Thursday 6am - Chow Launches Campaign for Second Term

0:00This is the Toronto today podcast. I'm your host, Greg Brady. Let me start here last night Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow kicked off her reelection campaign. I don't think there was ever a doubt that she was going to run again for Toronto mayor. One of the humorous things post election. I was looking for humor post election last year around May or June. I'm like, please make me laugh. And when the NDP leader jug me sing step down rightly so, buddy, you could have pulled the curtain out from under the true to liberals in October of 24. You didn't do anything. And instead you lost your seat and your party got obliterated. But besides that, you made a lot of great choices. When he stepped down, Olivia Chow had a, no, it shouldn't have a news conference, been in her availability. She made it clear. I'm not interested in seeking the federal NDP position. I know there's talk and I'm like, nobody was talking about this, but that's fine. She's going to go for it again. She will be potentially,

1:01if she becomes mayor 70 years old early next year, 73 and a half when she finishes as mayor. Now age is just a number. This is not an unfair thing to put on Olivia Chow. She gets to things. She shows up at things. And I saw it last night. I saw a very pragmatic, measured, calculated opponent. Now I was criticizing her for being calculated earlier in the week. She skipped a Jewish, a Jewish lawyers association debate. Brad Bradford showed up. Chris Alexander showed up in essence her, her only main two members of opposition who are running for mayor. Uh, and Chow didn't go. So you're having a mayoral debate without the mayor. Now that's happened before you can't go to all the debates. John Tory didn't go to every single debate off his two wins that he was asked to go to, but, but he was sensible and pragmatic about it. But I watched her speak last night and I'm like, this is tough opponent. This is not some pushover.

2:04Now now and then she'll make a video. And I think Chow was actually playing down hoping that she'll buy what she's selling when she tells you that Donald Trump is influencing the price of eggs. I can't. There's no chart in the world that would indicate that the president of the United States has anything to do with what you pay for Canadian, uh, made, distributed, marketed, sold, processed, then, then sold, shelved eggs. There's no, there's no link whatsoever. She doesn't care about that because she's politically savvy. She knows some people will believe it. That's being tactical. She's also been quite willing to alienate her core progressive base when the math and survival in politics, demanded. It's a zero sum game. Now that doesn't mean you should lie nonstop about things you're say you're going to do and you know you're not, but you can have ambition. And she had a very ambitious, energetic speech last night. I heard it framed in a couple

3:07different places yesterday that Chow makes you feel good about Toronto when you see her. That might be true. She's not, she's kind of papering over some of the cracks in the foundation. And if you were to run into Brad Bradford, the current counselor in Beechers, East York and her biggest rival or Chris Alexander, who's the former federal cabinet minister for the Conservatives, he was used to be my MP for four years. No one can quite figure out why he's in the race. I will, I will be one. Chris might hate that I'm saying that. I really like Chris, but I don't, I don't know what he's doing. And if he didn't want to live you a chow to be mayor, he should drop out. He should drop out today. I don't think he's going to. But what I saw last night was a very pragmatic politician that does accentuate the positive. Here's some of her kicking things off at the Danforth music hall last night. Are you ready to win? Toronto?

4:07We have turned the corner and we are feeling more optimistic. We have the momentum. Now we have to keep that momentum going. And let's choose to keep moving forward and keep building a Toronto. We love together. It's really tough sometimes. I don't know if you know the Bucket principle in elementary school. And the concept is and they tell these kids this in junior kindergarten and kindergarten and maybe even a couple years later, the bucket principle is if you're going to take something out of somebody's bucket, make sure you fill it. And you don't forget when your kid comes home and he knows the bucket principle when they're five years old, you got to do that in parenting. I'm going to empty your buckets sometimes. I'm going to I'm not a rare. It's a bad day when you got to raise your voice to anybody. It's a bad day when you got to put your hands on your kid. But you have to do both those things. And I mean, like lift them from one spot to another so they're not attacking their brother

