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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
And hello there, Peter Vansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday. Thursday means your turn and the random ranter. And your turn it is with an Ask Me Anything, the last one before the summer break. That's coming right up. And hello there. Peter Mansbridge here. Here we are.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of the final Ask Me Anything before summer?
Middle of June. We're past the middle of June. We're coming up. Next week is the final week of the bridge before the summer break. And same kind of summer break as the past half dozen years where there will be a couple of special good talks. I'll give you those dates on Friday when we have our final good talk for this week and for this season.
We'll be back once in July and once in August with checking in with Chantel and Bruce. See what they have to say about things political that are going on. We still have a few shows to go. Our final show is next Wednesday. But Monday, of course, Janice will be here and we'll touch base on all things politics. Happening internationally that we should be keeping in mind through the summer.
And Janice, as much as she needs her break, she knows and I know that if something really big happens, we will be around to talk about it. And... Tuesday is the final Moore-Butts conversation for the year, and I think that's going to be a good one. So you don't want to miss that on Tuesday. And Wednesday we'll do something as the final show of the year. It's not the final show of the year.
It's the final show of the season before the summer break. Now, for your turn this week, we had promised, as the year started in January, that we'd do an Ask Me Anything once a month. And so this is the Ask Me Anything, the AMA, for this month. And I didn't need, nor did I ask for, any answers this week because we have so many questions.
from the past we're going to plan catch up here and we're going to try and get to as many as we can of the questions that you already had sent in um so without further ado let's uh let's get cracking david cartwright from port dover ontario that's on the northeast shore of lake erie As your family emigrated from England, that's true, 1950s, early 1950s, why do you now go to Scotland to relax?
Do you have distant relatives there? More importantly, what do you do there? Golf, gross shooting, visiting the abundant distilleries? Or to just enjoy the ambience of Scotland? Well, England and Scotland share the United Kingdom. And so I feel when I come here, I'm in many ways coming home. But we're in northern Scotland. We're up in the Highlands.
In fact, we're going to the Orkney Islands this weekend, which is really north, right? But... Why do we come here? Well, it started with golf and my sort of passion for golf and traveling with my friends to play golf. Then that morphed into traveling with my son to play golf with Will. And then that morphed into Cynthia saying, hey, I want to come as well.
Now, she doesn't golf, but she has become a passionate person. uh, admirer of Scotland and the people of Scotland. Now we haven't lost our Canadian-ness. We, uh, we go back to Canada next week actually, cause we want to be there for Canada day and, and for the summer. And we look forward to that. Um, nothing like a Canadian summer.
Uh, but Scotland, it's still about golf, but it's about, uh, the remote nature of this part of Scotland. Uh, we love it. Uh, love the people. And, you know, listen, I was in a very public role when I was full-time working in Canada, and so was Cynthia as an actor, street legal and lots of other things, Stratford Festival. And as a result, you know, we were kind of very public figures, right?
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Chapter 3: How does Peter Mansbridge connect his family history to his travels in Scotland?
separate opinion from fact, whether they fundamentally believe in democracy and informing citizens so they can affect government with informed views, and whether they spend time and money gathering news and don't just pass on what others have reported. CBC, for all its faults, is still trying.
CTV has made severe budget cuts, which has left it unable to gather enough news on its own, especially foreign news. The Globe and Mail is good. The Toronto Star. The Canadian Press is good. But, of course, it doesn't have its own network or newspaper. In the U.S., the New York Times is without peer. The Washington Post has wobbled recently, not helped by its ownership.
The Wall Street Journal does good work, but since it's owned by Rupert Murdoch, it has a shadow over it. CBS has a shadow. We've talked about that often on this show in the last couple of months. NBC and ABC are reliable, but spend a lot of time on trivia.
Chapter 4: What insights does Peter Mansbridge share about the impact of immigration?
Internationally, the BBC, The Guardian, come to mind. Gary Gould in Brantford, Ontario. What's something Canadian... What's something Canadians believe about the country that you think is not true? Well, I think you all know about how I feel about Canada and about Canadians, but I think we may underestimate how many people in the country aren't as nice and as pleasant as we'd like to think.
You know, I think a couple of years ago, some of those who were involved in the trucker's convoy should have opened our eyes to that element of the population. Rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia is another eye-opener. Bad things happen when we aren't vigilant. Michael Brown in Brockville, Ontario says,
The Albertans that I know and met myself while vacationing in Alberta are proud Canadians who deeply love our country. I remember the phrase, the West wants in. Now some 35% want out. You know, the 35%, maybe 35%, it may be 25%. It may be 20%. We're about to find out, I guess. It makes my blood boil. It feels like betrayal. This is Michael talking again.
