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Rockin' Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: Another week has passed. Let's see what has happened in that time. Well, Tim Hortons has sold another 35 million cups of coffee in Canada. The Canadian Mint has produced another 20 million coins for circulation, and the average lottery player has spent another $20 to $30 on tickets. You know, too many of us call that retirement planning. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my co-host, retired newspaper publisher, Peter McCully!

Peter McCully: Well thank you to my co-host, former radio broadcaster, Dave Graham. Over this past week, we have assembled more material to help us illustrate life in mid Vancouver Island. And this week's episode will include a chat with broadcaster, author, and musician Grant Lawrence. He'll be bringing his spring tour show to the island with Joel Plaskett, Lindi Ortega, and Ashleigh Ball.

Grant Lawrence: Being live and in the moment and experiencing this event. One night only. That's it. You're never gonna see it again. You know, that's something that I think we took a bit for granted, pre-COVID. It's so heartwarming to have a room full of people. Everyone laughs at the same time and everyone claps at the same time. And those are collective emotional experiences that are very important. They're very important for society, and they're very important for the entertainers. They're important for human beings.

Dave Graham: Do you buy lottery tickets? Peter, you don't strike me as a gambler.

Peter McCully: Well, a long time ago in a land far, far away, when the Lotto 6/49 was first launched, I played for the first few months and won every week. Then the winning stopped, and so did I. Years later, when the BC Lotto was launched, I played for a few years, but the Dallas Cowboys kept me on the losing side.

Dave Graham: So you aren't likely to have any old tickets lying around. I was just going to suggest to lottery ticket buyers to go check for any old tickets, just so none go unchecked. Someone failed to check theirs. It was recently announced by the BC Lottery Corporation that a ticket sold in BC a year ago just expired at a $1 million prize, and now it's gone. If it's any consolation, the ticket was not sold on the island. We have an accomplished winner coming up on this episode: four-time Paralympian Champion Michelle Stilwell. Michelle, or Mikey to her friends, is a member of the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame. She has served as an MLA, motivational speaker, and is a past board member of the Rick Hansen Foundation. We catch up with her during National Accessibility Week.

Michelle Stilwell: When we think about accessibility, it's not just for somebody who uses a wheelchair. When you think about putting a ramp in place and making a building accessible, it's not just for the person who uses the wheelchair—it's for the senior that has a walker, the mom who uses a stroller, the delivery guy who has a dolly. It's supporting those family members who are trying to support the person with a disability by making it easier for them to transport them and get them into buildings. It just makes sense. Common sense.

Dave Graham: Hey Dave, have you heard the latest dirt? Honestly? Yes. Yes, I have. But for the sake of this message, I'll play along. Do tell Peter, what's the latest dirt?

Peter McCully: Well, the Meadowood Store's Garden Center is ready to help both those with green thumbs and those who have just regular thumbs with a winning selection of bag soils, manure, fertilizers, and get this—Chris Burger says...

Dave Graham: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chris Burger says he won't be undersold, but Peter, is it just about soil and manure and fertilizers? I mean, is that it?

Peter McCully: No. The Meadowood Store's Garden Center also has a great selection of starter plants and veggies. Now that's what I need because my thumbs are just a normal pink. I don't have that touch that makes plants thrive. I need all the help I can get. At least that is until I win the lottery—then I can have my own groundskeeper. I've got it all planned out, but I haven't won the lottery yet, so I need to watch my spending. What about prices, Peter?

Peter McCully: Well, Chris is pretty serious about his dirt. He says he'll match prices just about anywhere.

Dave Graham: So it's good news upon good news. You get a great drive to Meadowood and the bargains are tariff-free. The bargains are big—Bigfoot big. Our thanks to the Meadowood Store Garden Center, a sponsor of the Pulse Podcast. The Meadowood Store Garden Center: they dig what you plant. Make sure you have your picture taken with Bigfoot while you're there.

Peter McCully: That sound is from a Bigfoot, possibly. Who's to say it isn't? Hey, we have a new messaging service and we promise not to growl like that. We're offering an email reminder of the latest pulse podcasts and contests. Head over to the website to sign up for the weekly contest and podcast newsletter. It's at thepulsecommunity.ca/contact.

Dave Graham: We are also on social media. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Twitter, and TikTok. But we don't dance or sing. Nope, none of that. Nor are we likely to be seen doing the limbo or fire walking. Well, you know, maybe I might try fire walking now that I think about it. That'd probably be a neat experience.

