The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Weekly Political round up:

GUEST: Richard Brennan, Former Journalist with The Toronto Star covering both Queen’s Park and Parliament Hill

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A now-former chamber of commerce head is set to join the race to become Hamilton’s next mayor.

Keanin Loomis, 46, resigned his post with the chamber after nine years as chief operating officer on Wednesday and revealed he’ll be stepping up to run for mayor in the next civic election on Oct. 24.

Who is next to run? Bob Bratina? and what will Fred do?

GUEST: John Best, Founder of the Bay Observer

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is fending off calls for his resignation with a vigorous defence of his handling of the pandemic and a plan to remove almost all COVID-19 restrictions in England next week.

Mr. Johnson has been under increasing pressure to step down over revelations that he and his staff repeatedly broke lockdown rules by holding a series of parties in his Downing Street office in 2020 and 2021. The pressure intensified Wednesday after one Conservative MP defected to the Labour Party and senior Tory MP David Davis bluntly told Mr. Johnson: “In the name of God, go.”

ALSO:  Europe considers new COVID-19 strategy: Accepting the virus

GUEST: Sam Fazeli, Director of Research with Bloomberg Intelligence

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The family of American singer Meat Loaf said their “hearts are broken” as they announced his death at the age of 74.

A post on his official Facebook page said the rocker, who became a global star with hits like Bat Out Of Hell and I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That), died with his wife Deborah at his side,

It added that his daughters, Pearl and Amanda, “and close friends have been with him throughout the last 24 hours”.

GUEST: Lou Molinaro, Member of The Hamilton Music Advisory Team and an Instructor at the Harris Institute for Music

Chief’s Townhall with Hamilton Police Chief Frank Bergen 

Topic include: It’s Lincoln Alexander Day, Police Budget & Diversity and more. 

GUEST: Hamilton Police Chief Frank Bergen

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Ontario is planning to ease COVID-19 restrictions on indoor restaurant dining, gyms, movie theatres and more on Jan. 31, allowing them to open at 50 per cent customer capacity with masking protocols and proof of vaccination, sources told the Star.

The date, a week from Monday, will mark almost four weeks since Premier Doug Ford ordered venues closed on Jan. 5 to quell the Omicron variant, which has sent new COVID-19 infection levels off the charts and filled hospitals with record numbers of patients.

Do the current restrictions in Ontario match the data? Or are we just being less honest with our data?

ALSO: Ontario health minister says Omicron cases expected to peak this month

GUEST: Dr. Tara Moriarty, Head of an Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory at the University of Toronto-

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Ontario's largest communities will get new funding to help speed up development approvals, Premier Doug Ford announced as he hosted a housing summit Wednesday, but the municipal leaders he met with say much stronger action is needed.

Ford said his goal for the virtual meeting with big city mayors and regional chairs was to come up with concrete ways to allow more families to buy a home.

GUEST: Michael-Collins-Williams, Chief Executive Officer of the West End Home Builders’ Association

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The economy no longer works for the benefit of most people. And if the economy doesn’t function, nothing else will. Without a strong economy, we won’t be able to pay for social programs like health and education, and we won’t be able to take care of our elderly, the frailest and most vulnerable among us, or the poor and the homeless.

What is most troubling about the failure of our economy is the Great Divide that now exists in terms of income. The rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and the poor among us are growing in number, with few opportunities to rise up out of poverty. Overall living standards for most Canadians are declining, and have been for several decades now. As a result, a growing number of people are struggling to make ends meet.

ALSO: Canada's annual inflation rate highest since 1991

GUEST: Frank Stronach, Founder of Magna International Inc.