True Patriot Love - TPL On the Road presents ： What They Don't Tell You About Driving Across Canada

00:00:00.000 All right, Brady, we've made it to Brandon, Manitoba. It has been roughly nine and a half

00:00:10.520 hours of driving from Thunder Bay, but what a great drive out of Ontario. And then, boy,

00:00:17.200 you really know when you hit Manitoba. Thanks for joining us. I'm Mike. This is Brady. We are

00:00:22.300 making our way across Canada from Toronto to Victoria, B.C. Yeah. And we're stopping at all

00:00:29.300 kinds of places along the way doing shows just like this today we're at uh section six section

00:00:35.660 six i can say it i'm a professional broadcaster section six and we're in their lovely tap room

00:00:41.360 and brewery help me say it section six thank you very much brady it's been a long day of driving

00:00:46.800 that actually we should kind of recap some of that because let's do it uh last night we uh we made

00:00:51.880 our way to thunder bay from sous saint marie which one of us i mean the most incredible drive in

00:00:56.720 ontario yeah i have ever been on if you have never done that trip oh my gosh get in the car now and

00:01:02.700 just go go yeah the weather's beautiful yeah go like go this weekend if you're watching this i

00:01:07.260 mean uh we saw waterfalls we saw uh i mean wildlife can i okay now we've seen so many things it's

00:01:13.820 hardly even like to list them all what are the three top things that you've seen on this drive

00:01:18.520 since we left toronto the three top things that i have seen um from toronto to brandon manitoba

00:01:24.960 Okay. Well, I mean, the approach to Sault Ste. Marie was absolutely stunning.

00:01:29.360 Some of the most amazing scenery.

00:01:32.600 I mean, like the vistas that you see from different points,

00:01:35.500 you know, the approach on to Lake Superior, which is incredible.

00:01:40.100 That would definitely be one.

00:01:42.320 Secondly, meeting a bunch of great friends like we did here in Brandon tonight

00:01:46.200 in Sault Ste. Marie, that was great.

00:01:49.180 But from Sault Ste. Brie to Thunder Bay was some of the most spectacular scenery.

00:01:55.580 So we actually climbed a rapids just outside of Algoma.

00:01:59.920 An absolutely beautiful spot if you get a chance between those two destinations.

00:02:04.460 Those two points definitely make the stop.

00:02:07.520 There's a beautiful path and parking.

00:02:09.460 We made our way up to the top of the rapids.

00:02:12.060 And we'll show you some of that footage now.

00:02:14.260 So we spent about an hour there on a very long driving day.

00:02:17.620 So it shows you how much we loved it.

00:02:19.180 i couldn't even drag you out of there no it was incredible i would have camped there if it was

00:02:22.460 possible uh and then on to thunder bay which uh we arrived just as uh the light sort of uh started

00:02:29.420 to disappear from the sky i watched the sunset on the water while we were driving in that you can't

00:02:34.780 get a better picture than that by the way i had an amazing sub last night that was incredible in

00:02:40.620 thunder bay uh it's called subdivisions yeah subdivisions you try to get a bunch of merch

00:02:45.420 from them yeah they wouldn't they wouldn't uh they wouldn't give it to me so i shoplifted

00:02:49.900 sorry about that guys just kidding uh by the way i should also say thank you very much

00:02:55.980 to the fine folks at less lethal because they were part of our experience today

00:03:00.460 lesslethal.ca the ultimate alternative to deadly force uh in a time where things are kind of weird

00:03:07.740 uh and also they're a heck of a lot of fun if you want to do target practice like we did

00:03:12.140 today and in fact uh we also had a little bit of fun with that we'll share that with you on the

00:03:16.540 socials having said that uh what were what for you what was it between toronto and thunder bay

00:03:23.420 before we get to brandon and our journey today yeah it's lake superior lake superior and that

00:03:29.260 entire chunk of land around lake superior it takes you hours to get around lake superior it's the

00:03:34.540 best the clearest blue water i definitely know why they call it lake superior you know yesterday we