If we were on one of those inspiring personal growth weekends, I could see myself out there. Oh, I'd have to be careful 'cause my feet are often sore to begin with. Focus, focus, focus. Well, I just think it would be cool to be able to say to a friend over coffee, "I've walked on a bed of hot coals," or maybe it could come up at a party or a wedding or with a stranger on a bus.

It could come up pretty easily in conversation. I figured, you know, this weather reminds me of the time when I was walking on fire. Maybe when I win the lottery, I'll fly off to Tahiti or someplace and do the firewalking thing. Now what were we talking about?

Peter McCully: Future guests include Ken Schley of Qualicum Beach, owner of the SS Minnow, the iconic boat from the Gilligan's Island TV series.

Dave Graham: Sean McCann, formerly of Great Big Sea, will be playing in Parksville in the coming weeks on his Great Big Canadian Road Trip, and we have a summer music special too. Yes, we are going to spend some quality time with some quality tunes—summertime songs that celebrate the season—and we are gonna be looking to round out the program with some input from our community.

Peter McCully: We will be appearing in public again soon to gather summertime thoughts and memories from passersby.

Dave Graham: And here's a thought. If you have a summer story, you could share it with the Pulse community via our "Speak to Us" link, and maybe it will become part of our music special. Oh, this coming summer is certainly promising some memorable moments, including a fabulous concert event to kick off the Parksville Beach Festival with Chilliwack playing in the park.

Peter McCully: The Farewell Tour stops in Parksville on July 12th. It's going to be an epic show, as you can have a farewell tour only once.

Dave Graham: Unless you're The Who or the Eagles or Phil Collins or Elton John or Kiss or Smashing Pumpkins or Ozzy Osbourne. Okay, lots of bands have come back after retiring, and I bet it has nothing to do with not winning the lottery.

But good luck with our draw for Chilliwack tickets. If you have not entered yet, do not delay. The draw is May 30th.

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally, as well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay.ca.

Oceanside Cweed: Oceanside Cweed—that little pot shop—is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store. Since April 2022, Cweed is under new ownership with a product expert at the helm that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry. Cweed is a legacy in the making with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community-minded, Cweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19-plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM; weekends and holidays, 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Visit the online store at cweedoceanside.ca.

Peter McCully: We'd just like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank Oceanside Cweed and Ian Lindsay and Associates for their support of the Pulse Community Podcast. We'd be happy to welcome more.

Dave Graham: Nobody else has the Mid Island covered like the Pulse Community Podcast, and we make it easy to contact us, whether for sponsoring the podcast or for feedback or tips. Suggestions for stories we should look into and people we should be talking to are always welcome at thepulsecommunity.ca. Follow the contact links. Let's bring on our first guest, and that is Marilyn's job.

Marilyn: In the Green Room is four-time Paralympian champion Michelle Stilwell. She's a member of the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame and has served as an MLA, motivational speaker, and is a past board member of the Rick Hansen Foundation.

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Michelle.

Michelle Stilwell: Thanks for having me.

Peter McCully: National Accessibility Week is coming up May 25th, but before we chat about that, I wanted to catch up with you. I know you're extremely busy. Perhaps we could start with your attendance at the Invictus Games in Vancouver.

Michelle Stilwell: What an incredible event that was. So excited to be a part of it. I've been involved with the Invictus Games for a number of years. My coach, Peter Lawless, got me involved. He was very much involved back when I was still racing, and I would go to training camps and talk to the athletes and share my story with them, and then I would teach them how to play basketball and rugby.

And so it was just that continuation of working with such an incredible organization that believes sort of the same thing that I always have: the power of sport and what kind of impact it can have on a person's life.

Peter McCully: I forgot about the fact that you played wheelchair basketball before you were on the track.

Michelle Stilwell: Yes, it was my first sport, and I still say it was my sport of choice. If it weren't for my complications with my spinal cord injury, I think I would've stuck with it, and I probably never would've gone to track, perhaps. But when I met Peter, he was very persistent in persuading me to come over to the side of track. So it all worked out in the end.

Peter McCully: I understand you were a member of a discussion panel at the games, or perhaps even a number of discussion panels. Could you tell us about that?

Michelle Stilwell: So the Invictus Games has, during every games, the Invictus Conversation. It's put on by the foundation where they bring in different individuals to share and discuss topics of their, I guess, expertise.

