The Eighth Very Terry Christmas

Matt Cundill  0:02  
Merry Christmas, and welcome to the eighth installment of a very Terry Christmas every year Terry DiMonte, and I get together to record an episode just in time for your ears on Christmas. A few things before we start. First, good morning to Elie Khouri who is always the first to download this episode. That's an advantage you get when you wake up early in the morning and listen in Europe. Second, a word of warning. We swear a lot in this episode, at least 15 times. So if you're listening to this during the 12 days of Christmas, do not listen to it with the volume within earshot of little elves or Mrs. Claus. And if you're sensitive to the bad words, you might want to wait till New Year's to listen to this. Finally, Terry's just recorded his annual talk with the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. And we're going to be talking about that a fair bit in this show. But if you'd like to check out that fun conversation, the YouTube link is in the show notes. And with that, here we go. Terry DiMonte joins me from beautiful British Columbia.

Terry Dimonte  1:04  
I'm beginning to feel like my old self again. 

Matt Cundill  1:06  
What doesthat mean? You're beginning to feel like your old self again? Have you been through something?

Terry Dimonte  1:13  
While I'm laughing because, Oh, I see you push record, you know, and well, a lot of people who follow me on social media know but my, my close friends and family really know what I've been through. I had open heart surgery on my 65th birthday. This past year on January the third and the operation itself went swimmingly well, and then it stopped going swimmingly? Well, I, I came out of a six hour operation to replace my valve and have a bypass. And I was sitting up and everything was going well. And then everything went off the tracks, I got blood clots, I got a blood infection, I had to be intubated and re intubated. I was on life support for about 16 days and hovering between life and death. My brother flew out from Ottawa because his background is in in medicine, he's Oh, he was a helicopter paramedic, and he knew was quite dire, he flew out to be by my wife side, my wife was at the hospital every day, you know, with fingers crossed, walking up the hallway to the cardiac ICU, hoping that she would get some good news. And for days on end, she didn't, there was either no change or was more dangerous. Anyway, not the Woe is me. Because I came out of it, I get very, very lucky plus, I had the help of my wife, Jess, who was my advocate, and was able to communicate with staff there and steer them away from theories that they had, as I lay unconscious, and I guess I don't know, around the the 22nd or 23rd day mark, I don't know because I was asleep and or in, you know, on life support my started to come out of it. And and then I couldn't talk for days on end because of the thing in my throat. And, and then it turned, it started to turn, I began to get to come out of it, they were able to take the tubes out and they were able to take my feeding tube out. And it was pretty bad. It was really shitty, not for me. I mean, it wasn't any fun for me. But it was really, really bad on my wife, Jessica. And you know, my family and other people like yourself that were following along on a daily basis, wondering if I was going to come out of it. So and one of the things you don't realize that when you're in bed for 35 days, your legs stop work and everything stops, stops working. The good news is you've lost 30 some odd pounds because of the feeding tube. The bad news is none of your muscles work anymore. And there's that moment where the nurse says okay, I want you to put your feet on the floor and walk to that chair, which was like three feet across the room. And I put my feet on the floor. I can only describe my my legs felt like a couple of Twizzlers that we're not going to hold me up. So you know and you come out of open heart surgery open heart surgery as my my surgeon and describe to me it's kind of like being hit by a truck. You know, the crack your chest open, they go digging around in there and then you have complications. And then you know, you lie in bed for 30 days and you think okay, I'm out of the hospital, but February, March, April, May, I was just really stunned by how weak I was. And now here as we record this in December, I love that we're doing this by the way, it always feels so Christmassy when you call me. It's coming up on a year and I'm starting to feel like my old self again. My scars still hurts. My legs aren't I wouldn't say 100% back but I'm working on it. So and obviously I'm grateful to be on the right side of the potatoes as Ted would say. It

Matt Cundill  4:59  
was a little bit weird. Last year when we had our Christmas talk, and yeah, we didn't talk about you and your upcoming surgery. At the time we made, it's really weird. Like, we talk so openly all the time on this particular episode. And we couldn't talk about that. It was about a little over a week later, you went into the hospital, it was your birthday.

Terry Dimonte  5:21  
I didn't want to talk about it. And neither did just we didn't want to talk about it publicly. We didn't want to tempt fate. You know, I didn't want there to be video of me talking about my surgery after I was gone. You know, like we it just, it felt weird. It was personal. And anybody who's been in the same situation will relate to this. I got diagnosed in August of last year. And in August, the cardiac people at Vancouver general hospital said your valve is done. We've got to go in and change it. And someone will call you and give you the details. August, September, October, finally, the phone rings in October, and they ask you a bunch of questions. And then they say, we'll call you back when we got a date, October, November, December. And all that while I didn't realize this, but just told me I was getting grayer. And my breathing was getting a little bit more labored. labored. Thank you. That was the word I was looking for. And she was scared and she didn't tell me about it. And obviously, all the doctors will tell you open heart surgery very routine. Well, yes. If you're a cardiac surgeon, it's very routine. But if you're a person who's you know, a morning, man, it's just unbelievably shit inducing, scary, you know, you you lie awake at night, I Googled everything I could find out about surgery and recovery and questions to ask. And every day I was on YouTube, I was driving just crazy. And, you know, when we finally got the date, and they told that told us was gonna be January 3, last Christmas, this time last year, we knew that in a week and a bit, I was going under the knife, and they were going to crack my chest open. And we tried to pretend everything was normal, but it wasn't and, and it was a it was, you know, there was a cloud over the house with me and her. And we didn't want to talk about that publicly, we thought, you know, we'll just we'll keep this to ourselves. And she said, You know, when you're out and and you know, it's gone? Well, and you know, then then we'll we'll put a post up about where you've been, and just told me that, you know, I mean, I'm not on the air anymore. So, you know, it's not like I have a public following. But there are some people that follow me on social media, and I do post a fair amount of stuff. And there's a podcast and, and Jess told me about 2526 days in, you know, there were some like, where's Terry? Why, why hasn't he posted in a while? Is he okay? And she started to get texts from people. And you know, and she didn't want to talk about it, obviously, because she was just overwhelmed with fear and worry. And I had no idea about the the level of that fear. Until I think it was late March, when I was well enough to get around Jess and I wanted to thank the nurses in the cardiac ICU at Vancouver General Hospital, who were unbelievable the staffs there, and the care I got was spec tacular. And that's the reason why I'm alive today. And we wanted to do something and we found out that the you know, the ICU nurse, nursing station, you know, they're at your bedside 24/7 There's one nurse, one patient 24/7 and their coffee machine was out. So I said, Let's Let's go buy them a coffee machine and go visit them and I'll be able to say thank you to them. And in Vancouver General Hospital, there's this long corridor, and I mean long corridor with nothing on the walls. It looked like a corridor from a Stanley Kubrick film. And we came around the corner and I don't remember that quarter because I was at the end of it in the bed. We came around the corner and just said, Hang on, I have to stop. And she began to tear up and put her hand on the wall. And I realized what she went through every day. She said, You know every day, I made this walk and when you get to the door of the ICU, there's a phone and you pick it up and you say hi, it's Jessica. I'm here to see Terry. And she said some nights they would say to her some days they would say to her, you have to come back in 10 minutes, and they wouldn't tell her why they wouldn't tell her what was going on. And that phone well that opened the door opened the door to whatever the news of the day was so she would drive to the hospital and not know what condition I was in and sleep at the phone next to her ear at night. When she could get some sleep, hoping it wasn't going to ring because if it rang wouldn't have been good news, and, and, you know, just that whole sort of trauma of going through that. I was, I was in the bed with a breathing tube in it, but it was it was it was my wife Jess that helped save my life and, and took it on the chin. So we didn't we didn't think it was a good idea to talk about it publicly. Until she decided when she decided, you know, we're gonna let everybody know you're okay. Then Then I said, Yeah, you You go ahead. You