5:11or picking up the cat or the dog the wrong way. You got to put your hands on your kids. You do realize that. It's sucks. It's bad when you got a yell. But after those two things, it's really important to put the bucket back, put like put the put more things as many things in the bucket as take out. Chow's really good at that. I don't know if I've ever given her proper credit for complimenting her on that. She makes you feel good if you're on her side. She has routinely demonstrated this. Her husband was amazing at it in Jack Layton. You can disagree with some of the policy. But the evidence of being pragmatic is she's ticked off a lot of her bases. I said, I think her handling of the Ford governments being very aggressive about what happens in Toronto and what doesn't happen in Toronto. I think she's been remarkably soft on that. She promised to protect Ontario place. We don't want this. This spa here in this water park and this expansion of the concert venue. Didn't say much after she was elected about it. Did she? I'm going to stand

6:16up for the Ontario Science Center. It is I am not a fan of this. They're closing it down. I don't hear anything major from Olivia Chalba, the Ontario Science Center ever. Yeah, word or two here and there. Providence doesn't care. And she doesn't care to make it a big deal. Why? It's an unwinnable fight. You're going to look like a loser if you go to the wall and can't win that fight. So she chooses to be strategic and pragmatic. There's no point in going to war against Queens Park. They've got the bullets. You've got a water pistol. That's how it is. And you rely on the province for funding. So every Toronto mayor, every mayor listening to me right now in the GTA knows this. You can speak up once in a while. Hey, little help here, infrastructure, homelessness, universities, international students. Can you guys pay attention to just something, health care, hospitals in certain communities? But Chal preserves that political capital and she maintains working channels with a provincial government that at times doesn't see life the way she does.

7:20That's a necessary evil. And I'm still thinking about this going, I know how I would vote if I lived in Toronto. But I also know I'm not everybody and everyone isn't me. And if Chal makes you feel really good about being in Toronto and Brad Brad for doesn't make you feel really good. That's a thing. That's a real thing. She's been really cautious about talking about even bike lanes. She'll be like the premier should do this and the province should do that. She can't do anything. She can't. And many of the critics on the notable far left because that's a thing also are frustrated that she doesn't champion aggressive uncompromising infrastructure expansions with the fervors that they would hope. And yet everybody on the right still going to paint her. She doesn't know what she's doing. She's a socialist. She's a borderline communist. She does not care about that. You got to go into the middle. If you're going to be an effective

8:21municipal mayor or or on council forever, it doesn't matter about left and right and all this stuff. It really doesn't matter in all the politics. It matters less than it ever has. I just know the incumbent brand is successful right now. I want you to picture this. I was thinking about this riding on the go train home last night. We could be in a world. If we're going to federally elect, reelect the carny liberals and every poll says of an election was sprung on the public next year, they'd have a dominant win. We're going to go into maybe just maybe 2031 with a government, a federal government that's been in power 17 plus years, a provincial government that's been in power 13 plus years and a mayor that's been in power for in essence eight years. Doesn't sound like we want change as badly as some say we do. Her leads not an accident. It's not a fluke. The polls

9:23are right. She's disciplined. She's disciplined. She's pragmatic negotiating with conservative premieres. Everybody's like Doug Ford's really a liberal in disguise or chow moves to the middle and just ignores a lot of the left leaning issues and gets it right. She is a smart, highly strategic municipal politician. She's not some daffy grandma. She'll talk that way sometimes because she thinks that works with people. Guess what it does. Anyway, I fascinating moment last night to watch chow speak and know that that you know, she's going to be able to draw people in. She is politically durable for a reason. She does build coalitions. She understands the real politic of being out there and without any formal party lines. She can't afford to be like ideologically pure. She's let a bunch of stuff go that have ticked a lot of her supporters off. I find that fascinating. One thing that's happening today, you may not be aware of it. We'll kind of

10:24go outward and then come back inward to Toronto tomorrow is obviously the 25th anniversary of 9-11. Now I find out yesterday conservative leader Pierre Paulier will go to New York City, be part of honoring the Americans and people from all countries. We lost at least 30 people in the 9-11 terrorist acts since either in those twin towers at the Pentagon or on those three airplanes. It's terribly sad tomorrow will be a different feel a different show. We've got some September 11 thought you were going to utilize today. I don't even feel like it's a one day story at all. It's kind of been like September 11th week, at least for me mentally and emotionally. It's a shared day of morning. And I've thought about this more and I thought why isn't Mark Carney going to New York on September 11th and would he be going to New York if we weren't embroiled in such tension and ugliness between the between the two countries. But I also think it's his absence is conspicuous