And I had the honor of being alongside longtime friend of mine, Rick Hansen—somebody who's very well known in our community around British Columbia—as well as my friend Sean Bly, who is the executive director of Whistler Adapted. The conversation for the three of us on our panel was really just focused on accessibility.

Where have we come from? Where are we going? What have we achieved, and what other work is still needed to be done? It was a good conversation and it lasted longer than we anticipated, and I think it was one of those conversations when you have people on a panel who are longtime friends—it's a very natural conversation.

And you know, we drew on many experiences and work that we had done together when I was the minister of social development and social innovation for the province of BC. Rick came to me with his idea for his certification program, was looking for funding from government to get it off the ground and get it started.

And it was my advocacy through my colleagues and through Treasury Board that we awarded the Foundation $9 million to get it up off the ground. And now it's just flourished across the province and across the country now, where businesses, companies, public spaces can have their environment assessed and get a star rating—we'll call it—of certification for accessibility.

Peter McCully: I wanted to pass along my congratulations to you from Dave and I on being presented with a King Charles Coronation Medal that was presented to you, as you mentioned, by your good friend Rick Hansen.

Michelle Stilwell: Certainly surprised when I got the phone call letting me know that it was going to be awarded to me. The work that I do, and when I speak up and I raise my concerns or raise issues, it's because I believe in it.

I see the impact it can have, not only on my life, but on other people in our community across Canada. And so I never expect to get that recognition, but I'm super honored to be alongside 40 other incredible trailblazers in the accessibility community who are champions for accessibility, who are builders.

It was such an impactful day. You know, Peter Lawless was my coach for wheelchair basketball, and him and I have spent many, many years together, and being awarded a medal by Rick himself was just really special. To acknowledge all those conversations and all those meetings that you do along the way to influence policy, to make changes, to improve the lives of others is just really special.

Peter McCully: And you said exactly that on your social media post about that—so many beneficial conversations that have led to policy changes that have removed barriers and increased accessibility and inclusion. Perhaps you could expand on that a bit for us. Give us some detail.

Michelle Stilwell: You know, certainly one of the things I just spoke about, the Rick Hansen Foundation Certification Program, that was a key driver in my ministry when I was there. When I was minister, I was responsible and came up with Accessibility 2024, which we tagged every ministry to have accessibility and inclusion at the forefront of all the decisions that they were making. And the goal was to have a more accessible, inclusive province by 2024. You know, many things in accessibility is really, in my mind, common sense, but we know—we've all heard it before—common sense is not so common.

So sometimes you need the advocates and you need the people speaking up and saying, "Hey, wait a minute." You know, we can have those conversations where we change the rules or we create rules and regulations and create policy that will have an impact to benefit people in our communities.

Peter McCully: So when we talk about accessibility and inclusion for those with disabilities, how are we doing on that front as a society, do you think?

Michelle Stilwell: We can always do more. Have we made improvements and gains? Absolutely. The awareness is there. The conversations are being had. There's so many groups and organizations and societies that are advocating and creating that awareness so that we can have the conversation, that we can find ways to have more acceptance, especially for people with disabilities.

I mean, we're 27% of the population in Canada that identify as people with a disability, and you know, that's a pretty large number when you think of the grand scheme of things and ensuring that we're trying to make life better for others, simpler for others, to support those people who maybe can't help themselves.

Peter McCully: Michelle, that's more than 10 million people that have disabilities in Canada.

Michelle Stilwell: Yes. Ten million is a lot of people, but when we think about accessibility, it's not just for somebody who uses a wheelchair. When you think about putting a ramp in place and making a building accessible, it's not just for the person who uses the wheelchair—it's for the senior that has a walker, the mom who uses a stroller, the delivery guy who has a dolly. It's supporting those family members who are trying to support the person with a disability by making it easier for them to transport them and get them into buildings. It just makes sense. Common sense. And you know, like I said earlier, common sense is not always so common.

Peter McCully: You've been a supporter for a long time of the Pacific Autism Family Network as your son Kai is on the spectrum. What's Kai up to these days? Last time you and I chatted about him, he was a budding entrepreneur and you were his faithful sidekick.

Michelle Stilwell: For three years, Kai had Popcorn Revolution, a gourmet popcorn company that he ran out of our garage and was really rather successful, but it was also a lot of work—a lot of extra hands from mom and dad to support him.

Whether it was driving him—at the time he was the official popcorn supplier for the Nanaimo Night Owls—so it meant getting him to Nanaimo, to the baseball games to sell and bringing him home and transporting him, not only just that but also helping him make the popcorn and supervise. He did a lot of the stuff on his own, but I was certainly helping with the ordering and the financial side of the bookkeeping.

