Latest / Kvetch & Release / The Rundown with Stephen Murdoch and Jon Liedtke - June 26, 2024

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The Rundown with Stephen Murdoch and Jon Liedtke - June 26, 2024 · Kvetch & Release

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It's news Talk tonight on the iHeartRadio Talk network, and I'm Richard crowd sitting
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in for Jim Richard's Jim will be back next week. So there's a study
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that has just been released and they were trying to figure out who's happier homeowners
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or renters. Now, I've been both and both for almost probably the exact
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same amount of time, maybe a little more as a home owner, but
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I rented for a very long time, and I found that while I love
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my place, they will take me out of that place feet first. Right
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now. I'm not going to leave where I am right now. We've had
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it for a long time and it is just the way that I want it.
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But I was pretty happy when I had my first apartment in Toronto,
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which was this tiny, little one bedroom. Wasn't even a one bedroom.
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It was a bachelor so it was one big room. My brother threw a
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mattress in the corner of the big room, and then there was sort of
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a long kitchen essentially just like imagine like a hallway that had a stove at
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the end of it, and I slept in that part of it and I
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shared it with my brother in about ten million cockroaches. But I liked it
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because it was it felt like mine. It felt it was my first place
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and it felt like mine. And I mostly liked most of the other apartments
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that I've lived in since then. But on the rundown today with my guest
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Steven Murdoch, who's the VP of Enterprise Canada it's a PR firm, and
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John Lidkey, who's radio a radio and podcast host in Windsor, Ontario,
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business consultant and former cannabis entrepreneur, we're going to talk about this a little
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bit. Guys, welcome to news Talk tonight. Thank you, thanks for
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having us. Thank you so much. Steven. Let's begin with you.
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Who do you think it is is who's happier homeowners or renters? It's difficult,
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I think. First off, three as Canadians need to figure something out
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and realize that all forms of housing are equal. I know that's a pretty
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big statement to stay but that's not happening. And until you know, think
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of your own group of family and friends. When somebody says I'm renting,
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you know, we have this stereotype of well, why haven't you bought a
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house? And can you not forward to buy a house? And all the
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things that go with it. I would agree with the study. I think
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for the most part it's split for renters. I mean there's a little control
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that they can have over their dwellings in terms of making changes, whereas maybe
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homeowner homeowner can change. I think for renters the biggest issue is I,
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like you had a basement apartment in Mississauga. Loved it at the time,
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and I didn't like it in the winter, but other than that, there
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was no natural light coming and I actually enjoyed the living situation. But as
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your families grow and your relations change, there are a lot of people who
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are apartment dwellers who would like to stay in apartments, but there are no
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apartments that are reconducive to grow with families as they get bigger. What the
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data says is that homeowners in Canada are more likely than renters to report overall
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high life satisfaction. And that's from statistics candidates, I mean report that they've
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just released. The gap reduces significantly, though, when the kind of dwelling,
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among other factors, is accounted for. John, what's your take on
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this. I would say that just in terms of general happiness, I was
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just as happy renting as I was or as I am as a home owner.
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But home ownership, I think brings with it a sense that there's a
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permanence to it, and I think that probably is the thing for me that
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would push it over the edge. Yeah. I mean, listen, people
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are going to be going at it for different reasons and especially at different times.
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Right now. I know people that are in their forties who have realized
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they're never going to be able to afford a home in Toronto or quite frankly,
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potentially in other cities along the four to oh one corridor, who are
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in a rent control department and say, this is good for me. I'm
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happy that I'm here. I'm not leaving. You know, I made the
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mistake of going into private business ten years ago, so I wasn't able to
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get into the housing market when it was you know, at a reasonable place.
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So I'm renting right now and it works for me. I'm happy.
