Episode 18 - Ron Foxcroft

In this episode, we sat down with Ron Foxcroft. He is a referee, entrepreneur, and the inventor of the world-famous Fox 40 pealess whistle. Ron shares the incredible journey of turning a refereeing frustration into a global product used by the NBA, NHL, NCAA, and even the military. But the story doesn’t stop there. Ron talks about officiating Olympic basketball, building Fluke Transport, and his experience meeting with the Queen of England. From cold calls and missed flights to entrepreneurial grit and family legacy, this episode is packed with life lessons, hilarious stories, and raw honesty from a man who never stopped betting on himself.

Topics Discussed:

- Inventing the Fox 40 and changing sports forever

- Refereeing the 1976 Olympic gold medal basketball game

- Building Fluke Transport and surviving in trucking

- Meeting the Queen and the story behind a royal gift

- Lessons on leadership, work ethic, and giving back

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Welcome to the studio, Mr. Ron Foxcroft.
We're thrilled to have you, Ron.I'm thrilled to be here.
You're a local legend to say theleast.
Actually, probably much more than local.
For sure. I know it's not.
I'm still from Aldershot. You know, us, us original
Burlington people, we still callit.
And if you're West of Branch St., that's Aldershot.

(00:28):
And then you got the the nod forMr. Hamilton as well too.
I. Forgot for Mr. Hamilton and
thank God I'm not a politician. Yeah, that would be I would be
unpopular in 10 seconds. So Ron, we've got a tradition to
open our show where we do a little ChatGPT before our guests
come into studio. And it's a little research for,

(00:48):
you know, for Jamie and I, but also set you up.
So let me introduce you and you tell me if if we got it right.
Ron Foxcroft is a Canadian entrepreneur, investor and
former international basketball referee.
You got that right. So far so good.
He's best known for inventing the Fox 40 P Less whistle.

(01:08):
There we go. We got one in student.
We actually got a few things we're going to show today.
It was a revolutionary and stillis revolutionary product that's
become the standard for refereesworldwide.
Foxcroft's officiating career spanned over 35 years, including
officiating the gold medal basketball game at the 1976
Montreal Olympics. That's right.

(01:28):
Wow. His experience with
malfunctioning traditional whistles led him to develop a
more reliable or alternative, accumulating in the creation of
the Fox 40 whistle in 1987. It was, yes.
We sold the first one on my birthday, November the 5th Guy
fox, day guy fox, the guy that blew or tried to blow up the

(01:50):
Parliament buildings in in Britain.
But that's when we first are sold our first one and now we do
S 20,000 a day made in Canada there.
You go and we were saying beforewe started, there was a couple
things I want you to tell the folks about because I didn't
realize how powerful these little whistles are.
So tell the story about what happens at at an NBA game.

(02:12):
Well, at an NBA game, you'll notice the referee on his belt
on his waist wears a little black box with a wire going to
the whistle with a microphone onit.
When the referee blows the whistle, it shuts the arena
clock off at the speed of light,and that little box also
activates the clock. So there's a button on there and

(02:36):
they think that the person at the table starting the clock,
it's the referee with that apparatus that he just clicks it
and starts it. So the whistle stops it, the ref
starts it. Yeah, it's crazy.
And you were saying no matter how loud it gets in there, it's
tuned right? It it picks up the exact
frequency of the. Of the whistle, it's tuned to

(02:56):
the frequency. There's a little gadget on the,
on the base station that is sortof like a computer and it, it
allows the frequency of the whistle to activate the clock.
It's it's amazing because you know what would happen in big
time basketball for the home team, the guy operating the

(03:19):
clock wasn't always honest. So if you're down a basket and
there's 10 seconds to go, the the guy could be just a little
awkward in stopping the clock toallow the team more time to
catch up. And, you know, that happened

(03:41):
more, more often than you would think because, you know,
basketball in the United States is, is like a religion.
You know, I would go down there and work a game.
And it was I I was on an airplane four days a week for 25
years coming from Burlington. And the minute you got involved
in basketball, it was all consuming.

(04:03):
And it was kind of a release anda relief to come back to Canada
where everyone back in those days would say, oh, you're back
down in the States, referee in the, well, the, the Sissy game.
Because Canadians, you know, hockey and fights and, and all
that sort of stuff. And I'd come back and they'd

(04:24):
say, Oh yeah, you're down there now it's changed.
You know, today we've got 4 Canadians in the NBA Finals and
of course. Just put up 38 points last.
One just put up 38 point and is the MVP.
Yeah, from Hamilton. Hamilton, is that incredible?
What was that like being a guy from Canada?

(04:45):
It was really different at first.
I had just come off the Olympic gold medal game in 1976 and kind
of thought I knew what I was doing.
And then I went down to the States and now I'm coming off
the Olympics and I went down to the States and right in my first

(05:07):
game I realized in Canada, basketball and refereeing is an
avocation. And down there it is a business.
The advertising, the commercials, the television,
it's big business and it's a. Religion down there and.
It's a religion and I quickly realized I wasn't very good.

(05:32):
I really wasn't very good and all the my partners kind of took
me under my wing. But it wasn't always easy.
And I finally I did a game in Houston at the Summit and
there's 17,000 people there and a guy walks in his two person
game. Back in those days, not 3A guy

(05:54):
walks into the locker room and he said you're Canadian.
They said yeah I'm not working. You took a job away from my
American friends and I thought holy Gee.
So anyway, Long story short, I go out on the floor, there's
17,000 people and I'm alone. And finally before tip off, he

(06:20):
came out and we worked the game and I think we had like 60 fouls
and it was a war. It was Houston and somebody I
can't remember as a long time ago as Houston and somebody that
they hated each other. And we had about 60 fouls an
average game in the NCAA there's39 fouls.

(06:41):
So we had 60 and actually did a pretty good job two person game
referee in a war. And it was, it was a really
difficult because we also had the added problem.
We had a pee whistle that would get stuck when you blew it hard
and you had to blow it hard with17,000 people.

(07:03):
Anyway, got through the game. He came into the locker room and
he said he gave me a big hug. He said you're not Ron the
Canadian, you're Ron the ref. And back then there were a few
ways of communication. Number one, AT&T #2 telephone.

(07:28):
But the best one, Tela ref and he told everybody we should stop
calling Ron, Ron the Canadian, we should start calling him Ron
the ref. And I had picked up a lot of
tips from guys and, and I improved by then.

(07:51):
But I'll never forget the next game.
I went out there and you know, it's, it's big time basketball.
There's there's, you know, referees or coaches rather get
big bonuses for having a lot of WS wins.
So then very next game I go out there and the I made a tough

(08:12):
call that anybody would make. The coach came up to me and
obviously was getting a big bonus for winning that game,
which would give him 15 straightwins, and he said to me that
call cost me $400,000. You should be refereeing the
violent, slippery surface game. So it wasn't always easy, but

(08:40):
then again, you know, you improve, you improve, you know
it. It's a learning experience and
in every game was a learning experience.
And so I ended up 25 years, 7 conferences, 4 nights a week
would and I had a real job running fluke transport.

(09:04):
And quite often, you know, back in those days, you could get on
a plane, you could arrive at theairport 20 minutes before the
flight and just get on the airplane.
And I had a parking spot at Buffalo airport.
And isn't it funny now, for the last 21 years, I chair an
airport, John C Monroe, HamiltonInternational Airport, but I had
a parking spot at Buffalo Airport.

(09:25):
I would jump on the airplane andthey'd say you're an NCAA
referee, let's move you up to business class.
And you'd go in, you work a game.
And I would try and get back then the 5:00 AM flight back to
work, work the a day at, at Fluke.
And I, when I was in the States,I used to carry American Dimes

(09:49):
for pay phones. They wouldn't take Canadian
Dimes. So I could call Marie, I could
call the office and but I alwayshad a pocket full of American
Dimes. And anyway, I come back to work
and work, you know, till 1:30 orsomething like that, get the
5:00 AM flight, learn to sleep on an airplane.