Long story short, we're selling the business. So if you know anybody who would like to purchase some popcorn equipment and be a budding entrepreneur themselves, I encourage it. It's a fun little business and it's lucrative. Kai is now working at Stanford Place as a dietary aide in long-term care, and he's been playing basketball for Special Olympics in our community, and he will be going to the provincial games for Special Olympics for basketball in July.

Peter McCully: And he's tall too.

Michelle Stilwell: He is. He's almost six-four.

Peter McCully: I can see why they drafted him.

Michelle Stilwell: Exactly. They throw him the ball, he stands under the hoop.

Peter McCully: I wanted to go back to the Invictus Games for a moment. I saw on the news that Prince Harry and Meghan were there. Did you happen to bump into them?

Michelle Stilwell: I sure did. Spent some time with both of them. Yeah, they're lovely, lovely individuals, and you know, I just have so much respect for them, for what they are doing with their platform to use their voices and have impact in the communities that they're choosing. They get certainly a lot of bad publicity out there, but they are very genuine, very thoughtful, caring individuals.

Peter McCully: What are you up to these days? What keeps you busy?

Michelle Stilwell: Too many things. I've got too many things on my plate. I think I have to go back to the day where I was trying to practice how to say no. I'm serving on many boards: the Canadian Paralympic Committee—I just got reelected for a four-year term—Own the Podium, which is our funding agent for Canadian Olympic and Paralympic athletes. I am just joining the Canadian Tire Jumpstart Board. Next week actually will be my first official meeting with Canadian Tire Jumpstart Board, and I'm still working with the Gitxsan Economic Development Corporation up in Hazelton.

Peter McCully: What message would you have for anyone facing adversity or obstacles in life?

Michelle Stilwell: Never give up and be your own best advocate. You know, nobody's gonna do it for you, and if you want change, you gotta use your voice. If you need something, you have to speak up about it. Nobody can read your mind. Sometimes it takes a lot of extra effort, but it'll be worth it in the end.

Peter McCully: Good advice from somebody who knows how to do that for herself. Thanks for your time today, Michelle.

Michelle Stilwell: Thanks so much. It's been great talking to you.

Dave Graham: Experts agree that one of the keys to success in life is associating with those who are successful. They motivate and inspire and lead by example. You know, I think of that pretty much whenever I'm around Michelle Stilwell. What a remarkable person.

Peter McCully: We offer some remarkable characters in our Skookum Kids story series that includes Captain Dave and his first mate, Larry the Lobster, aboard the Mellow Submarine. In their newest adventure, they travel to Duncan and have an encounter with the totems that emphasizes the importance of stories in our lives. Listen for the Mellow Submarine, narrated by Dave Graham.

Dave Graham: And Peter McCully narrates our other offering for the kids. It features a boy and his dog, respectively Peter and Gracie. In their latest tale, "Gracie's Sensitive Nose Helps Save the Day" in the episode we call "Cleanup Day at Englishman River Park." The growing collection of stories for kids can be found at thepulsecommunity.ca, also at skookumkids.com, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, YouTube, and Amazon.

Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard-to-source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high-quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one-on-one service to all of our customers: homeowners, do-it-yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood in French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752-3122.

Meadowood Store Garden Centre: The Meadowood Store's Garden Center is jam-packed with starter plants and veggies, bag soils, manures, and fertilizers. Chris Burger says he won't be undersold. The folks at the Meadowood Store Garden Center will match sales prices just about anywhere. Kids, bring a painted rock to make Rocky the Rock Snake grow longer. Enjoy the relaxing drive to Meadowood, where the bargains are tariff-free and big—Bigfoot big. The Meadowood General Store in Dashwood is the home of Bigfoot. It's a convenient spot for beer, wine, and spirits, groceries, deli, propane, and lotto. Come in and have your picture taken with Bigfoot inside or outside the store at 1221 Meadowood Way in Dashwood.

Dave Graham: So this week I've been talking a little bit about playing the lottery—spending a buck or two or more for the vanishingly small chance at a big win. I just think the concepts of chance and luck have been on my mind lately. I'll tell you why. Just after recording last week's podcast, I had the opportunity to experience another moment of chance when I was pulling up to a four-way stop not far from my home. Traffic was light. I was next in line to proceed through the intersection.