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Would I be happier with something that I could be building equity towards and you
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know, feeling more wealth with from, of course, but that's not going
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to be in the cards for everyone at every moment. So you know,
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there's pros and cause on every side. But what we need to make sure
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is that people are able to not only just be able to purchase and afford
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homes, but also be able to rent, and right now that is increasingly
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an issue across this province and country. Stephen, the thing that I liked
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about renting was if the refrigerator broke down, I just a phone call and
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say, hey, I need a new fridge. Yeah, that happens at
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my house too. I just text my wife and I say, Julie,
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we need a new fridge. How are you making this better? No,
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there are all these layers to ownership and that some people I know personally who
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are like I love renting. It works for me. I don't like the
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thought of having to spend fifteen thousand dollars on a new roof, ten thousand
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on a new driveway. The appliance goes, you're three four thousand in so
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yeah, they're owning a home is not cheap. Put it that way,
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It doesn't matter where you are in Canada. John, There's been a new
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addition to Bill ninety six. It's a new language rules that are requiring Quebec
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store assigns to be two thirds in French. Now, I have to be
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honest, I thought that was the case anyway, but it is apparently new
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and there are saying that French language has to take up most of the space
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on store funds and outdoor commercial signs, so stores like Canadian tire will have
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to include generic terms or descriptions in French on their store fronts that take up
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twice as much space as the English brand name. And I get why Bill
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ninety six is so kind of hardcore in its attempt to preserve the French language.
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There are apparently now fewer people than almost ever speaking French in Quebec,
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and that obviously is something that they want to change. But does this have
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any effect with this for you? If you were living in Montreal or in
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Quebec somewhere, would this make a difference to you. It's not going to
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make a difference. It's just another step along this way that we're getting towards,
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which is what seems to be a elimination of the anglophone society in Quebec.
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Quite frankly, of course, they want to preserve their culture and I
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purportedly we live in a b e lingual country. When you see moves like
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this, though, it's hard to appreciate that. And then there's also,
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of course been other moves that have been introduced to limit the rights of religious
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minority. It's, yeah, another step along this journey that we all John
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is cutting in and out a little bit. Maybe we'll disconnect and reconnect with
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him. Steven, I'll pick this up with you. Do you think that
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this will be the the you know, a great step forward or is it
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just another thing that will cost the store owners a little bit of money to
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make sure that they are up to speed. And you know that their French
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language is bigger than anything in English on the signs, and it just ends
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up costing money to the store owners. You hit it spot on. That's
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exactly who it's going to hit in the pockets or the stone owners. Store
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owners, excuse me, they're going to be the ones dealing with the stress
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of the paperwork. They're the ones that are going to be taking on the
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cost of new signage. It is going to be a massive undertaking. And
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I think, yeah, if you're a store owner, you've got to be
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concerned, you know, especially those smaller independent shops who are already struggling to
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make a profit. Here you are telling me, you know, you've got
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to change the storefront and you've got to have all these policies in place,
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and a lot of them are turning to legal firms for assistance at I'm sure
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quite high billable hours. So it's difficult. It's going to hurt the store
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owners the most, I think in Quebec. And when you've got organizations like
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the CFIB coming up and saying hey, there's a lack of clarity around this,
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that's a real issue. John. Do we have you back? No,
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we don't have John back, So we'll try and reconnect somehow with him
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for the next segment. Steven. That means it's you and me for right
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now. So let's just take well, I'll set this up and then we'll
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come back on the other side of the break. So the province is now
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seeking a much smaller home for a temporary Ontario Science Center for people around the
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country who might not be as following the story as carefully as they may have
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been, or we may have been here in Toronto. Ontario Place or the
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Science Center is a legendary attraction that generations of school kids have gone to take
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part in scientific displays, and the most famously the ball where you put your
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hand on top of it, it surges electricity through your body and your hair
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stands straight up. It's a great place. On Friday, Doug Ford's government
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said, oh, the roof is not safe for closing it down right away.