(10:11):
And so now to this day, I'm 79 years old and I'm going to
retire in 21 years and you guys are invited.
The the ceremony will be hot dogs, hamburgs and no speeches
there. You go.
But it's in 21 years. Save the day.
Yeah, but I would think, you know, holy jeez, you know, I'd,

(10:35):
I'd learn how to sleep on an airplane.
I could get an hour's sleep. And and, you know, I had some
great experiences on airplanes. Sometimes there were long
flights. I really have to tell you this
one, I'm working the Maui Classic and it's American
Thanksgiving. And so I worked a game and the

(10:57):
NCAA called me and they said Madison Square Gardens tomorrow
night, 730 Purdue St. John's.
I said, Mickey, I'm in Maui. He said Madison Square Gardens

(11:18):
7:30. Do we understand each other?
Because, you know, in the States, if you get an assignment
at Madison Square Gardens, there's a no, no is not in your
vocabulary. So it's American Thanksgiving.
I work the game in Maui. I call all the airlines.

(11:38):
It's American Thanksgiving, nothing.
So I called Air Canada, went to Vancouver, went to Toronto, went
to LaGuardia, got to the game, tried to sleep on the airplane,
but I couldn't. I just worked a tough game and

(12:00):
now I'm going to work Purdue, St.
John's, who hate each other. And so I arrive at the arena, I
go on the floor and Purdue goes down by 10.
I'm going into the tunnel at halftime.
Jane Katie, coach at Purdue, whowent on to would be assistant
coach for the Raptors. He says to me, Ron, I saw you on

(12:26):
TV in Maui and you're refereeinglike you haven't had any sleep.
I said, coach, obviously you looked at tape delay.
I slept like a baby getting here.
And he says, well, we're down 10and this is the worst you've
ever refereed. So we go in halftime and I come

(12:49):
back out on the floor. Purdue beat St.
John's in the game and and they had a good second-half to which
we go in the tunnel and Coach Jean Katie stop me and he says,
you know, Ron, that's the best referee and I've ever seen.
Yeah. So there's been a lot of

(13:11):
stories, a lot of obstacles, a lot of great times and, and how
I left the floor. I refereed the Sweet 16 in
Greensboro and my work visa, I was on one year work visas for
25 years. It was hard to get a work visa
to, you know, and it's even harder today to get a work visa

(13:35):
green card in United States. So I came off the floor after
working the Sweet 16. It gets pretty big Sweet 16.
And I said, you know, I'm Canadian.
This can't get any better. If I lose a step, I'm I'm at the

(13:58):
top. And you got to know when to get
out. And I took my lanyard off with
my Fox 40 and I handed it to theguy in the NCAA and I said, I'm
good. This is 25 years and this is
really good. So I went home and now, you

(14:20):
know, I hadn't been home on a Saturday night in 25 years.
And the phone rang and I thoughtto myself, what am I going to
do? So Marie and I, we took up
skiing. I bought $14,000 worth of
equipment. I bought a a membership at
Hollymont. I bought a $300,000 chalet.

(14:43):
I'm taking up skiing. I'm home on a Saturday night in
the winter. And I went down the hill three
times and I turned to Marie and I said, I hate this.
Yeah. This is terrible.
And the phone rang and it was Stu Jackson from the NBA.

(15:07):
He said, Ron, would you like to come and work for the NBA and
doing things of observing and, you know, courtside stuff and
all that, sort of be an observerand work for us?
I said, Stu, I haven't been homeon a Saturday night in 25 years.
Marie will kill me. So I went home.

(15:31):
It was now 7:00 at night and he had called that afternoon and I
said, Maurice, Stew Jackson justcalled and offered me a job and
I told him I haven't been home on a Saturday night.
I'd find somebody, she said. You're an asshole.
You're driving me crazy. Cost and I was going to birthday

(15:54):
parties and bar Mitch's and anniversaries and wine and
cheese and it was an awful time and I was skiing and missing the
locker room and and and she saysyou're driving me nuts.
Call Stew on his cell phone and accept that job.
That was 24 years ago. That's when you started your 4th

(16:16):
career, yeah. Yeah, I, I now next year, I'm in
my 24th year working for the NBA, and Marie goes to every
game and hates the refs. So it's kind of interesting
driving home. All she does is spend the two
hours it takes to get from Toronto to Burlington

(16:38):
criticizing the referees. So that's kind of interesting.
And then I have to go up to my office and do the game report
and so on. Marie played on that famous
Bishop Ryan team that won 159 straight high school games and
three offices and she played with the mother of the wife of

(17:01):
Shay Gilgus, Alexander, Carolyn Oliver and and then Marie's
sister was point guard on that team and made the Canadian
Olympic team. So they were pretty good.
And actually she knows more about basketball than I do.
I know a lot about referee and basketball and the rules, but
she knows more about the game. But our drives home become very

(17:25):
interesting, a little bit prickly.
But not not as bad as those birthday parties and bar
mitzvahs. Oh, they're awful.
Oh, wine and cheese and small talk and talking to politicians
and pretending that you're interested and like, I'd rather
be out there being yelled at and, you know, wine and cheese

(17:45):
and politicians and you know, like, I mean, yeah, that's a
that's a shit for a year and skiing, you know, I don't like
skiing and $14,000. Do you want some skiing
equipment? Like, you know, it's it's cheap.
Yeah, price is right. It comes with a chalet, yeah.

(18:06):
That's right. I finally sold the chalet.
Yeah, yeah, right. And a good thing, too, because
with COVID, you couldn't go there anyway.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, your seats now are pretty
sweet. You're you're courtside.
I'm courtside right at center court beside Herbie Kuhn, the PA
guy, is he a great guy? Is he a great dad?

(18:26):
Yeah, yeah. His son is, I think, going to
play either for Mohawk or Humberor one of those really good, you
know, schools, the community colleges are great.
And Herbie, Herbie Kuhn, everybody knows Herbie.
You know, he's the chaplain for the Raptors and the Argonauts
and the York Police Department, and he has been the PA announcer

(18:52):
for the Raptors since day one. Oh, I didn't know that.
OK, that's. So, so one of the things I sit
at center court, you know, with my headphones, talking to the
replay center. But the greatest joy other than
watching these amazing athletes is sitting beside Herbie.
Herbie is amazing. He is absolutely amazing person,

(19:16):
amazing personality, deeply religious and a great dad.
Love that. Let's talk about you as a dad.
And you've got 3 kiddos right? And you've been married to Marie
for how? Long, yeah, going on 40 years.
40 years, Yeah. How old are your kids?
Now, yeah. Oh geez Steve, I have no idea.
Steve and Dave are in their mid 50s and Ronnie's 32 and Steve's

(19:44):
got the best job speed. Steve has been Steve runs Fluke
transport and he I think it's the greatest job 32 years on the
chain crew of the Buffalo Bills.So he has never missed a game at

(20:04):
in in Buffalo for the Bills on the chain crew.
And you know what? He has got stories that, you
know, like all the days of, well, not Brady, but Jim Kelly
and Don Shula and you know, all the remember the Bills and

(20:27):
Dolphins. Bowls that never, never came.
Wine, right? Marv Levy.
But the the things he likes to talk about are the games with
the Dolphins. Yeah.
That's goes up Steam, yeah. And the games with New England,
Brady and you know, Belichick and all those he has, he has got
some great stories. Dave has refereed 6 grey cops.

(20:52):
Yeah. And the right now he's works in
the CFL in the command center. So he's the guy that, you know,
that overturns the calls and confirms the calls.
And that's a great job because he said to me, I don't have to
get on an airplane once. The command center is in Toronto
and he lives in Burlington. And Ronnie, Ron, Dave works with

(21:17):
FOX 40, runs FOX 40 with Ronnie and my grandson JD, my grandson
Carson works for Fluke and runs our Cambridge warehouse
operation. Ronnie works for FOX 40 and
brings his dog into Work River, and he's in the family, the 0G

(21:40):
handicapper. So if you want to play golf with
somebody that's decent and not rotten like me, he's pretty
good. He's pretty good.
He's got a 0G handicap. He's a terrific guy.
So I'm really lucky. Steve, Dave, Ronnie.
I'm a lucky dad. Sounds like they all learned

(22:02):
about hard work and you were working 2 jobs all the time.
I outworked them today. I outworked them, you know,
because my dad, my dad was great.
He was a lithographer. You dudes are too young to know
what a lithographer is. It's, it's a elevated printer.

(22:27):
And they would make cartoons, printed cartoons like Chiclets
boxes and stuff like that. And my dad was really unique.
He spent his whole life with onecompany.
People don't do that anymore. It's very unusual.
And he and I respected that so much.