When I looked ahead down the road, I saw this vehicle approaching from the other direction. Oh, this guy was moving well over the limit, and I could see within seconds that this vehicle was moving too fast to stop. And then whoosh—it blew through the intersection. I don't think the driver even saw the stop sign, but as I sat there watching it happen, I realized a life-changing moment of terrible destruction could have happened right then and there in that moment. There was no cross traffic, and those people most likely got to their destination, and they might have done so without having any idea that everything for them might have changed in an instant on an otherwise quiet and peaceful Sunday morning.

But for chance, you know, I was literally shaking as I pulled away from the stop sign. Adrenaline was just surging through me at the thought of the catastrophe that almost happened. I also felt a growing appreciation for the reminder that life does not come with guarantees.

Okay, moving on. Marilyn is back to introduce our next guest.

Marilyn: Grant Lawrence is in the Green Room—a broadcaster, author, musician, and goaltender. Lawrence is bringing his spring tour show to Vancouver Island with Joel Plaskett, Lindi Ortega, and Ashleigh Ball.

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Grant.

Grant Lawrence: Thank you very much for having me, Peter.

Peter McCully: You've got your banjo and tap shoes all packed up and ready to go for the Grant Lawrence and Friends Spring Tour headed to Vancouver Island.

Grant Lawrence: Something like that. Yeah, we've got lots of stuff packed—mostly guitars and books and things like that. But really looking forward to hitting a few spots on Vancouver Island that are kind of a little bit off the beaten track for a lot of the musicians that I'm bringing along. We're going to the Errington Hall in Mid Vancouver Island, and then we're headed way up north to Port McNeill, which we're all really excited about.

Peter McCully: How long have the shows been going on, Grant, and how did it all get started?

Grant Lawrence: Well, I started doing these road shows in 2018, and it's something that I always wanted to do.

I had been in a touring rock band for many, many years, and I loved touring and I love putting on shows and everything. Once the band kind of fizzled out, my artistic leanings moved into writing and I became an author, but I still wanted that live experience. And so, you know, I was a big fan of Stuart McLean, and I would see what he would do.

You know, he would tour the country and he would read his stories and then have musicians perform—my wife being one of them. So I thought, well, maybe I could do like a West Coast version of that Stuart McLean show. And that was basically the impetus to doing it. So I essentially started reading stories, and this was after years of book tours where I would go to a bookstore and read at the back of the bookstore and they'd put out a couple of chairs or whatever.

And I had varying degrees of success or no success in doing that. Finally, musician friends said, "You know, instead of doing this in the back of a bookstore"—and you know, God love bookstores, but—"why not do this in a theater and actually charge money and add some value to it?" And I said, "Oh, no, that'll never work."

But he convinced me—that was Dustin Bentall. We've been doing it ever since. I don't know how many I've done, but we've taken it all the way as far north as Prince Rupert and as far east as Muskoka and as far west as Tofino. It's been great. After being in the band for so long and basically playing anywhere where the booking agent could get a gig, my rule for this touring show—the Grant Lawrence and Friends show—is that the show has to be in a place where I actually want to go, where I actually want to spend time. And you know, Errington piques my imagination. I have not set foot in Errington and I know it's just outside of Parksville, but haven't been and want to see it.

I want to see this memorial hall. So that explains that aspect of the motivation to do it.

Peter McCully: The shows are a mix of music and readings, as you say. I have to say, I so enjoyed both the books—Adventures in Solitude and Return to Solitude—about life in Desolation Sound, where you've been spending your vacation time since you were a wee lad.

Grant Lawrence: That's true. That's where a lot of the stories start to this day. You know, first there was that book, Adventures in Solitude, and a lot of that book is my own story of coming of age there, but it's also woven into the story—braided into the story—are a lot of the pioneers, a lot of the settlers, a lot of the first white explorers like Captain Vancouver, the story of the Tla'amin First Nation that would winter in Grace Harbor, and then my neighbors. There was just always so many of these colorful characters and stories that existed up there beyond the end of the road that it has kind of become a whole universe for me. And the story that I'm currently telling involves the Desolation Sound orcas. But we can touch on that in a little while.

Peter McCully: There are many laugh-out-loud moments in the books about your neighbors too. One about Bernhard, the German—he was my favorite. Very funny story about Bernhard's run-in with ticks.

Grant Lawrence: He is an incredible guy. Bernhard Krieger—or Bernard Krieger as it kind of got anglicized to, or Bernie in Canada.