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And now we're afraid that we're just going to lose the Science Center completely
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because it'll be years before they can open it up again if they can rebuild
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it elsewhere. Now they're saying we'll just find a small temporary home. Is
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that enough. We'll find out on the other side of the break. You're
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listening to the Rundown on News Talk Tonight. I'm Richard Krous in for Jim
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Richards. You're listening to News Talk Tonight on the iHeartRadio Talk network, and
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I'm Richard Krouse sitting in for Jim Richards. Jim will be back next week.
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Now. The story we're talking about here this show was heard across the
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country. We're talking about the Ontario Science Center because it has been such a
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part of our news cycle for the last couple of weeks here in Toronto,
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the last couple of months, really, because there has been talk about shutting
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it down, where to move it will it go to this new Ontario place
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development that may or may not be happening. And then on Friday, the
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Ontario Science Center was just abruptly shut down. They say the roof is unstable,
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it's not safe to be there today. They laid off a bunch of
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the catering staff, the kitchen staff that worked in the cafeteria there. I
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just went to look up their website. The website's already gone. It's no
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longer there. But if you grew up in southern Ontario, you grew up
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with an ad that is burned into my head, and it is for the
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Ontario Science Center, and it's what they call the hair Raising Experience. And
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they had a Vandergraff generator and imagine sort of a large pedestal with a big
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metal ball on top, and you would put your hand on top of the
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metal ball, and it was to teach you all about static electricity. You
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put your hand on the ball in your hair would stand up on edge or
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on end. And the image that I remember from the ad was of a
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teenage girl with her hand on this vander Graft generator and her long hair standing
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straight out. And it was something that has just been burned into my mind
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for I don't know decades since in maybe decades since that commercial aired. But
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now there will be no need for commercials because the Ontario government has decided that
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the Ontario Science Center should be closed. So I want to talk about this
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with my guests on the Rundown, Stephen Murdoch, VP of Enterprise Canada,
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that's a PR firm, and John Lidkey, he is the radio and podcast
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host in Windsor, Ontario who joins us every week, A business consultant and
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former cannabis entrepreneur. John, I'll start with you on this one. They
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say that in the meantime, while they're trying to figure out exactly what they're
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going to do with the Ontario Science Center, they're going to look for a
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smaller home for it, which I mean is a stop gap at best.
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I think I'm saying, why not get a fleet of trucks. Why not
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make it mobile? You can take it to schools, you can take it
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where it needs to be, and you can have these great displays have a
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second life and spread education literally you via transit on these big trucks. What
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do you think we should do? I like that idea. That's pretty cool.
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I don't like the idea of reducing the square footage from you know,
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five hundred and sixty eight thousand square feet to about seventy five thousand square feet.
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That seems like a big mistake. I love your idea. Pack it
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up, put them into trucks. You can rotate the displays at different schools,
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you can bring it to different community centers. But listen to me,
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this is this is a travesty here. The Ontario Science Center is not just
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the domain of the city of Toronto. It belongs to all Ontarians, the
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least still has quite a few decades on it. According to the consultant engineering
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reports, this did not need to be closed. There's an opportunity for measured
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renovations to make sure that things remain safe. It seems as if this is
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an outcome that was pushed for because there's a desire for something else to come.
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And we can all speculate us to the reasons why. And I think
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it's clear enough if you pay attention to the inside politics of the province.
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But listen, this is this is just a setting. I was talking with
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my parents about this recently and my mom said, oh, yeah, we
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used to take you there all the time when you were two or three years
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old, and you put your hand on that seal ball that made my hair
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go all the way out. So you know, I don't have those memories
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myself. I moved here at the age of three to Windsor, but my
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parents have those memories and it was nice to connect over them. And it's
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you know, disappointing that other people won't be able to Steven, what do
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you think I mean? I think part of the reason that people are so
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up in arms about this is a it's a pretty cool building to begin with.
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It's sort of a space age design of a building, so that's pretty
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cool. And also closing it down so suddenly you didn't mean to get a
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chance to say goodbye to it. If it is going away, at least
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maybe we could have, you know, taken the summer and those who wanted
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to visit could have visited it. I would have loved to goodbye to her.
