About the Episode

Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Wayne Gretzky. No Canadian is wondering what those three have in common. But aside from the great gift of being able to put the biscuit in the basket, they have been able to put many biscuits on their bank balance sheet by a side hustle known as endorsing online gambling. But Ontario’s Gaming commission is calling an offside and so no more appearances in Ontario for active or retired NHL stars as of the end of February of next year.

This week Canada’s Small Business Minister Rechie Valdez wasn’t endorsing gambling. But she was endorsing lobster and oysters- sea food in Atlantic Canada. Small businesses sell it. The minister of small business was eating it and promoting it. What’s the big deal? Social media was detonated. Susan Delacourt writes, There is a whole constituency out there in Canada who greets every move from federal politicians with the rejoinder: “If I can’t afford it, you can’t have it.”

What do I think? I think populism is engineered to appeal to people who are low info, and low class. I think communicators and politicians put on their populist bear suits in public and can’t wait to get them off when the cameras and microphones are off. There is no phonier “-ism” in politics than populism.

Category 4 is definition of imminent danger when it come to hurricanes. Hurricane Idalia is now a Cat 4, headed for the Florida panhandle–in the Big Bend region. There will be lots of wind, rain and storm surge. Deaths and injuries will be minimal compared to other Hurricanes. Relative to Florida’s large population in the south west and southeast, Big Bend in the Northwest is not big with people.

And from Department of Here we Go Again, the BC Centre for Disease Control has detected Canada’s first known case of a new COVID-19 variant that has swiftly circled the planet and is back. How big will it be? A two word answer that does not satisfy anyone, including me: Nobody knows. Nobody knows how big COVID the Sequel will be.