(22:49):
Dad worked hard. He got up at 7:00 in the
morning, came home at six O clock at night.
He worked hard and didn't have alot of education, served in the
Army. And of course, I'm the I was the
honorary Colonel of the Argyle Regiment when Corporal Nathan
Cirillo tragically got murdered.And so he served in the Army.

(23:14):
That was important to me. And also when when I was
honorary Colonel, of course, my boss was the Queen, Her Majesty
the Queen. She was the Colonel in chief and
I'll never forget. This will go off topic about my
dad, but when Corporal Cirillo got murdered, I'm the honorary

(23:36):
Colonel, 10 O clock in the morning, I got a call from
Chief, the care of the Hamilton police.
And he says, Ron, we got a real problem.
You know, one of ours has been killed and that's when we had to
arrange to get the body from Ottawa to Hamilton.

(23:57):
We had to arrange with Nathan's mom to get to Ottawa with his
two sisters. He had a son, Marcus, who was
four years old. And the Argyle Regiment put
together the biggest military funeral in the history of the
Canadian military. And of course, you know, the

(24:19):
Prime Minister was there and allthe leaders of the opposition
and Justin Trudeau was there andStephen Harper was there.
And anyway, when that ended, I got an e-mail from the Queen and
she said I want to express condolences.
I'm proud Colonel in chief of the Argyle Regiment in Hamilton,

(24:43):
ON, Canada, and I want to express condolences to you in
person for the Cirillo family, check your calendar.
And we agreed on May 19th we'd go to her apartment, Marie and I
and the honorary Lieutenant Colonel Rick Kennedy and the

(25:07):
commanding officer, Colonel Lawrence Hatfield, and we had an
audience with the Queen. And imagine first of all getting
an e-mail from the Queen and then a couple of letters from
the Queen, which I have since laminated because I don't really

(25:28):
know too many people that have aletter from the Queen signed by
the Queen. Anyway, imagine going home and
saying to your wife Marie, we'regoing to England.
We're. Going for tea and trumpets.
Yeah, we're going to Buckingham Palace to meet two corgi dogs.

(25:49):
By the way, we're going to see the Queen in her apartment.
Can you imagine? No.
What was that like? Like it was surreal.
She Marie said, you've been drinking and I don't drink.

(26:10):
You've been out in the sun too long without a hat.
And and I said, Marie, we're going.
So Long story short, like we made-up a gift for the Queen.
It had to be all Canadian, so wemade 4 foot poppy made out of
red fox 40 whistles framed in Canada shipped it.

(26:36):
So it's really interesting when you go and see the Queen and
especially being, you know, I was a proud military person,
being the honorary Colonel. And before you meet the night
before with the Aquari, which isher chief of staff, and he came
in and he said, Marie, you're going to Buckingham Palace, but

(26:58):
you're not going in to her apartment.
And so she's. Was just a one-on-one.
Yeah, so she said and and she ordered a glass of wine and she
turned to the equity and said you're a young guy, we expected
you to be an old fart. And to which he said, I like

(27:22):
you, I'm going to arrange for you to get into the apartment to
see the queen. And we sat there for two hours
with all the rules and regulations.
And then the last thing he said several times to me, don't touch
the queen. Your audience is 10 minutes.

(27:45):
So we go the next day. Oh, by the way, too, I bring my
kilt and I'm staying at the Goreen Hotel, and I said, could
someone iron my kilt? They said no, are you going to
see the queen? I said, yeah, well, there's only
one person allowed to iron your kilt.

(28:07):
And that one person came up to my hotel room, got my kilt and
ironed it and put it back in thecloset.
Can you imagine? So we go there now.
The appointment was for 12:10 and I learned with the Queen, if
you're on time, you're late. So they warned me you're

(28:29):
probably going to get in there at 12 O 9.
And that's the way I feel. If it's on time, it's a fluke.
You know I've got. Write that down.
Yeah, I've got Vince Lombardi's portrait in my office my entire
life because when the team bus was scheduled to leave at 8, it
left at 7:50. If you're on time, you're late.

(28:52):
So we go in and we meet 6 ladiesin waiting and every one of them
gives you instructions. You know, they taught Marie how
to curtsy and they taught me howto neck bow.
And the last thing they all saidwas don't touch the queen.
So the bell goes, time to go in.I walk in and it's amazing.

(29:18):
The apartment's amazing. The piano over here, pictures
over here, the beautiful 2 corgidogs are sitting there.
It's really, it kind of takes your breath away.
And she's standing there beside the piano and I walk up and what
does she do? Put out her hand.
Well, now I'm sweating my balls off.

(29:41):
Don't touch the Queen. But don't leave her hanging.
I shook her hand and the royal photographer got a picture of it
and she said smiled Colonel, it's OK.
Marie came in beautiful curtsy and Colonel Kennedy came in and

(30:06):
Colonel Hadfield came in. It was amazing.
So right beside her on an easel was this four foot poppy, you
know, framed in Canada because somebody gave her a picture of a
moose framed in China which wentinto the trash.
It had to be Canadian. And and so this 4 foot poppy is

(30:29):
beautiful. It really is.
She says tell me the story of the whistle told her.
That's amazing. That's she said that picture of
the poppy, we're going to hang it in Buckingham Palace for
life. No way it's hanging in

(30:52):
Buckingham Palace. Fox 40s made in Canada is
hanging in Buckingham Palace. It it kind of like talking about
it. It's pretty emotional.
So she knew everything about Corporal Cirillo.
She knew Catherine, the mother'sname, who I it's been 11 years.

(31:15):
I communicate with Catherine once a month since then.
And Marcus, who was four, and the sisters, she knew
everything. The queen is very, was very
smart, very prepared, very real,very common sense, lovely,
lovely lady. And we're having this lovely

(31:38):
conversation. To which she turns to Marie.
Do you want to see my garden? Of course.
And like, the apartment is like a palace.
So we go over and she opens the drapes and the garden.
It's like amazing. So Marie said, So what are those

(32:00):
tents there? Oh, she said, I got a little
party tomorrow. I said, how little?
She said, oh, it's 8000 people. And I said, Your Majesty, you've
done an amazing job cutting yourlawn.
To which she said, you see that John Deere over there?
Well, I cut that corner for these little doggies.

(32:23):
You know, I'm a I'm a mechanic. Yeah, she had a John Deere
there, cuts the lawn for her twocorgi dogs that are sitting
there minding their own business.
So we go back and now like we were there 50 minutes in a 10
minute audience and she says to me, Colonel, did you bring those

(32:48):
Canada geese to poop on my lawn?I said, your Majesty, I have got
your solution. I gave her a fox 40 with the
Argyle logo on it. She put it in her mouth.
She said this is better than a shotgun, The Queen.

(33:10):
So then we're there. 50 minutes,55 minutes.
Little Bell under the phone rings.
It's over. But it wasn't over, she said.
Marie, Colonel, where are you staying?
Well, we're staying at the Goring.
Oh, that's a la Tada place. Do you know Big Dave, the owner?

(33:37):
We said no. She said, well, we'll see you
there tonight. So she came and drove up in a
green Bentley, and this really surprised me.
A green Bentley, one chauffeur, one security person and a whole
lot of photographers, maybe 25 photographers.

(33:58):
She walked in and I'm standing in the lobby expecting her
beside Big Dave, who looks like the left tackle of the Miami
Dolphins. And she walks in and said, Big
Dave, I was with a Canadian today, that's him.

(34:20):
And she walked in like you guys would walk in and we had a short
chat and she went into one of the ballrooms to do the pursue
her responsibilities for that day.
But just, you know, going to seethe queen was never on the
bucket list. But it went back to my respect

(34:42):
for my dad who had served and, and dad was a hard worker and
not a lot of education. And I was absolutely putrid in
school. I, I hated school.
I was there for one reason, to play football and basketball and

(35:06):
I played hockey. I had a try out with the
Burlington Industrials, a juniorB team, but schools didn't have
hockey. So you had to go to 5:00 AM
practice at the Burlington Central Arena.
There was no Nelson Arena or anything like that.
You know, there was just Branch St. and Burlington Central Arena
on New Street. And so I went to school.

