Latest / Kvetch & Release / AM800 CKLW Roundtable with Mayor Dennis Rogers, Councillor Molly Allaire, & Kristen Siapas - June 26, 2024

Transcript

AM800 CKLW Roundtable with Mayor Dennis Rogers, Councillor Molly Allaire, & Kristen Siapas - June 26, 2024 · Kvetch & Release

0:05
Good morning everyone, Welcome to the Dan McDonald Show. Your ears do not
0:10
deceive you. I am not Dan McDonald. John Lyddkey here filling in all
0:15
week for Dan, who is in on the Morning Drive filling in for Mike
0:20
Cacook. He's with guest host Leah Hanson musical chairs here at am eight hundred
0:25
CKLW. But we do that pretty well. We like to play games nine
0:29
oh six on this Wednesday morning, which means it's time for us to kick
0:34
off our roundtable. Joined around the table by Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers. How
0:39
you doing, Good morning man, good to see you, good morning.
0:42
Great to have you here in studio, appreciate it. Ambersburg Counselor Molly Alaire,
0:46
how are you good, Thanks for having me, thanks for joining.
0:49
And co producer of Just Cake Productions, Christen Ciappas is back at the table.
0:52
How you doing, back at the table? Happy Wednesday, Happy Wednesday,
0:55
Monday Wednesday. We've got a roasty politics coming up with us as well.
0:59
Three times in a week. This is really wild. Yeah. Well,
1:02
and if I come out to the jazz, I mean mind blow.
1:07
The jazz is happening tomorrow. That's like the live version it's like us back
1:11
in high school, passing in the hallways. Well, let's dive right into
1:15
our first topic here. It is the AM eight hundred CKLW News poll question.
1:21
Puppy malls are now illegal in Ontario after the province recently passed legislation banning
1:26
them. Critics, however, say the new law will do very little to
1:27
curb the problem. The Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, or the PUPS Act,
1:34
was beefed up in committee meetings after animal advocates leveled scathing criticism against the
1:38
initial proposed legislation. Now, those found guilty of operating puppy mills in the
1:42
province will be subject to a minimum ten thousand dollars penalty and twenty five thousand
1:47
dollars penalty for the death of a dog. Those penalties can be multiplied for
1:49
each dog, potentially creating massive fines. The province also made it illegal to
1:55
inbreed, reread a female dog more than three times in a two year period,
1:59
and reread a female dog younger than a year old. The AM eight
2:01
hundred CLW News poll question that we're asking is where'd you get your dog from
2:07
a registered breeder? An animal shelter or a puppy Mall. Kristen, you
2:10
were the first one to say here in the pre show chat that we were
2:13
having that you got a dog. I do have a dog. Where So
2:16
my dog Phoebe, who is famous because she has her own Instagram at Phoebe
2:22
from Texas. She is Phoebe from Texas. Phoebe's from Texas. So yeah,
2:25
so this is part of the story. Phoebe came in. There was
2:29
like a whole planeload of dogs. There was like one hundred dogs that came
2:32
up from El Paso to the Humane Society, and Phoebe was one of those
2:38
dogs. I actually I had spent a long time just like looking at pictures
2:43
of the adoptable dogs on the Humane Society, thinking, you know, I
2:46
got four kids, I got a busy life. I'm like, I'm never
2:49
going to get a dog. Here's some pictures of cute dogs I will never
2:52
own. And then yeah, Phoebe. It had been like probably five or
2:57
six years that I had been like just looking at pictures of cute animals.
3:00
My husband was like, we are never getting a dog. It is not
3:02
happening. And we had this like criteria, like I really wanted to get
3:07
a rescue he really wanted to get. Like, if we're gonna get a
3:09
dog, has to be a female dog. My kids were like, you
3:13
know, I really want either a huskier Golden Retriever. These dogs just don't
3:16
pop up, and I've never had a dog before, so I was like,
3:20
I don't even know what I'm doing right now, Like I need an
3:22
easy dog. I can't have like a anxiety dog or something. They're like,
3:25
I don't know how to deal with or whatever. And Phoebe came up
3:29
and her profile just matched perfectly, and I was like, I'm gonna apply.
3:32
I'll just see, you know if they say they're gonna say no,
3:35
Like my life is too busy, I don't know how to take care of
3:37
a dog. And sure enough, they said yes, and then I had
3:38
to go back to my husband and be like, hey, we got a
3:42
dog. So I accidentally sort of applied for this dog and they said that
3:46
we own it now, we just have to go pick it up. So
3:50
then we I mean, which, like to be fair, you can go
3:53
meet the dog and then see if it's a good match or whatever. So
3:55
we met Phoebe and she's the best dog ever so if you see us at
4:00
the market on the weekend, I'm always bringing Phoebe with us and you can
4:03
follow her on Instagram. She's the most beautiful little dog. Well that's a
4:08
really cool story. Yeah, she's a rescue that that was my choice,
4:12
and that was a priority for me because I was afraid of like poppy meals
4:15
and stuff like you hear, I don't know anything about it, Like I
4:17
don't know the in depth, like how to find a good breeder. I'm
4:21
sure there's lots of great breeders out there, but like I don't know.
