Why the Canadian Air Show Sparks Controversy | The Debate That Divides!
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Summary
The Canadian International Air Show is the longest running air show in North America, and every Labor Day weekend, thousands of people come from around the world to see some of the world s best pilots do their thing. It's a show for people of all ages, of all backgrounds, of everyone are thrilled by flight. However, some people have taken it too far, including a self-proclaimed journalist in Toronto.
Transcript
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in 1946 the canadian international air show begun in around the cne and now here 2025 the 76th
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edition it is the longest running air show in north america and fans from canada around the
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world come every labor day weekend at the cne to see some of the world's best pilots do their thing
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i was there i was a part of it but not everyone likes it to talk more about a thrill to be joined
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by my wingman mike and brady gentlemen how are you wingman i like that that was that was very dad
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jokey of you but uh thanks jim for having me now full disclosure i grew up in an air force family
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my dad served in the rc air force freddy air force freddy and one of his old planes was flying in
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the air show this weekend the cp-140 aurora and it was kind of a big deal for me and i'm always
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fascinated by it and our daughters are in their early 20s and there was a biplane they're called
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the north stars three biplanes doing these basically they're flying information straight up they stop
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fall backwards and like some of the stuff we were witnessing they stall out as they start on purpose
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and then get back going there was another one where a woman is wing walking she's walking on
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the wing of the plane in flight so and uh so maybe this is why air canada is striking i don't think
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flight attendants of any sort should be i didn't sign up for this but the point being is thousands of
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people of all ages of all backgrounds of everyone are thrilled by flight we've been like that since it
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started in 1946 to see something that's that close and that special is to me one of the highlights of
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the scene every year every labor day weekend well the highlights too is the week leading up where
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they all kind of come into the area you see them flying over everybody's house and everything it's
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really cool to see the old bombers and things like that right now i okay i've always been a fan i love it
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i don't associate it with war or destruction i associate it with the celebration of flight oh yeah
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and and look how talented these people are and look at their abilities it's something
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99.9 percent of people watching could never accomplish the the innovative craftsmanship for
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some of those machines back in the day like they're they're how many pounds does the average bomber weigh
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jim oh i have no idea come on jim you must know this you're down on the air force i know i didn't
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weigh the plane he fixed it well the fact that it's even up in the air uh doing loops cities in the
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sky like a modern um the airbus a380 is a complete double deck jumbo jack yeah like 400 plus people and
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it flies and lands and everything and for years it's the longest running air show in north america
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everyone loves it however there's some people have taken it too far including a self-proclaimed
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journalist in toronto seeing the air show in downtown toronto this is not merely a show for
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people it is a deep trauma for the families of palestinians who homes were destroyed by israeli
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bombings in gaza that's cruelty not entertainment now i will say this what at no time in the air show
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did they simulate bombings did they blow up things they're flying i'm so sorry can you read the last
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line of that it's not that's cruelty not entertainment okay there is a billy bishop airport for people who
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don't know toronto well and it's right off the lake shore yeah and there are planes that take off and
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land there from dawn to dusk every day jim every night home on the 427 i mean i think planes are
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going to land right on my cars they're coming into pierce it's one of the busiest airports
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in the world and those planes are flying over every day well i'd like to say with a certain amount of
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respect to this journalist that that sounds like a it's based in nothing factual i can imagine on some
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ex extrapolated uh spreadsheet of trauma this might show up there someplace however there's so many ways
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to deal with this for example i live maybe 30 minutes north of the city didn't hear an aircraft
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the ability and the freedom that people have to leave that area leads me to believe this is not real
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journalism at all who's the journalist let's call them out shall we nerd dogan and you are
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you are not a journalist this is based in pure speculation and you just want something to
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complain about it feels like clickbait to me yeah and i understand that not only is it clickbait it's
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wine bait correct now i understand okay someone who may be here from gaza recently could hear a plane and
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freak out but i mean no and for that individual this this rare moment in humanity that's going to have
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this experience probably has uh trauma triggers in many other areas i feel very badly for them yeah
