Bedard's Unofficial Podcast

Rainy Lake is a hell of a lake and it's now a hell of a script. David Barrett, aka Wedge, and Pierre talk about canoeing, crossing the Height of Land on the Churchill and the Grand Portage. Just two Manitoba old boys, one in the Philippines and one in California talking about gunwales and shit. Also, the power of a well-thrown potato, the benefits of paddling while hallucinating, and how the C...

Crazy James and Pierre talk about the old Alberta and Manitoba properties. We talk about the deteriorating state of school properties in Manitoba and Alberta, the challenges and costs of repurposing old school buildings, and the pluses and minuses of the Selkirk and Stony Plain locations. Finally, Crazy James makes a plea for art!

A conversation with Robert Young Pelton - #241 - a man who vacations in war zones. RYP has a unique and extremely qualified viewpoint on the school's regimen. We meander through a river of hair-raising experiences, the swat regimen, lessons learned, Parkman, life in the 60s and 70s, and the unique fate of the canoe formerly known as the David Thompson (sp?). Enjoy it already.

This short episode was recorded the night before Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Pierre and Crazy James talk about Da Oilers and their personal experiences with hockey and television at St. John's. Fun, short, and timely.

30th Episode - Good evening, today! Pierre and Crazy James talk about what everyone is talking about - the Edmonton Oilers . Meandering through James' love of the Oilers, Pierre joins in to shower love on Gary Bettman and bemoan the fact that there could have been a Bedard playing in San Jose. We discuss an arson incident in Alberta, the ups and downs of Oilers hockey, how Pierre is really jus...

Today we talk to the antithesis of Jordan Peterson, Doctor James Arnold , a retired psychologist who also happens to have attended SJSA . Doctor Arnold is very active in his local community (if you consider Saskatchewan a community) both as a serious Saskatoon biker and social activist. He read Toughest School in North America and keeps a copy in the washroom. Richard de Candole and I discuss thin...

As a core mission of any school, education is key, if not everything. Emma Croft-Biggs, an educator with 35 years experience and a Masters joins her husband Matt and myself, an overeducated bilingual St. John's graduate with a BA, a French DEUG, an MBA, and Juris Doctorate, to talk about Education @ St. John's.

Pierre and Crazy James talk about absolutely nothing : their past jobs, hobbies, and the impact of certain events like the demolition of the Tropicana in Las Vegas, movies, TV shows, and the St. John's culture, including the prevalence of a 'prison economy' and strict disciplinary measures (according to #722). They terminate the interminable podcast by talking about baseball cards from...

Pierre and Richard talk canned meat products, primarily. Other deep thoughts include personal anecdotes and confessions, family origins histories, and the impact of the fur trade route on canoe sizes. Listen while eating some Spam, or Klik, or whatever.

Immigration is a central theme of a new dystopian series, break the chain . Writer Eswar Priyadarshan and I share our immigration experience in this special edition of Bedard's Unofficial Podcast. ​ Every immigrant has their own immigration origin story, and ours were no harder, nor easier than anyone else's. Readers of break the chain may recognize how our views on immigration manifest th...

Matt had to work so it's just Pierre and Emma, talking about avoidance, selling honey and meat door-to-door , and the media , among other things. The theme is healing. It's a slab of back bacon snuck out of the meat room to get some needed calories in for lack of chicken soup. This podcast has calories. Something like that. Enjoy.

In the first of a series on the Lake Timiskaming tragedy, Pierre, Emma, and Matt talk about where they were when they first got word . ​ Emma lost her brother. Matt, who was slated to be in the brigade, lost classmates. Pierre hosts and graduated from the Selkirk school in 1975. Forty-five years later, we talk about the resilience and strength of the community, as well as the lessons learned, the...

Pierre interviews Richard about Toughest School in North America , how he wrote it, and why? It's an interesting journey into Richard's mind and intent. It's a book, first written in the '80s about events in the 1960s, and then recast in 2022. We each name our most notable alumni. Altogether, a great episode where I let Richard do the talking.

I know it's been cold but it's going to get colder as Crazy James and Pierre get cold and talk about working up in the North, hypothermia, freezing things, snowshoeing, freezing more things, and the weather in general in this short, cold episode.

Crazy James and Pierre get political and solve all the problems in both the US and Canada, state and provincial, and local! How did St. John's impact politics? Pierre's in California and gets to vote federal in Montreal-Est. James is in High Prairie, Alberta. Both got out of St. John's and the parliamentary system. We might touch on a woman's right to choose and recent legal events...

Today, Crazy James and Pierre try to stay on point with some Alberta topics. We talk about the Green Lit Book, the Christmas Choirs, Boxing Day (of course), the Robertson Trading Company in Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan closing this month, the convicted child molester Sheppard, and the Fires up in High Prairie. Then it goes South. And then North again.

This is a special Remembrance Day episode. Last week, I researched my Grandfather's WWI record at this link in the Canadian National Archives. It's an amazing link. You can read about Antonio Roy and see his service record Remember Antonio Roy . Enjoy!

Richard and Pierre talk about what they did on their September vacations. One of the more boring podcasts. Pierre went to Alberta; and Richard to the UK and Ireland. Everyone in search of something.

Join Richard and Pierre for the last leg of the Grand Portage - from the start of the Winnipeg River at Rat Portage to Selkirk (though they made Richard paddle to Winnipeg the next day). This is a good podcast to listen to after watching The New Boy . I could feel the speed of the English River shooting a rapid and the sheer terror that is Traverse Bay on Lake Winnipeg. Google maps or Google world...

Pierre and Richard continue the Grand Portage. Today, we paddle the Rainy River, probably the most disgusting river I've ever paddled, and talk about a little-known occurrence back in 1962, on the school's first Grand Portage - the story of David Thompson, who suffered an unfortunate incident just East of Fort Frances.

Emma Croft and Matt Biggs (#109) join Pierre and Richard in our first foray into the world and history of Saint John's of Ontario. I learned things today I never knew about the origins of the Ontario school - its founding, its location, its burning down. A fascinating conversation and history. It's a long one, but a good one.

Crazy James Waikle joins Pierre. Tonight we shill Doug’s Chestnuts, talk about the sins of Paul Sheppard, the Alberta fires, writers who came out of St. John's (like Richard, Michael Rowe, and Robert Young Pelton), and the school's absurdly low graduation rate. Finally, Pierre starts ranting before we run out of tape. Sort of embarrassing. Probably our most profane podcast to date. How wou...

In Episode #12, we put the paddles down and talk about some very current events - the Alberta Fires, the High Prairie Red Wings, Bruce Benson's project, Gordon Lightfoot, holiday meal disasters, and everyone's #1 pick, Connor Bedard. Don't forget to pick up a copy of Richard's book   Toughest School in North America ,

In Episode #11, we continue our journey on the Grand Portage, this time through Rainy Lake. Richard de Candole, author of  Toughest School in North America , reads from a diary he kept back in 1965 while doing the Grand Portage, a trip by canoe from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Selkirk, Manitoba. Pierre, who did his Grand Portage in 1974, nine years later, compares and contrasts his experience with Ric...

In Episode #10, we continue our journey on the Grand Portage, the Voyageurs' TransCanadian and give Homme du Nord Ronnie Lindsay a proper (or maybe not so proper) sendoff. RIP Ronnie. Richard de Candole, author of  Toughest School in North America , reads from a diary he kept back in 1965 while doing the Grand Portage, a trip by canoe from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Selkirk, Manitoba. Pierre, who...