4:25
I just I wanted to stay away from that entirely and like find a dog
4:29
from the Humane Society and give somebody a second chance at a great life and
4:31
whatever helping out is important. That's great, good story. Yeah, that's
4:35
my Phoebe story. That's a feel good story to start things off. Thank
4:40
you for that, Kristen Molly. How about yourself, Do you have a
4:42
dog? No? No, I don't have a dog. I cannot manage
4:46
all that. That is a crazy lifestyle. I don't know how you're doing
4:48
it. I have three children. That's good enough. We used too when
4:53
I was a kid, had a dog on the farm. Absolutely loved it.
4:55
My all my sisters and brothers seem to have pets, and I cherish
4:59
them when I go over. But I would love it. I just don't
5:01
think I have time to be a good dog owner right now, so I'm
5:03
a good mother right now. But I agree. I'm so happy that they
5:08
passed this. My cousin works with animals and animal welfare and this is like
5:15
a huge problem. So she's really happy that it passed. She goes,
5:17
but this is just the start, Like now they have to enforce it and
5:20
actually follow through. So I hope that it goes forward with actual enforcement and
5:26
working for it. But yeah, I would love a dog in the future
5:29
so that when my kids are older, I have someone to play frisbee with,
5:30
Like that would be my goal. You know what's awesome is when you
5:33
take the dog for a walk and then you don't. You can go out
5:35
for conversations with your kids. You always have an excuse to be like,
5:39
hey, let's just go for a walk. We have to walk a dog.
5:42
Let's have a conversation. That's actually forced time. Yeah, that was
5:46
my goal. I was like, Oh, we're gonna get a dog.
5:47
It's gonna be a great distraction. That is great because it's like a way
5:51
to build your family together. Yeah, it's wonderful. I like that.
5:55
How about yourself, Mary, do you have a dog? We do,
5:57
Yeah, we have Luna. She's a labordoodle aka lunatic, you know,
6:01
super smart, super energetic. So friends of ours, they own a farm
6:06
and they had a mom and dad dog that had they had puppies. So
6:11
our son has a bit of an allergy, so having a hypoallergenic dog was
6:15
important to us. You know, we live on a farm, so you
6:17
know, we also have three kids, but ours are maybe tiered different lately.
6:21
And our oldest is sixteen year old girl, so you know, we
6:25
got some responsibility there at the top, which is nice. But yeah,
6:29
no, she's got three years old again, she's she's on a learning path
6:33
but we're getting there. But you know, just to get to this puppy
6:36
mill thing, I know, we had a bit of an issue here in
6:39
Kings of the Unfortunate. Part is through the pandemic, everything was kind of
6:42
amplified and then light was really shown on this industry because you know, my
6:46
understanding, this has been happening in forever. You know, I think the
6:48
if you call it an industry, which it shouldn't be, but it was.
6:51
It was really again amplified through the pandemic when everybody's buying dogs, right,
6:57
everybody was. So I'm happy and glad to see this come through.
7:01
But as with anything, and you know, on the municipal side, it's
7:04
all about enforcement. So that's you know, the part is is, you
7:08
know, this is a great law, and it's great and everyone's gonna be
7:11
on board, but we all know it's going to be at the municipal level
7:15
right where we're going to have to be able to execute it. So again
7:17
that's you know, I hope, not sure what resources are going to be
7:20
attached to that. I don't think any but uh, you know again,
7:24
I know my my administrative brain and my administration is like, okay, this
7:28
is great, shoot, how are we going to be able to do this?
7:30
So that's that's the only unfortunate part of it is that you know,
7:32
by law is gonna have to be amplified, you know, and resources allocated
7:38
towards it. So that's always where the rubber meets the road, right is
7:42
we can go and have great legislation written down and develop by laws and rags,
7:46
But if they're not able to be enforced, if we don't allocate the
7:48
funding to have the inspectors go out and do it, if the prosecutors don't
7:53
feel like they have the ability to actually lay charges because there's not enough evidence
7:56
there, it does become tougher. Our Solicitor General michae Kerzner, though for
8:00
the province, says that this is a significant step forward and stopping Peppy Mills.
8:03
However, advocates on the other side are saying it doesn't go far enough.
8:09
This is one of those ones. I suppose we're just going to have
8:11
to wait and see, and I guess hope for the next news story that
8:15
comes out to be a more positive one than another popp email found or something
8:18
of the like. It's great, you know, it steps in the right
8:20
direction, but also to you know, a lot of it hangs on again
8:24
if you look at your municipal councils, like how much of a priority it
8:26
is as well? Right, and we all know, like you you never
8:28
want to be a reactive council for something that kind of comes forward and you
8:31
react to it and you go down this path. So again that's going to
8:35
be another part that's going to play a role, and it is. You
8:37
know, if it's not really that important to a council, there's not going
8:41
to be strict enforcement on it. I think it's interesting the advocates that are
8:46
saying that it doesn't go far enough, and I mean the idea that like
8:50
there is a fine, there are these regulations, but they really wanted to
8:54
see I think licensing for breeders, and I wonder if that would be more
9:00
difficult to enforce or more more easy in a sense, because then it puts
9:03
the onus on people to come and register and and that becomes the bottom line
9:09
for keeping that standard high. But then you get that weird ground that you
9:13
were just talking about, Mayor is that do we want even breeders to be
9:16
seen as a registered industry or should it be something that's more so that's you
9:22
know, I guess lacks are in the idea that we don't want it to
9:24
be something that is industrialized. It's it's a tough situation when you're talking about
9:28
living beings. Yeah, and I know for us for kingsle we I forget
9:33
the number now now that I mentioned this, but we put a number limit
9:35
on number of dog tags you can have. Last year, we just changed
9:39
it to a lifetime dog tag limit, which is great. So I'm not
9:43
sure if Famersburg does that. I highly recommend it. Our staff loved it
9:46
because it's it's not something they have to do year over year. Residents love
9:48
it. You know, the first fees initial but then you have it forever,
9:52
right, But now we track how many dog tags you actually have,
9:56
just to eliminate those people that you know, four or five and it's just
9:58
a breeding ground, So that's smart. I like, that wasn't my idea,
10:03
it was our team, but happy to promote them. Well, thank
10:07
you all for that first segment. To kick off our round table, here
10:11
Malie Laire, Christen Siapis, Dennis Rogers, we're going to take a quick
10:13
break. When we get back on to the side, we're going to talk
10:16
about river taxis and whether those are something that could work here in Windsor.
