Alberta separatism hits close to home for Jason Kenney

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For a limited time, go to Stamps.com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply. This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Neil Kokesol. Good evening. I'm Chris Howden. This is as it happens.

Tonight. Going into details, former Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney tells us he's lawyering up after a separatist group allegedly shared the personal information of millions of Albertans, including him. Cases for consulting. A rise in HIV infections prompts Manitoba to declare a public health emergency. The province's top doctor says solving that crisis will mean tackling its root causes.

Getting the last words, it's not completely clear whether Jeffrey Epstein wrote the suicide note media outlets are publishing today. But a New York Times reporter explains why the public deserves to see it. Dance like nobody is systematically acquiring and processing your information. To celebrate the 26 census, Statistics Canada shares curated playlists. The titles like Franco Funky and ketchup chips and road trips. He only meddled because he meddled. A French academic is on trial for fraud after winning a prestigious award in his field. An award he apparently made up and gave to himself.

And pride cometh after a fall. A German YouTuber breaks the world record for solving a Rubik's Cube while in free fall. He says his main strategy was not focusing on the fact that he could die. As it happens, the Thursday edition, radio that follows the adage, parachute first, ask questions later.

the illegal use of Alberta voter data has expanded to include the governing United Conservative Party. This week, the UCP confirmed that some of its caucus staff attended an online meeting hosted by the Alberta separatist group, The Centurion Project. The Alberta NDP said people at the meeting were shown a demonstration of a digital tool containing the personal information of Alberta voters. The NDP says those UCP staffers should have alerted the government and the police about the improper use of voter data. The UCP has said that at the time its staff believed the data had been legally obtained. The NDP has also alleged that at the same meeting,

organizers used that digital tool to find the personal information of Jason Kenney. And the former Alberta Premier is not happy about that. We reached Jason Kenney in Ottawa. Jason Kenney, I'm wondering how you reacted when you first found out that your personal information was allegedly shared at this separatist group's meeting. Well, I was a little perturbed and concerned because this particular group is made up of people who have had a focused hatred for me for some time. And they're more broadly associated with some, shall we say, highly caffeinated folks with peculiar ideas. I mean, you just need to look at my social media feeds in any given moment to see like-minded people promising to execute me following my conviction for crimes against.

humanity at the Nureberg trials or supporting vaccines and globalism and so forth. So I think the fact that they chose my name out of the three million Albertans in that database to broadcast up at this event, I regarded as almost a borderline incitement. What are you planning to do about it? Well, I'm taking some sensible security precautions. I've also contacted a legal counsel to get advice on whether I might have a tort for civil damages for this violation of my privacy and the threats that it represents. You've held office, of course. You know what it is to be a high profile person. But what you're talking about there, even if you can take it in stride, is quite jarring for a lot of people to hear. How are you dealing with that? Well, I've got a thick skin, and I don't, I'm not the kind

of person who walks around in fear. But I will say, you know, when you're head of government or And sometimes when I was a senior federal minister, I would have around the clock security protection. You don't as a private citizen, but there are still people that want to settle scores with me. And by the way, this data breach involves the private information of like three million Albertans, as I understand it. Perhaps one of the largest privacy breaches in Canadian history. And there's a lot of people who may not be in the public eye, but have reason to be concerned, victims of domestic violence whose abusers might now much more easily be able to find where they live and so forth. So I'm glad to hear the RCP apparently is investigating this.

And I hope that there will be legal consequences, which is one of the reasons I'm seeking legal counsel on this. The United Conservative Party caucus confirms staff last month attended this meeting hosted by the Centurion Project. The UCP says its staff members, though we're not aware and assumed this data had been legally obtained. How do you respond to that? Well, I didn't see this presentation. I don't know what they saw. What I do know is that apparently elections Alberta released this whole file to something called the Republican Party of Alberta, which honestly I don't think is a bona fide political party.

I just think it's a front for the separatist movement to essentially exploit loopholes to get access to data. tax credits, maybe some kinds of financing and so forth. And then, you know, they apparently ship it off to one of these friend separatist groups. I think the focus should be on the people responsible for this. I do think that, you know, perhaps the legislature, and I hope the two parties don't just turn this into a football. I think they should work together to see if they need to change the elections law in Alberta so that all of this information can't so easily be put in the hands. hands of potentially bad actors.

Given the kinds of concerns you've outlined and there are other concerns that people have about this particular group and the separatist movement in this moment in Alberta, what kind of engagement do you think the UCP should have, if at all, with Centurion? Well, absolutely none. Look, when I effectively created the United Conservative Party in 2017, I made it absolutely clear. one of my red lines in negotiating its creation was that its founding constitution include an express commitment to a strong Alberta within the United Canada. And that party has gone on to win two majority mandates from Albertans as a federalist party.

