00:00:00.000There's a political shift happening in major cities, and it's not subtle anymore.
00:00:04.680In New York, figures like Zoran Mamdani are pushing policies that move beyond emergency support
00:00:10.160into something more permanent, publicly backed grocery access, expanded subsidies,
00:00:15.960and a growing belief that cities should directly provide basic needs.
00:00:20.200And here in Toronto, under Mayor Olivia Chow, we're starting to see echoes of that thinking.
00:00:24.880city council exploring expanded food programs, deeper subsidies, and a bigger role for government
00:00:30.760in everyday life. So what are we really building here? A stronger safety net or a system where
00:00:36.620government becomes the default provider of survival? Because once you normalize free access
00:00:42.580to essentials like food, you're not just helping people get by, you're redefining what a city is
00:00:48.720responsible for. And that's a conversation Canada is just starting to have.
00:00:54.880next thing he had which uh we spent a lot of time pre-show on city-owned grocery stores
00:01:04.360right sounds like a wild concept doesn't it i just don't trust the city to run anything that
00:01:11.940well of any city yeah it's been my experience it's the city can do certain things like uh you
00:01:18.160know mow the soccer fields and plow the roads and pick up the garbage and outsource that they
00:01:24.460actually can't really do that themselves so i don't quite trust them to run a grocery store
00:01:29.200they will outsource it paul mark our words on this one no but they want to sell uh wholesale foods
00:01:35.300yeah uh and their goal is to get it to people who need food and to move people i guess off food
00:01:44.880banks into buying food at a more reasonable price i don't hate this idea to be honest with you
00:01:51.660i don't either uh uh food banks get abused you have to manage tough to manage again great idea
00:02:00.340however food stamps was the the precursor to this right oh boy government cheese was another
00:02:06.200so that became a corrupt very corrupt uh bit of business and it became messy to take away
00:02:12.620uh it still exists in many places but that's essentially this is like somewhere between food
00:02:19.260bank and shopping at walgreens let's say in the states is there a good point to having that
00:02:25.900transitional phase where you're actually being required to buy food and will it be different than
00:02:32.220the food bank or hear me out can we maybe put rules in place where the companies own the grocery
00:02:41.420stores aren't um marking up items with two ridiculous profit margins so basic items butter
00:02:50.660milk bread eggs are sold at a reasonable price we just had a bread lawsuit in canada
00:02:56.600we we price fixing over bread can you imagine over bread yeah i know they're boring so maybe
00:03:05.040just say the five or six staple items are sold at a reasonable price that could help yeah it is a
00:03:11.320good idea and you know we we had commissions we we had committees commissions we have a charter now
00:03:17.140which really doesn't help it doesn't stop them from selling stuff expensive prices and having
00:03:23.680the most profit in the last 10 years oh crazy profit you know and we we really you know now
00:03:30.400with alcohol going to grocery stores and pharmacies and everything else we've loaded up these companies
00:03:36.380really with the ability to be non-competitive for new entrants so now well they're too big they're
00:03:43.220too big now so so okay say you put in a government grocery store how do they compete when they when
00:03:49.520you go to the one store and there's the food there's your wine and beer there's your pharmacy
00:03:54.800i got everything in one store they will compete so this is interesting and we had this conversation
00:04:00.500at home the other day it's interesting how we're starting to shop and i think it reminds me of back
00:04:08.340when i was in my 30s we used to go from grocery store to grocery store store to store depend on
00:04:14.800what we were buying so we bought our vegetables here our meat here right so we're back to that
00:04:18.900again so like as we move around in a week we're like okay let's go there because it's got the
00:04:24.320freshest meat at the best price let's go here because the vegetables are good and it's reasonable
00:04:28.620And so we kind of have that, that route we do in the week where we hit different stores now. So I think where they've, or grocery stores here in Canada right now, you know, the, the pseudo monopolies we've given them, I think where they've overplayed their hand a little is people are going to go back to that model. So, and, and the more they push it, the more they keep not adjusting the prices to be reasonable. I think it forces people down.
00:04:53.580so the wholesale government-run grocery stores you will get people in new york who along their
00:04:59.660path will go there and get their canned goods or they'll get their whatever yeah you know i think
00:05:03.580it would i think conceptually it's an interesting idea putting it in practical i think it has its
00:05:10.940flaws and i think it'll end up just being as corrupt as food stamps were so i don't think
00:05:15.260it's i don't think at the end of the day and and that's my that's my issue is in theory like i
00:05:19.660agree with everyone here yeah oh that's me but you have to like the execution so you don't have
00:05:25.660that corruption it sounds very difficult yeah and then you have to get the distribution the
00:05:30.220how do you figure out who's allowed who's allowed to use it yeah shelving space yeah how do you
00:05:34.460determine yeah who's eligible to use it right well i think everyone is in his what he's saying in his
00:05:39.820everyone in new york yeah everyone it's basically you know it grows they'll be gigantic at the end
00:05:45.580end of them because quite frankly it will be the next costco now and does that put does that actually
00:05:50.560put the other grocers out of business I don't know you don't know what the concept you know
00:05:55.880what it's going to do it's going to take the availability of product in those stores that's
00:06:00.940similar to the or there's going to be new products created that are made specifically for that
00:06:06.300government grocery scenario and I don't think that you'll you'll find less of those products
00:06:12.500available in the stores that you shop in now so if it's the canned goods maybe it won't have the
00:06:17.700same selection yeah or they're just going to adapt and lose a little bit of profit yeah well
00:06:24.020but it's interesting you know we this one was kind of when i heard i'm like oh no forget that's
00:06:28.660a terrible idea patriotic means looking out for each other and fixing things together true
00:06:41.220True patriotism is being in a country you love, surrounded by people you love and great weather.
00:06:46.660Being a patriot is being a part of your community and caring for it.
00:06:49.700It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from, patriotism is the one thing we all share.
00:06:54.900It's okay to be critical of government and still be a patriot.