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great boohoo for you but uh if i just lost a friend in a car crash yesterday i have every right to not
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get in the car and go on the highway the next day like i can't control these things like you you know
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there's got to be some sort of why can't we have common sense why can't we have something the the
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vast majority of people get great enjoyment from the air show yeah kids elderly people from all ages
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all backgrounds just watch it the the actual segments of the planes last about 12 minutes give or take
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the city of brantford looks forward to it all year round the air show it's yeah it pulls out the entire
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city and surrounding farmers right at abbessford bc have them yeah they have them in the maritimes they
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have in them quebec these snowbirds are known around the world there was a photo taken on the
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weekend from a photographer that's gone viral of the snowbirds in formation wrapping around the sea and
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tower how where else in the world do you get to see aircraft do this sort of thing right nowhere and
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by the way you don't see aircraft doing any of this in a scenario that is uh you know a war campaign
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no uh an attack campaign planes do very different i don't think there's loop-de-loops and in the
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middle of the loop uh missiles are going in no no here's the other thing that people sometimes forget
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as canadians no one has dropped a bomb from a plane on canadian soil in the history of our country
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also i guess we can kiss drone shows goodbye and knock on wood most of the warfare doing is going on
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right now is drone warfare yes so uh you know i i i can understand where this uh the idea for this
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came from all right uh it's a it's a horrible idea for a story it's a terrible idea in the sense that
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there's absolutely no basis likely for it what was the incident that led them to write about just
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because there were some military planes and there was noise over downtown toronto and they thought it
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would be triggering um i it's like you said you were in a car accident maybe does every time you
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hear a car now trigger you but jim you've hit it on the head sorry uh brady you've hit it on the head
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we can't have nice things anymore anything that people enjoy to any level somebody might be triggered
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and offended by it too bad okay so i'm i gotta play like the dummy here on the war you're saying that
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most of this war right now that are going or wars that are going on in multiple places are
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are drone wars well certainly in the ukraine we're seeing ukraine it's 80 percent the only reason
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there's people in the trenches is so the drones have something to shoot at right it sounds like
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key installations and key targets i mean drones are taking out buildings and tanks and trucks and
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everything so let's not even use gaza which was what this journalist was saying let's say the ukraine
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i'm i'm racing from the ukraine am i going to be like our planes flying overhead all day long or is it
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missiles coming in like i'm using some conventional mostly conventional uh but you know the one thing
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that wasn't part of the air show was missiles being fired there was no gunshots no not nothing
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not even a dog fight i think is included in the air show anymore and hasn't for many years
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um for safety reasons not because they wanted to avoid triggering anybody but in some of these cases
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even if that is the sorry brady even if that is the case no it doesn't make any sense to me at all
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that that person couldn't be couldn't be isolated for the two or three hours from that event and i
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don't mean put in isolation no no no no i could have been the same way you put the dog in the
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basement when fireworks are going on so what i meant so my another thing gentlemen is there the pilots
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and the air crews are quite restricted where they can fly yeah because you have billy bishop airport
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which is still pearson so the flight space they have is restricted to a section a piece of geography
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over lake ontario they may come over the city then they do everything and then they take off funny
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enough right where we're shooting jim is the turn point yeah it's the beacon point right here
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i got a little segue talking about the air show and maybe this goes into a kind of a weird space but
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i was on the water in lake ontario about 25 30 years ago when yes it was a name rod the plane went in
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down it was a british nimrod sub hunting point their boat that's how close we got to it yeah wow yeah it
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went into a stall trying to bottom out of a thing and they couldn't recover if anybody doesn't know
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maybe you can fill them in on the actual event of what kind of happened outside of the physical
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but yeah it was so it was a british nimrod sub hunting plane and they were did what the aurora
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did this past weekend on labor day and they do a series of flybys and maneuvers and they bank and
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they show the wings and the planes and it's it's a slow graceful airplane it's not for speed right it's
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to fly hours and hours on end and look for things and as it went to the bottom of a loop and sort of a bank it