Matt Cundill  10:32  
had a few visitors. You mentioned Dean who flew it from Ottawa. Yeah. And as well, the prime minister came to visit you. Yeah. Do you? Do you remember him being in the room and holding your hand?

Terry Dimonte  10:43  
I do. I really do. Because it was quite moving. To give you an idea of, of where my head was at. I apparently said to Jess after he left is the boat gone. And in my head, I had it that there was a secret backdoor on the water that the prime minister came by boat and came up to secret backstairs first of all, the Vancouver General Hospital is not anywhere near the water, number one. And number two, there is no, there is no boaters Prime Minister. So that gives you an idea where my head was at. But having said that, he checked in with Jess almost every day via text to see how he was doing. And then he had an events in Vancouver. And he texted us and said can I come? You know, is it okay if I visit and you know, it's close, close friends and family only. And we have no family out here. You know, we don't have any family and when are very many friends. To be honest with you. We have one set of friends here and just said, you know, she had to tell the staff that there was going to be an RCMP guy calling because I was going to have a visitor that had RCMP protection. She didn't want to she didn't want to make a fuss, he didn't want to make a fuss. Anyway, long story short, he he came in, and he's the Prime Minister of the country, so you know, love him or hate him. And I know there's a lot of a lot of love on on one side and a lot of hate on the other people are still excited when they see the Prime Minister. That's that's just the way it goes. Most people anyway, except for the, you know, handful of raging assholes we now have in the country. And he came in and if the back door created as minimal of fuss as he could, he didn't want to disturb anybody. And he pulled up a chair. And he grabbed my hand. And Jess was behind him. And he was talking to Jess, but Maddie, he held my hand for like, almost two hours. And he didn't move. And he's got a pretty big job. So I found that incredibly, you know, when when when the dust fall cleared, I found that incredibly moving. And I've said to a couple of people on a couple of occasions. That's a demonstration of who that man is. He's been my friend for a very, very long time. And he has a pretty big job. And he said, No, tonight, I'm going to visit a friend of mine who's in the hospital battling his life. And he jokingly said to me on the on the interview this year that he enjoyed it because he visited me when I couldn't talk so he couldn't get it. But he did he he held my hand and talked to me about things that we had done, stuffs that he was doing and his kids. And, you know, he was kind to Jess and calmed her down and, you know, leaned into me when he was leaving and said, you got this you have to fight. There's a lot of people waiting for you. We've got an interview to do this year. I just I can't even describe what it meant to me. You know, because of the circumstances. You know, listen, there are a lot of people that I love dearly. yourself included. Other people in the east in Toronto and Montreal and Ottawa. People have lives, they can't jump on airplanes, and you know, and book hotels and come to sit by my bedside with a breathing tube in my throat. I didn't expect any of that. But I also didn't expect the Prime Minister of Canada to take time from what is a non stop schedule to come and comfort me and my wife. And you know, still myself this year at the end of the Christmas chat. The Prime Minister is somebody who doesn't take a compliment. Well, you can't, you know, you try and put praise his way and he gets all uncomfortable. And I grabbed his arm and I said listen, I know you don't like to hear this, but you're going to hear it. And I just want you to know that it meant the world to me and my wife. It really did. It was special and it's a memory I'll hold with me till the day I die. He said had a busy year. I would say Yeah, always has a busy year. I'm just

Matt Cundill  14:54  
thinking to myself about you've got this great show that you do with him every year and then you You want to go and distribute it and put it out. But you can't share the link because it's on Facebook and it's news. It's great. It's like cotton his own legislation. Yeah,

Terry Dimonte  15:11  
it really it was ironic because the Toronto Star approached me this year as Susan Delacorte, who I love dearly, I have a lot of respect for Susan. And the way she covers politics and her columns, I really, really enjoy her writing. And we've never met face to face, but we've had many conversations via email on on the phone. And she reached out this year, and she said, you know, are you are you chatting with the Prime Minister this year? And one of the things that, as always, really also meant the world to me is they reach out to me the PMO gets in touch with me every year to say, so are we on? Let's Yeah, it's you know, you guys have the busy schedule, you let me know when you're going to be around and Susan asked me what was happening and long story short, it's on the Toronto Star platform. And I had two requests of the star I said, number one, it can't be behind a paywall. And number two, the Prime Minister wants it out before Christmas, because the last time I dealt with the star, they held it until after Christmas. And he wasn't pleased about that. Because he, you know, he likes the Christmas vibe of the chat. So they said, Yeah, absolutely. So it's not behind a paywall, and it's up in the Toronto Star website. It's up on my YouTube channel. And I put links up on my Twitter. Twitter's fun when you talk to the Prime Minister. That's another story. And I couldn't post it on Facebook. Because it was it was the link was on the Toronto Star. So it was kind of ironic that that legislation kept me from spreading the word and putting the link up on Facebook or Instagram. For that matter. I, you know, I had to do a little post saying, if you're looking for it, you know, I posted a picture of me, the Prime Minister and my wife. And I said, you know, if you're looking for it, this is where you can find it. Because, you know, I couldn't post it because as you point out, the legislation prevented that. Well, not the legislation. But Facebook's position.

