Here we are in southport, manitoba!
[cheering & applauding]
An hour west of winnipeg, a place that puts both the
"great" and the "planes" in the great plains.
[laughing]
People who love their air are in their element here at
This former royal canadian air force base
That's had more ups and downs than
A helicopter in a hurricane.
[laughing]
About 30 years ago, the air force closed this base.
It was getting shuttered.
You might say they were closing the gate,
Even though the locals were not on board.
[laughing]
Today here in southport,
You'll not only find military flight training,
You'll find indigenous martial arts training.
And don't worry if you get hit in the face 'cause you
Also have a state of the art beauty clinic here...
In case you get a fat lip.
Or hell, in case you want to get a fatter lip.
[laughing]
So, how did this all happen?
Well, keep an eye out for my new book.
It's called "flights, fights, and facials:
80 years of kicking ass and looking great.
The story of southport, manitoba."
[laughing]
[applauding]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see that people have a sense of humour
About hard times.
Check, check...
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[mc] mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect it,
Canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes, but hanging in there...
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is southport, manitoba.
♪
[cheering & applauding]
Southport was built in 1940s, part of the
British commonwealth air training plan for
World war two, known as cfb
Portage la prairie.
It became one of the most instrumental bases
In the air force,
Where over 90% of all canadian air force pilots
Received their first flight training.
But it's pilots' initial flight training,
So there's not like advanced aerobatics and
Dropping ordinance and that kind of thing.
In fact, depending on how tonight goes,
I might be the first person to bomb here.
[laughing]
♪
To understand southport's heyday and its mayday,
I spoke with chief rotary wing instructor, james tutte.
[cheering & applauding]
When we were training, there were...
Over 600 people on the base.
Lots of young pilot trainees.
All the stories that you may have seen
In movies and television, they're probably all true,
Plus a few more than that.
James was one of the trainee pilots back in the 80s
When, already, there was nothing cooler than
Learning to fly for the military-
The leather jacket, the aviator shades,
And then on top of all that, "top gun" came out.
Yeah, we weren't nearly as good looking as the guys in
The movie, but we thought we were.
This was like the canadian top gun, top registered gun.
[laughing]
I asked, "why here? Why this part of manitoba?
Why is this a good place to train people how to fly?"
The skies are mainly clear.
No terrain features that you could hit
If you're not flying very well, for sure.
He explained to me, you know,
"well, when you're learning to fly,
The best place to do that is in the sky."
And here in the prairies, you guys have a lot of that.
[laughing]
In rural manitoba, you're not gonna come upon...
Mountains, or fog, or...
Two-storey buildings.
[laughing]
There was a hospital, there were dentists,
There was a convenience store,
Outdoor hockey rink, sports fields,
All the things to support the local military community.
And then, when the base closed,
A lot of that went away.
In 1992, as an effort to reduce government spending,
They decided to permanently close several bases,
Including southport.
I think you can imagine the impact that that would have
On the local area, the local community.
Closing the base here permanently was going to
Redeploy 600 military personnel who would,
Of course, take their families.
And not to mention, 200 civilians...
Would be- well, not redeployed-
Straight up unemployed.
It was a little bit eerie.
Most of the buildings on site were empty.
There were four families living in the probably
200 houses that are there.
Eventually, the base went down to just
Four occupied houses.
James' family being one of them.
Ironically, this was one pilot who refused to take off.
[laughing]
There were letter writing campaigns.
There were rallies.
There were, of course, impassioned speeches
At the legislature and at the national level.
And... It worked.
The government reversed its decision to
Scrap the base, kind of.
The hangars, the houses,
The entire military airport would all be sold to
A non-profit group called southport aerospace,
Who opened up the base to the public,
And are running it as a municipality.
I'd never heard of anything like this happening before.
I don't know if it was the first time.
I don't know if it was a pilot project.
[laughing]
Southport aerospace centre was given the task of
Trying to develop other businesses,
Other entities that could come here and use this site,
Use these buildings.
Now, private companies could rent out hangars and
Have businesses there,
Like the aircraft maintenance school.
There's a nursing college here.
The military housing has been renovated and
Can be rented out by anybody who wants to
Live in this new town that used to be an air force base.
In fact, one of the groups that rents space here
To do their flight training is the air force.
Guys, it's a bit confusing.
[laughing]
I swear to god, it's a little bit like explaining
How a helicopter flies.