And so it appears to me that the first people kind of convoy adjacent anti-vaccs movement that got involved in the party in 2021 coming out of COVID. I've now mutated into this, attached themselves to the separatist cause. And it looks like a lot of them are trying to turn the governing party with an explicit constitutional commitment to federalism into a separatist party. And I think the UCPS has to say to those folks, take a hike. By the way, there have been for inseparatist parties in Alberta on the ballot federally and provincially since roughly 1980, and they typically get one or two percent of the vote. That is the real political support for this, and which is why, apparently, some of them are now trying to take over

or the military, many of them move to Alberta from other provinces, and they know that becoming a landlocked statelet makes no sense and has all sorts of downsides and investor confidence and so forth. They understand that. But many of them think that maybe this is an opportunity to send Ottawa a message. After all, Quebec's been doing that for six decades, using the knife to the throat strategy. Now there's this kind of weird coalition of convenience between the hardcore separatists who are less than 10% and this frustrated federalist cohort, my concern is it's just going to be massively destructive and divisive no matter what happens.

Jason Kenney, I appreciate this. Thanks for coming on the show. My pleasure. Jason Kenney is the former Premier of Alberta. We reached him in Ottawa.

It's only a few sentences scrawled on lined notebook paper. Across the top are the words, They investigated me for months, found nothing. It continues, it is a treat to be able to choose one's time to say goodbye, and ends no fun, not worth it. There's no date and no signature, but according to his former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, it is a suicide note written by Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Tartaglione is a former New York police officer who's been convicted of a quadruple homicide. He maintains his innocence. The purported suicide note was sealed in court documents for almost seven years as part of a legal dispute involving his former lawyers. But yesterday, it became public after the New York Times successfully petitioned the judge to release it.

Steve Eder, as the New York Times investigative reporter who broke the story, we reached him in Manhattan. Steve, you've been covering this story for a really long time. So I wonder what struck you most when you finally got to take a look at this note. Yeah, I've been, you know, off and on covering the Jeffrey Epstein story, you know, going back to 2019, so nearly seven years now. And, you know, one of the biggest mysteries and points of skepticism has been, you know, his time in jail and the circumstances surrounding his death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center back

in August, 10th of 2019. You know, with this, when we saw the purported suicide note, you know, we went to start to analyze it, to try to figure out, did it some sort of sound like Jeffrey Epstein, does it look like Jeffrey Epstein? And, you know, due to some of the wordings and phrasing's kind of fit. You make it clear in your piece that the Times has not been able to verify if it is what we believe it is or it's authenticity. But what does seem legit to you and what gives you a little bit of pause as you analyzed it, every word, the handwriting, all of it. Yeah, right. We haven't authenticated. And I think authenticating these things can be tricky. But, you know, there were some things that stood out right away. One

was the use of the phrase no fun, which was something that we had noticed. We had access, of course, through the release of Justice Department documents from the Epstein case to a large amount of Epstein communications. And this phrase, no fun, is something that you see in his emails. The other thing was a saying in there, what you'll want me to do, bust out crying, a phrase that he had used in emails with people who were close to him on a few occasions over the years, not necessarily the kind of saying that you be an obvious thing for people. So there's a few points in this that you can sort of see where, if Epstein wrote this, how it would kind of connect to the other things that were going on.

From where you sit, what is the value in publishing something like this? There's going to be, you know, instant reactions to this. The official ruling is that Epstein killed himself in jail in the summer of 2019. But there's been just great skepticism about that. for reasons that, you know, probably makes sense. There were a lot of things went wrong, you know, in the jail at the time of his death. And it's led to, you know, people, you know, widespread, you know, questioning of the circumstances of it, including from people close to Jeffrey Epstein.

So, you know, I think that our jobs are to try to find the facts here and to try to unearth what we can and, you know, bring it out and let, you know, the public take a look and see this, the whole episode is a puzzle in a lot of ways, and this is a puzzle piece. This letter, this purported suicide note is a piece of the puzzle of Epstein's time in jail. So I worked just to clarify, I worked with two colleagues on this piece, Ben Phil Weiser and Jan Ransom. And Ben and Jan actually interviewed Nick Tertaglioan. His, you know, his account, you know, and he had told, it set out of a podcast actually some time ago last year. He talked about this as well. But he he essentially said that he was Epstein cellmate in July during some of the first weeks

that Epstein was in jail during that summer. Epstein was found injured, you know, in the jail cell that they shared on July 23rd, 2019. At that time, there was questions right away about whether Epstein had tried to injure himself or whether Tertaglio had injured him. It, you know, became kind of an important question in Tartaglion's case he said, did not try to injure him. Epstein ultimately backed away from that claim. But what Tartaglio said was that he found this note in his book. And Epstein had, he said he left the note in the book. And so Tartaglione took the note and gave it to his lawyers, Tartaglioz's lawyers. And they ended up taking it and it ended up becoming part of Tartaglio's own criminal case, as opposed to being part of sort of sequestered

from all of the Epstein proceedings and eventually it was put under seal by the judge who was overseeing the cellmate's case. And so that's why it has remained outside of view for so many years. What you said about

their interactions in that cell, the fact that it was of use in Tartaglio's own case, how does all of that factor into this process of a verification or how people should see this letter? or potentially judge this letter?

Yeah, I mean, you know, the value to Tratoglio, of course, was, you know, if he has a letter written by Epstein, it could be a defense for Tertaglone against the allegation if Epstein had pressed, the allegation that the cellmate had tried to injure him. So here he has this note, perhaps, that he could have used in that way. I think, you know, also, for his own protection, his lawyers probably wanted to be sure that it was real as much as they could, too, because it could sort of go the other way from there, So it became, I think, kind of a complicated piece of the puzzle from that perspective, probably. But I think when you, you know, piece that all together, the effect was that this letter was kept out of the various investigations that occurred into Epstein's death later.