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I would have bought the shirt too, I think for a lot of
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people, obviously, John said it strikes the court right. I have such
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fond, fond memories. I live in Niagara, and I remember making the
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trek up there and it was just a blast, always had a good time.
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I had the pleasure of picking my kids up there. I love your
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idea of making it mobile because there are a lot of people who liked it
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and never got a chance to experience it again. The puppy mills situation is
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in Ontario has been sort of I think maybe had a fatal death blow delivered
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to it. But isn't enough. So puppy mills are now we legal in
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Ontario, but advocates say that little will change for dogs. So puppy mills,
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of course are you know where animals are bread and not particularly for the
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better and they are sold in lots of stores across the province, across the
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country. But now, if you are found guilty of operating a puppy mill,
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the story of the province will now subject you to a minimum ten thousand
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dollars penalty and a twenty five thousand dollars penalty for the death of a dog.
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These penalties can be multiplied for each dog, potentially creating massive fines.
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John, is this enough or do you think that the idea that perhaps if
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you were fined one hundred thousand dollars for the death of four dogs, that
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that might be just enough to keep you out of the business. When I
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had my cannabis lounge and tobacco enforcement came in, I was told that if
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anyone was caught smoking after a certain date that the tickets for them would be
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over one hundred thousand dollars apiece. Yeah. I think if you're going to
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be killing a dog or causing problems with dogs like yeah, absolutely the fine
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should be far higher. I spoke actually with the Mayor of Kingsville earlier today
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on AM eight hundred about this, and he made it very clear. Unless
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the municipalities are willing to be fully involved with this and have buy law enforcement
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put this at the top of their purview, and the province is ensuring that
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they have their regulators out and their enforcement out, and the Crown is able
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to ensure that they want to deal with this, of course this is going
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to work. Now. That means that there needs to be money and additional
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money and additional priorities laid out, and that's always where the rubber meets the
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road. So it's a good start, there's no doubt about that. Is
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it enough? Well, we're seeing from the advocates on the other side it's
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not going far enough. But I'm not one to go and castigate an idea
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as negative because it doesn't go far enough at the outset. Steven so a
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puppy mill or a puppy firm as a breeding facility characterized by quick breeding and
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poor conditions. Now, there are inspectors that go around and inspect this kind
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of thing, but there's only about one hundred of them. Do we need
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to quadruple to quintuple that number and just get a lot more feet on the
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ground as well as impose these stiff fines. Yeah, I think it's headed
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in the right, or actually get more of them out there, finding out
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where these puppy mills are, because let's face it, we don't even probably
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know where half of these illegal puppy bills are. And it can really turn
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into a revenue generator. People are going to say, really, do we
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need a one hundred more people on the government dollar? But you know,
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if run correctly, it could actually turn into a revenue generator in the program
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could run itself. I'm all for holding bad actors to account. Financial risk
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is always good, but you know, at the end of the day,
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I think they need to go a little bit further and license them so that
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we can get the ones out of the weeds and do it's best for the
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dogs. I'm just looking up. I don't have the information in front of
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me here about the amount of puppy mills in Canada, but in the United
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States they estimate that there's about ten thousand puppy mills, and according to the
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SBCA, mother dogs spend their entire lives in cramped cages with little or to
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no personal attention. So the quicker that we can eliminate that, the quicker
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we can stop that, the bigger the fines for me, the better.
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When we come back on the Rundown with my guests Steven Murdoch and John Lidkey,
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we're going to talk about the University of Waterloo. They have turned to
19:15
court to end an encampment on their campus. We'll also talk about how Alberta
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is going to opt out a federal dental plan that has helped a whole lot
19:26
of people so far, and it's fairly new, but they're going to opt
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out by twenty twenty six, and that's according to Premier Smith in that province.
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So we'll cover that and more when we come back I'm Richard Krause sitting
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in for Jim Richards. You're listening to News Talk Tonight on the Bell Media
19:45
Radio Networks. Stay with me, There's lots more to come. News Talk
20:06
Tonight continues on the iHeartRadio Talk Network. I'm Richard Kraus in for Jim.