The more I get into it, the more confusing it's gonna get.
[laughing]
That's how an air force base got grounded and
Somehow continued to fly.
Suffice to say, southport may have been decommissioned,
But it never turned in its wings.
[cheering & applauding]
♪
Next, I went over to hangar one,
And I met with a woman who showed me there are things
Much more difficult to land than a joke...
[laughing]
Major priscilla jobin.
[cheering & applauding]
Priscilla is a helicopter flight instructor.
Like many people I met here,
She caught the flying bug when she was young.
And she knew she wanted to fly helicopters.
I love helicopters.
They're just so cool, so much fun to fly.
And, you can fly them with the doors off, too,
In the summer.
And I just love it that you can land on top of
A hospital, a mountain top, back of a ship.
Hovering though is actually one of the trickier things
To do in the helicopter.
I saw priscilla, she can hold that thing completely steady,
Rotate either way.
That's the helicopter's greatest advantage,
Because once you've mastered that,
You can land pretty much anywhere.
In fact, I bet priscilla, she could have
Landed this helicopter right here.
Or maybe at the end of the night,
After I've blown the roof off the place.
[laughing]
Everybody that has wings on their chest
Has been in southport.
-Is that right? -Mhm.
[indistinct speaking]
Every student that come here, we expect a lot from them.
But they're so motivated, they work so hard.
And at times, we fly with them,
And they're working at the edge of their ability.
They're trying to do so many things at the same time.
And sometimes it just becomes too much.
It's overwhelming.
I get the impression that priscilla sort of represents
The new school approach to teaching.
It's the opposite of what you might expect the
Stereotypical military training to be like,
You know, you think about the movies
With the drill sergeant.
Like, "all right, listen up, maggots!
Drop and give me 20, you piece of dirt."
[laughing]
Young people come here to train.
They're putting enough pressure on themselves, right?
They want to become pilots.
They know that every time they go up in the air
They're being evaluated.
It's better to have an approach that has a
Shred of encouragement or compassion.
Right? If at first you don't succeed, fly and fly again.
[laughing]
We have to come down on the ground,
Debrief them and tell them,
"hey, that wasn't good enough. We have to do it again."
But this is part of the training.
That's the best way to learn, is by making a mistake.
And she'll say to her students, you know,
"the only way we learn is from our mistakes,
Which is what I try to tell the car insurance company..."
[laughing]
We're making way better pilots now.
-Yeah? -Oh yeah.
She said matter of factly,
They are turning out better pilots these days.
But I think it also would be cool to sort of do partly
Her approach, and partly the old school approach.
Right? You're there with your student, and you're like,
"okay, I think you know what went wrong there.
Ah, we're gonna try it again.
Ah, so, maggot, take a deep breath."
[laughing]
"drop and give me 20,
And then we'll give it another go.
You've got this!"
[laughing]
Her favourite aircraft is the baddest chopper on the base,
The bell 4-12 outlaw.
And I got to fly it...
Virtually.
[laughing]
She took me over to the hilly brown building
Where they had these two enormous simulators that
Sit on massive mechanical actuators and, it's amazing,
It's an exact replica of the inside of the
Bell 4-12 helicopter.
♪
Amazing... Ah!
While we were cruising,
She let me have the controls for a little bit.
-You have control. -I have control?
Whoa! It feels so real.
Yeah, it kind of plays tricks with your mind sometimes.
I was white-knuckled gripping the stick.
And then, they can throw in these
Curveballs at you, right?
Yeah, we can add snow.
-Oh, wow, look at that! -There is the snow.
At this point, I would just kind of go back to the
Airport and land and just go have a coffee.
[sighing]
Here's the thing, the advantage of a helicopter,
It can fly in any direction.
But you can also screw a landing in any direction.
[laughing]
And you can see the lights showing up there,
The runway lights, at about 2 o'clock.
You sort of pick a spot you're like,
"okay, I want to land there,"
But maybe you've pitched too far forward and
You're gonna go over, don't pitch too far back,
We're rolling left or spinning.
You're gonna yaw, right?
You're gonna- that's where I should be-
That's where I want to land, right there.
You're gonna sort of yaw...
Yaw away from it.
The weather is ridiculous! Come on you, guys!
Give me a fighting chance at- oh, there we go.
Good god!
♪
-[crashing] -ah, mercy!
