natural tendency to give the insurgent a little bump, but I'm not sure it's going to, I don't think it's going to stay that long. Well, I'm definitely predicting low voter turnout. I just don't think there's any interest. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know who that suits. They always say that suits the incumbent, right? Incumbent, incumbent. More people come out, that usually indicates change.
00:13:28
Speaker
Um, but yeah, so I guess in theory, then you would think that that's good for the PCs, but I don't know. I just, I just kind of go like, well, it's not over yet, Jody, you know, we have a campaign so far. Yeah. But like, no, like I, I can walk up and down my street.
00:13:46
Speaker
And I can tell you that I'd be shocked if a handful of people were even knew what was going on right now. Yeah, I know. Are there fewer lawn signs up? Across the board, I don't know what it's like in your area, but I've seen this in the last elections over the last cycles, the last couple cycles, I guess, and all federal, provincial, municipal. Election signs in this area are definitely waning. There's absolutely not as many people put signs up. I agree. It's not even close. I agree.
00:14:16
Speaker
Which is interesting and quite frankly, like I was driving down one of the main streets today and there was a bunch of signs blown over in the wind and I'm like, I think we got to get, I don't know. There's got to be something more different we can do than science. Cause honestly, it looks junky and I just not a fan of them anymore. Well, maybe it's time, time is up for

Interview with Michael J. Syla: NOAA and Hurricanes

00:14:34
Speaker
lawn signs. Maybe we don't need them anymore.
00:14:36
Speaker
Maybe we all just need, uh, big digital led billboards on our lawn. We should have Christmas lights, you know, different holograms, holograms. Actually, you know, and you know, it's funny too. I won't name, I saw a picture of a local chamber of commerce and they had the, they have their debate, all candidates event tonight. And did you know, I thought this was funny. They had all the logos of the parties.
00:15:02
Speaker
with the party name author's chair, so in front of their seat, kind of like a mini sign. Wow, fancy. And no, but here's the thing. They used the federal conservative logo for the DC member. Oh no. I'm like, who doesn't research these things? Anyway, it was like the concert, it said conservative with the new logo that was introduced in row two. Oh no. And I'm like, oh my gosh. And these are- That's embarrassing. Humorous people, but- Yeah.
00:15:30
Speaker
That's embarrassing. Anyway, so I don't know. All good people just volunteering their time, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. Sure. That's. Thank you for your service. Anyway, so you have an interview. Yeah. You want to tee up here because you recorded a cool chat while you're in Washington. So I'll let you set the stage here.
00:15:51
Speaker
Yeah, I had lunch today in DC with Michael J. Syla. He's a friend of mine. We do a little bit of work together at Wellington Dupont Public Affairs, but I thought it'd be interesting just to get his take on a few things.
00:16:06
Speaker
And I'll tell you about my big epic fail too, but let me introduce him first. He was a rear admiral. So he was an admiral in the US Navy and he was the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
00:16:24
Speaker
administration or otherwise known as Noah. And he was a hurricane chaser. So he would go out, he would fly planes into hurricanes, Jody, just to find out what was going on. And apparently every single hurricane, they got to do that. They can take all the
00:16:42
Speaker
You know they can do all the stuff outside the hurricane to measure things but they actually have to fly humans into the eye of the hurricane to get the best instrumentation out there and to find out what the hurricane is doing and he did that for hurricane Katrina.
00:16:59
Speaker
So I thought that was interesting. He then went to Washington and worked in the administration, I think for George W. Bush at NOAA. And yeah, so he's a naval aviator and really interesting pilot flew with the Persian Gulf as well and did some neat stuff there. I just thought it'd be interesting to get his perspective not only about what he did,
00:17:25
Speaker
But also, what's going on in Washington? All the fighting, the political fighting that goes on there, is there any hope to actually reduce the temperature there a little bit? And he's actually hopeful that they can.
00:17:42
Speaker
So I just thought I know we've got a lot on our plates, Jodi, in Canada with provincial elections and the federal sort of leadership and what's going on with Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh. But, hey, I'm in Washington right now. Why not deal with somebody who's got a perspective on stuff in Washington? So I hope people like Michael Seiler, great guy. And the one question, oh, Jodi, you're going to kill me.
00:18:10
Speaker
You know what was going on in Washington today other than Jason Kenney? They were having the hearings on the UFOs. Oh, really? And I should have asked him whether he's ever seen a UFO.
00:18:24
Speaker
I'm sorry. Why did you ask that, Tony? I'm sorry. And I actually emailed him. He hasn't replied. If he would have replied, I could have given you the answer, but he hasn't replied. But I feel like, man, that's so obvious a question on today. They've had the first UFO hearings in Washington in 50 years.
00:18:43
Speaker
And I didn't even ask about that, so I want to apologize profusely to our audience, but maybe you might see a tweet or some other post where I will give you that answer from Michael, because that would be really cool if he has seen a UFO. I guess so. So let's enjoy this conversation, and then we will come back to wrap up the show.