It was a piece of evidence that never really ended up in that stream. You know, if you look at the timeline, this related to, you know, Epstein being found injured in a cell, many believed to be a suicide attempt on July 23rd. Two plus weeks later, Epstein is found dead in another cell, no cell made at that time. And so it kind of draws a distinction and part of the timeline of Epstein's jail experience. Do you think, I mean, you will follow the facts.

You and your colleagues will continue publishing things as they come to you and as you do the journalism required. But do you think at this point that anything, if people have a perception one way or the other about what happened, that they will change their minds? People have strong feelings about this. You know, I think we're trying to examine everything and look at the facts, look at the distant piece of evidence that are out there and share those with the public. There's a lot of interest in this. There's a lot of interest in the Epstein case at large, you know, for obvious reasons. And this is one piece that people have strong feelings about and strong skepticism about.

You know, I think history as a guide when there's skepticism, a feeling of conspiracy around something like this that tends to be in certain parties, is a hard time letting go of it. You know, I don't think that should stand in the way of us, you know, from a journalism perspective, gathering the documents, doing the interviews, doing the work that helps the public at least know what we know. Steve, I appreciate this. Thank you. Yeah, thank you.

Steve Eder is a reporter with the New York Times. We reached him in Manhattan. How long would it take you to solve a Rubik's cube, give or take two years? Great. Follow-up question. What if you had just jumped out of an airplane?

How fast would you solve it while free falling through the air? If you're Tom Copka, a German medical student and YouTuber, the answer is 23.333 seconds, which is, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, as of last week, faster than anyone else has solved a Rubik's Cube while in free fall. And yes, other people have tried. We reached Tom Copka in Johannesburg. Tom, I think the order of operations for most people, free people, free people. free falling after jumping out of a plane is, you know, stay alive, maybe take in the scenery, probably scream. What are you focused on?

How are you even focusing in those moments to solve this cube? That's a good question. I mean, you get handed the cube, and once you have the cube in your hand, you're just only thinking about the cube, not thinking about that you're falling. falling 130 miles power against the ground. And then you have a earpiece in your ear, which goes beep, beep, beep, beep, when you reach a certain altitude.

And then when you don't have the Rubik's Cube solved, then you've got to open your parachute. And so it's pretty straightforward, so you just lock in on the cube. Straightforward is not the word I would use, but I get it. You were locked in. You were locked in.

When did you realize that you had actually broken? the record. So I had four attempts on that day. I had one attempt where I was really good in time and then I only had like one move left and I was like celebrating in my head and then I messed it up and I had to start all over and then everybody told me just stay relaxed. You don't need to break the record. You can do it and then I had a pretty good solve and then I everyone knew that I had broken it because it was that much lower than the 28 seconds and we still had plenty of time in the air to do fun stuff and then we already celebrated in the air. So you did you went up four times in the plane to do this?

Yes, yeah. I mean I specifically did my skydiving license for this. So I knew all the guys from the drop zone and we had the team of two instructors, one holding me and the other handing me in the cube, which is the most difficult part. It's like in track and field when you pass the baton. It's like a lot of mistakes, happened there. Sure. And then by the third time we got it. Well, congratulations. When you were training for this, preparing for it, what did you think was going to be the most difficult thing? The most difficult thing would probably be the wind resistance because normally when you solve on the ground, you have no wind resistance at all so you can do all these fancy finger tricks

and you don't grip the cube hard at all. It's a very light grip. But when you're falling in the sky, have to really grip it tight. And so you almost have to like relearn some moves because it's just so new. But in the weeks leading up to that, I prepared specifically for that, always on my sofa. And even with wind noises on my headphones. Did you just put a really powerful fan on your face as you were as you were? Yeah, kind of like that. So in the end, did you feel ready for that?

Was something else, did something else turn out to be the most difficult when you were actually there. Yeah. The most difficult part is in order to be focused on solving a Rubik's you need to be relaxed and not thinking about, oh my God, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And that took some practice because I had only been skydiving for five weeks up to this point. So it was all very new. I only had 27 jumps. And I think the previous record holder had 80 jumps when he tried it. You shaved several seconds off of Sam Syracke's 2023 record. What do you think was the difference maker? I had a different strategy than him because there's two strategies to, like, flying in the air.

One is belly flying, which is much more beginner-friendly, which is the position all beginners start. And he did in the belly position, but as you can imagine, there's much more wind resistance than compared to solving it on your back. But it's also more scary and more difficult to be stable in the air while back-flying. So that was the deciding factor that I tried out a new method. And how quickly can you solve a Rubik's Cube when you're just on dry land? I think about 15 seconds on average. Sometimes you get lucky and you get 9 seconds off, but 15 seconds on average. And you've also done this in other unusual scenarios, unusual places.