10:20
Ottawa has one. I think we could do for one, don't go anywhere.
10:24
John Lidkey here on AM eight hundred. Hey everyone, we're back to
10:28
John Lidkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW nine twenty. It is the round
10:33
table joined by Amasburg councilor Mali A laire Co producer of Just Cake Productions,
10:37
Christin Siapis and Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers. There's a really cool thing happening up
10:43
in Ottawa right now. There is a river taxi. It's called an aqua
10:46
taxi as well. They offer water taxi services, as you know, would
10:50
make sense based on the names along the Ottawa River, and they connect the
10:54
Ottawa Locks, the Richmond Landing and the Canadian Museum of Civilization and as well
11:00
they go. There's another one that goes on the Rito Canal and it shuttles
11:03
passengers between Carlton University and events at the like the Tulip Festival. Not too
11:07
expensive either, fifteen dollars one way per passenger. Another one of them,
11:13
there's three so in Ottawa. One goes from the Senate and the Shaw Center
11:16
to the Canal, Ritz Bank Street and Dow Street. Wondering if you think
11:18
one of those could work here in windsor imagining one that might hook up for
11:24
example, Amisburg to Colchester, Lasalth, Sandwich, Downtown Windsor Walkerville to the
11:31
Marina pesh Island. Gosh, could we even imagine Owt to Bell river.
11:33
Do you think something like that could work in this area? We always talk
11:37
about how the riverfront is our greatest asset, but I swear it doesn't seem
11:41
like we utilize it as much as we could, other than saying go for
11:46
a walk and take in the sites. What do you think, Mare,
11:48
I think it's a great idea. I think, you know one it's you
11:52
know, being a self employed. Myself has to be you know, enterprise,
11:56
right. I think, you know, government we just will just screw
11:58
it up if I could be completely honest with you. So to me,
12:03
it's you know, it's got to be business own. But I think it'd
12:05
be a great thing. You know. I think we're just talking off there
12:07
about the trolleys and different ways that connects our communities. And you know,
12:11
the water is one where we are connected by the water, but there's no
12:13
transportation that connects us on the water, right, So you know, to
12:16
me, I'm on board. I think it's great. You know, if
12:20
it's happening, I would definitely ride it. I would definitely partake of it.
12:22
And you know, I think it's great at you it'd be a lot
12:26
of fun. I would just like I don't think it would be something that
12:26
I would use to get around the region on a regular basis. But hey,
12:31
you want to have like a date afternoon and a date night kind of
12:33
thing. It's it's a whole excursion. What do you think, Molly,
12:37
Yeah, so I would be all for this. I actually like the green
12:39
aspect of this is that I'm like a big environmental person. But yeah,
12:43
he's saying it's zero emissions. How cool would that be? So your your
12:46
carbon footprint's almost gone, right, Like it's so you feel helpful, But
12:50
it would increase tourism beyond belief. I think that would be a great I
12:54
mean, we do bike wine tours. How cool would it be to have
12:58
like a tour of all the unicipalities in the area by water, So that's
13:01
great. Like just other things that I think is as Amasburg resident or a
13:07
counselor we're trying to get our transient marina there back at where Duffies used to
13:11
be, and I know that that will boost our tourism. Just people coming
13:15
in docking for the day. You can't dock forever. You dock for the
13:18
day, enjoy your town and then leave, like just to have a one
13:22
stop and go like it would be so functional. I mean that would just
13:26
boost everything in our area and then it connects our community. I think that's
13:28
my favorite part. But yeah, I love all aspects of it, but
13:33
definitely a business level, I do not want to take it on. So
13:37
we don't want to see an extension of transit windsor like the aquatic session.
13:43
No, I don't want to see windsor get involved in anything else that has
13:46
the words aqua or aquatic involved with it, quite frankly Christian, So bring
13:50
up old stuff. I've got two out of three. Are you going to
13:56
play Devil's advocate and say this is a terrible idea or are you on board?
13:58
Kristin and I have some questions about how how easy it would be,
14:03
Like it sounds like it would be super fun for the day. How long
14:07
does it take to get from like downtown to Ambersburg on a little water taxi
14:11
like this? The proximity here with the Ottawa locations seem to be really close
14:16
together, so you're just kind of like looking across the into the conversation.