20:11
Jim Richards will be back next week. I just saw on one of the
20:15
big screens that is surrounding me here in the studio that The Last Timbit is
20:22
premiering today. If you haven't heard about this, it is a musical that
20:26
is being produced by the same guy who produced Come from Away, so heavyweight
20:30
producer behind this thing that celebrates sixty years of Tim Hortons. And it's the
20:37
story, and this is a musical, new musical happening on stage night,
20:42
debuting, and it's the story of a group of strangers that get stranded in
20:48
a snowstorm of the decade out of Tim Horton's and they have to learn how
20:53
to get along and they have to sing some songs. I'm hoping that there
20:57
is a dancing timbit or two in the show, but I'm not there tonight
21:02
because I'm here with you, So perhaps tomorrow I'll fill you in on what
21:06
happens tonight on stage at the Last Timbit. Meantime, we're in the middle
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of the rundown with my guests Steven Murdoch, VP of Enterprise Canada and John
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Lidkey, radio and podcast host and Windsor, Ontario business consultant and former cannabis
21:22
entrepreneur. The University of Waterloo has turned to the court to end an encampment
21:29
on their campus. A group of protesters from the Occupy You Waterloo movement have
21:36
had an encampment set up near the university's grad House since May thirteenth. In
21:41
a statement posted to the university's website, the president noted that the school issued
21:47
a trespassed notice to the occupiers last week, and he went on to say
21:51
that the lawyers representing the school filed an interlocatory injunction on Tuesday in an effort
21:57
to get the protest squashed. Steven, let's start with you on this one.
22:03
I guess maybe one of the questions here is how long is a protest?
22:08
Is a protest weeks months, can it go on for years? Or
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can you just as effectively make your point in a day if you have enough
22:18
people and you make enough noise. Well, I certainly don't think a protest
22:23
should go long term into weeks and months. You know, at the end
22:29
of the day, you're occupying a shared space. This is a space where
22:33
a lot of people you maybe making them feel intimidated or you may be harassing
22:38
them. So at the end of the day, I think that's extremely unfair,
22:44
And to be honest with you, as long as you're bargaining in good
22:47
faith. This is another thing that comes down if you're making unrealistic asks of
22:49
a post secondary institution, and if a both secondary institution is willing to sit
22:55
down with you and have those conversations, but it isn't even a two way
22:57
conversation. I think it's very unfair and it's very unsettling for students that want
23:03
to be at a university or college where they don't feel they're being intimidated.
23:08
John, do you think these encampments are having an effect? We're seeing them
23:12
on university campuses and elsewhere all over Canada and into the United States. But
23:21
after a while, does it become diminishing returns People just sort of forget that
23:25
they're there, or they don't have the same kind of impact that they might
23:30
if the if the protest was one or two days and loud and you know,
23:36
really make an impact. I don't know, it's hard to say.
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I guess we could look to an election that happened, you know, just
23:44
a couple of days ago, Frown of Saint Paul's. Did it have an
23:45
impact there? Overwhelmingly? What it seems like is the Jewish community came out
23:48
and voted against the Liberals and voted for the Conservatives, and the Conservatives have
23:52
been, you know, very clearly on one side of this, and I
23:56
think that we can look at this issue as wrapped up in you know,
23:59
a lot of things that are going on right now. And quite frankly,
24:02
we saw a similar thing happen in New York House Democratic primary with Jamal Bowman
24:07
losing his position as well. So I'm with Stephen like I like protest.