Where? I had four years ago, I did a YouTube video where I tried to break a bunch of Rubik's Cube World Records. And I tied one, which is the most Rubik's cubes in one breath hold while being underwater. Land and sea, you've covered. What do you want to do next? There's one record I'm eyeing on. I don't know if I'm going to try it this year. It's the most Rubik's cubes solved while running a marathon. I think that is comfortably sitting at 400, but I think I could be. beat it if I try for it. I just got to see if my schedule allows it. Right. The schedule is the

hardest part. That's great. Yeah, it's because I'm also studying medicine on YouTube. So I have like my final boards exams in that time. So I also have to do some studying. Yes. You probably should do that. I hope you do well on the exams. How does your family feel about all of this? Of course my family wants me to become a doctorate, but I think my heart is in YouTube with all that crazy experiences and adventurous. So I think one day I have to have a hard talk with them, which is coming up that I'm probably going to do full-time YouTube and not become a doctor.

I think you just told them. They might be listening to this interview. I mean, they already have a hunch, I think. Well, Tom, I'm glad we could speak. Thank you for this. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. Tom Kupka is the new.

Guinness World Record holder for solving a Rubik's Cube while in free fall. We reached him in Johannesburg. June 8, 2016, dignitaries have gathered in a reception room in the National Assembly in Paris, where a guy in a pink shirt accepts the 2016 gold medal of philology. He is Florentaclair, a graduate of the University of Philology and Education in Delaware and the first French scholar ever to win the prestigious honor, awarded by the International Society of Philology and known as the Nobel Prize of Philology. Mr. Monteclair had really made it.

I don't mean he'd succeeded. I mean he had made it. He had actually made the gold medal of Philology. and then he'd awarded it to himself. Philology is the study of the history of language. And by winning that gold medal, Floral Monteclera joined a rarefied group of experts in the field. The next year, the medal was awarded to Noam Chomsky at a ceremony in Paris. And in 2018, the distinguished Romanian academic Eugen Simeon. To be clear, I am saying that Mr. Monteclair made a medal up, awarded it to himself, and then kept on awarding it.

But then a Romanian website did some research and discovered that the medal was not real. The society that awarded it was not real. And Mr. Monteclair's doctorate was not real because his alma mater, the University of Philology and Education, was not real. Now Floral Monteclair has become the first winner of the gold medal of philology to be investigated for potential fraud. Not because he awarded himself a fake prize. We can all do that if we want. It's how I won the 2026 Radio Talking Award of excellence. and coolness.

But because he's accused of using the fake prize to get himself a promotion and a raise at the real university where he works. It was a bold attempt, but it's pretty embarrassing to give yourself an award that you invented. I guess I can see why he did it, but it really puts the act in accolade.

We're going to take a quick break now. When we come back, it is census time. And the team at Statscan is, of course, going to keep track of demographics. But they've also compiled some tracks they hope will compel you to complete your census. Can't wait. And roped in, a seating mix up on a plane leads to an unlikely friendship between a professional wrestler and four Welsh grandmothers. I'm Chris Howden. And I'm Neil Cook-Sall.

Stay tuned. Still waiting in line? Again? That's time you will never get back. Save time and money with Stamps.com. Over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with Stamps.com. Join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds.

then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to Stamps.com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply. I am an actor, fresh out of theater school with big dreams and an even bigger drug habit. But things are pretty good. That is until my best friend is set up on a date with David Lee Roth. Yeah, from Van Halen. If you know, you know.

From CBC's personally, this is Discount Dave in the Fix, The true-ish story about how a fake rock star led me to a real trial that held up a mirror to me. And okay, let's just say that not everyone in this story is who you think they are. Personally, discount Dave and the Fix. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. Manitoba is dealing with some of the highest rates of HIV in Canada. Last year it counted hundreds of new cases. Over three times more than were reported just six years ago.

It disproportionately affects indigenous people in the province. And today, Manitoba officially declared HIV a public health emergency. So this emergency, it's not about creating fear. It's about acknowledging the reality that individuals and communities are facing right now and to address that with a level of urgency. That's Manitoba's chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Rousson, speaking at a press conference today. We reached Dr. Rousson in Winnipeg. Doctor, what was the point that you and your colleagues decided that it was time?

It was necessary to declare a public health emergency. It has been something that's been being discussed for the last number of months. We had met with a large think tank that included a lot of experts in the area, a lot of indigenous communities, indigenous leadership, and people really working at the ground level. And we thought that at that time, we decided, despite the ongoing work, despite the ongoing investment, our numbers are still climbing.

And so we thought it was time to now take this next step and declare this public health emergency. That investment that you're talking about to let our listeners know, $8 million spent by the Manitoba government every year to provide better access to HIV care, and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections. That's been happening for the last few years, that kind of investment cases are arising, as you said.

Why is that happening? Yeah, and so one of the first steps that was taken in our action against HIV was really to ensure we had the financial access to HIV treatment, as well as the medications for pre- and post-exposure. And then what we also found is when we talk about the drivers of transmission, homelessness, mental health issues, injection drug use, you can see that the individuals that are largely affected by HIV are dealing with many issues. And so it's very difficult for them to maintain contact to care. And so we've also launched the program to access treatment for HIV and support, what we call the PATH program. And this is really these wraparound services to ensure people are connected to care and stay connected to care and on their medications.