14:20
Surey, yeah so, And because it's such a short distance, it's like
14:24
eight bucks for one way on the Ottawa water taxi. If that's the one
14:28
we're going to use as an example, and then you can get a day
14:31
pass for like I think it was twenty bucks, twenty bucks, hop on,
14:33
hop off for the day. That sounds amazing. Am I going to
14:37
spend twenty bucks? And how long is it going to take me to get
14:39
from downtown? It's like all the way down and around to Colchester. That's
14:43
a long time. I think it's like forty five minutes to an hour if
14:46
you're looking to do like the full trip from the marina. And then it
14:48
depends on if you're using if it's a powered vessel, or if you're using
14:52
wind speed or electric or wind speed potentially zero missions one. I feel like
14:58
it's just made for order distances. Put a bunch of hamsters up. I
15:03
do like if we can get it going back and forth across the river to
15:07
Detroit, yes, now, one thousand percent, yes, let's do that.
15:11
So just because it's a shorter distance, not because I prefer Detroit over
15:13
Hambersburg. I'm so sorry for my Hamsburg and Kingsville friends here. Well,
15:18
we've had those conversations about having a ferry across the river, and there's there's
15:22
interest on both sides. Logistically speaking, it seems like it's difficult because of
15:26
the CBS. A Molly, what do you think about a ferry across the
15:31
river? Oh? I actually I love that idea. I was just so
15:35
nervous you were going to ask about the Bablo Fairy no comments. But if
15:43
you think about it from the long way, when we had Bablo Island as
15:46
an amusement park, how many people came from Detroit to visit our sweet little
15:50
town and yet it had an attraction to come, but it was by the
15:54
thousands daily and it was amazing to see that the people rush in just to
15:58
do something in a day like So, I think a ferry going back and
16:03
forth. I mean Detroit is revitalizing, everyone's feeling safe, and I would
16:07
totally jump on that one. And it's it's a different way. I mean,
16:11
you feel a little bit better when you are an environmentalist and you're not
16:15
just gooshing out chemicals into the environment, right, So I think it's fantastic
16:21
if you could do it in a green way too. So, I mean
16:23
I'll support it one hundred percent. Baron Rogers, you think there would be
16:26
an appetite for a river across the ferry across the river. Yeah, as
16:30
I sit here and hold my twepe coffee, you know, I'm all tourism
16:34
all the time. Like to me, I think anytime you can increase you
16:37
know, non vehicular vehicular if I can see that word transportation for tourism,
16:42
I think it's going to be a win. You're going to track more people.
16:45
Detroit's on the rise, Windors on the rise, you know, County
16:48
of Essex. We've got a lot of great things going on. So to
16:51
provide other options and other means for people that you know, it's also an
16:53
experience too, right, So these people are going to be taking the boats
16:56
that you know, maybe not boat people may they don't own a boat.
16:59
You know, people that own boats are probably not gonna take it. You're
17:00
gonna get the people that don't own a boat. They're not on a boat
17:03
often because they want the experience. So I get the part of you know
17:07
the time, you know, how long is it gonna take? But there's
17:08
some people that they'll just pay thirty bucks just to ride a boat there and
17:12
back. And I think that's a large demographic, right. So to me,
17:15
is you know I'm on board again? Is you know obviously there's got
17:18
to be checks and balances and all that. But you know, I'm one
17:21
of those, being a business owner. I'm like, give the opportunity the
17:23
business owner, and the business owner is going to be able to figure it
17:26
out. Business owners will find a way to make a buck and if they
17:29
don't, they won't be business owners. And that's just one of the way
17:32
things work in that industry. Whereas if it's you know, the government that
17:34
does it, it'll just keep losing money and losing money and then we get
17:38
yelled at for it. And then you know, that's the thing. You
17:42
don't have to be successful in government. If you're running an operation like that,
17:45
it can just be fully subsidized. But gosh, that gets difficult sometimes
17:48
for the taxpayer when they go, what's going on here? Well, I
17:51
can tell you too. Like, you know, there's there's been a want
17:55
and a need for private enterprise going to Peelee Island for a while, and
17:57
I know there's been some things that have tried, and you know, I've
18:00
suly that's uh, you know, the you know, the province, the
18:03
Ministry of Transportation that has you know, ferries and stuff. But you know
18:07
there's a large gap. Uh you know, just from from Kingsville and Leamington
18:11
to Peeley Island and beyond to Sandusky that could be filled by the by the
18:15
private enterprise part. So I hope somebody figures that piece out, because again,
18:19
you know, it takes an hour and a half to go from Kingswell
18:22
to Peeley Island, and you know that's fine, but you know, if
18:25
you ride with a friend's boat, it's you know, it's twenty twenty five
18:26
minutes, right, So if you'll be able to cut that time down right
18:30
and bring more people there, I know the island will benefit, kings will
18:33
benefit, Leamington will benefit, and then it gives us access to Sandusky as
18:36
well. Right, So again that's you know, maybe there's this business that
18:40
does that and they incorporate you know, these these river rides as well.
18:42
So somebody out there, there's your idea, I should buy a boat.
18:47
Sounds like there's a business case here. It's nine eight. We're gonna take
18:49
a break right now. We got the nine thirty information update coming up next.
