The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Premier Doug Ford's embattled Progressive Conservatives concede they “poorly communicated and poorly executed” measures designed to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Reeling after a weekend of policy flip-flops that saw the government backtrack on random police spot checks and closing playgrounds, the Tories admitted Monday they “need to do a better job as a government” to convey to Ontarians the importance of staying home.

ALSO: Growing calls for Ontario Premier Doug Ford to resign amid worsening COVID-19 3rd wave.

GUEST: Dr. Amit Arya, Co-Founder of Doctors For Justice in Long Term Care and Palliative Care Physician

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Canada’s first federal budget in more than two years extends Ottawa’s COVID-19 “lifeline” for those still struggling after a difficult year — including aid for laid-off workers — another few months as it aims to pull Canada through the pandemic once and for all.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland ‘s first crack at a budget plan is also widely viewed as a pre-election platform. There is more than $100 billion in new spending over the next three years targeting a wide variety of voters. There are promises for seniors and their caregivers, working parents, students and business owners.

Freeland is also looking ahead to the post-pandemic Canada the Liberals want to see, one that has $10-a-day childcare, the ability to produce its own vaccines, national standards for long-term care homes and small- and medium-sized businesses equipped with the workers and technology they need to survive.

GUEST: MP Ed Fast, Conservative Shadow Minister for Finance

GUEST: Dr. Lori Turnbull, Director of the School of Public Administration with Dalhousie University

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The jurors who sat quietly off-camera through three weeks of draining testimony in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in George Floyd’s death moved into the spotlight today, still out of sight but now in control of verdicts awaited by a skittish city. 

The jury of six white people and six people who are Black or multiracial resumed deliberations Tuesday morning. Anonymous by order of the judge and sequestered now until they reach a verdict, they spent just a few hours on their task Monday after the day was mostly consumed by closing arguments in which prosecutors argued that Chauvin squeezed the life out of Floyd last May in a way that even a child knew was wrong.

The defense contended that the now-fired white officer acted reasonably and that the 46-year-old Floyd died of a heart condition and illegal drug use. 

GUEST: Jeffrey Dvorkin, Former Director of Journalism and a Senior Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College

Executive bonuses rose last year at Chartwell Retirement Residences CSH-UN-T -0.33%decrease as the company said it responded effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic and gave itself perfect scores for employee engagement, customer satisfaction and its reputation with the public.

Chartwell CEO Vlod Volodarski, could get a nice bonus ($323,967) on top of his 1.91 million salary for 2020, yet Chartwell couldn't give PSWs their pandemic pay before being publicly shamed?

GUEST: Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos, Co-Founder of Doctors for Justice in Long-Term Care, Professor at Ontario Tech University

After a year that saw federal spending reach levels not seen since the Second World War, the Liberal government will release a long-awaited budget Monday that will offer a roadmap to a post-pandemic economic recovery.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland's first budget as finance minister will attempt to balance measures meant to reduce the severity of COVID-19's third wave with efforts to set the stage for an economic rebound.

The budget will account for record emergency spending driven by measures to fight the pandemic and blunt its economic impact.

GUEST: Moshe Lander, Senior Economics Lecturer with Concordia University