So to underline what you're saying there and what you said earlier today in the press release in Manitoba, HIV, this is a quote from your press release. HIV is most commonly spread through injection drug use, unprotected heterosexual sex and is associated with the convergence of homelessness, mental health concerns, substance use, and socioeconomic inequality, unquote. is this about just addressing the spread of HIV or does the province need to prioritize addressing the other pieces of this very complicated puzzle? Well, that's right. You know, and so what we're describing there is the concept of syndemics, you know, multiple co-occurring epidemics at the same time. And you know, you're not going to make substantial progress on any of those unless you try to address all of them. And so this is the other reason, right, for declaring that public health emergency because we need a lot of cross-governmental work, you know, federal, provincial community leadership to really address these underlying determinants. As you start this process now after having declared the public health emergency, what will change? What will that empower you to be able to do?

The emergency itself does allow us some more options on how we can expand access to testing. some of the non-traditional forms of testing. We want to use this emergency to broaden access to things like pre-exposure prophylaxis. Can we look at broadening the aspect of who can provide those services? And so there's a lot of things that we have tools that we want to implement, but it's really we need to organize and really come up with our priorities. Just recently on our show, we were talking. about how much improvement there's been still a long way to go, certainly.

But in terms of treatment, we saw someone who is, whose HIV is in remission. We were talking about that headline making case. What was it like, you know, knowing the progress that's been made since the 80s to see these numbers in your province go up and up and up? This really tells a story of how tragic this is, right? the disparities that this represents. We have tests that are so good that they're almost never wrong. We have medication so good that if you take them regularly,

we can't detect a virus in your blood. But despite that, we still see ongoing transmission. We still see certain groups that are for lots of reasons unable to stay connected to care. But we can see that this is a virus that's very preventable and very treatable. And so we need to get on top of these disparities so that everyone benefits from that progress. Manitoba is promising, as you know, to create an HIV response steering committee. It will have indigenous members. What are you hoping might come out of that committee's work?

Yeah, you know, it's a really good question. And our focus right now is raise that awareness. And that includes, you know, culturally sensitive and specific type messaging that we're, you know, we're going to rely on our, indigenous partners to be creating and certainly we can support it. We want to look at where harm reduction access can be improved and overall that reduction in stigma, which is really connected to so many pieces of this. And then like we say, we really want to come up with ideas and ways to continue to advocate for the improvement on those underlying determinants, which are driving the transmission right now.

Where do you hope your province is in terms of the number of cases and the help you can provide for people a year from now if we were to have a conversation? We really want to start seeing the turn of the trajectory, right? We've seen our numbers dramatically climb over these last number of years. And so first, we want to have that, you know, that subjective approach that people are being more connected to care. there's less stigma, there's more knowledge, more access to all levels of care. And then we really want to start seeing that trajectory change.

The slope of that trajectory right now is just unacceptable. Doctor, thank you for this. Yes, thanks so much. Dr. Brent Rusen is Manitoba's chief public health officer. He's in Winnipeg.

friendship. Friendship can blossom in the most unexpected places, even after a rough start. We know this from Hallmark Christmas movies, obviously, But now we also know it from one real-life event. Last month, a group of elderly Welsh women boarded a flight from London to Las Vegas. But someone was apparently in one of their seats. It was a wrestler from Birmingham, a young man named Dorese Gordon on his way to a wrestling event in Las Vegas. Turned out it was a mix-up on their end.

And after Mr. Gordon helped one of the women adjust her seat, a friendship began to flourish. By the end of the flight, he had offered them tickets to the wrestling event, which they gamely attended. But then they lost track of each other. So Derees Gordon took to social media to try to track them down, and it worked. This week, the wrestler and the Welsh nans were reunited on BBC breakfast. After I, you know, sat in my seat and thought, okay, my seat was back. And the year hostess was saying, put your seat forward, and I couldn't do it. I said, excuse me, can you press my button?

And he said, what? I went to seats. And the seat shot forward. And I'm thinking, you need half an hour of the year. Well, yeah. They're called best friends. Well, best friends, because how long was it into the journey? Because this bond really happened because... After the press of the button.

Just, and it was like that, was it? More or less. Yeah, we were all left talking. He took his hoodie off because he was hid with his jacket over him. And then took his... And I thought, oh, I don't mind sitting on you for 10 hours. I'm quite happy. We all wanted to chase seats.

I put the arm of the seat down. I can feel his mouth. at all. That's great. Rose had just said that you all wanted to change seats and New City next to me. What were you thinking when this is all happening? I'm thinking what's happened is going on. Because

my flight, I missed my flight that was meant to get on under Tuesday because my reason didn't come in time for Vegas. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to get to Vegas for mainly week for independent wrestling. And then so it happened by chance. I was that there, in there, and that's it on that day. It was just meant to be, I think.

That's wrestler Dorese Gordon, reuniting with his new friends, Rose Sully, Lynn Crawford, Susie Matthews, and Christine Goodwin on BBC Breakfast this week. Mr. Gordon's new catchphrase is your NAN's favorite wrestler. Pop quiz hot shots, guess what all these songs have in common? That don't impress me much. I'll always be less than you grow. One, two, three, four, tell me that you love me more. For those five days in May. If I had a million dollars.

