Our guest host this morning was Glen Murray in Vancouver.

Satire

It's Friday, June 23rd.

This summer, CBC TV's flagship news show, 'The National', will be bumped by an American reality TV series. In its time slot, you can watch The One: Making A Music Star.

Currently, well Peter Mansbridge ... you had a great run as Canada's chief journalist… what else can we say other than…

(Song: Bad Day by Daniel Powder w/ Mansbridge clips)

Small Town Violence

Mass killings, random violence, gun-toting gangs, and kidnappings … they're the sorts of things that make people fearful of big cities and long for safer, more tranquil, small town settings -- where "this sort of thing doesn't happen."

Unless you count crime sprees like the biker murders outside Shedden, Ontario this spring. Or the massacre of four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alberta last year. OR what about the so-called "highway of tears"... the stretch of road connecting small cities and towns in northern British Columbia where nine female hitchhikers have been murdered or disappeared in recent years. The list goes on, and the reaction of the media and locals usually sounds the same.

It's enough to make you question conventional wisdom that violent crimes just don't happen in places like this. In fact, here are some statistics that give lie to that claim. A 2002 report prepared by the Department of Justice revealed that the violent crime rates of large cities are well below Canada's national average. But the violent crime rate peaks in small towns.

To help us get a grasp on this counter-intuitive notion, we were joined by Irvin Waller. He's a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa and the former director of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. He was in our Ottawa studio today.

Tony Burgess

Well, of course, there are a lot of people who have never bought into the idyllic, Norman Rockwell view of small-town life. Whether you're talking about grisly farm accidents, the crystal meth epidemic or 17-year-olds totalling their parents' cars as they drive to and from bush parties, there's no shortage of violent deaths and destruction taking place in small town Canada.

Tony Burgess has spent most of his life in Toronto, but for the past ten years, he's lived in the kinds of small towns that have shaped his often gothic novels---including Pontypool Changes Everything. We reached him at his home in Stayner, Ontario.

Listen to The Current: Part 1

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 2

Retail Madness – Starbucks

Here in Vancouver, at the corner of Robson and Thurlow streets there is a trademark landmark of sorts...one corner with two Starbucks outlets.

Apart from a couple of stores selling tourist trinkets and candied salmon, this part of downtown Vancouver - like many urban centres around the globe - is awash in large retail chains. In this half hour, wee explored how the identity of our cities is being reshaped by retail - for better or for worse.

And to begin… we took a look at one of the fastest growing chains in the world. Starbucks, which, as we just heard, has a lock on at least one Vancouver street corner. And it has plans to double the number of stores in the world in the next five years.

There are 11 thousand of these coffee shops globally, and our next guest has visited more than half of them. He is a computer programmer named Winter and his visits to more than 5,913 outlets are being chronicled in an upcoming documentary called, 'Starbucking'. We reached him -- where else - at a brand new Starbucks in Houston, Texas (number 5,914 for him!) His journeys to nearly 6,000 coffee shops are the subject of an upcoming documentary, 'Starbucking'.

Retail: Uniformity

Despite Winter's singular enthusiasm for Starbucks, there are those who are concerned about the growing dominance of retail chains in urban centres around the globe. Put a Starbucks alongside a Banana Republic, add an HMV outlet and toss in a Pottery Barn, and you have what's known in Britain as a 'Clone Town'.

Ruth Potts is the co-author of a study for the New Economics Foundation called 'Clone Town Britain', and she was in our London studio.

Retail and Cities

Well, no one would ever think to call the Haight - Ashbury section of San Francisco one of those "Clone Towns", right? After all, since the 60s this intersection has been the international epicentre of hippie culture--the epitome of separate and unique.

But today, even that iconic corner shares at least one thing in common with hundreds of other corners of the world---the folded rows of t-shirts that signal a Gap store.

To examine the impact retail chains are having on a city's defining character, we were joined by Joel Kotkin. He is an urban historian and senior fellow at the New America Foundation. He is also the author of The City: A global History. And Joel Kotkin was in CBC's Washington D.C. studio this morning.

Listen to The Current: Part 2

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

The Current: Part 3

City Idol Challenges

If even the thought of voting in local elections brings on a sudden bout of narcolepsy, maybe you'd consider tuning in if this was the soundtrack for local political showdowns … the theme song to Canadian Idol, a popular television series where viewers vote on who will be the next great Canadian pop star.

The show inspired Dave Meslin to apply that concept to city politics. And he came up with an idea called "City Idol", in which Torontonians compete for the chance to run for city council in the November election. We aired a bit of what one of the final rounds sounded like from an upcoming documentary called "the City Idol competition".

The Current invited all four City Idol candidates to compete in our own friendly political challenge. The prize---an interview on our program. So earlier this week, producer Dominic Girard put the four city idol candidates through their paces in three elimination round challenges. We aired how Round One went down.

City Idol Creator

To tell us why he thought a Canadian Idol-style competition would spice up the local political process, we were joined by the program's creator, Dave Meslin -- also the founder of the Toronto Public Space Committee. He was in Toronto.

Civic Vote

Whether or not the four City Idol candidates succeed in mobilizing Torontonians to vote en masse this Fall remains to be seen. But it's certainly one way to get the public to take an interest in parking, potholes and pipes---issues that don't seem to inspire the sort of heated political debate you find at other levels of government.

According to our next guest, another way to do it is to challenge the way people think about civic government. Robert J. Williams teaches political science at the University of Waterloo, and he joined us from his home in Waterloo.

Well, there's one round left in The Current's City Idol Candidate Challenge. It's a dead heat between Bahar Aminvaziri and Arthur Roszak. Only one challenge remains before the winner scores the coveted 2 minute interview. Who will it be?

Winner Interview

Well we did promise listeners a winner. And it looks like the Current's jury has chosen--by a margin of 7 to 5 --- Arthur Roszak. Apparently he was the candidate who best handled our irate caller, so therefore he's the winner of our City Idol challenge. We gave him a call at home.

Last Word: Bad Day Song

Sadly, whenever there's a winner, there are always losers. OR as we like to put it on the Current, there are those who did not win. But they participated and that's something.

As every contestant on every reality show on the planet can attest to, it takes a lot of guts to put yourself out there, to stand up and show what you're made of to risk being humiliated, rejected, and, perhaps, voted off the island. No one wants to end their tenure in the spotlight with slow motion shots of their defeat superimposed over this song, this ubiquitous song....this annoying soundtrack to modern, ignominious defeat.

We ended the show today with the song “Bad Day”, written by Canadian, Daniel Powter, who was born in the Okanagan Valley, B.C.

Music

Artist: Daniel Powter
Cut: CD 3, “Bad Day”
CD: Self-Titled
Label: Warner (WEA) Bros.

Listen to The Current: Part 3

(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)

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