00:03:40.300 saw rapids yeah we saw beach we saw deep woods we saw bald rock cliff yeah we seen them drilling

00:03:51.340 into rocks yesterday and cutting the sides of mountains out you know what we saw yesterday

00:03:55.420 that was wild to me what's that washed out parts of the trans canada highway we talked about

00:04:00.940 potholes in sault st marie that we got on the road and entire chunks of the trans canada were gone

00:04:07.420 and you had to like make your way up against the side of the rock face uh to get around it and

00:04:13.180 watching the transport trucks do it after us is just terrifying incredible how they do it yeah

00:04:18.460 pro drivers on 17. but the work going on i mean you could see things changing right before your

00:04:25.740 very eyes with these construction crews you know and we've seen i think we've probably seen

00:04:31.340 i don't know eight or nine maybe a dozen uh road constructions on the way i would say even more

00:04:37.600 mike probably 20 really well managed yeah very well man kind of begs the question though why is

00:04:43.280 there only two lanes on the trans canada highway like i think there's a lot of traffic on them at

00:04:48.440 times of course at times very dead as well yeah and that's probably why it stayed two lanes for

00:04:53.820 so long but everybody knows that ontario is getting busier and busier and even the uh outskirts of

00:04:59.060 southern ontario heading up north are starting to get very congested we saw the mines uh as we

00:05:04.100 passed through algoma that was really interesting very beautiful gold mines uh beautiful land i

00:05:08.560 don't like some people are like oh look at like all the damage they're doing no it's it's got its

00:05:12.560 own beauty industrial beauty right yeah there was a lot of impressive mining operations of course

00:05:17.720 you can see the stacks in the sky uh and as we entered into uh thunder bay you could start to

00:05:23.080 see the industry there um you know the various elements of industry um and of course the port

00:05:29.480 area there was a large shipping uh container ship out in the in the bay when we arrived to ask you

00:05:35.600 a question because i would like the audience to hear it but i just want to hear your answer

00:05:39.680 because i haven't asked you yet what did you think about our hotel last night oh our that this is

00:05:44.040 really cool so we we pulled into uh thunder bay and uh i said to brady i'll be honest with you

00:05:50.680 brady i don't know about our hotel for tonight i booked it last minute thunder bay was full

00:05:55.320 uh every hotel was taken yeah and so uh this is what we got and uh i do hope that it's okay and

00:06:02.480 and brady was okay and then we arrived and it was really cool it's it's one of the most beautiful

00:06:08.100 buildings and it's probably the most beautiful building in thunder bay i wasn't driving around

00:06:11.660 thunder bay looking for the most beautiful building but i'm pretty sure i stayed in it last

00:06:14.580 night stuck out yeah yeah it's it's the old courthouse of thunder bay turned into a i would

00:06:19.980 i felt like a diplomat staying there it's not like ultra rich luxury but it's just it's pretty close

00:06:24.620 yeah it's very fancy very uh affordable very affordable yeah it was not balling right no i

00:06:29.660 wouldn't say we are no we're not what we're not balling we're certainly not balling what the kids

00:06:33.980 say nowadays are saying that are they so uh you know on that note it was a really really big

00:06:39.820 surprise for us to to show up and uh and then we had a good dinner in town and we even checked out

00:06:45.180 the casino yeah actually i completely forgot about that yeah we were in the casino for about

00:06:49.820 14 seconds uh but it was really interesting to see uh what had been built there in the way of

00:06:56.140 a casino in town uh so anyway from there brady down today's journey and we'll talk a little bit

00:07:01.900 about uh where we're headed after this on the way to brandon uh what was your impression you had been

00:07:08.460 on this journey before but in here the the transition of what we left in ontario and what

00:07:15.500 we arrived to as we entered manitoba so the transition from going around lake superior

00:07:21.340 leaving thunder bay seeing all the rocky mountain terrain your cell phone doesn't work

00:07:25.820 at one point yesterday i did a calculation of how many hours my cell phone wasn't working

00:07:31.260 and it was a blessing but unfortunately we've got a lot of work to do while we're still on the road