If I had a million dollars. If you guessed they were all by Canadian artists, half a point. But if you guessed. that they were all songs by Canadian artists, hands selected by Statistics Canada to be listened to by Canadians while completing the census, you get a whole point and probably a weird look from whoever is in the room with you. The big quinquennial event has arrived. That means an invitation letter to complete the 2026 census will be making its way to your mailbox. And this year, Statistics Canada has curated six different playlists designed to be listened to

while filling out the census. The stats can website says, quote, discover the music that defines our country while helping provide the data that shapes our future." Jeff Bulby is Statistics Canada's Assistant Chief Statistician. Say that five times fast. We reached him in Ottawa. Jeff, are you able to complete your census without listening to music at this point? You know what? There's no better way to do your census than to go to the Spotify playlist that we put together for the census. What did you listen to this time around?

You know, my favorite, you know, there's six of them. The favorite playlist is ketchup, chips, and road trips. I was just immediately drawn to it by the name that the team put together for that playlist. Yeah, and on that playlist, favorite songs? You know, one of them, there's a few. You know, it's got some great classics, Canadian music. The one that I like the most there is we're here for a good time, not a long time, by a great band from Vancouver called Trooper.

And you know what? if you're doing your short form census, that's the perfect one to pick because you're here for a good time, not a long time. Complicated by Avrilavine is on one of these playlists. Yeah. Shout out to great talent from Napani, Ontario. We have like almost 17,000 people. Yeah.

Great fan of Avrilavine. She's in pumped up moose tracks. Right. But is the word complicated? Are you talking about the work that you do and your colleagues are being complicated? or should people draw any conclusions? I mean, census is not complicated to fill out from what I remember. No. No, we make it very easy to fill out the census.

This week, the forms went out, the invitation letters went out. You just have to go to census.gc.ca and enter your code. But the census itself is very complicated. It's one of the biggest and most complicated operations of government. We have to hire 30,000 employees just to go door to door. So it probably reflects our complications, not. Not those of the respondent, thankfully. How are you feeling now that, you know, those letters, the mailers have all gone out?

Is this a tense time for you and your staff? I mean, the fact that you're doing this suggests that you all know how to have a little fun, but it also suggests that you're a bit worried that people aren't going to do this unless you make it fun. Yeah, well, you know, it's serious business conducting a census, and it is very important that everybody fill out their form. But we do like to have a little bit of fun with it. you know, we want to make it as easy as possible for people to respond to the census. So we've got this great online portal.

But, you know, while you're doing it, have a little bit of fun and listen to some music. And how long has your team been working on and putting these playlists together? We actually made it a bit of a contest here at Statscan. We did this, by the way, back in 2021. So this is, we have some experience with it. But we said to the staff this time around, hey, you remember, What we did in 2021, you can have a chance to select the songs that will be on the playlist. And, you know, for a couple of months there, people were submitting their songs.

And then, of course, we had to vet it and make sure that it didn't have bad words in it and other things. And we also wanted to make sure that the playlist represent Canada well. So we have a great diversity of talent. You have indigenous artists there. You have Francofunky, you know, Francophone Quebequa artists as well, storytellers. the land. I have some suggestions. I didn't see R&B represented on this. I was surprised. I know in 2021 you had you had I think 12 playlists only six this time but I think the seventh

needs to be Canadian R&B. I like that. I like that we'll make that a priority for 2031. Well I think why not now why? Mishie Me, Maestro, Fresh West like such great artist, Adrian Kane, Majee Jim Jordan. I mean I'm just going to send you my full full playlist. I like it. I like it. I wonder, what was the uptake like in 2021? Do you have metrics on that? I do know that it helped and I do know that it was popular, but I don't have the actual numbers in front of me. You know, I had it asked of me in 2021. It was my favorite, my favorite song back then. And I said, five long years by Colin James because there's five years between a census. As you said, it's certainly serious business, the census. It's been controversial in the past. As you well know,

What would you say to listeners out there who have not completed theirs yet or might even resent being asked to complete it? You know, the census is so important. You know, it's a key piece of our democracy, in fact. You know, there's many examples of important uses of the census data, but one is the delineation of the boundaries that our MPs represent or MPPs, MLAs and MHAs across the country. that wherever you are in the country, your politician, his riding depends on the population numbers coming from the census. We have the placement of schools and hospitals here in Ottawa. We're talking a lot about transit a lot. I know that's a common conversation across the country, but the census is the best place to get information on where people live and where people work.

So bus routes and that sort of thing are planned around the census. I think it's often taken for granted, but anytime you see population or per capita being referred to, it's always census-based. And this is the one time every five years that Canadians can participate in this fabulous study of who we are as Canadians. And next year we'll release all the results,

and you'll get a chance to see just how rich that portrait is. And we're excited. And we're hoping that people take the time to fill out the census and have a little fun, listen to some music, they're at it. Have you received any feedback on the playlist so far? No, actually, you know what, I haven't. I'm assuming that people like it because I usually do get the negative feedback. I don't often get the positive feedback, so no news is good news. So no prime ministerial interference, clearly, because down with Webster, as my colleagues have noted, is not on there.

