Jane Brown is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Paula Fletcher, Toronto City Councillor for Toronto-Danforth, David Crombie, former Mayor of Toronto,  Karen Stintz, CEO of Variety Village and a former Toronto City Councillor and former mayoral candidate.

There's been a bit of a plot twist to the Toronto mayoral election this week. Popular urbanist and mayoral candidate Gil Penalosa who lost to Mayor John Tory in the last election has announced that he is now dropping out of this one and...he's endorsing mayoral candidate Olivia Chow. Meanwhile, we get a sense from Paula Fletcher about whether Deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie has had any progress when it comes to getting money from higher levels of government to address the billion dollar shortfall in the City's budget. And the Cherry Blossoms are now in peak bloom--earlier than in previous years. The flowers are a popular sight to see for many Torontonians who gather at locations like High Park to get a glimpse.

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TUNE INTO THE TOWN: A CLOSER LOOK AT PSAC'S DEMANDS FROM A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE 

Jane Brown is now joined by David Whitten, Founding Partner with Whitten and Lublin Employment Lawyers.

Today: we take a closer look at the demands of PSAC from a legal perspective. How reasonable are these demands and could they be realistic in a corporate work setting in comparison? Our expert weighs in.

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MORE ON PSAC'S STRIKE AND THE POLITICS SURROUNDING IT 

Jane Brown is now joined by Bob Richardson, Liberal Strategist and Senior Council to National Public Relations.

We continue the conversation on PSAC's strike with Bob to get a sense of the politics surrounding it all. Justin Trudeau is urging the heads of the unions involved to reach a deal quickly to avoid long service disruptions ahead. How much damage will these strikes cause the Trudeau government and can we expect a deal to come out of it soon? And, Bob weighs in on some of the more interesting demands including a top up for employees working past 4 pm ET.

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THE MEDICAL RECORD: CANADA'S DRUG CRISIS

Marissa Lennox is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Dr. Fahad Razak, a General Internist and epidemiologist at Unity Health Toronto, Dr. Alisa Naiman, family physician and the founder and medical director of The Medical Station in Toronto, and Dr. Malcolm Moore, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

This week: we shed light on the scope of the drug crisis here in Canada with over 30,000 individuals losing their lives to drug overdoses in the past 7 years. Earlier this year, we learned that Toronto Public Health is partnering with Unity Health Toronto and University Health Network hospitals to implement additional supervised injection sites. But, is this the right approach that our healthcare system should be taking to address the drug crisis among its other strategies? Meanwhile, Sunnybrook and Michael Garron Hospitals will be helping to tackle the surgery backlog by performing hip or knee replacement operations over weekends. The plan is to do as many as 1,300 over he next year by doing those surgeries on Saturdays and Sundays. And, tick season is upon us with the arrival of Spring and these pests pose the very real threat of Lyme's disease. Our health experts weigh in on the latest.

PUBLIC SERVICE WORKER STRIKE KICKS IN TODAY

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada's strike has officially started as of 12:01 am today. As many as 155,000 are off the job after the union and Ottawa failed to reach a tentative agreement on Tuesday evening. A part of those striking are employees at the CRA. Franco weighs in on why he feels PSAC is out of touch and how their demands for a pay raise, if fulfilled, would cost taxpayers $9.3 billion.

TORONTO ENDS BACKYARD CHICKEN FARMING PILOT PROGRAM OVER CONCERNS OF AVIAN FLU

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Dr. Tim Sly, an epidemiologist at Toronto Metropolitan University and Sarah Doucette a former city councillor and a three-year participant in the pilot program of backyard chicken farming.

The City of Toronto is ending its backyard chicken farming pilot project over concerns of the threat of the Avian flu. We bring in our epidemiologist to weigh in on just how serious of a threat the disease actually is to humans. And, we ask our listeners: have you benefitted from this program?

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

Marissa Lennox is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Lisa Raitt, former deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, George Smitherman, former Ontario Liberal MPP for Toronto Centre who also served as a health minister and deputy Premier, and Peggy Nash,  the former New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the Parkdale—High Park electoral district in Toronto.

This week: We discuss CBC vs Elon Musk and Twitter and being labelled "government-funded media" by the social media platform. Meanwhile, today the Ford government will be making an announcement about the future of Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre. And, Olivia Chow joins the Toronto Mayoral race. She's done it before. Does she have what it takes to address this City's current issues?

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FOOD PRICES AND INFLATION DROP

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

The good news: according to Statistics Canada, the annual rate of inflation fell from 5.2 per cent in February to 4.3 per cent last month. The also somewhat good news is that there has been a deceleration of food prices which went from 10.6 per cent in February down to 9.7 per cent in March (yes...not a big difference). The drop in food costs was fuelled by lower prices for fruits and vegetables. Dr. Charlebois reacts to the latest news and weighs in on what it means for consumers.

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RESIDENTS MAY BE ABLE TO SEE CHERRY BLOSSOMS EARLIER THIS YEAR

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Charlie Dobbin, host of The Garden Show on Zoomer Radio.

It may very well be the case that we'll be able to see the High Park Cherry Blossoms earlier than expected this year because of a wave of unseasonably warm weather in the City. Our gardening guest weighs in on the latest.