Matt Cundill  17:03  
Yeah, exactly. I'm sure you've had lots of hate, you've actually took time to address your hate, or the hate that you've been receiving just for having him on your show, being your friend. And you've pointed out time and time again, that you don't even agree with a lot of the things he does some of the things he does, but it doesn't stop a friendship. And I mentioned this because I got a note too, because I promoted the podcast we did. And somebody I guess when they were through with you decided to send me a note to talk about you a little bit more. And I wrote back to them, and I answered them exactly the way you would expect me to answer them, Terry? Yeah,

Terry Dimonte  17:41  
thank you, Matthew.

Matt Cundill  17:42  
I know it's Christmas morning. Yes, but I told them to take a long hard suck on my cock.

Terry Dimonte  17:49  
Merry Christmas, everybody. Oh, God, I you know, I just, I give up i You know, every year I started the conversation with the loved ones. This year, I used a Walter Cronkite references of Jesus Christ, it could use an older reference. And I was trying to say, not a journalist. This is not a an interview piece. If you're looking for that the Toronto Star is going to do one in January the CBC will be all over him that he's going to do all kinds of rear Enders. And they will question him on things like the climate and and his Palestinian position and all of those things, many of which I don't agree with. And if we were at Ziggy's and having a beer, I would say to him, What is your deal with this? Like, why do you think that's going to work? And he would say, as he said to me for over 30 years, okay, now, look, here's why this is this and that. And I must admit, he's turned me around on a couple of things. And a couple of things I think he's full of shit on. And I would tell him that, but that's not the place for it. The place for that is in a private conversation between two friends. I'm not there to take him to task. I'm catching up with my pal, when your pal has a job like that. Listen, if you have a friend who is the CEO of Air Canada, or runs a big oil company in Alberta, or is the president of the goddamn BC Ferries out here, you know, those people don't have a lot of time. They have jobs that require them to leave the office or the house, you know, at seven in the morning and often aren't back until eight o'clock at night and then when they get home at eight o'clock at night. After they have a quick bite with the kids. Then they open their files and do some studying for the next day. You know, being Prime Minister, whether you like him or not, it's a big job and he doesn't have a lot of time every minute of his day is scheduled when they contact me. Like they did. They said the prime minister will be at the Fairmont Hotel, and you have an hour starting at 215. That's it, because he had something at 330. And he had something in the morning. And the motorcade dropped him off. He went upstairs, he changed. He came back downstairs, he sat with me for an hour, he took a picture. He gave me a hug and kiss my wife goodbye, he went back upstairs, he changed. And as we were going out the door, he was getting in the motorcade to go to surgery to meet with, I don't know who but he was meeting with people, he had meetings all day. And then he was getting on the plane the next morning to get home to see if he could spend a moment or two with his kids. Before he had more meetings, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, all of that to say, you know, this hour that I get with him at Christmas, I'm extremely grateful for, and I want to know shit about my buddy's gig. I don't want to talk to him about his position at the UN. I don't want to talk to him about, you know, his environment minister and the environment Minister's wacky ideas? Because I you know, I don't agree with everything. I don't want to talk to him about the pipelines and the convoys. I don't want to talk about any of that shit. I want to know, is Joe Biden nice? What's the plane? Like? Who puts files on your desks? Are you the boss? Do you have arguments with your ministers? Is there anybody who's pissed you off this year? One year, I asked him, What, what's the world leader with the worst breath? You know, these are the kinds of things I get excoriated for. But this is the shit I want to know. Like, you know, if you're your pal, you know, you have a friend who's a rock star, or who suddenly becomes the Transport Minister, or adjunct to the prime minister in Britain, or is used to be the Queen's Butler. Don't you want to know ship with that? Aren't you curious about what that job entails? I am. Like I said, Don't do you have milk in the fridge? What do you do about groceries? And he said, You're not going to believe this. But I'd like to go to Canadian Tire on Saturday. And of course, he's being excoriated for that bullshit. He doesn't go to Canadian tech. Those are the things that I want to know. I want to know, do the kids have social media? Have they seen the fuck Trudeau flags? Like, you know, that's the stuff that I want to know. So we can catch up. So I can tell him? I think about him all the time. You know, he was here. You know, I think it was October or November. And he was having dinner in a restaurant that he loves, in Vancouver. A rare occasion to get away for a couple of hours and have restaurant his grandparents lived out here. So he has, you know, family and friends out here. And he went to the restaurant and protesters barge their way into the restaurant and surrounded his table didn't surround his table because the security people won't let that happen. But they barged into the restaurant. And they're screaming and yelling, you know, they're screaming their slogans and yelling and flying flags in his face. He's trying to have dinner. Now, you can say he's a public figure. He's the Prime Minister, you know, he has to expect that people are going to protest. And he does. And I agree with it. People should be allowed to protest and tell him they disagree with him. But do you have to behave like assholes? Is there no respect or decency anymore? Could you not stand on the sidewalk and wait for him to come out and call him a piece of shit. So he had to get up from the table. And he went around to each one of the diners in the restaurant to apologize. And said, I'm very sorry, I'm sorry, I brought this and to ruin your I didn't mean to ruin your evening, please enjoy the rest of your dinner. I'm going to be leaving now. And he did that to every table in the restaurant. And he left. And of course, he's surrounded by increasing security because, you know, people are unhinged these days. And I thought to myself, Jesus Christ, so I texted him right away. And I said, are you okay? Because that's the way we communicate. We communicate by text. And I said, pal, are you okay? And he said, Yeah, yeah, it's, you know, it's just protesters. I'm fine. My, you know, I'm being looked after I'm fine. Don't worry about a TD. But I do. You know, I do. He doesn't talk about it. And nobody in his office will talk about it. But let's just say I notice, there's a couple of extra men around when he's when he travels now. And listen, we're Canadians. I don't you know, I don't expect people to behave like they're behaving, but they are behaving like that. And when someone throws pebbles at you and calls your wife a whore, I don't know how you keep your patients. So I love this guy. I've been friends with him for a long time. And we like to have a Christmas catch up. And when We do. And I asked him the questions that I want to know about, like, stupid things like, does he have milk in the fridge? Because I'm not working for 60 minutes, I want to catch up with my pal and I want people to have an insight as to what it's like to be the Prime Minister of Canada. And and how do you handle it? When your kids have to go to school every day, and other kids are telling them, my dad says Your dad is a piece of shit. You know, that's a difficult thing to live with. Those are the things that I want to know. And that's what the chat is all about. And despite the fact that every year I'd say that at the beginning of the chat, I get all kinds of maddening. You know, if they're not maddening, because I don't give a shit anymore. You know, people are cray cray, and there's nothing you can do about it. And they're unhinged, and they don't think about him. You know, they call him just on my Twitter feed today, they call them scum. You know, one woman on Instagram said to me, to call him Your friend is a slap in the face to Canadians.

