True Patriot Love - Manitoba in Focus： Affordability, Opportunity, and Canada's Heartland

00:00:00.000 portage in maine is at the heart of canada in winnipeg manitoba but so much is unknown about

00:00:10.240 the heart of canada because so much focus in the media and through politicians is on the big cities

00:00:15.760 vancouver montreal and toronto but what about winnipeg what about manitoba what about the

00:00:19.840 heartland of canada who better to talk about it than veteran television radio broadcaster

00:00:24.960 uh social media influencer a blogger long time manitoba resident and someone i'm proud to call

00:00:29.760 a friend rick low and rick how are you very good how are you jimmy good good good um you know

00:00:36.080 manitoba is in a lot of ways a happening place you know stories about spending billions to upgrade

00:00:42.960 churchill and the portlands to ship natural gas to europe and other things give the people of

00:00:49.120 canada an update what where are we in the state of manitoba in 2026 oh boy great question by the

00:00:55.520 the way i used to work with a mutual friend uh johnny borden you know who said that basically

00:01:00.700 in the gta area where you are uh nobody west of timmons knows that manitoba exists so i'm happy

00:01:06.760 that we're at least figuratively if not literally on the map with you guys that's great yeah no

00:01:11.460 please and that's what we're doing at rick yeah yeah yeah so uh where are we well that's yeah

00:01:16.520 well you mentioned churchill let's you know fingers crossed that could i was just golfing

00:01:20.980 with a friend of mine a couple of days ago and he said not in our lifetime but down the road that

00:01:25.380 is going to be such a game he feels it's going to be such a game changer uh what with climate

00:01:30.500 change and and uh you know the fact that it's weeks days every year that that port has opened

00:01:36.180 up anyway so that's certainly one thing um but where are we well we can talk about uh

00:01:43.860 you want to talk politically you want to talk socially you want to talk culturally where you

00:01:46.740 want to go with this well i'll start politically rick because they just had a national poll of

00:01:51.940 the approval ratings of premiers across the country in ontario doug ford is rock bottom at

00:01:57.460 barely registering at 20 percent and wob canoe is leader of the pack at 62 percent what it is

00:02:04.420 it about wob canoe that has really touched the hearts and minds of so many people in the province

00:02:09.300 that he has such a high approval rating so uh there's a few things one is he's just a mensch

00:02:15.940 okay he's like the kind of guy you want to just go have a beer with uh there was a kind of a viral

00:02:20.900 video about a year ago where he helped a woman uh change a flat tire he didn't well he didn't know

00:02:26.500 he was being videoed okay whatever but he got out of his car and he helped this woman change a flat

00:02:32.020 tire of course being indigenous winnipeg having the most indigenous population in any city in

00:02:36.980 canada it's a huge boon but it's also a huge uh an issue uh you know 90 of our foster kids are 0.92

00:02:44.500 native so um so there's he's just a good guy i i will i will counter that by saying

00:02:52.660 in the however long he's been in office he hasn't really improved anything and i don't mean that in

00:02:57.380 a bad way a lot of the problems are unfixable health care every province every province is

00:03:02.500 trying to poach doctors and nurses from every other province um i don't know that whether

00:03:07.300 that's fixable but but um that that's one thing uh that that but but his coolness you know you

00:03:14.980 saw the clip of him uh no buzma until there's kuzma or whatever it was right and you know

00:03:21.700 and then making fun of trump with the executive orders and stuff so people kind of like his

00:03:26.100 uh good-naturedness um he also it's a little bit like um the liberals and the conservatives

00:03:33.700 federally. Right now, according to the polls, you know, Carney's doing well and Polly really isn't

00:03:39.140 making a dent. And it's a little bit like that here because we had Pallister for a long time

00:03:43.700 and then Stephenson. And Stephenson was sort of the Cruella de Vil version of the politician.

00:03:48.420 Like she was almost, it wasn't, it was a feature, not a bug or cruelty. And so we got a provincial

00:03:54.900 election and one of the big issues was searching landfills for these, there was a few indigenous

00:04:01.540 women that had gone missing and they were uh allegedly buried in the landfills and she she

00:04:06.500 made it a platform plank to not search for them and that was sort of even though she was failing

00:04:13.060 that was the dagger right so um he doesn't really have a lot of competition and now abhi khan who

00:04:19.860 you will know very well yes yeah absolutely the famous cfl or abhi khan uh is the conservative

00:04:26.500 leader here in the province and he is a little bit like polyesterly he hasn't doesn't have a lot of

00:04:31.220 attraction right now um and ironically i don't know if you know this you know that avi khan to

00:04:35.560 become an mla he beat willard reeves in the by-election oh i didn't realize that so cfl and

00:04:40.840 cfl crime yeah isn't that one was yeah when one was avi khan conservative but willard reeves liberal

00:04:45.720 and he barely won it was really close so it was kind of an interesting cfl legend uh yeah so it's

00:04:52.640 pretty fascinating uh and the liberals were willard reeves ran for liberals don't even register in

00:04:57.720 this province so so that's not even a thing so you've got ndp that are really holding the fort