(35:28):
I, I want to play hockey, I wantto play football, want to be the
quarterback of the Tiger Cats and, and played basketball.
But when the basketball season was over, I had no reason to be
at school. So I got expelled from Waterdown
High School. I had a little deal going.
The answer, you know, the detention question was on

(35:49):
Thursday. And of course I was in it.
I was a regular at the detentionroom every Thursday and there's
always about 20 kids that have misbehaved.
But I was the regular and they would ask you, there was no cell
phones then there was no adding machines, then there was no
calculators. They gave you a multiplication
question that you had to multiply out and and once you

(36:12):
get the right answer, you can leave the detention room.
Well, the answer was in the Gustatner room.
You guys don't know what a Gustatner is.
It's the pre photocopy machine. It's a photocopy machine that
they called a Gustatner and I knew the janitor had the key to
the Gustatner room where the answer to the question was.

(36:34):
So I sold the answer to the question for $1.50 cents to the
janitor. We had a nice little business
going. Always an entrepreneur.
And tell Mister Walden I got a thing on the loudspeaker.
Ronald Foxcroft, would you go tothe principal's office?

(36:56):
And so I made the principal a deal you.
Got him 1/4 of it. Listen, he told me.
We're only selling it for $0.50,so the margins.
Can't cut it into the Jenner. Jenner is thinking $0.50.
But I'm going to have a lot. Yeah, so I made him a deal and I
said, you know, if you give me he he said to me, you know,

(37:20):
Ronald, you're a problem. And I said, Mr. Walton, I can
solve your problem. Give me 50 on everything and I'm
out of here deal. I never went back.
But he didn't give me my diploma.

(37:40):
So I got home. My dad said to me, Ronald, you
know, you don't have to be the smartest guy in the
neighborhood, but you have to bethe hardest working guy in the
neighborhood. I've lived that.
I can outwork you guys. I can outwork Jamie, can outwork

(38:04):
Chris. You're half my age.
I can outwork you. I've never forgot that.
My dad, you got to be seen, you got to have, and you know, I
remember saying to my dad, I said, dad, what if I go to work
for somebody and they, first of all, what if I end up working

(38:26):
for a dumb boss and that don't have my work ethic because I
then started a landscape business and, and you know, I, I
got the Dairy Queen head office contract until they, the lawn.
They paved over the lawn for parking.
I figured they paved it over either for parking or I was a

(38:47):
shitty lawn cutter. And I went in the Dairy Queen
office too. And I said, look at you guys.
Look to me like you're important, Like I'm 18 years
old. And he said, you guys look like
you're important. You're too important to be
cutting your own lawn. I got to cut all their lawns.
It was a great. So I said Dad what if I end up

(39:08):
working for a dumb boss? Why do you need a boss?
So I started the landscape business and it was going pretty
good. Got a job for a construction
company, started refereeing basketball, making some money
and ended up buying Fluke Transport with no money.

(39:32):
And which was a great story, butit all started when dad said,
why do you need a boss? So Fluke was on the verge of
insolvency. A famous company, if it's on
time, it's a fluke. We're now 104 years old, two
owners, the Fluke family and theFoxcroft family.

(39:53):
And we run it. It's going well.
And, and like, trucking's hard, really hard.
Like it's a bigger success storythan Fox 40 because, you know, I
think the hardest thing in the world to run is a restaurant.
Secondly, trucking 93% of the, shall we say, famous trucking

(40:18):
companies that were there when Ibought Fluke back, geez, in
1982. Ninety 3% of the trucking
companies are gone. And you remember like all the
big famous trucking, they're gone.
But we had a strategy, you know,we had we had a strategy and but
it it was because dad said you don't need to work for a dumb

(40:42):
boss on the the fluke brothers were kind of on the verge of
insolvent. They were getting older.
But the one of them said, I said, Bobby, you want more than
money? He said, yeah, I want a job for
life with no responsibility. I said, you got it.
Now convince your two brothers to take money over time.

(41:02):
He did. He did, and I met my buddy, my
friend Alan Simmons, and he introduced me to his dad.
His dad lent me $100,000 down payment.
I remember he said to me, he said I think the dumbest thing
you're going to do is buy a trucking company, but you're a
Canadian and you're refereeing in the NCAA.

(41:26):
Holy Mackina, that's a big deal.There must be something about
you and, and you know, heaven Fluke.
There wouldn't be Fox 40 withoutFluke.
And I'll tell you why. When my whistle failed, I, you

(41:48):
know, I needed $150,000 to design A peeless whistle and
even my family wouldn't talk to me.
Like Marie said, you know, you've been out in the sun too
long without a hat. My dad's would tell their
friends when my dad's got a little kooky.
He wants to invent the peeless whistle.
So I, you know, I have this thing because I'm not too bright

(42:13):
and you know, I flunked out of school.
Now I did get my my high school graduation diploma and I'll
explain how I got it. I've got it.
I got a doctorate. I got an honorary doctorate and
I'm going to get another one on June the 18th and, and I have my
high school graduation. But, but so anyway, I had this

(42:34):
thing my dad taught me. Surround yourself with winners
gives you options. Surround yourself with people
smarter than you. Like.
For example, if I want to run a podcast, I'm going to surround
myself with you 2 guys because you're obviously, first of all,

(42:54):
I like you and #2 you're probably smart at what you're
doing. You're probably dumb at other
things, but you're probably smart to.
Ask my wife. I'm probably.
Dumb at a lot of things. Yeah, exactly like me.
So anyway, I decide I'm going tofind the best engineer on the
planet. Chuck Shepherd.

(43:15):
He had like 75. He's from Oakville, and he
passed away. But he had 75 patents.
And surround yourself with smartpeople.
I go there and I said I want to do AP less whistle.
We talked. He said no, nobody in the
world's going to buy a peeless whistle.

(43:35):
So we're going out the door at his lab in Oakville on West Dale
Dr. overlooking beautiful Lake Ontario.
And he turned to me and he said you're that guy.
If it's on time, it's a fluke, He said.
That is brilliant. You sound smart.

(44:01):
Let's do it. We did it.
He gave me credit, gave me credit for $150,000.
He said, man, if it's on time, it's a fluke.
I love it. So high school graduation, like,
I'm pretty dumb at academics, but I'm pretty smart not to have

(44:24):
got into politics. So I go back to Waterdown High
School because the principal, Michelle Visca, Visca's Pizza
parlor in Hamilton and and she went on to play professional
volleyball. Anyway, she's the principal.
So she gets up in front of 1200 kids and says, I want to

(44:46):
introduce one of the most famousgraduates in the history of
Waterdown High School. And I said, Madam Principal,
time out, famous attendee. And so she then properly
introduced me as I was an attendee at watered down, gave

(45:08):
the speech and she said to me, you know, Ron, if you speak at
Hamilton Place at graduation, there's 2000 people.
I'm going to give you your high school graduation, not honorary,
the real deal. So I went to Hamilton Place, put
on my gown, and all my fellow graduates are 17 years old, and

(45:29):
there's about 50 of them. And I'm the last one with my
gown and my beanie. And I gave the speech and I have
today a high school graduation diploma in 2000 and 1350 years
from the day I got expelled, butI got that diploma, couple

(45:51):
couple of honorary doctorates and so on, but got that diploma
and and you know, after that I would get phone calls.
Hi, I'm a fellow grad of Waterdale High School.
Could we have a meeting? And some of these kids would be
2021, they'd come down. Now they're in business or

(46:12):
they're in university and you know, they need some mentoring,
right? And I had a mentor, you know, so
and I always tell these kids, you know, the first thing and I
always tell referees first thingyou need is a mentor because a
mentor tells you what you want to hear the least amount of

(46:32):
times, tells you the truth. So I tell everybody that goes in
the business, get a mentor. And if you want to be a
basketball referee, get a mentor.
So I got a high school graduation diploma.
So you're saying there's a? Chance.
Yeah, that's maybe me one day. Yeah, yeah.

(46:53):
You never know. You never know.
Yeah, Get that? Great.
Take that honorary. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
But Dad, you know, the other thing that stuck with me, and I
did the same thing with my kids.Dad was at every game, every
football game. He'd leave work, every

(47:14):
basketball game, every fastball game, every hockey game.
You know, you guys probably experienced this.
When you're out there on the iceand your dad, you're, you're
playing for your dad, right? You're playing for your dad.
And when I was refereeing in theStates for 25 years, I was

(47:39):
playing for my mom and my dad and my country.
I wasn't playing for Ron Foxcroft, a dad, a mom, my
country. Like I'm the first.
There can't be another first. You know, I like being the 1st.
I'm, I'm getting on June the 18th, the first ever honorary

(48:04):
degree from Mohawk College. There can't, there can be other
honorary degree degree winners, but there can't ever be a first.
So being the first down there. And when my dad died, he was in
the hospital and I had AI had a assignment at he was going to

(48:26):
die and I had an assignment at Madison Square Gardens and he
turned to me. We both knew he was going to
die. He said go work the game and do
a good job for me. And I did.