No, we are completely politically neutral here at Statskin. Okay, but let's get that seventh playlist this year with R&B and hip hop. Okay. I've made my case. Jeff, thank you for this. Thank you. Jeff Bolby is Statistics Canada's Assistant Chief Statistician. We reached him in Ottawa.

And we'd like to hear from you, what do you think is the perfect song to listen to while taking the census? You can call Talk Back anytime, as many times as you want, at 416205-5687, or email us at Aihatc.ca. Wales is famous for its two official languages, English and Welsh, its two national emblems, the daffodil and the leak. It's 600 plus castles, which is more castles per square kilometer than any other country in Europe. What Wales is not famous for is volatility in its politics, but that might be changing. Today, millions of voters cast ballots in parliamentary, elections in Wales and Scotland and local elections in England.

Polls suggest that the vote could signal the end of the Labour Party's dominance in Wales after more than a century. And when Elias is a professor of politics at Aberystwyth University, we reached her in Aberystwyth. Professor, what kind of outcome are you bracing for? Well, we really don't know. The polls are suggesting that there are two parties who are vying to be the largest party the next world parliament, Clyde Cymry, the left-wing

pro-independence party and Reform UK, which is a right-wing political party. But the polls are also suggesting it is too close to call. We have a new electoral system and we don't know exactly how that is going to play out. So we really don't know.

This is a very uncertain election. And what do you make of that uncertainty in this moment, given, you know, what you know of the political system there and previous elections. So what we've had in Welsh politics for the last 27 years is a Welsh Parliament where the Welsh Labour Party has dominated. It's always been the largest party in the Welsh Parliament.

It has always led the Welsh Government. And that's in the context of the Welsh Labour Party having won every election in Wales for the last hundred years. So in that context of political stability, the fact that we are now looking at such an uncertain electoral outcome with two very different parties likely to form the next government or competing to do that, it's really a significant change. Why do you think you're at this point and that significant change is upon you? So partly, I would say it is a reflection of how the public think about the record of the Welsh Liberal Party and government. There is widespread frustration with the state of our public services, the state of our health service in particular, with things like long waiting lists, difficulties accessing doctors and dentists. There's also a high level of concern with a cost of living.

issues that voters are on the whole blaming the Welsh Labour Party for. And so there is a sense of disillusionment, a sense that we need something different in Wales, that voters are looking for a change. And so we are seeing evidence that voters are thinking of abandoning the Welsh Labour Party and voting either for Plight Cymoury or Reform UK. You co-led, we should mention, the Wales election study, 2026. Were those issues that you just enumerated there? And I mean, listeners, wherever they're listening from, those same kind of issues, as you well know, come up with voters right around the world.

Were those the top questions and concerns they had? They were. And as you say, these are not unique challenges facing democratic politics in Wales. But they are felt acutely here in this election. in the context of having a Welsh Labour government for such a long time. I think it's probably fair to say that support for the Welsh Labour hasn't suddenly collapsed out of the blue. It's been in decline for some time. It was buoyed in the last Welsh Parliament election, which was in 2021 because of the COVID pandemic

and the perception at that time that the Welsh Labour government had done a good job of managing that pandemic. almost that was a temporary reprieve. And so I think it's just come to this head in the context of both a long-serving Welsh Labour Party. I should mention also we've got a Labour Party in UK government, which is hugely unpopular. Some voters, they will be taking that into account. And in these two parties that are coming to the four, we have two parties with very charismatic leaders. but also very different political projects for Wales. Very much so.

And so there's a real choice, real choice to be made. And what are each of those parties saying to try to get those voters on side? I mean, on one hand, you know this well, but to let our listeners know, Plade Cumberie has a long history there, supports Welsh independence, reform is newer on the scene, very, very controversial. It's leader Nigel Farage. What is he saying? What is that party saying to voters to make them believe that they,

they are going to solve all of the things that haven't been solved? Well, they both are making big promises, as you might expect. So I'll say about Plata Cumberry in the first instance. Yes, you're right, it's a pro-independence party. But Plyt Cemetery in this election is not talking about independence. On the contrary, it's trying to make the case that this is not the priority. The priority is governing to be seen as a credible party of government. So Plata Company is very much focusing on detailed policy proposals,

trying to convince people who haven't voted for it before that it can be trusted to run Wales. On the other hand, reform, reform is running a very populist electoral campaign. It is positioning itself as the outsider party against the establishment. And it is pushing issues such as immigration, for example, we know that immigration as an issue that matters a lot for reform voters. So we are hearing reform talk a lot about immigration, even though it's not a policy issue that the Welsh government can do anything about. It's a UK government responsibility. And yet, reform is playing this campaign around key issues that it knows matters to its core base.

And Professor, to what extent, if any, is politics outside of Wales, outside of the UK impacting what voters are weighing there, in the United States, for example? For the majority of people, when we ask them in our election study, will you decide your vote on the basis of what happens in Wales, on the basis of what happens in the UK, or on the basis of what happens in the wider world? And the majority of people told us, actually, it's based on what happens in Wales that we will decide. Professor, I'm glad we could speak. Thank you for this. Thank you very much. And when Elias is a professor of politics at Aberystwyth University, we reached her in Abaristwith.