11:29to me. And I'd go as far as to say if you told me I don't have this feeling if you told me this was an abdication of his duty as prime minister. I'd not and go I see what you're saying. I don't know that I like right. We have lots of things like that. Somebody will say something and you're like I get where you're coming from. And it's not just to walk away and find another conversation. I do get where you'd be coming from. If you're some kind of ticked and go, they're still our best friends. They will be once again. It's a shared day of morning. Dozens of Canadians died in New York on that soil. And by staying away, there's a bit of a glaring vacuum. And so to be petty or snooty because we're not getting along economically right now at all. People can, but the politicians aren't the politicians and the trade negotiators aren't. I just, I would get it. If you said, hey, we should have a presence there. And that presence now is going to be conservative leader, Pierre

12:32Pauli. I think he steps into a vacuum. And he's going to be our statesman on a day of solemn remembrance. Is that opportunistic for Pauli? I guess his critics who will find something wrong with something he does. Hey, he's wearing glasses. No, he's not. He's working out. He's working out too much. He shouldn't talk. It's exhausting. We've never scrutinized an opposition leader more. Ask John Turner. Justin Trudeau was an opposition leader for two years. Did we talk about him the same way? And anything like it? No. But Pauli, if seems to get precisely what Karney seems willing to give up, you want to be in solidarity with a grieving nation. I think it's a snub for Karney not to go. I don't care what his social media says or who, uh, who the bots are that will write his ex post about 9 11. I think he should be there. I think he should remind all of us that the national unity and cross border kinship kind of overrides our tensions right now. I know why he's

13:38doing what he's doing. It's an ugly trade standoff. He has made some calls. I agree with in the trade standoff. Of course he has. But Karney seems to want this fight as much as the Trump administration does is something I've determined heard and determined. Like I'm kind of reliably sourced on that. And yes, stand up to all the ridiculous annexation rhetoric, the 51st state stuff. Always call that stuff out. Fine. Predatory economic pressure. Fine. Walk away from the table. Tell us what the predatory economic pressure is, but walk away. The timing's terrible for everybody. Worth noting he's going to host Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky today on the 10th and part of tomorrow on the 11th. And I don't know if that's also the best call supporting Ukraine. They're heroically defending themselves. Fifth year of a war against Russia. I understand that. And Zelensky should be more in ally than an enemy, of course. But I don't know tomorrow,

14:44tomorrow to me, you reserve anything to do globally with the victims of September 11th. Biggest terrorist attack we've ever seen on North American soil. Hope we don't ever see anything like it again. I think that's a bit of a signal to Washington. We are kind of in our own, our own mode here. And we're trying to prove some kind of a point. Oh, I'm not going to New York and all host, Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine. I don't quite understand why we're doing that. One funny thing from last night, I'm going to get the Trump audio in before Sylvan Charlotte, what joins us to food professor. It's a very interesting promise. But do you follow land acknowledgments? Do sometimes an organization has them and sometimes not? We've all stood for them. We've all looked somber for them. This will send some people into a dramatic tailspin. And this will bring some people out of their beds or their cars, applauding endlessly. That's the point.

15:45It gives you something to think about. Comedian Adam Corolla was at the Republican midterm convention last night. And the crowd at the arena just lost it when they heard Adam Corolla's land acknowledgment. You might be able to understand why here's what he didn't said. All right, I'd like to start tonight with a land acknowledgment. This is the greatest land in the history of mankind. And if that bothers you, you, your communist and hippie buddies should get the hell off it. Easy pickings, right? Republican national convention. By the way, I thought celebrities were supposed to just be quiet and entertain us. No, that was, that was okay. I often call that out. I love a good political speech. I don't care what side it's on. Let's let Adam Corolla and Bruce Springsteen have their opinions. I think both, both people should be heard out.