(48:47):
I worked the game at Madison Square Gardens, came back to the
hospital. He died that night when I got
back. But I never forgot that.
Go do the game and do a good jobfor me.
Stuck with me. Yeah, it's awesome.
Yeah, it's powerful. So.

(49:08):
I knew your parents. This is a true story.
Your son. Actually, I think so.
Your mom and dad and your son both owned condos in a building
called. Pine Land.
Pine, Pine Dale. Pine Land.
Pine land. Pine Dale.
Pine Dale. Yeah.
So just off Appleby line. Yeah, Appleby and New Street.
So my grandparents purchased your son's condo.

(49:31):
No. True story.
So you'll remember that. My son Dave, yeah.
Yeah. So that was one floor above.
My mom and dad. Your mom and dad.
So I can remember. I was much younger.
I could remember two things. Yeah.
Your dad used to go down to the pool a lot.
Yeah. And he would go with my
grandparents or my my grandpa. So I can remember your dad, my

(49:52):
Papa. There was one other guy in the
building as well, too. But they would take me down.
And whether they'd swim or watch, they'd sit there for
hours. So I, I had that experience with
your father and then in additionto that, your mom, who was a
very talented organist, was she ever very talented?
We had a rule in the house and every single time your mom would

(50:13):
start playing, it would come up through the walls and grandma
would go around and whatever we were doing, she turned the radio
off or turned the TV off. And she always used to say to
me, whatever you're doing, this is better.
Just listen. Holy cow, Pineland.
Yeah. Wow, she had that beautiful
white Wurlitzer organ which I have in in my office.

(50:35):
You still have it? Sure do, I've seen it.
The spec did an article last Christmas of me and my kids
standing beside my mom's white Wurlitzer.
She was the demonstrator for theWurlitzer organ company.
And that's an amazing story. My dad was an Olympic type
swimmer. He he used to dive off the top

(51:00):
of the Burlington Bay Bridge, the top into the Bay.
Yeah. He like he was, he was a swimmer
probably, you know, might have made the Olympics.
I don't know. But and mom, my mom was the most
accomplished organist, but you know what, she was the most

(51:24):
accomplished of analyzing people.
She would say, Ronald, I can spot a phony from a mile away.
And she said, you know, sometimes people go to church
just to be seen for the wrong reasons.
And but mom, mom got mad at me once because of the church mom

(51:48):
would go to, She was the organist.
So she'd leave early and then before leaving, dress me up in
my Sunday school clothes and then she would leave and of
course I would follow to go to Sunday school.
Unfortunately, I never made it because on the way to East

(52:11):
Plains Church was Maplehurst School with the basketball court
outside. Pretty tempting.
And mom would come home. How was Sunday school, mom?
It was terrific. And I had been down at
Maplehurst working on my foul shots, working on my jump shot,

(52:32):
you know. And then one day my Sunday
school teacher, Mr. Saunders, said to my mom.
Lily Ronald hasn't been to Sunday school for a while.
Whoops. Mr. Saunders never forgave him.

(52:54):
Yeah, it was never the same. It was never the same.
I had to now get dressed and go to Sunday school.
When my mom went to church, thatwas it.
That was kind of like my skiing down the hill.
It was painful. Mom never, ever forgot that.
I would get reminded about that every once in a while.

(53:17):
Ronald, you're supposed to go toSunday school.
Yeah. Yeah.
That's a great story, Chris. Yeah, yeah, we're awesome people
for sure. I have fond memories of it, and
certainly the music too. Yeah, and I hope my grandma
misses it too. She always said it got a little
quieter when they left. And she missed it.
So beautiful. A white Wurlitzer organ.
It was so beautiful. And, you know, and she could

(53:39):
just make it dance. Yeah.
Yeah, it was great. We should at some point.
I'll, I'll get you to send me a picture of it too.
And I'll show it to Grandma because this grandma still lives
there. Papa passed away, but she still
lives in the building. Wow, I think I've got a picture
of it in the Hamilton Spectator because they they the spected an
article of some people. What did you do at Christmas?

(54:02):
Well, at Christmas we stood around the Wurlitzer Oregon and
we would have a sing song. You know, that was the way it
was and and the spec just this December did.
I'm going to see if I got that. Yeah, article that bigger smile.
She's got great memories. Yeah, yeah.
So that. So I gotta ask.
So you've balanced an amazing career.

(54:23):
Yeah. Jamie, your book as well, too.
We'd be remiss not to talk aboutthat.
So you're an author as well, too.
How do you balance that out withbeing a dad, being a husband?
You know what? He doesn't come home on
Saturday. No Saturday.
Nights. Yeah, that's.
Right keeps the life happy. You know, Jamie, that was awful.

(54:43):
You know, I'd leave the the locker room forever and end up
going to birthday parties. Wine and cheese.
Can you imagine? Not a chance.
Making small talk and you know, they were always 2 on the night
of a Leafs game or a Sabres gameor something, you know, Marie
said. We're going to this wine and

(55:04):
cheese and I'm thinking, holy shit, you know, the Leafs are
playing. I named my kid after Dave Keon.
Dave and and I was at the last Leaf Stanley Cup 67 when Bobby
Bond had the broken ankle and Dave Keon was the Most Valuable

(55:26):
Player. I named Dave after Dave Keon and
and Marie's taken to me these wine and cheese parties and I'm
making small talk and there's nocell phones and you know, you
can't even go on your cell phoneand check the score.
Like your torture. It was a year.
It was a year of torture. It really was, it was it was

(55:51):
awful. Balance my calendar.
I still have a paper day timer. My calendar is in minutes, not
hours. It's not on this cell phone.
I have A and it's my Bible. It's in my car right now and you

(56:18):
know, all my meetings literal literally are in minutes.
First thing, the start of the month is my time with my kids
and we golf together. We do things together.
We go to Tiger Cat games together, we go to Bills games

(56:40):
together. You know, that's the very first,
that's the most important balance and everything else.
Now my wife has eleven brothers and sisters, so we're going to a
lot of weddings and still birthday parties and so on.
Do. You ever get any wine in cheese?
And I don't drink, you know, Andyeah, I imagine 11 brothers and

(57:04):
sisters. So she's got a million nieces
and nephews and they have a birthday party every month.
And and, you know, the beautifulthing is I'm now working for the
NBA, so I'm working on Saturday night.
So I miss a lot of that stuff. And, and you know, like, well, I
say, Maria, I'm really sorry. I'm, I'm, I'm really sorry about

(57:27):
missing. I, I wanted to go to that
goddamn birthday party, but you know, I got this assignment and,
and you know, it's my job. But you can tell her in in 21
short years, Marie, it's going to slow down.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Exactly. So, you know, I can't wait to
get to work. I love getting to work.

(57:48):
You know, we're in trucking, we're in real estate where Fox
40 is more than whistles. You know, we got 200 products at
Fox 40 Marine is huge. Like you can't get a boat
without going to Canadian Tire and buying the Fox 40 Baylor kit
and the Fox 40 safety stuff and all that sort of stuff.
So coaching boards and you know,Fox 40 and, and now this is a

(58:14):
great story. I'm a shareholder in the new
Payne Stewart movie and your listeners can go on
paynestewartcollection.com. That's our clothing line for you
guys. Know who Payne Stewart is?
I got to tell you the story. My buddy Mark Sutcliffe from

(58:34):
Riley Ave. in Burlington, great dad ran Glengarry Transport
after he graduated from SheratonCollege.
And so he ran Glengarry. And he said to himself, anybody
in the trucking business is an asshole because you have to work

(58:59):
so hard. Like, I mean, you know, in
trucking, man, you work hard andthere's a lot of obstacles and
you get kicked in the groin. You know, at 7:00, you get bent
over the bumper in the morning, you get kicked in the groin.
If you survive, you can work therest of the day till 7:00 at
night. It's tough.

(59:19):
So he said, I'm going to get outof this.
He was running Glengarry right out of Sheridan College and he
and he joined up that golf course up north where those guys
that invented Trivial Pursuit and you met the guys that did
the game board Trivial Pursuit. How do you do a game board?
Long story short, they told him he did it.