18:55
Hey everyone, we are back. It is the Dann McDonald show.
18:59
John Lydkey here Wednesday roundtable joined by Amasburg Councilor Mali A. Laire Co,
19:03
producer of Just Cake Productions, Christen Ciappis and Kingsville's mayor Dennis Rogers, thank
19:08
you all for joining me. Well, the thing that we all love to
19:11
talk about all the time and at the top of our mind often is an
19:15
Ontario election, or at least we weren't hoping to have this conversation, but
19:19
it seems as if one might be coming sooner than later, with the Ontario
19:23
Progressive Conservatives taking the temperature from the public on a possible early election call.
19:30
Global News has learned this and it offers another sign that the premier is preparing
19:33
to trigger an election ahead of schedule, despite having a four year mandate that
19:38
he won in twenty twenty two. Sources say they're weighing the risks and benefits
19:41
of heading the polls in twenty twenty five. Why are we suspecting this,
19:45
Well, we saw that they're spending a quarter billion dollars to end a beer
19:49
store deal that would be ending in eighteen months. There's a reason why they
19:53
want to go spending that money, why they want this to be pushed up
19:57
with this new polling happening here. It's the latest sign. So the question
20:02
that we're asking is do you think there should be an Ontario election sooner than
20:07
later? How do you think it will turn out? Right now, polling
20:11
looks pretty good for the Progressive Conservatives. Kristen will bring you in first.
20:15
I'm exhausted already, right, but I think it's funny how you introduced this
20:21
right, like, oh great, let's talk about an Ontario election. I
20:23
think that's the general vibe. Like, I think that's the feeling from voters
20:27
all over Ontario is that we're just so beat up right now. Housing is
20:33
crazy, food costs are crazy. There's this tension, we're always being put
20:37
on. There's no time to care about politics and promises from politicians that aren't
20:42
really going to follow through or impact us. The problems are so big at
20:47
this point that everybody is just over it. Voter turnout has been so low
20:52
in previous elections at every level. I just think I think that calling an
20:57
election right now is like is like sneaking past people. It's like, well,
21:00
let's have an election now while people are really preoccupied, and we think
21:04
that we might be able to win it without having to actually solve any of
21:08
the massive problems that people are facing. Well, we do really pessimistic coming
21:14
from me, a little ray of sunshine? You were, sorry? Well,
21:18
I mean it's fair. The last provincial election was the lowest turnout that
21:21
we've ever seen in the province, only to the one before that election,
21:23
which was the then lowest voter turnout in the province. So there's something to
21:27
be said about that. Mollie. What do you think about this one?
21:30
You think an election should come sooner than later? How do you feel about
21:33
the fact that we might be entering election season? Oh? I hate even
21:37
saying it. It's actually kind of just makes me a little bit grumpy as
21:41
a counselor because like, Okay, you guys all loved me because I voted
21:45
in favor for this, so I'm doing really good. Let's call an election
21:48
now, like I'm only two years in. No, I can't do that,
21:51
So why should he be allowed to? No, you should have to
21:53
do your four years and at the end of the four years, if you
21:56
accomplished your goals and did what you said you were going to do, maybe
22:00
you'll get reelected, maybe you won't, but that's your job. You should
22:03
have to do it for four years. I don't know, so that I
22:06
hate that they call early elections because yeah, you're winning the polls right now.
22:10
That just seems so skewed, so they should actually have to follow that.
22:12
I agree. We have not like housing, oh my gosh, all
22:17
those crisises, and like it doesn't seem like we're doing anything like doctors like
22:22
we need. There's nothing happening. It just seems stagnant. And the fact
22:27
that they're going to run for an election when I haven't even seen any results
22:30
is like actually pissing me off. So yeah, I agree, But either
22:34
way, if we have an election, I just want someone that's actually going
22:37
to take care of the people, take care of the environment, actually follow
22:41
through with what they're actually saying that they're going to do. That would be
22:45
great. Like I'm in the municipal politics, and I feel like I work
22:48
every day on like the three I knew I didn't put anything on my thing
22:52
that I wouldn't be able to accomplish. I fought for the environment, I'm
22:55
fighting for honesty, I'm fighting for transparency. That is literally what I've been
22:59
try trying to do since day one, and I think I'm successful at it.
23:03
But I wouldn't vouch saying I'm going to bring you this if I can't,
23:06
right, Like, I don't know. So I think it's important that
23:08
they follow through with what they're doing, but they shouldn't be allowed to call
23:11
early election. I don't like that. So I think the only silver lining
23:17
to having an earlier election, Mayor Rodgers is that if there wasn't one,
23:21
what we're looking at is next fall a federal election, next then the spring
23:26
after that a provincial election, and then the fall after that a municipal election.
23:32
It would be literally eighteens of non stop door knocking. And like,
23:37
if you think people are tired now, Kristin, imagine eighteen months of Hey,
23:42
you want to hear what my plan? No, I don't door slam,
23:45
maryor Rodgers. What would it be like for you to have to go,
23:49
you know, seek reelection, go do campaigning after a period of twelve
23:53
months of people already knocking at doors. Yeah, No, it's tough,
23:57
man. And you know, I cannot go with the sentiment that you know,
24:00
there's you know, people are tired, man, Like, there's you
24:03
know, people are working hard, they're working more than they've ever worked.