17:10All this trade tension and the big step yesterday in this tear of battle appears to be a ban on dairy products and alcohol imports into the United States from Canada. It's got an awful lot of companies worried whether it's, you know, Sleeman Brewery, whether it's some of the other ones we've talked about, talked about Crown Royal and their big, you know, their big footprint both in the United States and obviously producing it in Canada. And our next guest is talked a ton about the high cost of retaliation here. Who can absorb the pain and who can't? So we're kind enough to join us now in advance of teaching a morning class, Dr. Suleván Charlebois, the food professor from Dalhousie University. I have this right. You have an 830 Atlantic time class. What's attendance like for that class the first week of school? You can, what's that? What's going to happen there? It's a graduate class of 17 bright graduate students. It's a great class. It's about data,

18:17information, and decision making. So 30 relevant. That's good. That's high level. Sometimes in an undergrad class, I know a professor can kind of spot the future leaders of our world and also spot the kids that are that are going to terribly disappoint their parents in the next couple of years. So you don't have to worry about that this morning. That's right. That's what's the little man. Of course, when I teach a lot of my material is based on what's actually it's happening out there in the news in the real world. So people students can actually relate very easily with the material. This is, look, we're in a, I think we're in a terrible place right now. I'm very worried and I think I'm somebody yours somebody. I guess I could argue our jobs aren't at stake when it comes to these tariffs, but we sure know a lot of people who are like their industry is directly being targeted now by the United States. And you've seen through all the rhetoric and all the posturing. And I think your opinion piece in the sun the other day,

19:18I'll get to the alcohol stuff is very like guys, it's been about 18 days. Get back to the table. This is not good to not even be conciliatory and sit down with the Americans again. That's right. I talked to CEOs. I talked to folks out there and you're right Greg, we're the lucky ones. We're not going to be impacted by what's happening at the border. But the reality is uncertainties are cruel thing in business. And right now I can tell you conversations in boardrooms are about hedging against geopolitics. So if you're manufacturing food in Canada or the US or both, you're going to look at this thing very differently right now because of not knowing what's going to happen both sides of the border, you're either going to decide to put all your marbles on one side or both sides. And right now like a company like Sapporo, it was out I think on Monday or

20:20Tuesday that the company is actually thinking of moving its non-alcoholic production to the United States. I can blame them because I mean when you look at sheer numbers, 340 million consumers versus 41 million, the numbers are stacked against Canada. And so we need to be extremely careful when we play around with tariffs and counter tariffs. So beyond all of the tariffs that we're seeing at the border, uncertainty is probably the most difficult thing to deal with right now. When you see that $1.4 billion of Canadian-made alcoholic beverages and especially the spirits industry is basically closed off on the US border right now. What talk about it's not even just uncertainty is it is out and out, you know, the stop processing this. There's no one to sell it to. Exactly. And so that's why I think it's critical that we look at this dispute from a

21:24different angle. I mean, I know that politics are a big weight and Ottawa is clearly playing politics here, but at some point we're going to have to think about our food supply chain and both governments are aiming at our food supplies. I mean, that's really unprecedented. I do think that on Monday and I when the White House decide to retaliate against our own counter tariffs, it brought the dispute to a whole new different level really. I think right now we're dealing with a White House trying to hurt the Canadian economy. I think before it was all about noise, but right now we're clearly seeing a country not appreciating the fact that the United States is going through a shift in trade policy against the entire world. This is not about Canada. It's about the entire world. But we decided to take it very personal and our approach is very personal like China.

22:29And I was never convinced of that strategy. And I think that strategy will be hurtful at the long term. So then, Charlotte was our guest on Toronto today, a few more minutes with the food professor. Will we potentially end up paying more for our alcoholic beverages? If companies can't sell to the United States, they look at their bottom line. Will they try and ratchet up prices of their goods that stay on our side, on the northern side of the border? Could we see that with some of the wine makers and some of the spirit makers here? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's funny. Sometimes I get the question, well, if we can't sell the Americans, then we'll have more for us, right? And prices will drop. Not necessarily. You just made the point there. Trades will subsidize our own products. If you have trade, you can actually make food cheaper in Canada for ourselves. So without trade, things will get more expensive, unfortunately. Are you a listener just asked this?