(59:42):
His game boards became the biggest selling game boards in
the world in the world bigger than Trivial Pursuit.
CSI Miami game board I believe today is sold 2 million and and
growing so. In his game board activities, he

(01:00:03):
met Bobby Allison, the racing car driver.
And Bobby said, why don't you get into movies?
You're pretty talent. This guy is a very talented guy
and a great dad. And he said get into movies.
And he made some movies that made a lot of money.

(01:00:25):
And, you know, he just bought this shack up in Muskoka now for
$10 million. And, and, and so Bobby Allison
said, why don't you do a movie on my life story?
He did the Bobby Allison movie. You know, the very famous racing
car driver. Now he's rolling in the movie

(01:00:47):
business. Plus he's extremely talented.
And Bobby Allison said, do you want to meet Tracy Stewart
Payne, Stewart's widow? And he did.
She had, I understand, turned down the rights to a movie on

(01:01:07):
pain for 25 years, gave Mark themovie rights, the pain Stewart
movie. I believe the one condition was
let's do a clothing line. Let's do a wine line.
And my son Aaron, who's now I, Iguess Aaron was 10 years old, so

(01:01:30):
he'd be 35 now, 36, He's the model.
And if your viewers can go on paynestewartcollection.com.
The clothing line is spectacular.
And so my buddy is the starter at Pinehurst #2 Rodger, the

(01:01:51):
Dodger, Paramore. We've been refereeing together,
American since 1979. And he, he said, I'm here at
Pinehurst #2 and I'm with a Canadian.
His name's Mark Sutcliffe. Do you want to talk to him?
I said, yeah. So Mark comes on, He says, I

(01:02:12):
know who you are. You probably know who I am.
I ran Glengarry Transport. I'm from Sheridan College.
My name is Mark Sutcliffe. I'm on Riley Ave. in Burlington.
You want to be a shareholder in the Payne Stewart movie?
Yeah, long as I have a part. And so now this is recent.

(01:02:32):
Now I'm a shareholder in the Payne Stewart movie.
He's raised all kinds of money and interviewing these big movie
stars to play in the movie, likeJustin Timberlake and Kevin
Costner and all these people youknow.
And so I'm involved with Mark inthe Payne Stewart movie, The

(01:02:55):
Payne Stewart clothing, the Payne Stewart wine.
No cheese. There'll be cheese.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I start whining, they'll
give me some cheese. Yeah.
Right, right. So wouldn't it be great to be in
a movie? That's pretty cool.
Yeah, I think we're going to film in Georgia because there's
great tax opportunities apparently now in Canada there's

(01:03:16):
going to be tariffs or something.
You know, everything is upheavalright now at the White House.
So anyway, the Payne Stewart movie, which is going to go into
the big screen theaters as soon as we start filming.
Yeah, and there's lots of placesin in Atlanta to to film on

(01:03:37):
tracks. Yeah, yeah.
And, and you know the one. Oh, there's so many parts of the
story. Some of them because our final
scene, I can't share it right now, but it it's a it's a
heartthrob. But you know, when Bryson
Dechambeau just won the US Open at Pinehurst, he wore some of

(01:03:58):
our apparel. Pain Stewart, because Pinehurst.
Now let me tell you the story. When Pain won the US Open at
Pinehurst on that pot that beat Phil Mickelson, people may not
realize this. Phil Mickelson was distraught

(01:04:19):
because Payne made a putt to beat him to win the US Open.
And Payne went over to Phil, grabbed his head and said losing
is not the story. You're going to become a father
tomorrow, get home and and be special to your wife because

(01:04:45):
you're becoming a father. Now.
Most people don't know that story, but I think it's in the
movie. That's pretty cool.
Yeah, Phil Mickelson and now Bryson Dechambeau wearing some
of the stuff it's but here you go.
Mark Sutcliffe, Canadian, Riley Ave. born in Mississauga, lived

(01:05:10):
in Burlington and achieving at the highest level.
And most important thing is he'sa dad.
He's a dad, and that's important.
It's important to him, yeah. That's great story, yeah.
Ron, you do a lot of philanthropy as well, too.

(01:05:30):
We were talking offline a littlebit about a couple things you've
got going on in Hamilton. I know as well, too.
You've got city kids. You've got.
Your family. Yeah.
So tell us a bit about that. Yeah, you know, Dad said you got
to give where you live and give where you work.

(01:05:52):
And one of the silent things that I feel good about, we give
in Burlington, we give in Hamilton.
You don't give to be honored or to be recognized.
However, being named the citizenof Hamilton was important.

(01:06:17):
Being named the citizen of Burlington was important.
Not so much to me, to my dad. Dad and mom said give where you
live, give where you work and and so we get involved, not to

(01:06:40):
be recognized, but every dime from that book, the The 40 Ways
of the Fox goes to Liberty for youth and city kids.
That's amazing. And I'm so proud because Liberty
for Youth Brother Frederick rehabilitates young youth that

(01:07:01):
have fallen on the wrong side ofthe law, and he has connected
kids that have fallen on the wrong side of the law with the
Police Department. And tomorrow at 2:00, I'm
refereeing the game between the city kids basketball team.
I'm sorry, the Liberty for Youthbasketball team and the Police

(01:07:26):
Department. And just to tell you a little
secret, I got a couple of technical fouls in my pocket for
the chief and the deputy chief for bad attitude.
So I believe in fairness and, and I think the team from
Liberty for Youth, because the referees are so fair and honest,

(01:07:50):
are going to come out of this game pretty good against the
Hamilton Police Department. And city kids, you know, city
kids, they feed 2000 kids every Saturday.
Some of those kids don't have a chance.
Some of the kids, it's the best meal they've ever had all week.
City kids. Reverend Todd Bender, he's in

(01:08:12):
the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction.
Brother Frederick Dryden just isan amazing guy.
And the other thing Rick Goldring and I and Colleen
Mulholland back in 2014 there was a terrible flood in
Burlington 3500. People were distraught and and

(01:08:34):
basically lost their homes from the flood of of 2014.
So we started Rick called me andColleen called me and that's the
reason I told them I have calleddisplay on my phone because if
they ever call me again I'm not answering.
They said we got to raise 3,000,000 bucks.
We got some people that have lost their basements, lost their

(01:08:58):
kitchens, lost their furnaces, like it was bad, really bad.
And the Burlington Community Foundation stood up with
Colleen, with the mayor, Rick Goldring, who was our champion.
There's no better champion for flood relief than Colleen

(01:09:19):
Mulholland and Rick Goldring. Bear Rick Goldring at the time.
And we raised the $3,000,000. We had the provincial government
on our side of the minister at the time was Eleanor McMahon.
She helped us. Ted Mcmeekin was a minister at
the time and we got people by. It happened in August, we got

(01:09:41):
people by October that they restored their kitchens, they
restored their basements, they got their furnaces.
Dan Lowry, Great dad, Dan Lowry Insurance and Robert, they
helped us with, you know, analyzing the claims and all

(01:10:04):
free, all volunteer. He volunteered his company
because, you know, everybody hadto submit a claim.
It was very complicated. Now all of a sudden the
Burlington Community Foundation is in the insurance business.
Well, you know the rule, always surround yourself with people
smarter than you. Well, the first thing is Dan,

(01:10:25):
you're smarter than us. Will you help?
And of course it took him one second.
Dan is citizen of the year in Burlington.
His son Robert is amazing. Their whole company is amazing.
They did all the the claims and and so on.
So then these are things you just must do.

(01:10:46):
You got to give where you live, you got to give where you work.
And I just finished where I workin Hamilton.
The Mohawk College athletic campaign.
We won, we won. Athletics are very important.
Athletics, you guys know, they teach you chemistry, they teach

(01:11:09):
you teamwork, they teach you accountability, accountability.
I'm glad you said that. And so we need, well, it was an
honor. We need to help Mohawk College,
Mohawk College, provide people, grads that are ready to go out
into the industry and contributeto the bottom line.

(01:11:30):
They're ready to work. No BS Mohawk grads are ready to
work. And when they asked me to chair
the athletic campaign, I said, let's do it.
Let's do it because it's the honorable thing to do.
So we just did it and we just won it.