Tony Cook loves making things with his hands. That's not surprising when you learn that he spent decades working as an engineer. And since his retirement, he has spent his time making wooden bowls and building wooden furniture. Now his crafting skills have taken him to another level. He has just finished building a bicycle entirely out of wood. We reached Tony Cook in Rocky View County, Alberta. Tony, the bike, it is built. It's ready to go.

But you have not hopped on it yet, right? It's pretty well really. I'm ready to ride it, but I want to put a little rubber strip on the wheels so it doesn't slip. Fine-tuning, as any good engineer would. Your family wants to see it too, right? That's right. Are you going to ride at first? Are you going to give that honor to somebody else? Well, I'm having some health issues a bit, so I may get my grandson to ride. He's studying engineering. He'd be willing. But if I can do it, myself, I'll do it. What does your family think of this? Have they seen it in person yet or just photos?

They're amazed. They all say they're proud of their dad. Yeah, you should feel proud. Do you feel proud of yourself? You know what? I don't think of it as big of a deal as people are making of it. Why not? I don't know.

It's just I said, I guess I worked on it for a year, and so I'm done with it, and here it is. I do a lot of wood projects, so I guess it's just another one. I've seen the photographs, and it's quite something. The detail, it's a beautiful thing. Can you describe what it looks like for our listeners so they can visualize it in their minds? Well, it's a normal-sized bike, 26-inch wheels. If you look at it, you would say it's probably made for both women and men riding. And other than that, it's just looks like a normal bike, but it's made out of wood and it's shiny

because I put a clear finish on it, which I really was pleased with because it brought the different colors of the wood out nicely. It really is a thing of beauty, but functional as well. And we should mention every piece is wood, including the chain. Everything is wood. There are a couple of pieces hidden that you can't see, bearings in the front wheel,

and there's bearings in the pedals, and there's bearings in the back wheel. But other than that, it's all wood. Where did you even begin? The first thing I did was I saw a bike on eBay or someplace. I wouldn't one. And I looked at it and I said, I don't know if I really liked that bike, but it's something I could do, I thought, to myself.

But I noticed that bike had a metal chain. So I said, well, I'm going to build one with a wood chain. And so that was the first step. But that took me quite a long time, actually, because I had to do a lot of calculating to make the links of the chain to fit the sprockets. So I did. I built the template. I did a lot of calculators. It took me like two months, I think, of monking around, and I finally decided what size the links would be.

And then I made the sprocket. I laminated wood. I used a maple wallet, and I screwed the sprockets into. a piece of plywood, put the chain on it and then turned it and said, it works. I'm done with that. I know it's going to work. I can go to step two. That was the key piece, the very first one. Do you think that was the hardest? I wouldn't say the hardest, but it was key.

Well, there was two difficult components. One was the rear fork connected to the frame because you had to have the fork designed so that wheel fits in nicely, and the chain rides without touching the frame. But the handlebars was probably the biggest challenge. Not so much to make the handlebars, but to put them in place because if you've ridden the bike, you know the handlebars, you want to be parallel to the earth. Yes.

And the other thing is the fork is at an angle. So when you mount that handlebar, you have those three factors that you have to have in alignment. I shaped the handles and they slid onto the handlebars. So it makes it look nice. It really does. It all told how many hours do you think? Oh, my God.

I'm telling people probably over 2,000. Yeah. And the types of wood, you mentioned a couple of them, but there were... There's walnut, there's oak, and there's maple, and birch. I think for most of us, It's all a challenge, and it's quite incredible what you've made. Tony, you mentioned that one that sort of sparked this idea,

the one that you thought you could do better than that, and you certainly did. How much was that going for? My memory, sir, is around $6,000. I don't know if they've ever sold it, but I wouldn't pay $6.4. Now, when you can build your own, I mean, this is getting so much attention. What if people want to buy this or they want you to make them one? You know what? I'm not going to sell it, but if somebody said, what's the word, I'd say probably $8,000, but what I may do eventually is if I've got, like my grandson, I may give it to him, but I may see if some museum or some place like Calgary we have here at Heritage Park, I might just ask them that they would like it. Well, you get to, you should enjoy it first a little bit with yourself.

Oh, I'm going to keep it here for a while. I'm going to, I'm going to keep it here for a while. I'm going to actually, I'm going to make a stand for it and put in my living room. Beautiful. I would say at least a year after that I'll decide what I'm going to do with it. It would be hard to part with, I bet. Are you imagining what it's going to feel like when you are able to ride it?

I'm calling my Orville right moment. I just, that's what I've been calling it. So I think it's going to be another. I want to ride it when I've got three daughters. and two of them are out of town. And they say they want to be there when I ride it. So I've been a time that was when they're available. I think that's a good plan.

And we want to see the photos and video when you do, Tony. Thank you for this. Okay. Tony Cook has built a bicycle entirely out of wood. We reached him in Rocky View County, Alberta.

You've been listening to the As It Happens podcast. Our show can be heard Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 after your world tonight. And you can, of course, also listen to our show online at cBC.ca slash Aih-I-H or on the CBC Listen app or, of course, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Neil Kokesl. And I'm Chris Howden.

For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.ca.ca.com.