23:33I think it's a better question, whatever I was going to ask. The question is when we banned US alcohol, let's just say it on tario, but a lot of premiums obviously have done it. David, did it, Quebec's done it as well. When Ontario banned US alcohol in like what late February, 2025, way before even the elections happened, the provincial and federal elections, are we a little bit surprised at the Trump administration when they were sort of, you know, they kind of strutted back into the White House and were pretty macho about a lot of stuff. Are we surprised it took them this long to do exactly what we did to them 19 months later? Well, I had a chat on my podcast with US Ambassador to Canada, Peter Orchstra a few months ago, and I did ask the question. I mean, why is it taking so long for America to react to alcohol bands in Canada? And his answer was pretty simple. Americans weren't expecting the bands to last that long. They felt that we were upset, but it just carried on and they didn't expect that to happen.

24:39Yeah, that's a big, big factor. Anything else that's notable, there's more dairy. You write in the Toronto Sun editorial, we're talking, you know, $100 million worth of cheese that's impacted by this, more dairy close to $275 million to $360 million. So that's our exposure as you write in terms of what can't go south of the border. Anything that you think the media, if you will, isn't talking about enough in terms of, boy, this is going to hit this industry awfully hard in the last 48 hours. Well, the one point I'd like to make is that the KM press yesterday had a piece suggesting that food prices will be impacted by what's happening at the border, especially with counter-terrorism implemented by Ottawa on Monday. That's not entirely accurate. Based on our models, we are expecting food inflation to be impacted by counter-terrorism, but not as quickly as last years counter-terrorism with then Prime Minister Trudeau. This time around, Prime Minister Karney aimed at the ingredients in bakery and dairy in particular. So we are expecting food and

25:43face to be impacted by counter-terrorism, probably early winter, mid-winter, not before. Well, you're surprised at that. I heard on Tuesday morning all over the place and sometimes in the afternoon, there's new counter-terrorism. Americans are going to pay more for this and more for that. And I'm like, no, they're not. We are. I just think there's still a misunderstanding of what a damn tariff is. And I'm like, we're supposed to be the arbiters of the right information here. Another great point is scale is a big factor. American buyers are big. You don't want to lose the customers. Okay. And exporters are absorbing the tariff. And when you're buying, you're a small buyer in Canada. Guess who pays the tariff? Canadian buyers. So we actually get hit both ways here. Yeah, exactly that. Hey, I'll let you, I'll let you blast. You're about to meet with 17 of the best and brightest. I'm going to take your word for it. Thank you for the time this morning. There's so Van Charlebot joining us, the food professor. We're talking about Olivia Chau,

26:46who kicked off officially her campaign, her political durability, so much of politics. I don't think is ideological anymore. It's practical. It's pragmatic. I've been using that word a lot this morning. And I thought very practical and pragmatic was the read on the poly corner website from our next guest, who is involved with the Bradford campaign. But I also look and I go, it's just smart politics. She also ran Bonnie Crombe's campaign hasn't been involved with both the federal liberals. And of course, a former television journalist, if you can even remember back that far, if she can, Genevieve Tomney joins us in studio. It's great to have you in. Hey, yeah, I'm glad to be here. Thanks for having me. And like I said, you like, I think a lot has been misconstrued about Brad Bradford. When you see, well, I think they're funny. When you see stories in the paper, somebody characterize them as the right wing or right leaning city counselor in Beach, Z. York. I know I roll my eyes. Yeah. And I always think, well, you have to get to know them.

27:47And if I can tell a bit of a story about how I came to know Brad, Bradford, I live in Beach Z. York. And when I first moved to the neighborhood, it was right around the time when the bike lanes went in on woodbine. And I live one street to the side of woodbine, a north, south street. So as soon as those bike lanes went in, all the cars started speeding down my street. Now, me and all of my neighbors were very supportive of the bike lanes. We wanted them there. We wanted people to have that beautiful access to the lake and our beaches and to be able to get there in a safe and economical way. But we didn't like the cars speeding down our street with our kids around. So we called our city counselor as you do. And it was something that had been overlooked that, of course, that's where the car traffic was going to go. And one of my neighbors had run into Brad at an event and told him about this problem. He said, call my office. And we called and we got speed bumps put in on our street