Just an amazing life. A larger-than-life guy. Huge man. You know, like well over six feet. I think he was 6'4", 6'5". Big, big, big guy. Blue-collar guy. Worked at the wheat pool, longshoreman, and he became a really close friend of mine. He would just live life any which way he wanted. You know, Desolation Sound—it's got a Mediterranean climate in the summer.

The inlets really heat up and the water gets very warm, and so Bernhard would spend most of the summer in this fairly infamous purple Speedo. And it didn't matter—and again, very big hairy man. He had this signature black handlebar moustache. And so picture that: like big black handlebar moustache, purple Speedo, and nothing else.

But if we would say, "Oh, we'll hike up back and check the water line, or check the water tanks or something," and for me to do that, I would change, you know, I'd get into a pair of long pants, maybe a pair of boots, hat, shirt. Bernhard would be like, "All right, let's go." And he would just go into the woods in his purple Speedo.

Now, unfortunately, on the arbutus bluffs in Desolation Sound, we do have ticks some years—some years are worse than others—and it was a bad tick year. Oh my goodness, was it a bad tick year. Now, I wasn't with him at this time, but he went traipsing back there with his dog named Dude, and he came running out of the forest screaming, "They're all over me! They're all over me! Help me, help me!" And he ran to the water and plunged into the water. Whenever you see someone running like that in Desolation Sound, it usually means they're being attacked by wasps. His wife ran down to the water's edge and he came floundering out and he was yelling, "Get them off me! Get them off me!" And I guess he was sitting up in the moss or something like that, up on one of these bluffs in some arbutus leaves, and these ticks invaded his purple Speedo and they got in there all over the genital area. And this poor wife of Bernhard's had to get down on the rocks, get the purple Speedo off, and with tweezers pull out all of these ticks. Meanwhile, neighbors from across the way had the binoculars out wondering what is going on over there, because he was fairly new to the neighborhood at this point. So it was a bizarre scene for many of the neighbors to spy Bernhard having the ticks removed from down under, if you know what I mean.

Peter McCully: That is a funny story. We've got something in common, Grant, in our hockey lives. We live between the pipes. Oh, you're a goalie. I haven't played in years, but players on my team always said I was crazy. Yeah, I always thought that's where all the fun was, really. But you wrote a book—an award winner—about being a goalie because you were a goalie.

Grant Lawrence: Still am. Yeah, I still play on the same team—the Vancouver Flying V's.

Peter McCully: How many years have you been playing now, do you think?

Grant Lawrence: Twenty-five years on that team. The goalie for the whole time. Now I do split the net with another goalie because, you know, I'm 53 now, so I've been on that team since I was in my late twenties, and that's a long time.

A great bunch of guys. I was just talking about the team with my wife. As you probably remember, Peter, the locker room—both before and after the game—is just as entertaining as being out on the ice, because it's kind of like a men's club. And my wife was saying, "Oh, you know, you need an outlet where you can talk with other men about your feelings."

I said, "Well, that's hockey. That's what I do." You know, in the dressing room, you find out everything about people's lives and make a lot of connections. And so it's been a rich part of my life for a long, long, long time.

Peter McCully: You seem to have an affinity for putting together some great combinations of musicians for these shows that you're taking on the road.

I see that Joel Plaskett is in this current show. He's nothing but a legend on the East Coast with the group Emergency, now as an indie artist—a great storyteller and musician.

Grant Lawrence: He's unbelievable. I mean, Joel Plaskett is one of Canada's greatest entertainers—just a fabulous, fabulous singer-songwriter, live entertainer. He is one of the best. He's also been a friend for 30 years. I've followed his career—his entire career—and it's very, very gratifying to have him do these shows with me. I mean, it's also a deep honor. You know, he could normally play the big theater in Nanaimo, or he'll play the big theater in Victoria.

He doesn't have to do these shows with me at the Errington Hall or up at the Gatehouse Theater in Port McNeill. But you know, he does them because we're friends and he believes in the stories-and-song structure and the alchemy that can exist by telling a story—like, you know, I just did with Bernhard the German—and then going into a song and giving the audience that sort of mental break from the storytelling to the beautiful music.

And it is a really, really wonderful thing. He's the best. You know, he is the best, and to have the best on the show is an incredible gift, not only for me, but really for the audience members.

Peter McCully: Ashleigh Ball of Vancouver is also part of the show. She's a multi-talented singer and voice actress. I ran across her credits on the My Little Pony series when I was interviewing Jan Robson, who had done a character or two in that series as well.