00:05:02.680 and then you've got the conservatives and then the liberals are kind of uh sort of a non-issue

00:05:07.360 right now you touched upon health care and wait times and it made national headlines a few months

00:05:12.620 ago about i believe it was a woman in a winnipeg hospital in the waiting area for like 30 some

00:05:18.360 hours who suffered catastrophic health issues it's a problem in every province in the country

00:05:23.360 from a manitoba standpoint what is the big stumbling block to improving health care in

00:05:29.260 those wait times it's the same as every province it's the federal transfers it's like i don't i

00:05:35.480 don't like i said i don't know that that problem is solvable every other province says hey we're

00:05:40.240 recruiting nurses from other provinces but every other province is trying to take our nurses and

00:05:44.100 our uh doctors that one plus is that because of the situation in the states right now there's a

00:05:51.360 lot of nurses and doctors that are coming up from estates i know in bc i just uh saw a thing about

00:05:57.160 six weeks ago they've managed to coach quite a few doctors and nurses from texas and deep south

00:06:02.000 they're not those professionals aren't happy with the situation um but it's just the same thing all

00:06:06.720 over there's too many people not enough services you want to you want to cut taxes or at least

00:06:11.040 keep them level but you want to increase services impossible so either you raise taxes which no

00:06:17.420 politician wants to do or you don't get the services you want which is generally what is

00:06:22.320 happening i mean for a lot of people in ontario i have family in the maritimes i have a daughter

00:06:27.720 living in alberta now we always see the the license plate friendly manitoba so it always

00:06:33.140 shocks a lot of canadians rick when they see the crime rates in winnipeg in manitoba and the drug

00:06:38.560 related issues why is it so out of control in parts of manitoba okay i have to be really careful

00:06:44.760 here you know i'm a foster parent of a couple of native kids so i do not that notwithstanding

00:06:50.920 um because we have i think the latest poll was 110 000 uh natives living in winnipeg out of 800 0.99

00:06:58.440 000 so that's a and most of them in the downtown area um so a lot of that crime is is indigenous 0.98

00:07:06.200 on indigenous and that doesn't that doesn't diminish it at all i'm just saying um that 0.96

00:07:11.160 there's a real problem you've got and we could talk for hours but you've got i think we have about

00:07:16.200 63 reserves in in manitoba um a lot of them are now they're being flooded we just had a torrential

00:07:23.960 rainstorms about a week ago a couple of them get flooded every year they're in the wrong place

00:07:29.640 some of them have been flooded on purpose because of our hydro um so they're in these isolated

00:07:37.000 reserves and there's nothing to do and so they come to winnipeg and then there's nothing to do

00:07:44.040 so it's just uh you know it's you can go all the way back to uh jean jean christian's white paper

00:07:50.520 you can you can really go back a long way if you want but um that certainly is like so you ask

00:07:56.120 about the crime if i'm walking downtown winnipeg and i remember years ago when you and i were doing

00:08:00.760 the argos we we walked downtown uh i don't ever feel unsafe neither does my wife you can walk

00:08:06.520 downtown maybe not at two in the morning but in the evening and we've got a thriving we just you

00:08:12.620 started this thing with portage in maine we just opened portage in maine again to pedestrians after

00:08:17.220 40 years i think oh fantastic yeah it was closed and there was a mall underneath it so you couldn't

00:08:22.740 walk across portage in maine which a lot of us thought was really stupid so they finally opened

00:08:27.260 it up again uh we've got the winnipeg old eyes in the double a they play right downtown in a

00:08:32.760 beautiful park um uh so there is a lot of good stuff happening downtown uh but it's like any

00:08:40.060 city you know i mean we always joke my son and i went to chicago a few years ago and my wife said

00:08:44.700 do we need a you need a money belt to hide your money and i go no it's no more dangerous than

00:08:48.820 winnipeg just just common sense right yeah well so yeah but sure lots of and then of course the

00:08:55.280 homeless right that's a a huge deal we've got riverbanks and there's lots of camps and then

00:08:59.980 they want to get rid of the homeless but where they have to go somewhere so they just set up

00:09:05.620 camp somewhere else right you know and the reason i bring it up is i know justin trudeau talked

00:09:12.160 about it in 2015 how he promised potable clean drinking water for every indigenous reservation

00:09:18.020 in the country i as long as i can remember as a as a young man politicians have promised to help

00:09:24.800 indigenous population but and having a web canoe as premier helps but federally i'm still waiting

00:09:32.160 for someone to do something tangible instead of just throwing money at the problem do you know

00:09:36.080 what i mean yeah and if i could be again i have to be really careful um but because of our uh

00:09:43.840 involvement with our kids um and and my wife's been working for first nations for the last 30 years

00:09:49.280 Um, one of the problems is you can, you can give a, uh, there's a lot of very high functioning

00:09:56.520 reserves. I was just in Kelowna a couple of weeks ago. You go down to a Soyuz and they

00:10:00.140 have hotels and casinos and wineries and, but they have the resources, right? You're not so 1.00