00:19:06
Speaker
Welcome to an another thing podcast. I'm Tony Clement here in downtown Washington DC in a restaurant, having a great meal with Michael sila. He's somebody that I've come to know a little bit and I thought you should want to know him a little bit too. So Michael, tell us a little bit about yourself and introduce yourself to our audience. Sure.
00:19:26
Speaker
My name is Michael Syla. I'm a retired admiral in the NOAA Commissioned Corps, which is a service in the United States devoted to environmental science. And I've been in D.C. for the most part since about 2006. So, retired admiral, but in a very special department, tell us a little bit about your work in that corps.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, I really came over after 10 years or so of flying for the Navy to do hurricane research. This is one of the few places in the world, actually the only place in the world where we have squadrons dedicated to hurricane. One at NOAA and one at the Air Force and so that intrigued me. I'd grown up on the Gulf Coast in Florida. I knew how important those forecasts were and so I really just came to NOAA.
00:20:13
Speaker
to fly airplanes into hurricanes because I thought that would be rewarding and exciting and certainly was all of that. Everything else was just not a bonus as my career developed. You say it's so nonchalantly flying into hurricanes. Tell us a little bit about what that is like. Well, even now with outstanding satellite technology and
00:20:36
Speaker
I would say a plethora of other observing systems. Those forecasts aren't accurate enough unless you put an airplane inside about every three hours. And so that was our job. We would go into hurricanes that threatened the U.S. mostly, although sometimes we would do other storms if they had research value.
00:20:55
Speaker
And every three hours you would want to take measurements from the very center of the hurricane in the middle of the eye. And so, you know, that's what we did, you know, six months a year during hurricane season. We were on standby and I had the, I would say, good fortune.
00:21:11
Speaker
of being there for some exceptionally busy hurricane seasons between, say, 2002 and 2006. Hurricane Katrina was my last storm, and although I didn't know that was going to be my last storm, it really punctuated what was a very rewarding time for me in the airplane. Yeah, I mean, that must have been very emotional, too, because of the destruction that it caused eventually, right?
00:21:36
Speaker
Yeah, it was. It was a really challenging week. We started flying that storm about a week prior when it was just another hurricane in a very busy season. But by the end of that week, when the storm had gotten loose in the Gulf and became a category 5, I think all of us knew that it was going to hit somewhere and create a lot of damage.
00:21:55
Speaker
The forecast was right on. It was very, very frustrating and disappointing to see just how many people died. Almost 2,000 people died in the United States as a result of Hurricane Katrina. In many ways, it kind of led me here because, like many idealists and young people, I thought, well, something's broken and it wasn't in the airplane and it wasn't in the forecast. Let's go find out what that is. And off I went to Washington.
00:22:23
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about your stint in the administration. I came to Washington as an aide to the head of NOAA. The head of NOAA was a political appointee and retired Navy admiral. It wasn't a job I really embraced. I was happily flying airplanes and thought I'd be a pilot forever.
00:22:46
Speaker
At best this was going to be an interruption, but he was an outstanding mentor and when I finished nearly two years with him, I really wanted to learn more about government, so I went to study government for my master's degree and really changed everything for me. Those two experiences really changed everything for me. Yeah, and you said that what really interests you is
00:23:09
Speaker
government processes, how decisions are made, how things are done? Yeah, that's correct. I think the idealism is important too. You and I talked about this earlier. Washington gets a really bad rap, but the Washington I know and the people that I call friends
00:23:27
Speaker
didn't really grow up here. They came here to fix big problems and I think those people are still here trying to fix big problems. As I said before, you know, the Washington that everybody disparages is largely important. You know, that the people here are really trying to make a difference and that was certainly the case. I wanted to better understand the process of our Congress, the workings of the executive branch and then as I went on
00:23:54
Speaker
deeper into the budget process because Washington runs out of money way before they run out of good ideas. So it was important for me to really understand the mechanics of governance and of the system of American democracy. I'm still learning that.
00:24:09
Speaker
So obviously, you know, Canadians looking at the U.S. scene, all they see is chaos these days, perhaps, you know, political chaos and societal chaos. And you've made the point that here in D.C. there's a lot of good people that want to do some good things.

Political Climate and Podcast Conclusion

00:24:26
Speaker
But we'd love to get your perspective just like, is this just like a downward spiral or is this just a bad period of time or what's going on here?
00:24:37
Speaker
Well, I think a couple things. The American system is chaotic by design to some degree. And so there's always been severe partisan politics in the United States from the beginning. That's not to say it's the same now.
00:24:53
Speaker
I think that some of the societal influences manifest in politics first and most visibly. The fact that everybody can go to their news outlet of choice and only see opinions like theirs, for example, is a relatively new phenomenon. But I do believe that there are enough people here to find the right answers to big problems. Oftentimes those answers are compromises.