(01:11:51):
And it's it's great. I've been on the, I was at
Mohawk on the entrepreneurial studies committee, sometimes as
chair because you know, we need to celebrate entrepreneurs, the
politicians they give and 95% ofthe politicians are in it for

(01:12:14):
the right reason. 5% of the politicians are in it just to
get re elected and take money from the through.
I really believe that we celebrate these politicians,
deservedly the good ones, but wedon't do enough celebrating
entrepreneurs in Canada. We vilify them.
If an entrepreneur is seen to bemaking a profit, we vilify them.

(01:12:38):
We vilify developers, builders, builders build homes, employ
people and and donate to charities and we vilify them
because they make a profit and profits a damn good word in
United States. I got to tell you this before
the administration changed in November the 5th, they build

(01:13:02):
statues for entrepreneurs because entrepreneurs do the
right thing, employ people. And in Canada, too many times,
especially around here, we vilify entrepreneurs and
developers. Have you noticed that?
Absolutely. I hate it.
I hate it. We got some friends that are big

(01:13:22):
in development and they're saying the same thing as out of
one side of your mouth you're saying housing crisis and out of
the other you're saying more taxes and those things don't
support each other. Now you said something.
We are ridiculously and gangsterly overtaxed in Canada.
54% they're getting more than us.

(01:13:44):
It's not right. And you know somebody in
government and now this won't get you.
You know I would never get elected, I would never get
elected and I'd never get re elected.
And I'll tell you why paying 54%tax is bullshit and we should be
dropping the GST tomorrow, we should be dropping the income

(01:14:08):
tax rate tomorrow, and we shouldbe cutting the size of
government at all levels by 15% at least or more.
Well, my friend in government told me 30.
And if that's not achievable, Jamie, Chris, if that's not

(01:14:29):
achievable, I believe my buddy John's curving from Canadian
Tire taught me always set goals that are achievable and beat
them. And, and you know, whenever we
do a capital campaign, a charitycampaign, we, we set a goal, but
that's not really the goal. The goal is to.
Surpass that. Surpass that, right?

(01:14:51):
So Chris, you're right, Jamie, you're right.
Government's 30% too fat. It's fat.
And so if you reduce the income tax and reduce the GST and on
HST or whatever it's called, let's cut the cost of running
the government. And you know, I perform

(01:15:16):
citizenship judge duties as an Order of Canada.
I'd love it, but I also recognize that they have three
people doing what I have in my company with one person.
It's pretty sick. It's disgusting.

(01:15:37):
It really is. And you know, in the states
they're paying 25% income tax and I mean pre November 5th.
But I'll tell you that's the reason that I would never get
elected and because one of the politicians about 10 years ago

(01:15:57):
he said I'm going to lay off 100,000 government workers and
I'm thinking I love you, but do it after you get elected, right?
You just cost yourself a. 100 so100,000 votes are gone.
That's what Rob Ford did. He came in and he he drained the
swamp in China. Yeah, exactly.
Cut the size. He had his demons, but.

(01:16:18):
Yeah, and he cut the size of City Council, didn't he?
Huge. Yeah.
I you know, there's a lot. Of time this year they give
themselves 35%. Yeah, I know, I know.
Well, you know what? But that was a mistake They did
like 20 years ago, they should have done cost of living they
did. They did.
The good ones deserve the cost of living increase, you know,

(01:16:39):
and now look at what we're doingwith the post office.
You know, everybody's vilifying the union, which they should,
but who the hell is running the God damn Canada Post?
Like, you know. Wildly unsustainable.
I haven't heard any conversations about how they fix
that. Well, well, how did it get this

(01:17:00):
bad? Somebody was running Canada
Post. Now you know, every month in my
company, I'm a great believer when you start a company, you
got to keep score. That is your your profit and
loss and your daily bank balance.
I do my daily bank balance and all my companies daily.

(01:17:21):
I do my profit and loss once a month and it's a very favorable
discussion with my team. If we meet budget and meet
forecast, it's a very unfavorable discussion, rather
prickly. Talk to my sons about that.
If we miss budget and miss forecast, miss profit

(01:17:46):
projection. It's not pleasant.
Which is the way it should be? What's the way it should be?
Now 20 years ago when Canada Post is going South and losing
all this money and agreeing to all this bullshit about you can
never lay off anybody, somebody needed to ask the question,

(01:18:12):
who's running this joint? Who is run like like yes, for
vilifying the union, perhaps justified.
Nobody's talking about who's running this joint.
Nobody. I don't know who's running the
joint. I guess it's the government and

(01:18:34):
if. Somebody's heading it up and
getting paid 5 to 10 million bucks a year.
Yeah, and they all work through the strike.
But you know, that's the problemwith government.
There's no accountability and it's too fat.
There's no common sense anymore.Common sense is not too common.
Way so far this way. Yeah, right.

(01:18:54):
They see it's a bad thing to give in on anything.
Yeah, yeah. And there's certain things, you
know, that they're taboo to talkabout.
Well, I don't think it's taboo to talk about who's running
Canada Post and how did this mess get created?
You know, it's a mess and in my business I count on the post

(01:19:18):
like we we ship a light item andthey do a pretty good job, we
count on it. However, I don't need mail
delivery every day at my house. I don't need it.
Once a week like garbage. Once a week, just like the
garbage collection at my street on Appleford is at Monday

(01:19:41):
morning. Thank you very much.
You're doing a great job. And I just called the mayor to
thank the mayor that the garbagecollection in our streets
fantastic. And I said, mayor, the only
people that ever call you are people that are complaining.
So Mayor, I love you. My garbage collection is great.

(01:20:01):
So I did, and that's the way I put it, and I think it might
have been appreciated. I think, yeah, I think those are
good conversations. We had similar.
That's Marianne you were speaking with.
Yeah, So we had similar. We were at an event and it was
rate as they were announcing theclosures on the bridges.
And yes, she was getting floodedwith negativity on that.
And it's required work. It has to happen, right.

(01:20:23):
So she was, you know, obviously we were just kind of, you know,
having a conversation about it, right.
But it was overwhelming the negative.
Yeah. And you know, I'm thinking to
myself, what a job, yeah. Like to sit there and that that
is your job to have to deal with.
You know that amount of. That's why I can.
Phone calls and emails and textsover the last three months

(01:20:43):
because of that traffic, you can't pay me enough money to
deal with. That.
Over and over. My friend in on City Council
said that 60% of the calls are complaints and 60% of the calls
are people wanting money. So if you're getting a 40%
average on good stuff, you're winning.

(01:21:07):
You know, in the NBA we got to hit 93% on our correct calls and
they're hitting 40% and everything else is a complaint,
so. So do you get much that that
brings a question? So do you get much pushback from
referees because you're keeping score on the referees for the
NBA stuff? I know it's just like totally
going way back, but like, there must be some referees that

(01:21:29):
aren't big fans of, of guys doing what you're doing, right?
Jamie, I am so glad you asked that question.
You know who's tougher on the referees themselves.
If I give a 93%, they're going to give a 90.
They want to be perfect. There's no such a thing as a

(01:21:53):
perfect referee game in any sport.
No, they want to be better. I'm going to surprise you.
Refs like replay do you know why?
They're dedicated to getting it right.
And if they overturn a call on replay, which we do, like where

(01:22:18):
I sit, I'm talking to the replaycenter.
You think they're unhappy? They're happy.
My kid is ACFL ref Dave, 6 Grey Cups, pretty good, he said.
Dad, we want to get it right. And when the replay center

(01:22:41):
overturns his call, he's relieved because he can look at
both teams. Team A and Team B leave the
field and say, you know, we got it right.
The most important thing you want to do is get it right
because we've never refereed a perfect game.

(01:23:02):
So a referee self evaluation of a game is tougher than us guys
as they want to get it right. Wes McCauley You know, I named
the whistle the call after his dad.
John McCauley I love Wes McCauley.
NHL ref Terrific. We want to get it right.

(01:23:27):
And you know, when we named the call after his dad, he was the
first NHL referee to use the Fox40 call.
And he called me at midnight after the game crying because
his dad died when he was about 14 years old.
And now he in the NHL, he's using a whistle named the call
after his dad. Can you imagine?

(01:23:48):
Very powerful. He just called me yesterday and
said I need 3 whistles. Call Whistles got named after my
dad and I said, do you want the NHL logo on them?
You bet. Pretty emotional to have a
whistle used in the world named after your dad, you know, and

(01:24:11):
but I promised Don Cherry. Don Cherry.
I said grapes. I know Don Cherry called me and
he did. He, he did so much work for Fox
40. He designed our mouth guard and
so on. And and we we love Don Jerry and
I don't watch hockey as much nowwithout grapes.
That's it's totally different without him like.