Grant Lawrence: Oh yes, Ashleigh's incredible too. She's probably done my show—the stories-and-song show—more than any other artist, and she's very dependable. She's very funny. She's extremely skilled in all sorts of different instruments. She plays the flute, she plays the ukulele, she plays the kalimba, and she's got this incredible voice. So I would call her my go-to, besides my wife, who sometimes does the show as well.

Ashleigh Ball has really become my go-to. She's been doing the shows since around 2019, so for about six years all over the place, and she's just a ton of fun as well. Great attitude, rolls with all the punches, and a professional, so always great to have her on as well.

Peter McCully: Tell us about Lindi Ortega. I know she spends a lot of time on the road between British Columbia and Nashville.

Grant Lawrence: She had a career in Nashville for a while, and you know, these big American entertainment centers like Los Angeles, New York, Nashville—those are fast-moving places and they tend to kind of chew you up and spit you out if you're not careful. And I'm not sure if that's what happened with Lindi, but she was down there for a while doing the songwriting thing, found success as an alt-country musician, but at a certain point felt the need to return to Canada and returned to her roots, so to speak.

And she ended up—even though she is from Toronto—she ended up in Creston, BC. You know, the hometown of Kokanee beer. She's been doing well in Creston and living a small-town life and loving it there. And Lindi basically kind of went into a state of retirement almost from music, but I loved her. I thought she was really cool—like really cool style.

Kind of like Emmylou Harris meets Johnny Cash or something. I came across an article somewhere about Lindi Ortega living in Creston—Creston. You know, a lot of times when people move to the Kootenays, they'll move to one of the cool places like Nelson or Fernie or maybe Rossland, you know, where the ski hill is, but not Creston.

So that really piqued my imagination. And I got in touch with Lindi and I said, "Hey, you know, I do these shows. Would you ever consider doing them?" And it took a while to convince her, and she has now done a handful, and I'm very excited to be bringing her to Vancouver Island as well. And she actually—I should mention—after we wrap up the show on Saturday, June 7th in Port McNeill, she is going to be playing her own show at the Duncan Garage Showroom on Sunday, June 8th. So that will be an amazing show as well.

Peter McCully: And that's a long drive.

Grant Lawrence: Oh yeah. If you're dealing with Port McNeill, it's a long way anywhere. It's one way there and one way back. Come all the way back. There's no round trip going up there, really.

Peter McCully: Do you have an affinity for Maritimers? You know, Joel Plaskett is on your show, and I noticed that Neil Osborne of 54-40 was in one of your recent shows. He and I grew up in Dartmouth.

Grant Lawrence: I did not know that he had roots in Dartmouth.

Peter McCully: He moved out when he was a teenager.

Grant Lawrence: Well, I do have an affinity for Maritimers. I married a Maritimer—Jill Barber. She was living in Halifax when we first fell in love. We celebrate 15 years of marriage on May 15th. And so I coaxed her out to the West Coast.

She moved to Halifax after university to be with her boyfriend, and she ended up getting involved in the music scene there, and her music career really took off in Halifax. She is so entrenched in the Halifax scene that even though she's lived in Vancouver for over 15 years, this warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye—in the record stores out in Halifax, Jill Barber is still filed in the locals section. I coaxed Joel out to the West Coast. That's not true—he actually has family out in Victoria, which is what brings him out here. Yeah, I love working with Maritimers. I've had lots of Maritimers on the tour. A great banjo player named Old Man Luedecke did several shows with me.

I've been trying to convince Chris Murphy from Sloan to do a few as well, so I love 'em. I think it's a great community. They have music in their blood out in the Maritimes and it works well with the show.

Peter McCully: You are going to talk about orcas.

Grant Lawrence: That's the show that I'm working on right now—CBC Radio—that I hope will one day become some sort of longer-form book or something like that.

So much of my storytelling starts in Desolation Sound these days, mostly from human characters. You know, Russell the Hermit, or Bernhard the German, or the Cougar Lady, Nancy Crowther. This story involved wild creatures, and I was working with a whale researcher named Emma Key—really, really amazing person.

She works for Strait Watch, which is kind of like a guardian angel service for whales. They're out there in Zodiacs making sure pleasure boats in the summer don't go charging over a humpback whale or a pod of dolphins or whatever. And she also works for CETUS Society, which is dedicated to the protection of marine mammals.