00:07:35.900 and i had both probably a six five to six hour gap uh combined without any reception so you get

00:07:43.020 reception for about 30 seconds to a minute and it's gone again so going from that mountainous

00:07:47.420 terrain and that beautiful scenery no cell phone footage or no cell phone data going all the way

00:07:54.060 into manitoba where it's like a dotted line in the map you can definitely like see exactly where

00:07:59.340 the transition happens the highway changes to like a pinkish color it goes from gray to pink

00:08:04.220 and then um you see nothing but flat yeah that's true did the beginning of manitoba right right at

00:08:09.580 and straight a straight road i feel like i just drove a straight road from ontario to brandon

00:08:17.100 manitoba yeah and i felt like the exorcist because i was looking for the manitoba sign

00:08:21.340 welcome to manitoba and i couldn't find it anywhere all i seen was welcome to white shells

00:08:26.780 brady you've made two really good damn points pardon my french what one of them is we need to

00:08:33.020 look into what's going on with uh cell coverage yeah and data coverage along the highway it

00:08:38.140 it doesn't seem all that dangerous and now navigation of course is uh really tied to what

00:08:43.720 happens i think that we really need to take a look at what's going on there i think it would

00:08:47.300 also make a difference to uh safety and a number of factors especially uh during the winter uh the

00:08:53.340 second thing is if you you pointed out that um that transition that we made as we came into

00:09:02.860 the infamous dotted line as i call it had no sign up we should i think manitoba you need to put a

00:09:10.860 nice sign between i mean do you not want us to know that we're in manitoba or what you know when

00:09:17.100 you're officially in manitoba and i know you know this when is when the highway splits in half and

00:09:21.900 you think you're driving on the other side of the road you're not well okay uh third good point from

00:09:26.220 brady what are you doing we've had a lot of hours of driving and now suddenly brady says to me i

00:09:33.020 think you're on the wrong side of the road and i went no i think it split the the highway's over

00:09:36.620 there now i looked down at my phone because i finally got reception for like the first time

00:09:39.980 ever and i'm like oh my goodness this is amazing mike i think you're on the other side of the road

00:09:43.900 now i'm in panic thinking yeah you know what i was thinking about how uh green acres remember that

00:09:49.980 show uh took place yeah youtube copyright yeah well don't please don't if you don't mind well

00:09:56.620 too late for this episode uh but that was uh in my mind uh that was uh i really do think that

00:10:04.620 it was a terrifying moment it was definitely a green acres moment it was and it lasted about 30

00:10:08.860 seconds because we kept looking at each other like yeah i don't know now you've convinced me

00:10:13.500 that i'm on the wrong side of the road so we just sized over way to look down the side road okay

00:10:17.580 look down that side road as we drive by real quick because we're doing 100 right yeah you know the

00:10:21.100 turnabout for the police and emergency and i look over and oh yeah there's the other side of the

00:10:25.260 highway we're good okay so then we continued to speed on at 25 over the speed limit yeah that's

00:10:31.420 not true as well so on the drive from thunder bay to brandon once we got into manitoba you seen one

00:10:37.420 of the coolest things ever running through a field what was it that was incredible uh what i thought

00:10:42.620 at first was a bird at a distance but it made its way to the highway so quickly but i quickly

00:10:48.700 realized no that's a canine yeah it's not at first i think we both thought i look at the coyote

00:10:54.700 well we're from we're from ontario when you see that going on now mind your coyotes don't move

00:10:59.340 at that speed i've never seen a coyote move at that speed i know they're sleek and they move

00:11:03.260 quick but nothing like this this thing was touring this scene in my mind happens in slow motion to

00:11:09.580 the music from chariots of fire as it makes its approach to us you realize look at the size of

00:11:14.700 the head on that thing look at the tail and the tail's what got me the overall size of the animal

00:11:19.820 and quickly we realized oh that was actually a wolf so yeah and we just make like we basically

00:11:26.300 see it eye level and by the time that we pass it and i look back it's already crossing the highway

00:11:31.660 that's the speed it was moving at it made it across all the lanes of the highway in like four