00:10:06.140 much. Like I said, you might be on an, on a isolated Island with no resources. Well,

00:10:11.120 how do you make money? Right. Um, so you have to be, you have to be really, I have to be really

00:10:18.380 careful about how i how i couch everything and i hope you're editing this because now i've

00:10:23.180 completely lost my train of thought what was the original no no i i no it's a sensitive subject

00:10:28.220 rick and i get it that there's the balance between understanding the reality of certain pockets

00:10:34.620 whether it's um you know the james bay like in the middle of nowhere northern ontario or northern

00:10:40.300 quebec or i mean some of those isolated communities it's like you say where you get the income to lift

00:10:47.420 them up other bootstraps that you see in other places right sorry and you were talking about the

00:10:51.560 water plant so specifically the water plant so the federal government can throw half a billion

00:10:55.680 dollars at a water plant in uh northwestern ontario but if uh billy and jimmy or whoever

00:11:03.060 in charge of the water plant don't put the chemicals in at the right time the water plant

00:11:09.060 becomes completely rusted out and shot after six months so it's like uh you know you hear of a lot

00:11:15.720 fires house fires on on reserves uh well if the if they can't find the keys for the fire truck

00:11:22.360 or if the fire truck is empty because someone didn't fill it up those millions of dollars that

00:11:28.920 they give the reserves don't really do anything unless there's some way to follow through but

00:11:34.360 if you're too hands-on then you're micromanaging and that doesn't work either so there's just a

00:11:40.120 whole system that needs to be sort of changed and i don't know how you do that i i know here in

00:11:47.480 ontario the the middle class is is shrinking fast right there are pockets where you know like there

00:11:53.480 is no middle class what is the state of the middle class in manitoba and is it still somewhere where

00:11:58.440 someone with a decent job can afford a place to live yeah uh two two answers the middle class is

00:12:05.720 certainly shrinking but yeah you can still buy a house for 300 and 300 000 you know a nice starter

00:12:12.680 house uh you know a friend of mine in abbotsford just helped son his son by uh an 800 square

00:12:17.720 bungalow for 850 000. so we're not there yet um you know we are manitoba we are landlocked we have

00:12:25.320 mosquitoes blah blah blah but we keep telling ourselves no hurricanes no alligators no snakes

00:12:31.080 so we that's our mantra here right we just uh i keep telling ourselves that yeah you you it's

00:12:36.840 certainly not like it was when you and i were younger but you can you know if you if you have

00:12:43.000 a little help and now you have to have less of a down payment yeah you're not going to get a nice

00:12:47.720 house on the best street in winnipeg but uh you can live 25 minutes from the city in a decent

00:12:52.680 house for three hundred thousand dollars yeah it's not it's not unreachable certainly and and i know

00:12:57.960 from my my daughters who are adults now post-school they have friends who are migrating to manitoba to

00:13:05.240 the west to other parts of the country because they realize they simply will never be able to

00:13:09.400 afford the starter home in ontario so they're going your way yeah and i always say if you move

00:13:14.120 if you move from the west coast here or if you move from toronto east here you're going to and

00:13:18.760 and you're and you have a house or something you're going to do quite well uh you're going

00:13:22.280 to be able to upgrade if you if i wanted to move from our place here to kelowna i would have to

00:13:28.120 live in squalor but if you're moving right away you you're even you know anything i went golfing

00:13:33.480 with a friend of mine from bc the other day and he goes i'm sorry it was how much was it to golf

00:13:37.400 sixty dollars he goes is that twilight rate i go no that's about what we pay here sixty dollars so

00:13:42.280 you know you know in toronto vancouver you know it's usually about 150 so you know things are

00:13:47.880 lower and and uh yeah i mean if you can and it's great community it's great culture and we may we

00:13:53.480 may get into that but it certainly is uh yeah i can see why your daughters or friends of them

00:13:58.120 have decided hey you know if we even saskatchewan right a good place good place to move to and maybe

00:14:03.720 and me and maybe i'll board alberta shortly who knows you know um i do want to bring up the culture

00:14:11.080 winnipeg and manitoba has had um when you think about the population it's amazing the talent

00:14:18.040 broadcasting talent journalists music acting and the arts um culturally as you say rick it's

00:14:25.960 it really compared to the population the amount of elite level talent it's pretty remarkable

00:14:32.040 yeah and and i think i don't know if official studies have been done but anecdotally we always

00:14:36.840 joke that it's uh it's because of the cold because people have to stay inside for eight months of the

00:14:42.520 year and so you get very creative you have to otherwise you go crazy um so i think that that

00:14:48.840 has a lot to do with it because even in the dead of winter minus 30 the the garage band bar scene

00:14:53.720 here is is uh second to none as far as i'm concerned even the winnipeg full festival coming up

00:14:59.240 is uh if not the biggest second biggest folk festival in canada so and that's just a just a

00:15:06.680 whack of talent i mean i know they get people from all over the world literally but yeah winnipeg

00:15:10.600 with with acting and uh music broadcasting i think it i think it i think it's a community and i think