24:14
I think people should protest. It's great, it's democratic, it's part of
24:17
what we are here as a democracy. I think that if you're going to
24:21
be protesting, use public spaces to do it. And while university campuses are
24:26
you know, quasi public spaces, they stop being public spaces when the university
24:29
doesn't want them to be public spaces, and I can certainly empathize with a
24:33
institution that wants to end what they say is a behavior that has crossed the
24:40
line into intimidation and harassment. And that's the problem. They have an obligation
24:44
to keep the peace for their students, and in a lot of cases,
24:47
their students are minors. And if something happens where you have people that it
24:51
looks like in a lot of these cases members of encampments are from off campus,
24:56
you could have, you know, pretty serious liability issues. So I
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understand why there is a reluctance to one clear these things out as quickly as
25:03
possible, but to want them to end. And that's sort of again where
25:07
the rock needs the hard place here of trying to maintain a balance between everybody's
25:12
wishes and desires. Stephen, there was some talk and it was never sort
25:18
of floated officially, but there was some talk about saying, okay, let's
25:22
create a space for protest. Let's make it around in Toronto. Would probably
25:27
be around Queen's Park. It is, you know, provincially owned land,
25:33
it's where the lawmakers are. You can you know, make your state your
25:38
case there, make your mark, make an impact and then go home after
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that. I mean, the whole idea of protest is to disrupt things,
25:48
So I don't think you can really make one spot and say that's your protest
25:52
area, that's where you need to go. But it seems with the amount
25:56
of encampments that are popping up, like in a perfect world, it might
26:02
not be such a bad idea. In a perfect world, they'd be a
26:04
great idea if that's so you're not disrupting people that don't want to don't want
26:11
to be impacted. But as you said, I think at the end of
26:12
the day, the whole idea of running these is to have conversations and be
26:18
in front of people who may not necessarily know of your cause. So you
26:23
put them somewhere else. No one's going to go there other than the people
26:26
that are protesting at the end of the day and support the protesters. So
26:32
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has written a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that
26:37
the province intends to opt out of the federal dental care Plan by twenty twenty
26:41
six. The Press Secretary to the Federal Minister of Health, Mark Holland said
26:48
in a statement more than one hundred thousand Albertons have already signed up for the
26:52
plan, and two hundred thousand Canadians have access dental services under it now.
26:57
Danielle Smith says, listen, it unnecessarily replicates a publicly funded dental coverage that's
27:03
already in place for many al Burton's Stephen, is she playing politics here or
27:11
is there a good reason to think that Maybe you know, why spend twice
27:15
the amount of money if you don't have to Personally, I think it's politics.
27:18
No one is really explained to me the overlap between the federal and programs.
27:23
Right, all we keep hearing is that there's overlap. We'll explain to
27:27
me where the overlap is. And you know, I'm going to take it
27:32
from Alberton's folks that call that province home if they say they don't have the
27:36
coverage, and if this, if this program is helping people, let's figure
27:41
it out. Let's not kid each other. This national programs has several hiccups
27:45
along the way, but I think at the end of the day they can
27:48
be fixed. And I think we want what's all best for Canadians. So
27:52
let's put partisanship aside and figure out how to make it work. John,
27:57
you have forty seconds, I'll let you take it in where you like.
28:00
Listen, a quarter of our country doesn't have dental care. I've come from
28:03
a family of small business owners who at times have not had coverage and insurance,
28:08
and it's tough and it's difficult, and I think that this is absolutely
28:11
necessary. It brings us to where we should be as a country. And
28:15
regarding Alberta, I'll take what the Health Minister's press secretary says. One hundred
28:18
thousand Albertans have already signed up for this plan. Obviously it's needed now.
28:23
If they're putting out false data, that something they're going to have to deal
28:26
with. But I'm going to give them the metefit of a doubt on that
28:30
one. Two hundred thousand Canadians signing up for this, that's a big deal.
28:33
That's all the time we have for the rundown tonight. My guests have
28:37
been Stephen Murdoch, VP Enterprise Canada and John Lidkey, radio and podcast host
28:41
in Windsor, Ontario, business consultant and former cannabis entrepreneur. I'm Richard Krause
28:48
sitting in for Jim. Richards. You're listening to News Talk tonight, Stay
28:52
with me. There's still plenty of show to come.