The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

“As a nation we tend to shy away from extremes,” said our late great Washington ambassador Allan Gotlieb, “As some wit put it, Canadians are like vichyssoise; we are cold, half-French and difficult to stir.”

So why is Pierre Poilievre trying to get us so mad? Why does anger seep from his every pore? Why does the Conservative Leader insist on being – to borrow a phrase from former U.S. vice-president Spiro Agnew – our “nattering nabob of negativism?”

GUEST: Lawrence Martin, Author and Public Affairs Columnist for the Globe and Mail

-

Fatal encounters with police are on the rise in Canada. The number of civilians dying in incidents with police when force is used has steadily increased since 2000. This is leaving families and communities with little support or recourse for accountability.

GUEST: Andrew Crosby, Postdoctoral fellow, School of Planning, University of Waterloo and co-author of this piece

-

The federal government will provide Volkswagen with up to $13-billion in production subsidies for the new electric-vehicle battery plant it plans to build in St. Thomas, Ont. – nearly double the estimated $7-billion cost of construction.

Ottawa’s backing, which also includes about $700-million in additional support for nearer-term capital costs, is by far the most generous subsidy that Canada has ever provided to an automaker for locating a factory here

GUEST: David Adams, President & CEO of the Global Automakers of Canada

GUEST: Karen Littlewood, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Local politicians have endorsed a roadmap for creating several hundred new affordable housing units annually in Hamilton, Ont. in order to tackle an ongoing homelessness crisis.

The plan is a series of short-term and long-term goals in collaboration with city divisions and community partners through a housing secretariat.

The goal is to build some 350 new affordable homes each year for the next decade, while repairing existing units.

GUEST: Andrea Horwath, Mayor, City of Hamilton

-

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told NATO officials privately that Canada will never meet the military alliance’s defence-spending target, according to a leaked secret Pentagon assessment obtained by The Washington Post

GUEST: Thomas Hughes, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Canadian Defence and Security Network

-

What are the implications of the Ford Governments funding cuts to the 2023-2024 School Year?

GUEST: Karen Littlewood, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation

-

OP ED: "Is the world unraveling? It can feel that way – but Joe Biden still believes"

GUEST: Brian J. Karem, Columnist for Salon.com and host of ‘Just Ask the Question’ Podcast, Author of the new book Free The Press: The Death of American Journalism and How to Revive It

GUEST: Amanda Kelly, Co-Founder of Awake, and an expert in safe & environmental cremation procedures

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

One of two men arrested for allegedly operating a secret police station for China in Manhattan had photographic evidence on his phone of the opening of a similar covert station in Canada, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation says.

GUEST: Steven Chase, Senior Parliamentary Reporter for the Globe and Mail

-

Canada’s inflation rate is rapidly cooling this spring, a welcome development for the Bank of Canada as it holds interest rates at their highest levels in more than 15 years in a bid to restore price stability.

GUEST: Marvin Ryder, Professor with the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University

-

What implications does the U.S Inflation Reduction Act have on Canadian competitiveness?

GUEST: Glen Hodgson, Author of this piece for the CD Howe Instittute, and has 36 years of experience in global and Canadian macro-economics, international trade analysis and finance

-

Canadians are still seeing "elevated" prices at grocery stores in March but by a "lesser extent" than in February.

Prices of items like flour, fruit juices and apples remained high in March whereas ham, tomatoes and lettuce saw reductions from February to March 2023.

GUEST: Corey Mintz is a Winnipeg-based food reporter and the author of the 2021 book "The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants as We Knew Them, and What Comes After." 

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

The Ford government tabled new legislation that will give itself the power to convert underutilized schools in Ontario into affordable housing or sell off the properties on the open market, in a major overhaul of education policies.

The new bill, called the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, includes sweeping new measures aimed at standardizing the education system to align with “provincial priorities” — which will be set by education minister Stephen Lecce — and to give parents greater say over their children’s education.

GUEST: Colin D’Mello, Queen’s Park Bureau Chief for Global News

-

Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) leadership says all workers in a legal strike position will strike Wednesday if they don't reach an agreement by 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Its bargaining groups — one of about 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) workers, the other of about 120,000 staff spread across more than 20 departments and agencies — each moved into legal strike positions last week after strike votes.

GUEST: Peggy Nash, Chair of the Ted Rogers School of Management Centre for Labour Management Relations and author of Women Winning Office: An Activist's Guide To Getting Elected

-

Envision access to shops, parks, schools, and medical facilities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride!

So why are we scared of well-planned communities that don’t worship cars?

GUEST: Lorraine Sommerfeld, Columnist for Driving.ca and the Hamilton Spectator