00:15:16.280 it does it is because we have to spend a lot of time indoors in winter and we need to figure out

00:15:20.200 a way to pass the time i think you know i i know once upon a time in your career you were part of

00:15:25.800 of a groundbreaking cbc sports show called the sports guys and the two sports guys and i just

00:15:33.580 had published a book with rod black cut to black and he talks lovingly about his time growing up

00:15:38.820 in the strathcona area winnipeg and getting a start at cky and even though it was different

00:15:44.200 people there was a real uh mutual support for journalists and broadcasters and people coming

00:15:50.480 out of the winnipeg in the manitoba area to do better yeah rod was rod was started a little

00:15:56.740 before us and he was quote-unquote a legitimate journalist we had a lot of fun in our show

00:16:00.880 obviously um but yeah i mean everyone knew everyone you and i before we went to air we

00:16:06.100 were talking about steve oglesang you know now now a uh someone on parole for robbing banks

00:16:11.760 uh but he was there at cky and maybe you and rod spoke about him a little bit because they i think

00:16:16.920 Well, Peter Young hired Rod Black, and I believe Peter Young also hired Steve Vogelsang.

00:16:21.440 And so, and that's where we recorded our show in the CKY building there.

00:16:25.600 So we knew a lot of people.

00:16:26.520 And we had, I can't remember anyone who was not supportive of our, we started on a public access.

00:16:33.100 I don't know if you grew up with public access TV.

00:16:35.580 Yes, yeah.

00:16:36.340 So that's where we started.

00:16:37.860 And then at some point, someone decided to pay us.

00:16:41.260 So, and, but we never were like, look down on, there's a, yeah, everyone, I think,

00:16:46.280 encourages and cheers for everyone else to do well i i had the privilege of working with you

00:16:52.020 at a radio station that's now defunct in toronto mojo radio and we we did broadcast together we did

00:16:57.740 argos games together rick and you spent a number of years in the gta before you moved back and you

00:17:03.020 would tell me lovingly stories about your volkswagen camper van and the simple beautiful life

00:17:10.080 of manitoba as you grew up how has it changed pre your time with the gta and since you moved back

00:17:16.340 how has manitoba changed yes oh boy well i for me probably not a lot because i'm you know you're

00:17:25.100 kind of set in your ways and and so i don't think for me it's changed a lot i think people really

00:17:30.960 and so i was talking about how we get creative because we're locked in the our garages for eight

00:17:35.860 months of the year uh conversely uh when we do have our four months which started about two weeks

00:17:42.060 ago then then we go crazy right like we camp and we swim and we fish and we just go crazy because

00:17:50.260 the window is so small that you only have four months to kind of live eight to 12 months of

00:17:55.460 outdoors so um but i don't i know i don't for me it hasn't changed much i know for my youngest is

00:18:02.400 22 and and you know when i was a kid two guys and myself would rent an apartment for 300 a month

00:18:09.360 that was 100 each and uh we'd go you know uh we'd go rappel out the window and hook up our coax cable

00:18:17.280 and and uh we were good and you could get a mcdonald's meal for a buck 50 and now you know

00:18:23.120 the cheapest one bedroom apartment is 1100 and that's where we live in a town of 1500 people

00:18:28.080 25 minutes out of winnipeg so um you know that's where things have changed like anyone else the

00:18:34.400 prices like for just a teenage kid or an early 20s kid that wants to just have a few years working

00:18:40.960 and having fun man it's it's it's it's almost out of reach financially anyway but culturally i don't

00:18:46.960 think it's changed much we have winnipeg has the biggest concentration of filipino population in

00:18:52.480 canada i think we have 70 000 or 80 000 we have a filipino only radio station and uh that's really 0.99

00:18:59.120 really enriched everyone uh their culture is fantastic and uh so that's changed the complexion

00:19:06.880 i guess of the city anyway um but i i don't i don't notice that much i notice a huge change

00:19:12.800 between toronto and winnipeg certainly but not not the the manitoba i knew is still kind of the same

00:19:19.040 i think i know winkler manitoba recently had their first ever pride event which obviously was

00:19:25.200 a big deal for that community and you know and as you alluded to um folk festivals music festivals

00:19:31.920 it is a great destination there are so many canadians rick especially here in ontario

00:19:36.160 who want nothing to do with spending their vacation money in in the usa so for those

00:19:41.520 who are thinking of going to manitoba this summer what are the some of the go-to things they should

00:19:45.360 do like hey you're gonna love you've never been there and they should do this this and this okay

00:19:50.560 so the usual i mentioned the folk festival this year i believe it's july 8th i'm guessing usually

00:19:56.240 second start second week in july so that's just a great time and and the music is and i'm going to

00:20:01.120 say this the music is inconsequential i don't mean that the music is always unbelievable but everyone

00:20:07.200 says i'll meet you at the beer tent that that's the thing about the folk festival you meet at the

00:20:10.720 beer tent and and there's you know seven or eight acts going on at the same time and then at the

00:20:15.760 campground which is there's a family campground and then there's a not family campground and the