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was kind of going down and go to climb back up they had something happened and they couldn't come out
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of their sort of slow dive and climb back up again and they went right into lake ontario so there's a
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massive risk by some of these pilots absolutely putting on the show for our entertainment why
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do we not get articles saying let's praise the bravery of them doing these kind of things for
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our entertainment it's a great point why aren't we amazed instead of offended whining about it yeah i don't
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know brady i mean anytime a pilot gets in a any kind of aircraft anything at whatever level there's
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a chance something could go wrong oh my god can we stop feigning outrage over everything so that
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people will click on an article there's so many things that canadians do differently than any of
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everybody else but one of the things that we're losing which is about being cool to each other so
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these are canadian pilots flying canadian planes at a canadian air show for our canadian entertainment
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and our canadian journalist is like but think of the children but and here's the thing that kind
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of got sick and that's why i want to bring it up it's irritating i'm at the stream here we see the
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air show we spend all day there with our family and it is so representative of canada as a multicultural
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multi-ethnic nation and everyone's having a good time and a good vibe and they're going to the
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food building and they're playing some games and they're buying some fudge but my favorite what'd you
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get what'd you get i got the uh chicken tenders that were wrapped in cool ranch doritos with
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waffle sauce yeah it's fantastic and then my wife got the deep fried cheese curds so we're going to do
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a story on food at the cne it sounds like a sweet man yeah let's go so good and uh yeah so it's sounds
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like we might we might have to defibrillate jim before the end of the show it sounds like some of
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that was deep right but everyone's like they're so cool with each other like oh hey sorry because it's
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crowded and everyone's having a good time together we're there together and you know what we we not
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that long ago we weren't allowed to do that and everyone was so happy to be there and it's like
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it's always been the unofficial end of summer in southern ontario the canadian national exhibition and
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people know kids are going back to school everyone's back to the routine and everyone was having a great
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time so outside of this journalist if anybody was offended because of what goes on at this i genuinely do
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feel for you like if you're going through pdsd i understand there's we can't control it you can't
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control it i i feel for you hey guys um i'm a bit late to the game to this uh the producer nick here
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hi yeah yes the uh resident lefty i kind of wanted to play devil's advocate go ahead nick now i i'm
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personally not offended by the air show or i'm not necessarily thank you for representing the left yes
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oh i'm not necessarily aligned with this with this journalist but um they're gonna there's an argument
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made that these air shows now we have a policy in canada and the u.s of not doing military parades
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and with trump's military parade that was a big big controversy and i i agree uh with that regard but
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with you know on the sense with what these air shows are often seen as almost a proxy for a military
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parade it's like we can't do a military parade but we can do this air show to show off our might
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uh so to speak okay this is often the argument against air shows i get it i i i mean i get the
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words i understand all the words and so sorry i have a gut level reaction to that
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what it's an international air show it's not just our planes it's planes from all around
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are you kidding me right now this is not even close to true and and by the way i would love
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for a little just a little bit maybe i'm the only one i would love for us to to uh see our military
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in uniform so that we could say wow we are proud of you you represent us so beautifully in the world
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we respect what you do there's a million parades i would get rid of to have that so nick and to your
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point um we have to realize top gun maverick did more to promote the military to the masses than
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any air it's an fbi-funded film how many films are actually funded by the fbi you can actually look it
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up it's this podcast is actually funded by the fbi i believe so the the scenes with tom cruise in the
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jets yeah with the pilots on the aircraft carrier is the greatest display of u.s military might in a movie
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and like look how much money it made around the world it is one of the biggest box office hits
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we've seen in recent memory and the whole thing from start to finish was a a sort of an anthem a
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celebration of u.s military might we need some context nick join me on this does that context make
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any sense to anybody that because trump went out there and he's like i'm gonna have a military parade
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on my birthday he's a big jackass he's uh this uh flatulent arrogant dude and and he's out there