00:11:36.380 gallops yeah across uh it was quite incredible yeah it's a very magical creature uh the birds

00:11:41.180 that we have seen along the way and of course uh the other thing is we seen cream just we saw we

00:11:45.740 saw a crane well just just sitting there at the side of the road absolutely stunning i seen rare

00:11:50.460 pigeons in thunder bay like really rare pigeons like orange calico pigeons nice little like

00:11:57.100 feathered feet you mentioned that this morning yeah yeah they're uh my father used to love pigeons

00:12:01.580 and all like these rare like fancy kind of pigeons and they just live at that courthouse hotel on the

00:12:06.140 roof why don't i see your dad giving you a pigeon for your birthday and you're like i wanted super

00:12:10.300 nintendo no my dad didn't give you anything on my birthday no okay for good reason you probably

00:12:15.100 didn't deserve it i'm pretty sure you earned that he hooked me up thanks old man uh but the other

00:12:21.020 thing that amazed us i think is the automation and the industry that is agriculture here in uh

00:12:27.260 manitoba and certainly as you make your way from past winnipeg into brandon it is really stunning

00:12:35.260 what goes into it the size of these properties two little kids with their uh tonka trucks in

00:12:40.140 the sandbox watching all this amazing machinery really what the heck is that thing what's that

00:12:44.620 thing oh my goodness look at the sprinklers oh they're spraying the fields like just happy just

00:12:51.180 two two dumb guys happy looking at farm equipment yeah that's pretty silly of us you know the other

00:12:56.620 thing we did for a little bit of fun today speaking of farms is uh we connected with uh

00:13:01.180 one of the fans of the show thank you so much uh and made our way into the wilderness on their

00:13:06.060 property to play with the uh less lethal verna and that was a lot of fun so thank you very much

00:13:12.300 to uh donnie for having us on uh but that so we made a couple of stops along the way to experience

00:13:18.540 farm life and uh tomorrow we'll dive deeper into that oh yeah we're going into the land

00:13:23.820 of the prairies we are headed to regina saskatchewan tomorrow indeed we are the lobby

00:13:28.700 kitchen and bar hey uh looking very forward to uh hanging out with those folks they've been very

00:13:33.880 kind to us and in setting this up much like uh section six here in uh brandon and uh of course

00:13:41.060 we've made some good friends along the way that's the other thing that i want to point out so if

00:13:44.840 we've hung out thank you so much for being part of this experience for us uh but yeah we head off

00:13:49.500 to regina tomorrow into the real prairie life uh the deep deep prairie life which i think will be

00:13:54.220 fun. One of the things we had a staff meeting about today is we make our way then to Medicine

00:13:59.980 Hat. I'm really excited about that because that is sort of a legendary. When you're in radio in

00:14:07.600 Canada, they'll tell you, oh, you're going to start in Medicine Hat. I didn't. They didn't

00:14:12.180 hire me. Having said that, I ended up in a different market closer to home. But Medicine

00:14:18.100 Hat, many of my friends went there and they would tell you about what this incredible life was like

00:14:22.800 uh in this sort of small town yeah it's a rural community for sure that's that's rural and uh but

00:14:30.380 still has a sizable population that does things together uh and and rallies together on things

00:14:35.940 so i'll look forward to that but we did have a staff meeting today about our uh departure from

00:14:40.880 edmonton later in the week uh down through the uh the mountains into cam loops yeah where this week

00:14:47.780 they have uh have had another tragedy a church burning and of course that area has been focus

00:14:55.140 of national news attention it should be any any religious building being burnt for whatever cause

00:15:01.180 or reason why as to why it sounds like they don't even know right now what's going on uh but anytime

00:15:05.700 a religious building or a government building gets set on fire this is a concern this is a major

00:15:11.460 national problem and uh in fact so if you think we're just out here having fun and games well we

00:15:16.040 are but there is some touch points uh in edmonton uh cam loops and in vancouver where we'll make

00:15:23.420 sort of a presence uh just on your behalf uh with the lens to see you know what we can and uh learn