Of all the sacrifices of our forefathers and foremothers. When you were covering the referendums in Quebec, how did you keep cool and calm? You know, the reporting... The job of reporting on referendum night was to keep cool and calm. There's no value to becoming hysterical or partisan because it hurts your credibility.
In 1995, our referendum night coverage was done with a lot of reporters from the local Montreal newsroom. They obviously were deeply emotionally, personally invested in the results and would be immediately living with the consequences. I remember our senior producer saying, He was a former Montrealer.
Gathering all the people involved that night together for a talk about how to control themselves on the air, no matter what happened. Just report what was happening. No panic, no doomsday talk, level-headedness all night long. And that's what we tried to do. Grant Wilson in Squamish, B.C., I'm 78. In 2022, I drove from Glasgow to Dundee up to the Orkneys, down to Skye, over to Lewis, then back.
In 2025, it was Inverness to drive all of the Outer Hebrides, then back via Skye. When finished, I told myself that was the last time as it's getting too tense. Do you have your own car there, and how comfortable are you driving? I do have a car here.
And, you know, listen, it takes a while to get comfortable and you've always got to be vigilant no matter where you're driving, whether it's in Scotland or Canada. But I love the driving here. I love the beauty of the countryside. It's, you know, it's not like you're on the 401 here. You can't drive at speed.
You know, if you average 50 miles an hour driving in the country in Scotland, you're doing fine. You try to drive 75, and you're going to get yourself in trouble. And we're talking miles an hour here, not clicks. Amanda Gavignon. In Windsor, Ontario, what is the sovereign wealth fund? I know it's some kind of fund started with a loan, but I feel I'm not truly grasping it.
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Chapter 5: How has the perception of war shifted in the U.S. according to Mansbridge?
We just report the age of 79 going forward. We did correct more serious errors. and note them on air. We once mixed up two MPs on video from the House of Commons. I talked about it in my book, you know, off the record. They both had silver gray hair, and the shot was from behind, and we messed up. Now, that was kind of a medium-sized error.
Because it involved two well-known politicians, and we got them confused, and they were from different parties, and it was just, it was bad. Now, as it turned out, they found it funny. But it could have been worse. As I said, I don't remember any major errors. I remember reporting stories that became controversial, and some people said they were wrong, but... I didn't waver. They weren't wrong.
And I find it unfortunate that some people have written stories since, years later, with no proof and never having talked to me that the stories were wrong. So I'm not even going to give it more time than that. Joseph Murdoch Flowers in Iqaluit. As you know, I run Kajaktorvik, which is the community food center in Iqaluit. It's a great job where I get to think about food every day.
One of the best things about it is I get to ask people about their experiences with food. So my question, will you please tell us about your favorite food memory? What was it, and why is it so special to you? Listen, I... My favorite food memory, God, I have hundreds of favorite food memories.
Because I've been lucky enough to travel, you know, as the ranter says, we're lucky in this country because on a Friday night, you can get almost any kind of world food right here in Canada, especially in major cities. I remember a meal I had on the West Bank. I was covering the Intifada. I think it was the second Intifada. And we were trying to do a profile of a family on the West Bank.
And we agreed to meet in a restaurant. And the restaurant went out of its way to make a fantastic... And it was unbelievable. The most incredible food. Amazing vegetables and lamb. That's always gone down as my favorite meal ever, anywhere. Gregor Cutaback in Calgary. Now that you are in Scotland for the summer, what is your... This is like a drink of choice, I guess.
Are you a single malt man or do you prefer blends? Speyside, Highland, Lowland, or Islay? You know, I'm not a big Scotch drinker, even though I have... A partnership in a distillery in Northern Scotland. But I guess if I had to choose, it would be a single malt. Highland. Judy Skeen in Sault Ste. Marie. I'm still hanging on at 86.
And I have to tell you, I spent Christmas in Sri Lanka and brought in the new year in Malaysia. Two countries I've been to and lived in one of them in Malaya. The highlight of the trip was ticking off the last of the seven modern wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal from my list. Never seen it. I know you are a busy man, but I have to ask, when are you going to Antarctica?
Well, it's still on my to-do list. I've been offered trips there by some of the cruise lines who want me to come and speak on the cruise ships. And you never know. One of these days I may take them up on that. Brian Karasik in Nanus Bay, British Columbia. That's on the southern end of the Vancouver Island. Well, maybe not the end, but it's in southern Vancouver Island.
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