Matt Cundill  26:06  
The sound off podcast with Matt Cundill. Okay, so that leads to the next question. And I know you don't know the answer. But I'm going to ask it anyway. How does somebody get to that point in their life, where they believe that one man has the power to create some sort of havoc or problem in their life that they are acting out in this particular way? Because I'm a poli sci major. I know how politics works, you'd make it sound like he was an autocrat. It just doesn't work that way. I can't see. And by the way, like you go, if I walked through the trucker convoy a couple of years ago, and you ask, why are you here to 100 people, you will get 100 different answers. So what the fuck is wrong with people?

Terry Dimonte  26:57  
I really don't know. I, you know, as a matter of fact, it's that's the way, you know, my question to him about ministers. I prefaced it by saying, a lot of people think you're an emperor, you know, that. He's sitting at his desk making decisions that affects their daily lives. That's not the way a parliamentary democracy works. And I asked him, I, you know, about the winds of the right wing blowing up from down south and the anger. And, you know, he said, there are people struggling, and they're angry, and it's okay, that they're angry with me, and I want to stick around and try and make a difference. My personal opinion is, it's social media, social media has made for example, I'll say it on this podcast. I disagree with the country's position on the Palestinian conflict. I am pro Israeli full stop. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to hear it. And I think there's a lot of people, whether it's me to Black Lives Matter, you know, the other social causes that that people became involved with, I think the majority of people were heartfelt, and the majority of people think they're on the right side, and they want to do the right thing. And it's what they believe, you know, I saw a picture. And I'm sure a lot of people have seen hit of the library at Harvard. And sitting in the library at Harvard was mostly young, white women, American women, I'm assuming for the most part, with a big hand painted sign at the back of the library that said, stop the genocide. And all of the women were wearing to the Palestinian scarf around their neck. And I thought to myself, Okay, your suburban 19 year old from Connecticut, who's in Harvard? Really? Really? That's, that's your fashion accessory? Really, you really, you know, you really believe that same thing with, you know, queers for Palestine. Have you not read that they will fling you off the building, if they find you having sex with somebody of the same sex?

Matt Cundill  29:03  
You'd be the first to go, by the way if you went there? Yeah. So

Terry Dimonte  29:07  
these are the things that I look at. And I think, Okay, well, why, like what's going on? And I think it's social media. And it becomes a tsunami of things that people think they need to do they have to do, and they get all ginned up, and leaders gin them up, you know, political leaders, you know, social leaders, you know, municipal leaders, they gin their crowds up for their own political cause. And they get these people wound up. So that's what happened with vaccinations and the convoy and the conservatives. And the climate pledges that the Liberals have made and other things that have made people angry the carbon tax inflation. Everybody thought the Prime Minister was doing an amazing job when COVID first hit and people forgot that. And then to push a political agenda, people got behind the, you know, the anti Vax thing and the convoy thing and he becomes the enemy. He becomes all the tropes that they drag out about, you know, he was only a teacher and he doesn't know anything. And he's stupid. And he had a silver spoon in his mouth and other things that I know aren't true. You're talking about a kid who came from privilege, but was never coddled, his father wouldn't put up with it. And a kid who was raised to be home at the dinner table, every single day, his father insisted that him and his two brothers be at the dinner table on time at six o'clock. And at the dinner table, it was either a chat about communism, Shakespeare, the Constitution, politics of the day, this was an Al Bundy. Like, these are intelligent, bright people. And my point always is, when I have this chat is you may disagree with them. I'll give you the example of me and Ted bird. Ted is very right wing. Ted is right on a lot of issues. So my, but I'm also center. I don't think I'm left on very much, but I'm center on a lot of things. I'm pro abortion. I'm pro gay marriage, I'm I'm pro live your own life. Yeah, elite, you want to smoke weed, great love who you love, enjoy your life. So long as you're not hurting anybody away you go. And then I'm, you know, I'm a little I'm a little right of center when it comes to the way they spend the money, the bike paths, the other things that are changing cities that a lot of people think are important than I don't. But you know, Ted is mostly center and right. We've been friends for 40 years. And we we've argued, and we've disagreed we sat across each other from 40 years, every day at five o'clock in the fucking morning. I love this guy. Do you think because he takes a position on one political issue that I'm gonna go You're a piece of shit. No, that's not the way to behave? That's not you're a poli sci guy. That's not what politics are supposed to be.

Matt Cundill  32:23  
But that could have made for a better radio show.