00:20:20.960 not family one is where everyone takes out their guitars and starts drumming and having a good time

00:20:25.760 so there's that of course for me i would tell people and it usually blows them away we have a

00:20:31.920 beach called grand beach which is about an hour north of winnipeg which is absolutely spectacular

00:20:37.520 and there is a legend and i'm not sure if it's true mac did you ever hear some guys named chip

00:20:41.680 and pepper you know these guys of course i used to wear their clothes okay my wife threw them out

00:20:45.920 so they were winnipeggers and uh so in the chip and pepper days uh we i believe that grand beach

00:20:52.640 was ranked one of the top 10 beaches in north america i'm not sure if that's true but we told

00:20:56.400 ourselves that but it's a spectacular beach it's on the lake and the lake is so shallow you can walk

00:21:01.920 like 200 yards and you're only up to your waist and it's it's so it's great for kids it's safe

00:21:06.880 and it's a spectacular so i would say you absolutely have to go to grand beach because

00:21:10.640 you kind of come around the corner and you go hold it i'm in the middle of manitoba at this

00:21:14.480 unbelievable beach and perfect sand warm water it's spectacular so that's for me that that would

00:21:20.400 be one of the main things we have the human rights museum or i believe it's called the canadian

00:21:24.640 museum of human rights which is that one of those asper that was i think izzy's project or or his

00:21:30.720 daughter um that's you know that's the only museum that's the only capital museum in other words

00:21:36.800 federally regulated and owned that's not in ottawa is that right yeah it's the only capital museum

00:21:42.560 in that's not in ottawa and it's it's a spectacular building and when you watch the gold eyes game

00:21:47.600 much like if you're at a blue jays game you can see the sky dome if you're at a gold eyes game

00:21:51.280 you can see the human rights museum um in in the outfield it's just and that's right by the forks

00:21:57.200 which is the next thing i was getting to the the the confluation of confluation is that the right

00:22:02.320 word confluence of the boy and the red and it's the forks and it's just a meeting area with lots

00:22:08.880 of cool restaurants and shops and stuff and it's out in winter there's a skating rink and uh they

00:22:14.560 have outdoor uh giant crokinole have you seen this oh yes i have online yes yeah with curling

00:22:21.120 rocks it's giant crokinole so it's it's winter summer it's a great place and all the cycle

00:22:25.360 pads in winnipeg kind of end up there so the forks definitely should be on your things to do

00:22:30.560 you know uh i'm going to get to the beauty of winnipeg in a second because i have something

00:22:35.200 to bring up with you but i i showed us would say to people in other parts of canada

00:22:40.320 manitoba has some amazing indigenous powwows and if you want to experience indigenous culture in a

00:22:46.560 real loving atmosphere i think that would be something they should check out as well

00:22:50.080 yeah and the forks definitely because the forks is on indigenous land the forks has powwows all

00:22:54.240 the time um and then and then local reserves absolutely there's no shortage of and sweats

00:22:59.760 right you go to sweat lodge uh you can do a lot of that too and so there's yeah and there's a

00:23:05.760 it's a long aboriginal name i can't remember the name of it it's a little bit in north of winnipeg

00:23:11.600 and it's also a cultural center and we have the tommy prince recreational center as well so

00:23:18.080 there's lots of things in winnipeg that are directly related to and and we had uh we have

00:23:23.840 a major route a major east west route in winnipeg and it used to be called bishop grandin boulevard

00:23:28.800 and bishop grandin now we know was a terrible human being and so we changed it about five

00:23:35.980 years ago to abenoji nikina which which i don't know probably means traffic jam in

00:23:42.680 i should know what it means uh everyone thought it was going to be terrible and nobody would ever

00:23:48.320 catch on to the name and now everyone calls it that like everything else we don't even notice

00:23:52.240 it so yeah there's lots of uh indigenous cultural things that you can absolutely uh get set up with

00:23:58.500 here i i know a lot of americans who came to play in winnipeg and in the seafield never left they

00:24:05.340 stayed there a lot of guys who played in the winnipeg jets stayed there winnipeg gets a bad

00:24:10.820 rap among other canadians and other pro sports but what is it about the certain thing about the

00:24:17.100 city and the province that for a lot of people that are there they fall in love with it they

00:24:20.700 don't leave well did you see ehler's little speech after he won the stanley cup about winnipeg

00:24:24.960 It was emotional, wasn't it?

00:24:27.120 The year before, did you see Paul Maurice?

00:24:29.520 Oh, I got choked up listening to that.

00:24:31.840 So there you go.

00:24:32.640 There is, you know, I say this to all kinds of people,

00:24:36.520 especially because, you know, we used to do, or you do, sports.

00:24:41.120 You know, here, generally what happens,

00:24:43.920 there'll be a story about Blake Wheeler.

00:24:45.520 He'll be, well, when he was here, he'll be in a coffee shop

00:24:47.660 or at a greenhouse, and there'll be a little kid

00:24:49.460 that wants an autograph, and, of course, the parents go,

00:24:51.480 no, don't bother him.