28:47in a really fast and efficient manner. And it made everybody happy. And that was my impression of him was like, he was going to look at a problem. Right. First problem. And then get solved quickly. And he was going to look at a problem and say, Oh, well, that makes sense. Let's do it. And that's the Brad that I know. You had a you also wrote quite frankly and plainly about a crime incident that happened to your family. Do you want to reset and recap that? Your your your your stories on polycorner.ca, but tell our listeners who can't access it right away. Yeah. I mean, my story is not going to sound foreign to probably most of the people listening. We had our car stolen off of our driveway. And you know, it's one of those things that has become so commonplace. It happened in the spring. And this was like a new car that we got. And my kids were so excited about it. It was our adventure car. We were going and doing things together. All of the fun stuff that we do. But I had been worried when we got this new car that it was going to get stolen. And so they had this game. It was a game at first where they would run down the stairs every morning and they would look out the window and be like, Oh, don't worry, Mom, the car is still there. And then one morning

29:51they did it. And it wasn't. And they're like mom and dad are home. Yeah. Where's the car? Did you leave it on the street? Well, no, no, it literally got stolen right off of our driveway. And at first it feels like just kind of, you don't surreal and you don't know what to do. But what I realized was that it had a bit of an impact on on my kids and their feeling of safety in their house. And I had always told them, you know, we live in a great neighborhood. Bad things don't happen here. And it kind of shook them in a way and it shook all of us. And it was one of the things that really kind of changed my perspective on the city that we live in. You just it's one of those cliche things where you don't think it's going to happen to you until it does. And then you think about the multiples. How many other families have woken up feeling the way that we felt. And you go, we have to be able to do something about this. And believe me, I know that this is not just a municipal issue. There are provincial and federal layers to this. I work in I've worked in government.

30:52I get it. But everything starts at the ground level at the municipal level, that feeling of safety. And I think a lot of people are losing that. What I don't love. And I was talking about how, again, what a smart campaigner and a kind of a coalition building. I think she's good. I think you have to, you're never going to become mayor if you can't build a coalition. It's not a party structure as you know. But one of the things that frustrates me is there's a little bit of a, you know, raised the roof happy dance high five each other that happens sometimes with the police chief to with the mayor just bragging about how how crime is down. And I go, okay, there's some metrics of crime that are down. There's some metrics that you and the police chief need to take more seriously. And just that feeling of safety, I was saying, think about what's not reported. Think of your riding the subway or a new university student boy or girl is riding the subway. And they see something they're from a small town. They're like, you don't even see this kind of stuff in the movies on transit sometimes. They're not calling somebody to report it, but that's going to stick with

31:56them when they get back to their dorm room or their apartment or they get back home and tell their parents. That's the kind of stuff that doesn't get reported. And that's the kind of stuff I think that's getting under emphasized by current government. Yeah. I think Olivia Chow is ignoring how people feel and relying on the numbers that don't actually speak to that feeling of unease, that feeling of decline, and that feeling of not really being safe, that people across the city are feeling. And all you have to do is have a conversation with your neighbor, somebody who's outside of that political bubble that we all live in to understand that that is a real feeling. And it doesn't matter how many times you read about the stats and the Toronto star, that's not changing the feeling for you. What's going to change the feeling for you is being able to go to sleep at night, knowing that your car is probably not going to be stolen off your driveway, to be able to ride the subway and not have to feel the discomfort of what could happen when somebody

32:56is riding on the subway with you and in obvious distress and not getting the help that they need. Those are the real experiences that people are having in the city every day. Jen Tommy's kind of the Jonas in studio, super smart love having her in and her op at about the Merrill races on polycorner.ca. You also wrote about the corner, if you will, of young and done das. I mean, those are still the street names. And night and day I moved here in late oh eight and I worked at young and done das for this company and they're building there right in the Eaton center and you could always like go and meet somebody right in the middle of the square. I always remember the World Cup games were on when the World Cup was in South African 2010 and you could wander down meet a friend sit on a patio, young and done das square was just the shining diamond of our city. It has changed and you know how much it's changed. And again, I think more people should be noting it's changed and wanting to fix it. I think you got one candidate in Brad that says this is a problem and the other never speaks about anything that happens in the square.