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standing in front of fat ankles thick ankles he's a gentleman come on i don't mean to but you know
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i'm getting offended is what he is he he set the tone maybe i'm wrong about this yeah for what that
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that military parade was what what i'm talking about here and what i think most people think that they're
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participating in is canadian ingenuity canadian skill the the the pride that we have as a nation
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that we can come together and and actually be together physically and not that we're actually
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out there uh saluting uh mother russia i i think still people of all ages all generations there's
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something cool about being close when you see a plane take off and land what are you kidding me we used
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to park by the yes look at philadelphia at philadelphia they boo safe landings at the airport
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i'm sorry i don't know why i said that but they do but no yeah you park every airport in the world
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there's an area where people park and watch it and take photos because we're fascinated in life
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we used to go sit at the wendy's yeah okay so everybody was on airport on wendy's and get some
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frosties and some nuggets and watch the planes come in i think that's and i understand or some people
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think hey it's it's a quasi military parade my argument to that is wait a second it's more a
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fascination of flight they're not all military planes that's only a part of it it's true fascination of
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flight how did they do that and how much skill and how much training and i know what i do in my little
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world and how unskilled i am i can't believe how skilled they are i look at this guy and i see our
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military ingenuity and i think to myself we could have so much more of this if we didn't just keep
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giving it away to other countries around the world it wasn't stations and here's the thing
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that people forget too anti-lock brakes in a car that comes from the military right because my dad
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was in the air force and they got jets when the pilots landed they put the brakes on but the landing
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speed was so much faster than old propeller planes they were blowing out the brakes and tires
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so they invented anti-lock brakes so they wouldn't blow up the tires and james we all benefit from
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that every day biggest form of entertainment in the world is video games how did that start
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radar machines and and flight simulators yeah hey so well no but they had they have flight simulators to
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train pilots and someone had the idea why don't we make a home version for people have you seen some
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of the home setups for these others got a whole set up what they'll it looks like a cockpit of an
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airplane yeah it's nuts um the one thing about the air show that i think endures is our our fascination
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humankind's fascination with powered flight yeah has not changed since the wright brothers
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to this day we're like wow you know what like they just landed a plane so i know part of my dad's
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job in the military they would fly supplies and humanitarian aid to other countries some canadian
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military bases and a c-130 hercules would open up and ramp and they pull out all this food and
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medicine for countries around the world huge pounds that would fill multi-tractor trailers
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does this fill that does that fill that void of human beings we all just want to fly we always have
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every philosopher has always stared at the birds and or stared at the stars and been like i want to
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travel through space and fly okay luke skywalker in the first star wars we had this little machine
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that's like two feet off the ground flying like everyone oh man i wanted one of those so bad it's
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just a little bit but it's flying but it's flying and and years ago they thought well one day we won't
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even be stuck in traffic in the 401 or the c to span highway or highway 101 nova scotia or the transcat
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of highway come back we're going to be flying to work and and by the way if you want to complain about the
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air show let's complain about this it clogs the highways byways and every road around it we need to come up
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with a solution for that there is no place for you to sit once the lawn is taken up could we find
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another seating arrangement for this thing i don't think anybody can order beers to where they're
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sitting we could probably work that out we do have gps all of these things that could be complained
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about nobody is complaining about gps airplane technology there you go head up display airplane
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technology which is standard in every new car now yeah that's all airplane technology he's got a
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fancy car that's why i know what my wife does but it's been translated to every day so a lot of the
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stuff we take for granted on our cars driving families and friends around or all have sort of
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the evolution of flight and saying let's translate this because we use it in commercial airplanes and
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military airplanes let's put it on passenger vehicles and we do and let's not forget this probably
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inspired balloon boy so yeah well yeah at least that he's brady he's mike we just solve the world's