00:25:20
Speaker
But if you look at the history of our republic and the major legislation that really made a difference, that was almost always bipartisan. And so I'm hopeful that we can get back to that really with a spirit of compromise at the core. People united by big ideas, even though they might not be united by how those ideas are executed. Yeah, I mean, there was, I think I just recently learned of an experiment. I think it was at Stanford.
00:25:47
Speaker
where they got a bunch of ordinary Americans into a room for two days, and they were all different ideologies and all different demographics, and then they threw at them the biggest problems of the era. This is back in 2019, I think, so during the Trump presidency.
00:26:06
Speaker
And they were surprised at how they could actually move to a spirit of compromise when they were given that kind of marching orders to find a solution to something. So, I mean, it can be done, but what we see in DC, or at least what the impression is, is that there is no spirit of compromise.
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah, I think things have changed. One of the things I remember looking at was voting patterns in the early part of American democracy, and those voting patterns were much more closely related to who the members lived with and who they ate with.
00:26:45
Speaker
than what party identification they enjoy. Nowadays, nobody really lives in D.C., and so most of the time members of Congress go back to their districts, right, because they have to worry about other things. But I'm still hopeful. It is difficult in an age where in some times very well-intended transparency
00:27:09
Speaker
and empower certain news outlets really to magnify and criticize anybody with a substantial record. But the true legislators here, the people that are committed, know the value of compromise and know that that compromise is largely essential. And so I think we're going to get back to that. I think it's going to be slow going. And there's an election in five minutes, so I could be wrong. But I'm still optimistic. Yeah, last question maybe.
00:27:38
Speaker
We were talking before we started recording about attracting more committed people to politics, some of the impediments to that, whether it's fundraising or whether it's just the toxic atmosphere, maybe social media, that's got to be one of the challenges, right?
00:27:54
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's a big challenge. I think you're seeing people that are very good at it, younger people that are very adept at social media and have established a presence and a following, and that's really important. That's going to be essential to be successful in politics. There are also, though, the rank and file people that make this place go.
00:28:14
Speaker
And they've been here and they're always gonna be here. People that you don't read about, people on the personal staffs or the committee staffs or that came here as interns. To me, those are my people. And I think democracies in America at least is in very good hands, thanks for that.
00:28:35
Speaker
Well, that's good to hear. Michael Siler, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Excellent chat there. And yeah, that was very cool. And after listening to it now and after listening to your preamble, I'm even more upset that you didn't ask about the UFO, so. I should have done it, man. I thought too late. But anyway, we were just at a restaurant. It was more like a conversation, right? Because we were just at a table in a restaurant that you could hear the clinking of glasses.
00:29:03
Speaker
People chatting in the background but it is so it's kind of relaxed and but hey he's a rear admiral you don't yeah every day you don't get to sit sit down with somebody high up in the In the US Navy, so I hope our audience enjoyed that when Tony met Michael Yeah, was that a good guy sure um I Was gonna say to what did you guys have for lunch? What'd you eat?
00:29:28
Speaker
We just went, like we didn't go to a highbrow, we just went to just a place, a sandwich shop. So I had a croque monsieur, which is a French. We didn't go to a high-end place, but I had one of the most elitist sandwich ever. Go ahead. It's just like a meat and cheese. I know what it is. I know what it is. Yeah, and they put the cheese on the outside. So you had a salami sandwich, yeah. Yeah, exactly. What did he have?
00:29:58
Speaker
He had the tomato soup, and a salad, and like a baguette thing. No meat? Yeah, yeah, and the baguette. Okay, good. I was just going to say, a question when people don't eat meat. Yeah, no, no. He's a meat eater, I can assure you. We had a good meal, but it was not a high-end meal. It was just a chance to chitchat. With your croque monsieur. Croque monsieur.
00:30:25
Speaker
All right. Well, that was a lot of fun. Yeah. I'm looking forward to, we have some great guests coming up. I'm not going to tell all the gory details. We don't like to jinx it by talking about our guests. Exactly. And they'll bail on us. Record. And they'll bail on us. That's right. Exactly. Yeah. But we do have some good guests, as I say, circling the runway. So we'll hope to land some of those soon for our audience, for sure.
00:30:51
Speaker
All right, thanks again to Municipal Solutions. You can find them online at municipalsolutions.ca, our presenting sponsors, as well as loonypolitics.com. You can go there for exclusive content. Use the code podcast to get 50% off an annual subscription. And Tony, where else can they hear the show? Huntersbayradio.com every Saturday morning at 8.30 AM.
00:31:14
Speaker
where the podcast is rebroadcast. Yes. Nice little catchy slogan. Anyway, enjoy the rest of your time in Washington. Thanks. I know you're back soon and we'll talk in seven days. You got it.