24:06
You know, there's they have less money than they've ever had before. The
24:08
unfortunate part is you know, there's there's the maximum amount of you know,
24:12
government distrust that there ever has been, you know, so I think there's
24:17
there's naturally people are naturally kind of cynical towards it, you know what I
24:21
mean, just towards government in general and what's being accomplished, you know.
24:25
But to play Devil's advocate, which is kind of my role as the mayor
24:27
to see both sides is you know, I can understand the point of,
24:30
you know, if you feel your are accomplishing some things, for you to
24:34
to to solidify some things for the future, for a plan, because I
24:37
know for us one thing, you know, Kingsoles. We just put together
24:41
a long term strategic plan called Kingsle twenty forty and it and it's the plan
24:45
of you know, economic development, infrastructure, you know, tax plan,
24:48
asset management plan, you know, staffing plan, you name it for the
24:52
next sixteen years. It's what I ran on, right, So you know,
24:55
I can I can understand the sentiment if you put a plan together and
24:57
you're getting some things moving in your brain, right, but then you're like,
25:02
if I don't have another for whatever time year is to implement it and
25:04
continue with the plan, you know that that will be detrimental to all the
25:07
work and stuff that you put in, So you know, I can understand
25:11
that point. And you also look at you know, the County of Essex,
25:14
which is you know, blue for the first time I think since the
25:15
sixties, right, So obviously this this government feels that they have some momentum.
25:19
You know, I'm not justifying anything. I'm just trying to understand the
25:22
viewpoint of it. But I think the point that you said the most is,
25:26
you know, the most important election that we need is the federal election.
25:30
Like to me, that's you know, that's what I hope happens earlier.
25:33
Then then then then the provincial one because to me, I think,
25:37
you know, everything starts at the top and and and policies and and dollars
25:42
and funding envelopes and housing, you know, all that type of stuff starts
25:47
at the federal level. And to me, I think that's you know,
25:49
that's the thing we got to fix first and we trickle down from there.
25:52
So not sure if I answer your question, but hey, the beauty of
25:56
the questions that I ask is they're more conversation starter, so we can just
26:00
sort of go back and forth with it. You know, it's interesting.
26:03
We did just see at the federal level there was that Toronto by election and
26:07
the Liberals they didn't get trounced. They you know, they lost by a
26:11
you know, relatively slim majority, but they lost a seat that they've held
26:15
for thirty five years. I'm thirty five. To put it in the perspective,
26:21
that's good, thank you, But it's like, that's my entire being.
26:23
It's crazy to think that something like that could change. Do you think,
26:26
Kristin, that that demonstrates that the sentiment at the federal level is changing.
26:30
You think it's a bell weather. I think they've said, you know
26:33
that we're looking at this at this particular election, that by election, that
26:38
it was sort of indicative of that that there is public opinion is changing,
26:42
voter behavior is changing. I think what's interesting about this the prospect of a
26:47
provincial election, is that the NDP leader Merit Styles is like so strong right
26:52
now and coming out swinging like her reaction to this was like, sure,
26:56
bring it on, let's go. Do you think she's stronger than the Liberal
26:57
leader Bonnie Cromby personally? I'm I think she is swinging hard, she's swinging
27:03
for the fences. I think that that there's some potential there, but I
27:06
mean, we'll see what happens. It's it's going to come out the way
27:08
it comes out, and and and I think a lot of that will be
27:12
determined during the campaigning period, the promises that are made and the follow through.
27:18
I mean, because it is a shorter time. The Conservative government hasn't
27:22
achieved everything that they need to achieve, so it's going to be based on
27:25
promises again. So it'll be who comes out with the best promises and who's
27:29
got the best track record and who's likable. Like at the end of the
27:32
day, I think people look at a leader and they go, I can't
27:34
do four years of that voice. You know, it's so shallow. But
27:38
I but I really think that that that is what it comes down to,
27:41
is that if you don't have a strong leader that's able to at least grasp
27:45
some of that that personality piece. That so much of what we do these
27:52
days in politics is about social media presence and your image and your voice and
27:56
your again, your personality, who you are, and you're voting for the
28:02
most popular leader, maybe even more so than the most popular policies. Because
28:07
to some extent that you look at something like the housing crisis that is so
28:10
complicated and difficult to unravel. Everybody's going to come up with a promise.
28:14
Everybody's going to come up with a solution, but nobody has the perfect solution.
28:18
Nobody has a solution that's like absolutely guaranteed to work one hundred percent in
28:22
the next three year term. So there's a little bit of trust there.
28:26
And so if you're going to put your trust in a politician, in a
28:27
leader, you're going to choose the person who you resonate with the most.
28:33
So I think that'll be really interesting because the all three, you know,
28:37
the Liberal, DP and Conservative leaders at the provincial level, are all very
28:41
different, and we'll see how many voters turn out to vote for that leader.
28:47
I think. Well, just to quickly go back to what Mary Rodgers
28:51
was saying at the federal level, I always laugh when very serious liberals mentioned
28:55
that Mark Karney, the former Bank of Canada governor or Bank of England governor,
28:57
would be a good replacement for Trudeaux because of the state of the situation.