00:24:53.180 It's a day off.

00:24:54.180 Leave him alone.

00:24:54.960 And so the player inevitably will go up to the kid and say, look, I noticed you.

00:24:58.720 Would you like my autograph?

00:25:00.020 So we just leave them alone.

00:25:01.960 If you see them, you might go, hey, nice game.

00:25:03.860 You know, I know Toronto is a little bit more caustic, right?

00:25:06.320 I know it's not New York.

00:25:09.540 Just a wee bit.

00:25:10.740 Yeah, it's not quite Philadelphia level, but it is a little more, you know, in your face.

00:25:16.640 So I think there's that.

00:25:17.780 And again, I go back to it again, because of the weather.

00:25:21.740 There's just a sense of community.

00:25:23.040 like we're all sort of you know we're all sort of fighting the same things we're all fighting eight

00:25:28.000 months of winter we're all fighting uh you know terrible roads with construction we're all fighting

00:25:32.800 mosquitoes we're all fighting that two-month window of having nice weather and we all are

00:25:37.520 in it together and so i think it just behooves us to be nice to each other i think there there

00:25:41.840 might be something to that i know climate and climate emergency and the environment is such

00:25:47.120 a big concern for all canadians i've noticed as i've gotten older weather patterns have changed

00:25:52.160 we just came out a really really bad winter in southern ontario how has weather changed from

00:25:57.360 your childhood to life in manitoba in 2026 oh drastically i up until a couple of years ago i

00:26:03.920 had a rink in my yard and i don't anymore because every january february we'd have 10 days of plus

00:26:10.080 and the whole thing would melt and i'd have to start all over again and it takes 17 coats just

00:26:15.680 to skate on an outdoor rink by the way i know uh it's a lot of work it's great i love doing it but

00:26:21.360 But I mean, so there's that.

00:26:24.600 Just last week, we got, right where I am now, we got seven inches of rain in 90 minutes.

00:26:31.220 What?

00:26:31.940 I'm not doing this for my basement now because our basement is completely flooded and all

00:26:36.020 our neighbors.

00:26:38.180 So crazy weather is just the norm now, right?

00:26:42.360 I mean, we had tornado warnings.

00:26:44.340 We had two tornadoes touchdown a week ago within 10 miles of our house.

00:26:48.160 and we were in the house and I was going, should we go in the basement?

00:26:52.060 I go, nah, it's fine.

00:26:53.640 We're almost getting inured to it, right?

00:26:55.680 Because it just happens so many times.

00:26:57.400 And like I said, we get hot weather like Calgary, a little bit like the Chinook.

00:27:00.820 We get hot weather in winter.

00:27:02.680 We get, I think five years ago, it was snowing in August here.

00:27:07.040 I mean, it's, yeah, it's very different than it used to be.

00:27:10.340 And then, well, we can talk about the whole Churchill thing later,

00:27:13.420 But, you know, that all of the polar bears are starting to come farther and farther south because the ice is breaking up early and they don't have any place to hang out and stuff.

00:27:22.220 So, yeah, it's changed a lot since I was a kid.

00:27:25.120 So how far south are the polar bears migrating in Manitoba?

00:27:28.640 OK, that's a good question. I should have I should have known you were going to ask me that.

00:27:32.500 I don't know because they're up in Churchill.

00:27:35.120 And by the way, on my list of things to do in Manitoba, certainly going to see the polar bears in Churchill.

00:27:39.520 I was remiss to not mention that. That is I haven't done it.

00:27:42.480 it's not cheap but apparently it's spectacular and you know that in Churchill you're not allowed

00:27:50.800 to lock your vehicle doors when you park because if someone is attacked by a polar bear they need

00:27:58.560 to be able to get into the closest vehicle because they don't mess around those polar bears do they

00:28:03.200 do not mess around with polar bears I don't know how far they are south they might be even in

00:28:07.260 Thompson I think they're in Thompson already which is okay farther south than Churchill but

00:28:11.560 yeah absolutely so so what i would say is that day-to-day you can sort of count on the weather

00:28:19.020 like okay it's june you know whatever i mean may long weekend and that's one funny uh just the

00:28:25.040 thing about manitoba and ontario you guys when i was there you call uh may long weekend may two four

00:28:30.200 yeah which is either because of the 24 beers in a case or because it fell on may 24th do we know

00:28:37.000 wife both it's both yeah okay well here we just call it may long okay that's just it's just called

00:28:43.140 me long but but the high for the monday of may long was six so um you can you can count on sort

00:28:50.280 of the seasons but in those seasons you just never know we had a week of 35 two weeks ago and then we

00:28:57.360 like i said that was just before may long which was plus six so there's no i saw a tent set up

00:29:03.720 what's today tuesday three days ago on a saturday a wedding tent just down the road from my place and

00:29:08.480 it was 16 and pouring rain and i'm sure the couple didn't count on that so

00:29:12.860 yeah it's you know it's like the stock market always goes like this but while it goes like

00:29:17.700 this it goes up and down our weather is steady but in that steadiness um it it goes up and down