[laughing] this is crashing.
This is... Yeah.
I had a great time hanging out with major jobin.
If we ever get to do the real thing,
I'll leave the flying to her. She can be the maverick.
I'll be her canada goose.
[laughing]
[cheering & applauding]
♪
You know, we've been marching to a military beat so far,
But now, I'm going to do an about face,
And talk about faces.
[laughing]
I went down to apex aesthetics,
And I had a chat with rhonda mcallister and dr. Joe kim.
[cheering & applauding]
I asked rhonda, I said,
"this is the last place I would imagine I would
Find a state-of-the-art aesthetics clinic.
And she said, 'well, there's something good about
Having it on a base here.
It's a little bit out of the way."
You get discretion here.
People aren't going to see people on the avenue, saying,
"hey, what are you doing at apex aesthetics?"
You have a bit of privacy, right?
No one's gonna drive by and see your car,
And, "oh, is so and so, getting some work done?"
You know, here, you're not gonna raise any eyebrows...
[laughing]
...While they're raising your eyebrows.
[laughing]
We're kind of a new idea, I think.
Chris and I approached southport,
And they were very excited when we said
We wanted to do this.
Rhonda and her husband, chris,
It was their idea to open the clinic.
They brought in dr. Joe kim.
The type of work that they do there at apex,
It's not like severe surgical stuff that's gonna like
Really morph and really change the way you look.
You know, we don't want to make our
Clients look like the...
The real housewives of wherever.
Like dr. Joe said, "you're gonna look real,
Not real housewives."
[laughing]
Although, I think that'd be great idea for a show.
The real housewives of southport, manitoba.
[laughing]
Who's in for some turbulence?
[laughing]
Rhonda and joe are very proud of the work that they do.
They not only stand by the work, they really get it.
In fact, they actually get it,
They receive the treatments.
-Rhonda's actually 70. -Yeah.
-Miraculous. -[laughing]
Because I mean, I really need to be able to speak to it,
And say that, "this is what it feels like.
This is your recovery time."
They not only know what the effects are,
But they know what it feels like to get these procedures,
Which I think is...
I'd love to tell that to the guy who did my barium enema.
[laughing]
"just relax," he said.
[laughing]
♪
Anyway, I go in there and I lie down.
There's all this like fancy, high-tech machinery
All around that's making little sounds and beeps.
Don't be nervous, I'll take good care of you.
[laughing]
And then of course, the crew were shooting it,
So there's extra lights in there and there's cameras.
It just reminded me a little bit of like...
Who here has been probed on a ufo?
[laughing]
Yeah, airbase in the middle of nowhere,
Come on, who's been probed on a ufo?
[laughing]
How are you doing?
Good, it feels nice.
And then, joe was doing this machine on my face.
It feels just like a warm massage but this machine
That sends bipolar radio frequencies,
And it stimulates your skin.
I figured that's great for an actor, right?
If people say you got a great face for radio,
Send some radio into your face.
Maybe you'll get a better reception.
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
I went to the rec plex, and I spoke to a
Dakota ojibwe man whose family were mixing their
Martial arts long before it was cool,
Ogitchita master, stephen prince.
[cheering & applauding]
Stephen told me ogitchita martial arts is based on
An indigenous style of combat,
But it's constantly incorporating
Many other styles.
Our belief is you never commit yourself to one style.
So, now ogitchita style has evolved to include all the
Martial arts that we've learned over the years.
So, you have indigenous combat tactics,
Which focus on...
Stealth and surprise.
But then you have moves from jujitsu, karate,
Taekwondo, filipino foot fighting.
So with myself, I hold 8 black belts
In 8 different styles.
Stephen has a black belt in 8 different styles
Of martial arts. That's exceptional.
[applauding]
Personally, I had a green belt in taekwondo.
And I got a white belt, actually,
That I stole from the robe at apex aesthetics.
[laughing]
Yeah!
Stephen told me ogitchita comes from the word that has
Always been used to describe warriors in his culture,
It literally translates to "warrior with a heart".
Our job is to ensure that we take care of
Our community, our elders.
We show our youth the proper ways.
It's something that helps connect him to his roots.
For other young indigenous people,
It helps them connect to their culture.
In short, every now and then
It means a foot connecting to your head.
[laughing]
One of the keys to ogitchita training is stealth.
You always want to be quiet.