29:00
We're right, and I'm go peer paulyev is attacking everything liberal because they're
29:04
elitists in they're out of touch, and you want to go bring the Bank
29:07
of England governor in to try to right the ship. No, it like
29:11
this, that's gonna definitely do it really quickly, Molly. You know,
29:15
it's funny when we talk about municipal, provincial and federal elections and the different
29:18
levels of government. At the end of the day, it's still all the
29:22
same voter base. It's cut and sliced a little bit differently, but there's
29:26
still your residence in one form or another. Maybe some end up on a
29:29
different side of a boundary line here or there. Do you think that people
29:32
are, like, are they frustrated? Are they tired? Are they upset?
29:34
Like? What are you seeing from the general attitude of your constituency.
29:37
I think everyone's frustrated and tired and upset. Actually, when I was running,
29:41
it's funny because I kept thinking the whole time, I was like,
29:45
oh, I just hope we get a good turnout. And we did.
29:47
I mean, it's not amazing, it was forty thirty nine percent. But
29:52
I think a lot of things too. To bring people out is just to
29:55
have a care and I think that one thing I always said was like municipal
30:00
are the ones that actually affect you, like you actually can change how your
30:03
town is run or your city is run because you've voted these people in.
30:07
And that was like people like, oh, I actually didn't think of it
30:11
that way. So I was like, that was good. But I love
30:12
your popularity thing because one of the counselors that got in said, yeah,
30:17
I told my kid, like, aren't you proud of me? I got
30:19
elected? And she was like, yeah, good job, you won the
30:22
popularity contest. And it is literally it like exactly in small town. It's
30:29
so frustrating it right, I'm fortunate my last name starts with an a thank
30:34
you to my husband, but like, so you're at the top of the
30:38
list, so that's fortunate. But I also had born and raised in my
30:41
community. I worked at Sobey's for nine years. I worked at a retirement
30:45
community. I was out in the public a lot of the time. I
30:49
was always involved. So so to have the outreach where people recognize me when
30:53
I knocked on the door, that was great. But yeah, people are
30:56
exhausted. I think too. Is like any time I sit down at a
31:00
coffee shop, someone comes up to me and it's fine. I don't mind
31:03
talking politics at all because that's my job. But at the same time,
31:07
when they get upset about it, I was like, then do something about
31:11
it, Like it shouldn't be always on me. If you're upset that the
31:14
garbage is on the ground, pick it up, like, be part of
31:17
the solution. Be part of the solution, or come up with a solution
31:19
for me, because sometimes I cannot think of it all. Well, that's
31:22
why, that's how I got into politics. Like I've never been in politics
31:26
before as a business owner and you know, advocated for certain things, part
31:30
of community groups, you know, ransom festivals, you know, delegated to
31:33
council. And I was just tired of complaining about stuff. So finally I'm
31:36
gonna throw my hat in it. And we had a pretty uh heated mayoral
31:40
race. You know, there's there's three candidates, and it was it was
31:41
very close. You know, fortune enough kings will step out. We had
31:45
over fifty percent voter turnout, which which again it's also I think it's also
31:51
a fact too of you know, when you have a heated race, you
31:52
know what I mean, more people are going to kind of come out.
31:55
So but I don't know, man, people are tired. You know,
31:59
I'm a firm advocate. You know, you right the ship and you steady
32:02
it and you keep moving it forward. People like stability at times right for
32:06
you to be able to focus on it. But I don't know, maybe
32:09
you should open up the boat. TAXI. Seem like you've got a pretty
32:14
good handle on right in the ship there. Well, yeah, I get
32:15
a couple of businesses already. I have to think about that one, buddy.
32:19
Well, it is the Wednesday round Table. I am John lydd Key,
32:22
joined by Dennis Rogers, Mayor of Kingsville. Kristen Siapis, co producer
32:25
of Just Cake Productions. And I can tell you with our last names lyd
32:29
Key, Rogers and sappis, where're not going to go head to head with
32:31
Molly laire or Amasburg Counselor. Because that name shows up right at the top
32:36
of the list. Speak for yourself. I'm knocking on doors nine. We'll
32:42
be back right after this. Hey, we're back John Lidson here on Amate
32:46
hundred CKLW. Time for us to wrap up the Wednesday round Table with Amasburg
32:51
Counselor, Molli Alaiir, co producer of Just Cake Productions, Kristin Siapis and
32:53
Kingsville's Mayor Dennis Rogers. Time for plugged in, which means that everyone gets
32:58
to shout out something they think needs some attention. Kristen, I'll go to
33:00
you. I bet I could guess what it is? Can you jack?
33:05
Happen? Thursday? It is going to be a happy Thursday. It's going
33:07
to be a fantastic Thursday tomorrow because we are kicking off our Jazz in the
33:12
Park series with our very first event at Lansbury Park on the bandstand there.
33:16
It's a fantastic spot for music. I'm so excited to use that space.
33:20
We are bringing in Orchestraction, led by Len Temalini. It's a twelve piece
33:24
band. We've got a couple of videos up on our event page and on
33:29
our profile. If you check out Just Cake Productions on Facebook or Instagram,
33:34
you can see some of our videos, kind of a little preview of what
33:37
you might see tomorrow night in the Park. So we encourage you come on
33:42
down to Ottawa Street, check out some of the restaurants and the businesses there,
33:45
get a picnic, bring your family, bring a blanket, bring some
33:49
lawn chairs and enjoy the music. We'll be there from six until nine pm.