00:29:24.880 a lot more and well the world's getting hotter too right just in general so you i don't want to

00:29:31.480 to circle back to churchill manitoba and the ports prime minister carney premier canoe and

00:29:37.780 other officials keep saying that this is something they can get done and ship liquid natural gas to

00:29:43.160 europe so they can cut out russia altogether but but you're making it sound like this could be

00:29:48.740 years in the making rick oh yeah yeah this is going to be years there's so much work that needs

00:29:54.300 to be done uh and it's a what is it a memorandum of understanding right yes much like the the one

00:30:00.900 carney signed with smith in alberta um oh yeah for sure years in the making i mean there's so much

00:30:07.460 because it's not a major port there's so much work to be done rail lines uh uh but sure alberta

00:30:14.900 whether they stay part of canada or not they will they get their pipeline to the pacific coast i

00:30:22.420 don't know lots of indigenous people say no eb says no whatever there's lots of people that say no

00:30:27.700 if they want to come here it's just saskatchewan scott moe he's all for that he's like you know

00:30:33.360 and saskatchewan's really i think a great example of how a province has in the last 20 years just

00:30:38.800 you know just outperformed itself right economically so uh it makes sense i think

00:30:45.200 the big thing is you know when when is climate change going fast enough which is an odd thing

00:30:51.820 to say so that it'll become a viable port uh and not just two months of the year because you

00:30:57.620 can't spend hundreds of billions of dollars for two months of the year so i think there's

00:31:02.340 yeah there's lots of work to be done yet but it's it's uh it's one of the ones i think carney was

00:31:07.580 going to fast track right i think he had a list of yes 10 or whatever that he was going to fast

00:31:11.360 track so it's good to know that we're on the radar that way and love canoe wants it very badly and

00:31:14.760 the province wants it very badly so i don't think there's any there pipelines there's always people

00:31:20.020 in the way uh or issues in the way here there's nothing in the way except uh i don't know money

00:31:27.220 bureaucracy but but no there's nobody that says we don't want it interesting yeah you know rick i

00:31:35.060 know you and your wife i've known you guys for years i know devoted you are to your your kids

00:31:39.540 now young adults are you excited for their future in manitoba for your kids yeah i think so i'm well

00:31:46.720 yeah as much as i would be in any province sure uh like we talked about affordability my my brother

00:31:51.480 has kids the same age. He's in Kelowna. Well, his kids can't afford anything. And two of his boys

00:31:58.960 are engineers, but they're just starting out. There's not even a chance if they can afford a

00:32:03.820 house. My kids and I, we were looking at a condo as an investment the other day in Winnipeg for

00:32:10.280 $149,000. Really? In a bit of a sketchier area, but it's an area that's being spruced up a little

00:32:20.300 bit and you can so yes yeah no uh affordability um in that sense yeah i don't think that's going

00:32:28.780 to be a problem to be honest with you my biggest fear with my kids in that generation is politically

00:32:36.940 what's and i i know we're not going to get into it but what's going on globally with the states

00:32:40.700 and how they're sort of destroying everything that you and i grew up with so for me that's

00:32:45.580 way bigger concern than than anything here locally but are you finding I know

00:32:52.300 in Ontario I have friends that they won't we'll go to their local no frills

00:32:56.980 and they refused to buy any American produce yeah they're so upset is it the

00:33:01.300 same sentiment in Manitoba where people are not traveling to the States not by

00:33:04.900 an American and being you know Canada first second and third oh absolutely we

00:33:10.000 have we're about an hour and 15 from the US border where we are so Winnipeg's

00:33:14.380 about the same uh and then grand forks north dakota is another hour so that's sort of the

00:33:19.060 destination there's fargo so those two are sort of the destination and and us included tens of

00:33:26.240 thousands of people every year would go for long weekends down to hotels even though the dollar we

00:33:30.860 were getting killed on the dollar with target and stuff it was still a soft let's you know it's a

00:33:34.980 vacation um and and just i don't what is it down 60 uh i feel bad for the north dakota shop owners

00:33:43.620 because they're great people um but at some point it's it's one thing we as canadians can do

00:33:50.420 and in fact i'll give you an example and in october now uh i'm turning 65. big big birthday

00:33:56.580 for me i got oas man if there's money in the account i'm excited and uh so me and some guys

00:34:03.620 want to go golfing but we we're not going to the states so now i'm thinking because normally we

00:34:08.180 would just drive south until maybe south dakota until it got warm enough where the where the

00:34:12.020 courses were open now we're thinking well maybe we could probably still golf in victoria in october

00:34:16.740 right um so what we're trying to figure out or maybe go to cabo san lucas for four days

00:34:21.620 because it's a direct flight but normally it'd be that's a no-brainer let's go down to the states

00:34:26.260 just drive down and it's and but now it's like no one and it's across the board at least i mean

00:34:31.700 you hang out with like-minded people obviously right uh a bit of a neck we all live in a bit of

00:34:36.420 an echo chamber but none of the people that i hang out with would ever ever go to the states