33:57Yeah. And this is one of those like classic Brad ideas that you just go like, of course, this makes sense. You probably know this. A lot of people maybe don't that Brad is an urban planner and by trade. That's what he went to school for and what he learned. And so he thinks about things in this really kind of creative and solutions oriented way. And so the things that he's talking about at young den das square putting a police substation in there like they do at times where in New York. And you know, we can't expect that the infrastructure that we built for police, however many years ago still makes sense for the city that we have today. So thinking about ways to just poke the status quo a little bit and go, well, why aren't we doing that? And actually being able to turn that square back into a place where we want to meet and connect and where people who come to our city go, yeah, that's like Toronto's Times Square. I want to be there. I want to get that photo for Instagram. That's not what it is right now. You saw during the World Cup. We had people coming here from third world countries walking through young den das square going, what the heck Canada?

35:02Yeah. And I tell you as well, I you'll go through this someday. My oldest who's at Western now in third year was strongly considering a program at Toronto Metropolitan University. We went there in November of 23 and both my wife and I are like, we kind of hope we would never tell them not to go, but we kind of hope he changes his mind and pivot and he did pivot and that made us just more relieved that he's not walking through there every single day as an 18-year-old never having lived in the city before. It's I hate saying that. Yeah, I mean, I you know, there's the big movie theater there and I have an eight-year-old daughter and I had recommended with a bunch of friends that they go to this see this movie and I it was playing at a good time at young den das square and one of the mom said, can we not? Didn't want to go the area. Yeah. And that's not the city that I want to live in. I mean, I moved here from the Maritimes 20 years ago, maybe more, to go to T.M.U. it was Ryerson at the time and I remember walking through, yeah, they let you in and they didn't

36:05let me in. That's understandable. All that makes sense. The best, it was the best time. I better was, yeah, it was the best time and I walked through that square just looking up and and being this, you know, small town Maritimes girl seeing the big city for the first time and we'd be walking through there late at night and I felt safe and I felt like I was in the best place on earth. And 20 years later, I don't feel that way anymore, but I want my kids to feel that way about their city again. I want them to want to stay here. I mentioned you were we have about a minute and a half. I last thing is you were tirelessly with a mutual friend of our shadow wall shun Bonnie Cromby's campaign with the Ontario Liberals. There is I've never seen it so stacked to beat incumbents right now. I've never seen anything like it. I was saying earlier, the polls are showing everybody's very happy with the federal government in its 11th year, seemingly happy with the provincial government and it's 9th and there's a lot that an incumbent benefits from that I don't think all was did.

37:07What are some of those challenges you see maybe even at all three levels of government but maybe also like isolating the mayoral race and go it's tough to beat an incumbent mayor. It always has been. Yeah, I mean, I think at the provincial and federal levels, it's the Trump factor for sure and the feeling that when there's so much uncertainty happening that you want that consistent steady hand and I think at the provincial and federal level, that is that's the impact that it's having. They're playing that card pretty consistently. Yeah, I think, I mean, Nisopli, it's a little bit different. Honestly, Greg, I'm going to say to you right now that I think people are not tuned in yet. The undecided vote is north of 30%. That's really high. And so I think, you know, what we're seeing in the public polls is that people are expressing exactly what you and I are talking about today that they're not happy with the direction of the city. They're not happy with how things are going. They don't feel good about living here. And so the question is, how do you how do you fix that? How do you change it? And this is the case that needs to be made, the case for change because my feeling is that the status quo is not going to lead to anything

38:12better in our city. It's those basic things that we just need to get right and that people rely on every day to make their day work, the transit, that feeling of safety, being able to get around this city, the congestion. And that requires change. And so I think that really the case needs to be made for change. There are, I don't know, 40 odd days now, Greg, until the municipal election. And I think people need to really think about what do they want? What do they need in their communities? Yeah. And what's going to actually get them there? They'll click in. They're all out of summer mode right now. Right? Everyone's back to work back at school, focusing on things. And yeah, cost of living, paying tuition, paying eventually your property tax again, all those things will factor in, I think. I think they will. Great op-ed on polycorner.ca. You can reach Enneveve Tomney, there she's co-chair Brad Bradford's run for Toronto mayor. Thank you for coming in. You're always welcome on the show. Thanks for having me. It's always a great chat. Thanks for listening to the Toronto today podcast. We drop the highlights of the daily show every weekday morning. Don't forget you can hear the entire show on the radio at home on your smart speaker ask Alexa or say,

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