Terry Dimonte  32:28  
would have been more entertaining? Fuck, you know, fucking you know, I understand that. It's a story that's been told 10,000 times. I don't need to tell it again. But, you know, when when Justin was a kid, and he was going to the parliamentary cafeteria with his dad and his, he spotted Joe Clark and Justin said something like, you know, there's the bad guy or the enemy. And his father was furious. Not furious. But you know, Justin was just a kid said no, that's just a man I disagree with and we're gonna go over and have lunch with him. And him and Joe Clark sat across from each other and there was a picture. This always seems to happen after they get off out of office was a picture. I don't know if you saw it. I'm Shawn Krejci and Stephen Harper a couple of weeks ago standing next to each other. And being civil and talking to each other as two people that cared a lot about the country, but had different ideas about how the country should be run. Justin has taken all kinds of phone calls from Brian Mulroney and Brian Mulroney has called him to congratulate him on the job he did to save NAFTA. You know, these are the things people don't talk about while you're yelling, you piece of shit and flying your fuck Trudeau flag. You know, I I was visiting friends of my wife's in in Barry's Bay, Ontario. And I had slowed the car down to like four kilometers an hour I said to my wife, sweetheart, look at this. And on the porch of a beautiful old style, you know, country Ontario home, you know, the kind of home that you would see in a movie that look charming. And you'd think, you know, Ethel and Carl lived there and have been there for 80 years or whatever. If you know what the porch, the beams of the front door and strong from the porch was not a handmade sign a sign that they went and had printed. And it was big. I mean, it was, I don't know 15 feet by 20 Fiat and like big. And like I said, not hand painted. It was was printed. And it said in big, big black letters, fuck Trudeau and underneath that lovely phrase, and it said, and if you love Trudeau fuck you too. And I thought to myself, what has happened to Canadians that that display of ignorance and horrible manners would be proudly displayed on your porch and what do you do if your neighbors have chilled Ron, what do you tell them? You know, I often drive by a truck out here in British Columbia, with, you know, three kids in the back and a dog and a man and a woman in the front flying a giant fuck Trudeau flag with stickers on the back. That's a fuck Trudeau. And I think to myself, What do you how do you explain that to your children? Like what when your kid says, Daddy, what's fuck Trudeau mean? And, you know, it's I never saw Canadians is that, you know, there was always you know, Uncle Harvey at the Christmas table yelling and screaming and banging on the table about that fuckin Trudeau or that fucking Joe Clark or that fucking Mulroney or whatever. But no one from one proudly displayed that, like what what's happened to us and I, I go all the way back to when we first started talking about this. A lot of it is social media. It's easy to be a keyboard warrior. And it's pretty sad because I just still view Canadians through the ACA. How are you doing good? Do you want to come over for supper? You know, like you, you think of think of your early days in the Maritimes. Matt, in my early days in Manitoba, was unthinkable, unthinkable that people would behave that was such crassness was unthinkable. And you you would be rightfully excoriated for it. You know, people would wag their finger and say, hey, there are children around stop it. And that's gone. And

Matt Cundill  36:25  
not to be forgotten is that all this has been accomplished by Trudeau with a minority government, which means you can't do any of this without a little help from some other people. Yeah, yeah. You know, who are who are getting little to no blame. So it's this amorphous thing that is in people's minds that has been created, that it's the boogey man. Yeah,

Terry Dimonte  36:50  
and take it all back. You know, you've known me for a very long time. I'm a kid from Verdun. My parents were blue collar, hard working people that did the best they could to raise three kids. And I came from a family that have any connections, we know anybody in the media or politics or, you know, I thought the peerform Pirates coach was a star. You know, like the junior B hockey team, I thought that guy was a celebrity. We didn't know anybody. And I'm interviewing the prime minister. And that, you know, that's just never lost on me. And I, I just get such, you know, I just when we're walking away from the hotel, this, you know, couple of weeks ago, I said to my wife just had a chat with the Prime Minister. It's, it's still isn't lost to me. I think it's very cool. And I think it's a lovely thing that he does. And I know, there are many, many people that enjoy it. And there's a lot, you know, there's a lot of people that that throw shit my way, in his way. But I think it's a lovely thing, that two old friends get together and talk at Christmas, just like you and me. And you happen to be the emperor of the sound off Podcast Network, and he happens to be the prime minister. And I love both chats just as much. I

Matt Cundill  38:11  
do find it really odd the way people have have fallen off a cliff. And I think you are right, I think it is social media. I remember you always told me sign your name to your work. And I think a lot of people just well, they don't do it. I think they think they're media wizards or something. But no, they can't sign their name to their work. By the way, all these people, I don't think they would come up to you and say this to your face. I think they just love doing it, you know, from behind the keyboard. But do none of these people have like friends who might vote NDP? Or who might vote conservative or who might vote Liberal or Green Party?

Terry Dimonte  38:44  
I don't know. And I don't think they're interested in any kind of like, normal chat. You know, as you're telling me this, I'm looking at my Twitter feed. And, you know, the, the amount of things that come is from V, Vons and Ling, PAO, and mountain dreaming and all kinds of bots, they're all hiding behind this shit. And what really, really is stunning to me is, you know, because you're hiding behind a mask, and because you're hiding behind a keyboard, it's amazing to me how deep the depths that they can plumb the depths of hatred that they can plumb and how nasty they can get. You know, even though it's behind the keyboard, it still is in a public forum. You know, some of the things they say. They think they're being clever and there was somebody said, Toronto Star writing another fluff piece for their boy. You know, that's not nasty, but it's just It always surprises me and I think to mice, should I forget, I forget where the quote is from a famous comedian, or it was in a movie. I forget where it was. You kiss your mother. I think it was Cheech and Chong. You kiss him. through with that mouth, the brush your teeth with them, like honest to God like, Jesus. Like calm down. Honestly, calm down. They really

Matt Cundill  40:10  
have something to say they can this call me I'll get you a podcast. Yeah, I can assure you it will not be very good. It won't last very long. You don't even have a lot to say that smart, but we'll get to the podcast. There you go.