00:34:40.020 you know and rick you know as we wrapping up here i have the same sort of um experience with all our

00:34:47.460 friends and connections and acquaintances that even if say trump once he gets voted out and the

00:34:52.260 democratic president is coming in and maybe changes the mindset it's not going to be immediate it's

00:34:56.820 going to take time to we forgive them that's that's what i'm hearing i i think it's a generation

00:35:01.540 is what it is i mean even look what's going on with you with the gordy howe bridge now right

00:35:05.620 i mean there's no reason except except one billionaire doesn't want it to happen

00:35:11.140 there's no reason that rich shouldn't be open and and so there is just uh yeah i i don't

00:35:18.020 yeah for sure it's a generation because anything that the administration does now nobody trusts

00:35:24.020 them in fact i was talking to somebody the other day i don't know how you feel when when

00:35:27.780 this agreement that they've just signed with iran i tend to believe iran more than i believe

00:35:32.980 yes you know what i mean like it's crazy like trump says this is what we got and iran says

00:35:39.260 this is what we got and you're thinking i think iran's probably not lying you know

00:35:42.620 so yeah i think you're right i think once however it happens once this current administration is

00:35:50.920 gone however it happens then all the other countries will have the cards and we will go

00:35:56.760 and canada specifically will go back to them and say we're going to do this now hold on a second

00:36:00.600 no no we're not not so fast like just like you said not so fast we've now we're in charge because

00:36:06.420 you guys blew it for four years and then four years so now we're going to make the decisions

00:36:11.960 and how we want to go and you know if you don't like carney that's fine uh the idea of him all

00:36:18.980 the provinces going around the states negotiating new deals like i mentioned saskatchewan is it

00:36:23.940 trump notwithstanding has been a great idea for canada and long time coming right should have

00:36:29.500 done this a long time ago i couldn't agree more and it's funny you bring that up i've heard that

00:36:34.060 from more than a few people that they've never felt more canadian we're proud to be canadian and

00:36:39.340 more focused on spending money and traveling in canada than they have in the last couple years

00:36:44.940 right and and and why not you know canada's huge and it's got so much stuff going for it and there's

00:36:51.660 so many places i have never seen so you know what i mean yeah we like the weather in winter because

00:36:56.140 if you drive it's warmer if you get down to the deep south but you know florida is definitely

00:37:00.540 off the radar for a while and and uh yeah yeah i think yeah i mean let's just i think we're all

00:37:07.500 holding our breath right right now with yeah with the administration going let's see what happens in

00:37:12.060 the midterms if there are midterms i know that's a whole other conversation um and then and then

00:37:17.100 maybe we can get back to some civility and then maybe we can start driving the grand forks and

00:37:21.980 getting bottles of wine for six dollars you know or whatever whatever it is us Manitobans do down 1.00

00:37:28.500 in the states for the weekend you know it would be nice to have that relationship again but my wife

00:37:33.640 is just she's counting down the days to the administration so her and her girlfriends and

00:37:37.780 go to target in Niagara Falls because they're boycotting it I know yeah I couldn't agree more

00:37:43.740 love going out my when we went down my wife if I went down with some guys okay you gotta buy cheese

00:37:48.380 all right i'm buying cheese and now we can't get cheap cheese at target anymore because we have to

00:37:54.300 buy them here but oh no but you're right about locally too i have an app on my phone that scans

00:37:58.780 the upc code and tells me where something's made because as you know the uh some of the grocery

00:38:04.640 stores have been package washing whatever the new term yes or you know yes and so this will tell you

00:38:10.780 if it's made so i'll scan something and and we what haven't we had for so long that we're just

00:38:16.080 talking about the other day there's something that we really missed and we haven't had it for

00:38:19.620 so long but because you can't get it growing then we just don't eat it anymore and it's like oh

00:38:24.240 that's too bad but nope we're not buying it you know nope we're not doing it that's funny

00:38:28.000 i'm glad we're on the same page that way oh that's one thing that's united all canadians

00:38:33.220 no matter what your language and background is not all of them not alberta not 20 of albertans

00:38:38.580 give me well okay wait a sec our daughter who's almost 25 is a very left-leaning ndp supporting

00:38:46.040 uh master's student she is definitely on our side so she's one of the good ones in alberta right now

00:38:52.300 she's in alberta yeah yeah she's in edmonton doing her master's u of a yeah but edmonton's a little

00:38:57.840 bit like austin right like austin texas yes you know austin is in the middle of this deep red

00:39:02.160 stuff austin is this very left-leaning city and edmonton is very like socially progressive too

00:39:06.960 that way so she's got a bit of a nice echo chamber around her too hey definitely rick you're one of

00:39:12.480 the good ones one of my favorite people we'll definitely have you on again touch base on all

00:39:17.120 things manitoba and bob canoe and winnipeg and all the best to you in the family over the summer my

00:39:22.320 friend yeah thanks nice chatting with you yeah pleasure looking for reliable and convenient

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True Patriot Love - July 02, 2026

Manitoba in Focus： Affordability, Opportunity, and Canada's Heartland

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