00:15:31.640 more about those stories i am looking forward to that part of the trip and tomorrow of course

00:15:36.180 not as long a drive i'm super excited about that now heading out of cam loops are you looking

00:15:41.800 forward to the beautiful island that is victoria my friend that's where we're finishing this

00:15:46.320 journey super excited victoria's been on my list almost my whole life it should be and i haven't

00:15:51.640 been there i've been to vancouver never made it to victoria i don't know what i'm thinking it's

00:15:54.780 like the freshest smelling air you've ever smelled well after traveling together brady i think we

00:16:00.120 will both deserve a breath of fresh air i smelled like a piece of pepperoni in the car all day

00:16:04.780 I don't know why teriyaki jerky has to be part of your diet.

00:16:10.160 It's not even normal, to be honest with you.

00:16:12.880 Although it is delicious, I understand.

00:16:14.480 It keeps me fit.

00:16:15.720 We also, I can't thank the people here in Brandon enough.

00:16:19.060 You've been very, very warm and welcoming and very, very, very cordial as we've been recording this.

00:16:24.680 Thank you so much, Brandon Manitoba.

00:16:27.300 We will be back soon, but guess what?

00:16:29.160 You can hear the crowd downstairs now.

00:16:31.140 It's getting rowdy.

00:16:32.180 We handed out some beers.

00:16:33.100 Yeah, I'm not just going to leave drink tickets and T-shirts when we leave and a bunch of merch.

00:16:37.080 No, no, we're leaving something else called TPL Local.

00:16:41.080 Mike, what is TPL Local?

00:16:42.640 If you've been following TPL Media and our subscriber base keeps growing,

00:16:47.120 we have launched a local version of it to markets just like Brandon, like Sault Ste. Marie, like Thunder Bay,

00:16:54.080 that don't have as much local media anymore, featuring people just like you in your hometown.

00:17:00.580 That could be you, let us know.

00:17:02.460 We are launching in Brandon today.

00:17:04.740 We launched in Sault Ste. Marie a couple of days ago,

00:17:07.160 and we will continue to grow across the country with local information.

00:17:12.080 It's got your weather on there.

00:17:13.900 It's got local news, a constant stream of content from our national network of shows,

00:17:18.840 and then podcasts and stories from your market.

00:17:22.900 Check it out, tplmedia.ca slash local, and then look for your town,

00:17:28.740 and we'll be there for you.

00:17:29.860 Well, Mike, thanks for having me as your guest again in Brandon, Manitoba.

00:17:34.860 What do you want to leave the people with before we roll our way out here?

00:17:37.860 Oh, you know what I wanted to do?

00:17:38.860 You've got to hear how many different beers they've got here.

00:17:40.860 I took a picture of the board.

00:17:42.860 These are the most recent beers they have here at Section 6.

00:17:45.860 A Mexican blend called Cerveza.

00:17:48.860 One called Combine.

00:17:50.860 Of course, very suitable.

00:17:51.860 That's perfect.

00:17:52.860 They've got an English Ale.

00:17:53.860 They've got one called The Artist.

00:17:54.860 A Belgian Honey Ale.

00:17:56.860 One called Brun.

00:17:58.860 They have an IPA and a less fruity cider.

00:18:05.240 That's just what they have on tap right now.

00:18:07.820 It's nuts.

00:18:08.900 It's a beautiful location with great craft beers.

00:18:12.180 And we hope that you'll visit.

00:18:13.520 And I hope that we'll see you when we go to Regina.

00:18:16.220 Oh, yeah.

00:18:17.100 And Medicine Hat, Edmonton and Kamloops and Victoria.

00:18:21.080 Reach out.

00:18:21.620 If you don't know where to find us, we'll let you know directly.

00:18:24.520 Brady, thanks for doing this.

00:18:25.580 Thank you, man.

00:18:26.440 Let's keep this journey moving.

00:18:28.860 We'll see you next time.

00:18:58.860 Shop now at LessLethal.ca

True Patriot Love - June 03, 2026

TPL On the Road presents ： What They Don't Tell You About Driving Across Canada

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