Terry Dimonte  40:21  
or extend Maddie and don't tell you to suck his dick

Matt Cundill  40:28  
I gotta ask you don't miss radio, do you? I do a bit. You don't miss the hours or you didn't miss the radio?

Terry Dimonte  40:34  
No, no, God, no, I never missed the hours. But I have to admit I do. I do a bit because this that we're doing now. You know, me talking into a microphone and telling stories. I just I love doing that. I really did. And I still do. And I you know we do to an extent on the podcast. But as you well no, until everything went sideways. 1012 years ago, the magic in in the medium is is just something that isn't replaced. I was in my in my pharmacy a couple of days ago and him and I get along like house on fire. But you know, nobody. Nobody knows what I did for a living out here. I'm completely anonymous out here. And he asked me out of the blue. And nobody does. So it's a little bit taken aback. He said. He said, Are you retired? I said Yeah, me. What did you do? And I said, Well, I worked in the radio business for many years. He said, Oh, what did you do on the radio? And I said, Well, I I was the host of a morning show in Montreal for a very long time. He went oh my god. And I said, Well, you know, you wouldn't have you wouldn't have known it. You said, I love radio. He said I love the companionship of radio. He said, You know, I can do everything that I'm doing. And radio has. He didn't use the word magic. But he was explaining that radio didn't need pictures, and yet it could still keep me company. And then he said something that stunned me because I thought only radio people talk like this. He said, radio feels like my friend. It's like having a friend here. And I said, Yep, I said nadji that's that's the magic of radio. That has always been the magical radio. It's live,

Matt Cundill  42:19  
man. It's it's live. Yeah. Live.

Terry Dimonte  42:23  
And in the moment, you know, and I still to this day, especially when I go back to Montreal. People still say to me, I grew up with you. You know, I don't remember High School. You know, high school wouldn't have been the same without you and Patti or you and Ted. And I it's not that I'm living in the past. And I don't want to live in the past. But I wish I wish I had an outlet. I could keep people company maybe once or twice a week and maybe tell stories. You know, there was a plan. A lot of people don't know this, but the guy who hired me back brought me back to Montreal from Calgary. Martin Spaulding. My contract expired in May of 2020. I think it was 2021. Yeah, I don't anyway, was expired in May. So that was my quote unquote, retirement. And in the Christmas prior to May, so like 567 months before my contract expired. Martin said to me, you know, I think we can we can come up with an idea for you with, you know, you could be like a sort of a ShowMe. emeritus guy, you know, maybe you could do the odd specialist, you know, it would be great. We could do your Christmas show every year. And you know, we could record that and run that around Christmas knee and just sort of keep your presence around. He said, Would you like that? I said, Yeah, I would love to talk about that. I sit down, you know, I'm sure we can come up with some ideas after I have a long break hold. I'd look forward to that. And in January, they fired him. And that was the end of that. So there, you know, there was some discussion prior to the let's get rid of this guy and his salary. There was some discussion about that. Maybe I could do a thing or two about a thing or two. And when I think about it, I think I've I wouldn't mind doing that. I do that thing with Ted at light 1067 small radio station in Hudson and him and I put together a show for Saturday morning from nine to noon. That's a lot of fun. Do

Matt Cundill  44:19  
you remember when that was first introduced to you at shome doing us doing a Saturday morning Best of Show. idea was that.

Terry Dimonte  44:27  
But you know what? That's that's a feather in your cap, my friend. It was good idea. Because it was popular and we had a ball doing it. We had an absolute ball doing it every, every Friday, Ted and I would send our producer across the street to get fried chicken from the Prophet go. And contributing to part of my problem at the hospital I guess. And we would sit and we would we would listen to clips from the week and we'd howl with laughter and then at the end of the show Mark would put together about a five or six minute blooper reel because we were having so much fun Mark said, We got to share this with the audience. And that proved to be the most popular part of the show. We had a ball doing it and absolute ball doing it. So yeah, you were writing it. You know, I don't know, that took an hour out of my Friday or whatever. But I didn't know what it is about the business. But the business and its current shape, are not interested at all, in people who'd been doing it for a while. I had one guy tell me that he thought he said managers think you guys want a lot of money to do it. You'd be stunned at how little money I do it for I'm retired, I would do it for fun. Anyway, that's again, Terry's long winded answer to say, I do miss it a bit. I really do. Because, as you know, Matt, it was our passion. You know, I couldn't believe people paid us to do it was just, you know, when I got to Winnipeg, and seven and I thought I won the lotto, I just, I could not believe that they had turned me loose in a radio station with a, you know, a library full of albums that I could choose and pick and put my own radio show together and leave me in the building from midnight to six. I just, I just thought I just thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Matt Cundill  46:20  
I can't believe they did that to me either. Especially when I look at that I have kids the same age, because I would not let them go and run the radio station with records. I'm gonna leave this these kids in charge of a station between midnight and six. I don't think that's a good idea. Leave

Terry Dimonte  46:40  
the kids in charge of anything. I you know, and I look back on it with such fondness and, and also gratitude because we were very lucky. You know, that era that we were in, and I was watching a documentary, my wife and I are both JFK fans, you know, fans of of the man in the story. And we're watching a JFK documentary, one of the 9 million we've seen. And I said to just look at that, that was the era that was the era where radio was king. You know, people on the streets of New York with a transistor radios held up to their head. That was the that was the town square. You know, we grew up in an area where radio was the town square. If you wanted to know where the queen city kids were playing on Friday night, which bar they were going to be at you had to listen to city FM. If you wanted to know when AC DC was coming to town and where to get tickets, you had to listen to city FM. You know, if you wanted to hear the new back in black, you had to tune in city FM it was I guess a was a different era era. And but I think there's a lot of things are diminished, because that era is gone. I saw on Facebook that this or you know, CBS put on Twitter that they're doing this or whatever. It's just, you know, it's it's yeah, the world is better and blah, blah, blah. But all of that to say was we were very, very lucky that we grew up in that era. And it was a it's a special time when you when I see it reflected in, in documentaries and movies like that, you know, when people are, are standing and gasping when they get the news out of the little box from the transistor being held up to their ear. It's a it's a display of the magic of radio that I don't think it's gone. By the way. You know, I don't think there's a lot to listen to on the radio anymore. Because a lot of spontaneity is gone. And a lot of local stuff is gone. You can still reach out and touch people through the radio speaker if you know what you're doing.