33:53
And then we have a series of events going out throughout the summer,
33:55
five more events at different city parks and we are very fully funded by the
34:00
Arts, Culture and Heritage Fund grant from the City of Windsor. And I'm
34:04
gonna plug one more things super quick Corta Zone at Corda Zone Theater this weekend.
34:09
It is the closing weekend for the Trench. Jeremy Burke has directed this
34:15
piece. It's a dramatic, thought provoking piece about a minor that's trapped in
34:20
this trench. It's very very cool. Check it out online. You can
34:22
check out Korda Artistic Productions again on Facebook and Instagram and get your tickets for
34:28
the Trench this weekend. Can't say there's nothing going on this weekend throughout the
34:32
rest of the week as well. Hey Molly, how about you what needs
34:35
to be plugged in? Okay, I'm gonna guiltily do too as well.
34:37
So I'm on the board for Windsor Ultimate. It's an Ultimate Frisbee league and
34:42
we are doing our hat tournament in Amisburg. So if you want to sign
34:45
up for it, go to Windsorultimate dot com. It pops right up.
34:50
A hat tournament. Hat tournament is basically you sign up and you can play
34:53
Ultimate frisbee. You get put on a team. Every year. We actually
34:58
get so many people from sarn Detroit and London, so all the way out
35:01
there. Yeah. Ultimate frisbee is huge, guys. I know it sounds
35:06
like for hippies, but it was so much fun. High school got a
35:08
team, so yeah, yeah, actually your high school one. So I
35:13
coached North Star, but Kingsville High School one. How did they do an
35:15
ASA? Do you know? I think it was second or third? I
35:19
think I don't even think you understand because frisbee here is like still new and
35:23
growing, but out in Toronto is like insane deal. Yeah, so it's
35:28
cool. And then just a quick other Showdow. We have the Health Youth
35:31
Center in Amersburg and they have their golf tournament on July thirteenth. But so
35:36
if you want to participate, great awesome. But they're also looking just for
35:39
a few more volunteers, and I love them. They do so much for
35:43
our community. So I just wanted to give a Showdow. If you want
35:45
to volunteer, just look online on their Facebook. The Health Youth Center and
35:50
reach out because they just need a few more people to help them. Well,
35:52
thank you for that, and how about yourself, Mayor Rogers. I'm
35:57
gonna go a bit of a different route here on this one. I think,
36:00
you know, I just want to talk about mental health for a second,
36:00
if we can. You know, I think, you know, we've
36:04
all kind of heard about the tragedy in Harrow, and you know, I
36:07
think it just opens our eyes to you know, just what people are struggling
36:09
with, like we don't we don't know what people are dealing with. And
36:13
and when when tragedies like that affect small communities, you know, there's there's
36:16
still people struggling, and you know, COVID change the world. And I
36:20
guess my my appeal to all communities is you know, checking with your neighbor,
36:25
checking with your loved one, checking with your friend. Uh, you
36:28
know, they may seem okay, but you know, I think now we're
36:30
at a point where it's you know, we need to be brave and strong
36:35
and maybe risk or jeopardize you know, a friendship to to help to get
36:40
some people some help. So I know there's resources within you know, the
36:44
city, there's resource in the county, there's resources at your nurse practitioner clinic,
36:47
you know, if you have to go to you know, the hospitals,
36:50
you know, you can name it. But I think now is at
36:52
a point where you know, we need a shared responsibility, you know,
36:57
to get some people help. And if they got to bring them and screaming,
37:00
you know, that's what you have to do. Because I think at
37:01
this point is you know, we got to put our foot in the sand.
37:05
We got to realize this is a shared responsibility of all of us.
37:07
And if I'm going to lose a friend or if I'm going to lose a
37:09
family member and they're going to be pissed to me, but you know,
37:13
maybe it gets them to have the conversation that they need, then it's going
37:16
to be worth it. But I think that's something that we all have to
37:19
commit to and we all got to start trying to do that because you know,
37:23
we talked about the government and the promises and the needs and you know,
37:27
this is a giant issue and there's not one solution. There's probably like
37:30
a thousand different solutions and that's probably still not enough. But again, as
37:35
you know, solution starts, you know with the individual. So if the
37:38
individual are making steps to help make it happen. Then we're going to start
37:42
seeing some change. But we've got to have uncomfortable conversations to be able to
37:45
do it. Well, you know, Yeah, I think that's really important
37:49
to say. It's it's so easy for us all to get wrapped up in
37:52
our own heads and you know, we're all the main character of our own
37:54
lives, but it doesn't mean that everybody else is also a main character who
37:59
deserves attention and checking in and help and support, and it's easy for us
38:02
not to see that on face value. I really appreciate you bringing that up.
38:05
Thank you. Yeah, I app to do my part, buddy,
38:07
Well, I want to thank the roundtable today. Wednesday's roundtable included Kingsville Mayor
38:12
Dennis Rogers, Amersburg counselor Moliolaire, and the co producer of Just Cake Productions
38:15
at Kristen Siappus. Don't go anywhere, folks, John Lidke here on AM
38:20
eight hundred CKLW. We're going to take a break. We've got the ten
38:22
o'clock news coming up next.