(01:24:32):
Yeah. I'm not.
Yeah, I'm a Penguins fan, but I would watch.
I would watch, you know, CBC Hockey all the time.
Yeah, he just made intermissionsawesome.
I hate it now. Fucking so.
It's so anyway, when I was doingthe whistle, John McCauley, my
friend said, you know, Ron, no one's ever going to buy a
peeless whistle. You need someone to promote it

(01:24:54):
and you need Don Cherry. You need the guy with the
biggest voice. Yeah, so I called grapes and and
I said grapes. I I got this peeless whistle.
And John McAuley said you can promote it for me.
And he says, Foxy, I don't like three things.

(01:25:17):
I don't like the government. I don't I I don't like CBC and I
don't like referees. I'm not doing it because you're
a referee. I said, well, John McCauley, he
says now John McCauley is the only decent referee.
You're all assholes. So a few years later, I'm

(01:25:42):
designing this boil and bite mouth guard.
I called grapes. I said grapes.
I got this mouth guard. I really need your help.
He said I'm there. He said that biggest mistake I
ever made was not getting involved in Fox 40.
And then meet me in Burlington. It's a Holiday Inn.

(01:26:03):
There's a restaurant. And then he drives up in his
antique Jaguar and he gets out. And of course, when Grapes comes
to the Holiday Inn, everybody comes out, you know, especially
women. They love him.
He comes out and he says, Grapes, that's a beautiful
Jaguar. He says, yeah, it's like a good

(01:26:24):
looking woman, looks good, but alot of maintenance.
And I'm thinking if I ever said that, I'd be arrested, right?
But it's Grapes and they love them.
They love them and now we miss them.
Just talked to him last week. Just talked to him.

(01:26:47):
He just, he didn't have a copy in my book.
Sent him a copy and he called meand, and you know when he calls
you because everyone wants to talk to grapes on the on your
cell phone, it says no caller ID.
I've never seen that on a phone before.
It says no caller ID. Most people won't pick it up if
it says that. Exactly.

(01:27:08):
I picked it up. I thought it might have been
grapes, you know? And it was grapes.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well if you're speaking to him, you tell him there's a podcast
where he can say whatever the fuck he wants.
Exactly. Is he great?
He should be the Order of Canada.
Yeah, Yeah, he should be. Yeah.
Yeah. Love him.
Yeah, 100%. Very cool.

(01:27:30):
What else you got? Anything else on the go that you
want to plug? Obviously, we're excited to
follow along on your your movie debut and all the other great
things. Yeah, that's the thing I I'm
excited about right now. You know, at, at at Fox 40, we,
my engineer, Chuck, he said to me, we've made the best whistle

(01:27:52):
in the world and we're going to make it in Canada.
I will not make it offshore, he said.
Ron, you have to dedicate yourself every year to making it
better and with the help of my team, we make the whistle

(01:28:14):
better. We, we add models, we have 12
models. We add colors, we add
technology. That one that Jamie's Holden is
called the Fusion. And and that's this isn't like
every year we increase the technology.
We're so my team does. And that Fusion is beautiful
because it's a combination of the world famous classic and the

(01:28:38):
world famous Sonic blast. The Sonic Blast, the classic is
the one we sell millions. The Sonic Blast is the easiest
to blow in and the loudest and it's 2 chambers.
And what we did is we took all the best features of the classic
and the best features of the theSonic Blast and we fuse them

(01:28:58):
into the Fusion. So that's the newest thing, the
fusion. That's the the whistle you're
going to put on your key chain in case these beautiful women in
Burlington attack you or a coyote comes after you.
Yeah, the coyote one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, right. So as of tomorrow, you got to

(01:29:19):
promise me that you're going to put that on your.
I'll put it on right after this.Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And and so the technology that new products like FOX 40 Marine
is huge and safety. And you know the thing about the
whistle that is made me the mostproudest saved lives.
And I'll just tell you one quickstory.
We had a guy, everybody that hasa boat has to have a Fox 40

(01:29:43):
sounding device. I think it's law.
And we had a guy in the Trent Canal tipped over his canoe.
It's going down, goes down once,goes down twice, drowning.
Had his Fox 40 on his life jacket, blew it.
You can hear it a mile away. Saved his life, Called me crying

(01:30:08):
his eyes out. Your whistle, someone saved
them. Your whistle saved my life.
He told me this story. I said you got to go on Roy
Green on chorus radio. He went right on Roy, Roy Green
for awards for public affairs broadcasting #1 broadcaster in

(01:30:28):
the world, in Canada. You know, all these gold awards
went on Roy Green and told the story.
There's thousands of those stories that have been emailed
to us where the whistle, a polarbear attack.
They blew the whistle. Now, you shouldn't, you know,
have a whistle only to protect yourself from a polar bear.

(01:30:50):
But every once in a while it hurts their ears and their run
away. Coyotes.
It hurts their ears. They run away.
Cougars. Cougars.
Yeah, yeah, right. You're going to have a problem
because all these beautiful women on Branch St. are going to
try to attack you and they can'tbecause you have a Fox 40.
Thank God for Fox. 40 God, hey, yeah, right.

(01:31:12):
So. My wife will be happy that I'm
walking around with a Fox 40. Lifeguard stories are terrific
lifeguard stories. We got lifeguards that tell
stories, you know, they they go on podcasts and talk about
saving people that had their Fox40 that that's the real win.

(01:31:33):
And then Fluke, yeah, we're, we're you hit a lot of headwinds
in trucking. And right now with the tariffs,
all the people that we truck andwarehouse for are uncertain
about the economy. So I see it as challenge, I see

(01:31:54):
it as opportunity because we're going to seek out more business
in Canada, which we should have been doing for the last 40
years, right? You know, the tariffs are awful
and what's going on is awful. But now we got to turn that
around and treat it as a learning experience, as a new
opportunity. I don't know what that

(01:32:16):
opportunity is, but it's our obligation to seek out the new
opportunities that are coming from the climate, the political
climate that we're living with now since November the 5th.
Yeah. So yeah.
Anyway, tomorrow we'll be promoting liberty for youth who

(01:32:37):
rehabilitate kids that deserve, they deserve an opportunity.
These kids deserve an opportunity and we'll have that
basketball game tomorrow at Rebuff with the police and the
Liberty for youth. I can't wait.
That's fantastic that you're doing that, yeah.
Can't wait. You must get some some good feel
good stories a few years later of like, you know, this kid went

(01:32:59):
on to do this, this kid went on to do that.
This kid was in jail for drugs. Today is a church minister
rehabilitated by Brother Frederick Dryden.
libertyforyouth.org.org. Got to check it out.
This guy, Brother Frederick is an amazing man and more amazing

(01:33:25):
father, a more amazing dad, moreamazing dad.
And you know, Chris, you said tell a joke.
Well, tell a corny joke. You know why did the dad take
the ladder to the basketball game to reach new heights?
Is that corny? Is that awful?

(01:33:46):
This hockey season, pick up something to celebrate the puck
drop. Grab Wolf glass Yellow label
Cabernet Sauvignon now only 1795at the LCBO.
Why settle when you can soar Wolf Blast Yellow label.
What a pleasure to talk to you 2dudes, yeah?
Man this was awesome, thank you.So much 2 Burlington dudes.
Congrats on all you've achieved man.

(01:34:09):
Thank you. Oh, can't wait to see what's
next. There's more to achieve.
Oh yeah. I mean, I got 21 more years.
I've done nothing. I've done nothing.
I gotta achieve. Yeah, right.
Well. What would be your next big
goal? Like what do you have?
Do you have something that you want to be able to do?
Yeah, in your future still. Yeah.
Now watch my team achieve. The greatest thrill I get is

(01:34:34):
creating environment. Create the environment for your
team to achieve. My team are young, they've got a
lot to achieve. And I just sit back and that's
my goal, to create a better environment for my team to enjoy

(01:34:55):
the heights of achievement. That is my goal.
So inspiring. Yeah, totally.
Agree. Yeah, thanks dudes.
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on.
That OK, All right. I got to go to work.
Haven't done a damn thing today.You guys.
You guys get me from my office today.
I'm at the office today. You guys want to eat at 8:30?

(01:35:16):
That's lunchtime. Certainly.
All right, we'll let you go. OK, dude.
Thanks again. Take care.