Matt Cundill  48:36  
How's your TV viewing? And when I asked you that I'm really mean have you watched the Gilded Age, my wife,

Terry Dimonte  48:42  
my wife and I love it. Love it. My wife and I are Downton Abbey fans. Me too. So it's there's a common thread there because of the writer and the the era of history. And we think it's terrific and I'm forgetting her name as I'm trying to tell the story. But the lady, the lady who was on the good wife and Christ, what's her name? Christine

Matt Cundill  49:05  
Baranski.

Terry Dimonte  49:06  
Thank you.

Matt Cundill  49:07  
I also want to mention, by the way, she's a huge Buffalo Bills fan.

Terry Dimonte  49:12  
Issue, really. She my wife and I say this every time we watched the Gilded Age, and The Good Wife, my wife turned me on to the good wife. I didn't watch it when it was on and I couldn't believe that I missed it. Christine Baranski is one of the most underrated actresses in Hollywood. I think she is amazing in in this role and, and I just love the writing in the Gilded Age. I just think it's terrific. I'm glad you're watching it. Yeah.

Matt Cundill  49:37  
And Wrexham I know you've got a football fan for a wife. So yeah, Wrexham

Terry Dimonte  49:42  
and I've become a football fan. And I would watch Ryan Reynolds read the phone book. Yeah. Is there any guy who's more charming and clever and fun and II? You know, I don't I don't know him. I've never met him but he just looks like the nicest, kindest man In the world with the greatest sense of humor, and every time he has a new mint mobile commercial, I get excited. I go on YouTube and find it. One of the many companies that he owns, you know, in his gin commercials, and you know, what he did with Wrexham is genius. It's absolute, like from a business point of view, a marketing point of view, and also a football point of view. And the good that it's done for that town has been spectacular. My only criticism, if you're watching this, right. Is he wasn't in the part to the second season of the documentary isn't as compelling because he's not in it very much.

Matt Cundill  50:41  
It came to my mind when you were saying, Hey, I do this for peanuts. I don't think I'm ruining the show by mentioning this. But to go and get Ben Foster out of retirement for the last eight games of the year, is kind of like I'm gonna bring Terry to Montana to do Sunday morning. So we have a good book.

Terry Dimonte  50:57  
Yeah, I guess there's, there's a little bit of a similarity to that course. And then I'd have to move back to Montreal.

Matt Cundill  51:02  
You don't you're doing exactly what they thought you'd be doing anyways, afterwards, and you're doing Christmas shows, you're doing all that you got a podcast going. It's I don't mean to say that, like you haven't gone away. But there's, there's still tons of content you're producing. So nobody's gonna forget about you

Terry Dimonte  51:17  
know, I'm not concerned about that. I just, I was talked about this thing that the celebrity or notoriety or whatever you want to call it that came with being on the radio every morning, was a byproduct was just a byproduct of what we did. I didn't do it for that. You just had to accept that. It's, it's, it's why I get angry when I hear people complain about being famous. You know, you hear actors say, you know, it's too much. And you have to leave me alone. And Hey, shut up. Right, the people who watch your movies or your television shows, you know, and you have to know, I had like a tiny, tiny, tiny little sort of taste of it as a as a morning radio host. And I get it if you're Ryan Reynolds, or you're somebody, you know, the prime minister or somebody with a big, big public figure you it's going to be tough to go out in public. But I have no sympathy for you, you know that you're living that wonderful life. Because you're in the public eye. It's just something that you you have to put up with. I always remember chatting with Gila Fleur, and interviewing him when he when his book came out years ago. And I said to him, What did you What did you like about playing for the Rangers? And he said to me, I got to do my grocery. I said what he said, I could do my grocery, you said it was fun for me. Because I could go to do my grocery and nobody know who I was, you know, and I understood it because De La Fleur cannot walk or couldn't have walked rest in peace. Any city in this country, from coast to coast to coast, he couldn't have gotten anywhere, everybody would have recognized him. But in New Jersey, he could do his grocery. And I don't know why I got on that. I went on a tangent there about actors who complain about being recognized, I guess.

Matt Cundill  53:04  
Well, the way it was explained to me from you was it comes with the territory. So if you're going to be an actor, that's what happens. Yeah.

Terry Dimonte  53:14  
And normally, people would just say, hey, Terry, how you doing? Or they, they'll say, hey, Terry, I loved your show, or you know, it's nice to meet you, my father and I listened to you every morning. Thank you. That's, that's a wonderful, wonderful compliment. That's that's kind you know, and every once in a while you get, you know, I never listened to you. Okay, that's fine. Not everybody did. That's okay.

Matt Cundill  53:38  
Did you wanna watch a small light? A

Terry Dimonte  53:41  
small light on prime? I haven't watched that. I'm writing it down.

Matt Cundill  53:46  
Okay, that's going to be my recommendation to you. And I think a lot of people have overlooked it as being a radio story because it's first a world it's a love story. It's a world war two story. It's it's a story of many things, but you and I would watch it and we would say that's a radio story.

Terry Dimonte  54:03  
Is that the story about the girl? Who was the thing with the German guy and the Yeah, that thing? Okay, cool. Thank you. I'm gonna watch this. Thank you. I watched the trailer but I haven't watched it yet. Very surprised.

Matt Cundill  54:15  
A lot of radio people haven't mentioned Hey, it's a radio story. But it's radio story X cool. What you're doing for your birthday this year? Because last year last year, it's not gonna be a hard act to follow because last year was open heart surgery this year.