Like the kids who train with him,
He gets them to train in crawling.
It's survival techniques,
Like if you were escaping from a captor.
Crawling if your legs are broken,
So they're not allowed to use their legs.
Crawling if their arms are broken,
So they can't use their arms.
There's one they do on their backs,
That is a way of crawling, if your arms were broken,
And your legs were broken.
If my arms and legs were broken,
I don't think I'd be trying to escape from my captors.
[laughing]
I'd be hoping they'd be helping me on and off the toilet.
[laughing]
So, I do have a lot of children that come to me that
The schools or other institutes listed
As problem children.
I'm a person that grew up with adhd,
So my teachers had some patience with me.
And because of that, I've always felt
I have to have the patience with the kids.
Ogitchita is extremely beneficial with kids that
Have been labeled as "problem children",
Like he was, like I was.
He said this sort of training is excellent
For focusing them.
And by the time I asked him why all the gym mats
Were different colours, he said,
"jonny, why don't you come and
Try some of this training?"
[laughing]
Take your hand...
Go in a circle, that's wax on.
-Just like "karate kid". -Just like the "karate kid".
And the other side is wax off.
He showed me the wax on, wax off, right,
Just like from the movie.
Yeah, there you go.
Oh, pretty cool.
Although I don't know if that is actually from karate,
Or if it's from brazilian jujitsu.
I know- I know brazilians wax off a lot of stuff.
[laughing]
You could probably get it done over at apex.
[laughing]
[cheering & applauding]
♪
Here in southport, once trainee pilots
Have passed their final tests,
There's a ceremony where they get their wings.
And I had a chance to attend one of these ceremonies.
And I had a chat with acting commandant of
The flight school, major ryan snider.
[applauding]
Ryan emphasized that the ring ceremony is one of
The most important events in a pilot's career.
As you can imagine, the graduates
Have been thinking about this moment
Since the day that they decided to enroll in the
Royal canadian air force as a pilot.
Although, they will go on and continue to train-
They'll continue to specialize in various aircraft-
Once they receive their wings here in southport,
They are captains.
They are pilots of the royal canadian air force.
And for these particular graduates that day,
They also got to be on an episode of still standing, so...
[laughing]
It's a milestone in their lives.
It marks a pivotal, monumental time
In their career. And so,
We welcome them to invite their family and
Friends to the event.
Families come from far and wide to attend.
And you shake hands with some of the air force top brass,
And you get a photo.
That's amazing!
So young and so accomplished.
Congrats, congrats.
-Daddy! -Whoa!
Look at these little guys.
Sometimes it's not just your parents or siblings
Who might attend. Like,
One of the graduates that day, his kids were there.
He had- he had a lot of kids.
"a brace of kids", we would say in newfoundland.
[laughing]
And this guy's gonna go off and fly
The hercules transport.
He's gonna be the guy, on the back of the hercules,
There's gonna be the stick figures with the
Big family and all the kids and the cat.
[laughing]
[applauding]
♪
This base had been closed and god only knows
How you saved it, but you did.
And here's the topper.
Instead of the end of a 40-year trend,
You spent another 40 years flying choppers.
The higher you are, the smoother the air,
That's meteorological kinetics.
The higher on my forehead, the less smooth it gets.
It's time for some apex aesthetics.
[laughing]
Planes have been grounded but now the flight's on,
And the fight's on with a mixed martial art.
If I have to get grounded and summarily pounded,
I hope it's by a warrior with heart.
[laughing]
Here students become adults, these kids become captains,
Warriors themselves learn to fly.
And on the map they'll proudly show you
Southport, manitoba,
Where they learned in a big prairie sky.
Thanks for coming out, everybody.
-You've been great! -[laughing]
Thanks for having us, southport!
We love you, take care!
[applauding]
♪
I really hope I can fly with him in a real helicopter.
So, next time he comes here, we'll go for a flight.
I thought that was a very good comedy show.
Heard some good martial arts jokes from jonny, you know.
He hit it out of the park, nailed it.
It was great.
♪
Oh my god, my stomach.
-[laughing -[sighing]
-I have control. -You have control.
She has control.
Jonny injected southport with some laughter.
Big time.
I trap your hand.
This one's gonna hurt a little bit, so are you ready?
-Okay. Ah! -I take you to the ground.
[laughing]
Southport, manitoba is still standing.