I was talking to her and I see these whales in Desolation Sound—these orcas come through about once a month—and I didn't know much about them at all. But I did notice a few years ago that one of them had a significantly crooked dorsal fin. I didn't know what the story was, and once I even mentioned the crooked dorsal fin, Emma said, "Oh, that sounds like this pod called the T-twos."

And she said they have a really fascinating family history. Now you don't have to say much more to hook me than they have a great backstory. So I said, "Well, what are you talking about?" And she said, "Well, these are descendants of whales that were literally caught up in the capture era of the late sixties and early seventies—whales that were being sent to aquariums."

And I said, "Well, how does this work?" And she said, "Well, there was a group of whales caught off the coast of Victoria, and they were all destined for aquariums, and two of them escaped and were set free by an unknown person." This immediately intrigued me because here we've got mystery, we've got legacy, we've got escape.

We have two orcas that managed to get away, and we are now seeing their family in Desolation Sound. So they had a very fertile life back in the wild after they escaped from their pen in the bay that they were being held in. And so this is a series that I'm doing right now on CBC Radio. It's called "Whale Tale."

It is airing every Saturday morning at 8:00 AM on North by Northwest—the CBC Radio One morning show. It's been an incredible story to get into. I mean, these are events that happened 55 years ago, but I have been able to find a lot of the people that were involved. I'm still hunting for the person that set them free to see if they even know about the legacy of all the whales that now live in the wild because of their actions.

And you know what's interesting, Peter, is that of the 20 or 30 people that I've dug up—not literally dug up, but that I have found to talk about this story—every single one of them still lives very close to the ocean. Not one of 'em moved to Edmonton. Not one of them relocated to, you know, Pittsburgh.

They're all right in our area still—Sunshine Coast, Nanaimo, one of the islands, Powell River—they're right there, right on the edge of the Salish Sea, right where all of this incredible story happened. So that's what I am working on this spring and it's keeping me up at night, let me tell you.

Peter McCully: I've had people ask me, "You moved from Nova Scotia all the way to BC?" And I said, "Yes, there's no ocean in between. You just have to go from one ocean to the other." There's not much choice when you grow up on one coast or the other.

Grant Lawrence: That's true. And it's very primal. I believe our attraction to the ocean, you know, it's something like—well, that's what we crawled out of millions and millions of years ago, and that's what a lot of human beings feel very, very comfortable in very close proximity to water. Certainly I do. I'm the same way as you, but of course there are many millions, if not billions of humans that are not fortunate enough to live on the coast. But once you're there, it's really hard to pull yourself away.

Peter McCully: With these shows, have you thought about assembling another book or perhaps an album or a video series? You've got some great guests. You've got readings. I know it would be—it's all great material.

Grant Lawrence: It'd be an incredible podcast. Sometimes I feel like, "Oh, why have I not recorded all these?"

You know, it'd be a radio show, podcast, books, whatever. There's also something to be said for being live and in the moment and experiencing this event. One night only. That's it. You're never gonna see it again. You know, that's something that I think we took a bit for granted, pre-COVID. It's so heartwarming to have a room full of people. Everyone laughs at the same time and everyone claps at the same time. And those are collective emotional experiences that are very important. They're very important for society, and they're very important for the entertainers. They're important for human beings. So sometimes I say to myself—because I am a documentarian, I keep everything and I write everything down, I just don't record everything—even though I've been in radio for most of my career, I probably should. But I also love that these are one-time events that you're either there for or you're not.

Peter McCully: The island will come out to support you on these events when you're here in the coming weeks.

Grant Lawrence: Thank you so much for your time, Peter.

I really appreciate it and can't wait to hit up Errington and Port McNeill, and I'll be back in the new year as well for more shows on the island. So I hope to connect with you then.

Dave Graham: Thanks to Grant Lawrence for joining the Pulse community. He's a busy guy. He's so busy. How busy is he? He can only spare three days for his spring tour. I don't know why there are just three stops on the tour, but it's wonderful that he'll be bringing his stories and songs to Errington in early June. Well, Peter, if you're sitting on lottery winnings, I know a steakhouse we should visit. Otherwise, shall we head to the cafeteria to see what Mabel has on special?

Peter McCully: Mabel has steak on the menu.

Dave Graham: It's tube steak, Peter. Tube steak.

Peter McCully: Well, can you afford to be so picky? You haven't won the lottery yet.

Dave Graham: If Mabel adds some bacon, then tube steak it is.

Peter McCully: Ooh, bacon.

Dave Graham: Mark bacon down as a win, my friend. A big smoky win.

Rockin' Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics, all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.