Terry Dimonte  54:31  
Yeah, a little quieter I hope and, and no side of the chest. I'm hoping I don't know if that's what it sounds like. My my wife and I, Jess and I have had conversations about it. This. This is something else that I haven't talked about publicly. What's been interesting is because I had such a struggle and because I was in so much trouble and flirted with the other side as it were, my wife has been experiencing a bit of trauma, not paralyzing trauma, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to overplay it and be overdramatic, but when December arrived, because this time last year, it was so intense. And we were so frightened. When December arrived, she started to get edgy and feelings of and it came up. I said, you know, what, what do you want to do on my birthday? And, and she said, Well, we're going to do something joyous and celebratory. That's what we're going to do. As a matter of fact, she wants to have two different celebrations her dad is coming to visit from Quebec, after after Christmas, he'll be here, I think, on the 27th. And she said to me last night, would you do you mind if we did a birthday thing with my dad while my dad is here? And I said, no, they, you know, do you want to do it early? And she said, No, I want to do two. So we're going to do one with dad when he's here. And then and then we'll do one with me and you want the third? So I don't know what it is. We're going to we're going to decide maybe a restaurant or something. We have not found any good restaurants. I'm sure we talked about this before. We find the food absolute ship out here. I mean, it's fine if you like Earl's

Matt Cundill  56:15  
Oh, you're overlooking some here, Terry. Cal sees Mark sees Montana's Joey's Yes. Your eyes a little bit.

Terry Dimonte  56:27  
Cod. Yes. And I what we think and BC people are gonna, they're gonna hate us for this. But we don't know anybody. Nobody talks to us. We have no friends. But a couple of people have said to just like it works. You have to try such and such. And we'll go and think, oh, oh, my God. And what we've realized is if you grew up here, right, Vancouver was, you know, BC is a small province and has been, you know, it's not a small province anymore. I don't mean geographically. I mean, population wise. You know, for years and years and years. Vancouver was, you know, fairly small population wise. And you can get amazing Asian food, amazing Indian food. You know, those are the kinds of things that you don't want to have Chinese food, like every second or third day or every weekend. And I'm not a food. I'm not an Indian food fan. As you well know.

Matt Cundill  57:23  
I did. Actually I asked you if you wanted to have Indian food one night, and you said you would eat it right over the toilet.

Terry Dimonte  57:28  
Yeah, just just bring it into me. I'll sit on the can and we'll cut out the middleman. Bring me bring him bring me a towel and so I can mop my forehead. And I'll just eat it as it's coming. And so we're gonna cut out the middleman.

Matt Cundill  57:48  
We have to put this episode out on the 26th There's no way we can put this out on the 25th

Terry Dimonte  57:54  
Yeah, it hasn't been very Christmassy never is. Oh, what we're trying to decide if we can find a restaurant we went to. We when we got married. We got married in British Columbia. And we had our reception at highs. Highs is my all time favorite steakhouse of all time. I've had so many great memories. You know, it all started in Winnipeg at the highs in Winnipeg. That was I think the very first fancy steakhouse I was ever in. Andy Frost was our waiter. Really? Yes. Andy Frost was a waiter at the highs in Winnipeg. And he was one of the best waiters ever. In the history of highs. He was a really great, you know how I was talking about the service that highs and how great it is. That was my first exposure to it was Andy frost had never seen anything like it. My son is working there. Yes. Is he still there? Yep. Yeah. And I love the highs in Winnipeg.

Matt Cundill  58:54  
I want Andy frost to bring you the steak and announce it. Yeah, here is your medium rare.

Terry Dimonte  59:07  
You when you put the podcast do you have to let nd no tag nd in the podcast. Anyway, we were at. We were at highs in Vancouver the other night. We were downtown for Oh, after the interview with the Prime Minister. I said we're downtown sweetheart. Let's go to highs and I'm sorry to say the highs man Coover has lost its fastball. Dang, I'm very disappointing. So we all have that to say we don't know. Joe fortes is a great restaurant. We may we may go there. But the other thing now I don't know if you've noticed this Maddy Winnipeg but a lot of restaurants we call the we call the restaurant infall that Stanley Tucci had talked about and just said Home Depot just love Stanley Tucci. And anyway, she called the restaurant that he had talked about that he had been at when he was in Vancouver. And they said, Yeah, we have a table was available November 24. Thanks for what kind of ways that to run a restaurant anyway. All that to say is you know if anybody's from Vancouver and wants to DM me about a restaurant that they love and to please don't recommend the Cactus Club we go there all the time just one close to you know guy or collectors, right? I want to, I want many buffs I want to you know, I want to I want the monkland Tavern and I want to you know, I want to the corner little tiny place in you know, petite by three and the restaurant in the back corner of Walmart, you know, the, the places where the you know, the the old Italian family has been there for 1000 years, that kind of thing that for some reason, we haven't found that here.

Matt Cundill  1:00:44  
Terry, Merry Christmas to you. I'm sorry, I'm not going to see you. Maybe in 2024 we will resolve to see one another.

Terry Dimonte  1:00:52  
Listen, I apologize. I had fully intended to be there. Because I missed the annual visit with you for the dip in the pool. Not that I come to visit you for the swim, but I liked the fact that you do have a pool in the backyard. And you know how much I love your children. I'm very fond to your kids and I wanted to see them and also my radio dad Don Percy lives in Winnipeg, and I can't believe I missed the visit this year so I promise you I will make up for it in 2024

Matt Cundill  1:01:24  
good I'll handle the dinner. Okay,

Terry Dimonte  1:01:26  
I'll look forward to that. As long as it isn't nothing not there's anything wrong with URLs or the Cactus Club I don't get me wrong there they're absolutely fine.

Matt Cundill  1:01:34  
Oh my god you have a Cactus Club in your part of the world we don't even have one in Winnipeg.

Terry Dimonte  1:01:40  
I'm sure you will soon we have a highs this spring roll out the red carpet. Yeah, yeah. I hope so. Merry Christmas to you and the boys Matthew and give our loves Dave and and give our love to your your mum and the the other candles that are all around the world which

Matt Cundill  1:01:58  
and Merry Christmas to Jess. I think of her every time man he was on. Oh my god. Actually this year it's been like oh my god is Jess. Okay. Yeah,

Terry Dimonte  1:02:06  
Saturday and Sunday mornings have not been fun here. If you're a man you some Florida you know what I'm talking about?