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Marissa Lennox is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Bill VanGorder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Policy Officer of CARP; Anthony Quinn, Chief Community Officer of CARP; and Peter Muggeridge, Senior Editor of Zoomer Magazine.

In the news: The National Institute on Ageing has published a new report whereby it took a closer look at the long-term care and home care systems of Australia to get a better understanding of what works well for them and how what they are doing well can be incorporated into our very own systems here in Canada. April also marks Parkinson Awareness Month and we put out the call to you, our listeners, to share your stories about family or friends who have been affected by this disease. And, we discuss RRIFs which is a very hot topic for CARP members.

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LOW VOTER TURNOUT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON THE NEXT MAYORAL ELECTION

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Ben Spurr, Toronto Star's City Hall Reporter.

Today, they discuss the likelihood of low voter turnout at the upcoming Toronto mayoral election and what is needed for a candidate to actually win.

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FEDERAL FUNDING RESUMES FOR HOCKEY CANADA

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Dr. Kristi Allain, Canada's Research Chair of Physical Culture and Social Life and an Associate Professor of Sociology at St. Thomas University.

Ottawa has resumed its funding to Hockey Canada, but it comes with a set of conditions with the key being that they want the prominent organization to change its culture and as the federal sports minister Pascale St-Onge said, " tackle issues regarding safe sport, such as the toxic behaviours, the trivialization of sexual violence, and the culture of silence, which has too often made the headlines" in the aftermath of its scandal. Kristi weighs in on the latest news and explains why the culture was so problematic in the first place.

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

Today on Free For All Friday: Listeners called in to weigh in on the future of Ontario Place and the react to the latest on Toronto's mayoral race .

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

Libby Znaimer is joined by David Crombie, former Mayor of Toronto, Karen Stintz, CEO of Variety Village and a former Toronto City Councillor and Bob Richardson, Liberal Strategist and Senior Council to National Public Relations

Today: we provide an update on the ever crowded Toronto mayoral race with key election issues being violence on the TTC, safer streets and the City's budget hole among other issues. Meanwhile, we discuss the news that Toronto will be on the hook for the 2026 FIFA World Cup expenses. Is that fair? There's also the debate over the future of Ontario Place. And, our panel reacts to Rogers striking a deal to be the provider of the 5G network on the TTC. Finally, new TTC data shows that because of the added presence of police officers on the transit system, there were fewer security incidents.

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PRINCE HARRY TO ATTEND KING CHARLES' CORONATION

Libby Znaimer is joined by Suzanne Boyd, Editor-in-Chief of Zoomer Magazine.

This week, we learned that Prince Harry will indeed be attending his father King Charles' coronation. However, Meghan Markle will be staying home with their two children to celebrate Archie's birthday. But, could it also be because Meghan doesn't want to face the media onslaught in Britain? And, would it have been a better decision for her to go with Harry to this once in a lifetime occasion?

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JAGMEET SINGH ON GALEN WESTON'S PAY RAISE 

Libby Znaimer is joined by Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

Jagmeet has made his views known about Galen Weston's recent pay raise. He tweeted,  “Every cent of Greedy Galen's 55% raise deserves to be taxed. And, then given back to you, your family, and food banks throughout Canada.” Jagmeet joins the program to weigh in on his latest beef with Weston and the hot button topic of "greedflation".

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

Marissa Lennox is filling in for Libby Znaimer today. She is joined by Dr. Alisa Naiman, family physician and the founder and medical director of The Medical Station in Toronto, and Dr. Malcolm Moore, a medical oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Dr. Amol Verma, a staff physician in General Internal Medicine at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

Today: Canadian pharmacists are concerned about a lack of data for prescription management especially in the aftermath of thousands of doses of the obesity drug Ozempic being mailed out to customers in the U.S.

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ONTARIANS ARE ABOUT TO GET CHEAPER ELECTRICITY

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Peter Tabuns, NDP MPP for Toronto-Danforth and energy critic and Paul Acchione, Senior management consultant with over 48 years of engineering and management experience in the nuclear and fossil power generation industry.

Residents in Ontario are about to pay a reduced electricity rate. But, there's a catch. Our guests explain.

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THE 2023 GIVING REPORT: CHARITIES GRAPPLING WITH STAFF BURNOUT 

Marissa Lennox is now joined by Duke Chang, President and CEO of CanadaHelps.

Close to 3,000 Canadian charities were surveyed and the results are concerning. As many as a third of them have faced a substantial drop in revenue and half can't meet the demand for their services. In addition to concerns about the high rate of inflation, staff burnout has been a major concern as well. Duke shares more details of the survey and the challenges our charity sector is facing on a day to day basis.

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

RECOVERING POLITICIANS PANEL: JAGMEET’S BEEF WITH GALEN WESTON

Libby Znaimer is joined by Lisa Raitt, former deputy leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, George Smitherman, former Ontario Liberal MPP for Toronto Centre who also served as a health minister and deputy Premier, and Peggy Nash,  the New Democratic Party Member of Parliament for the Parkdale—High Park electoral district in Toronto.

Today: We discuss NDP leader Jagmeet Singh's beef with Loblaw CEO Galen Weston and his pay raise, the news that Rogers is going to be the provider of the 5G network on the TTC and then, finally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, testifying later this week over allegations of alleged Chinese interference in Canada's 2021 election.

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH COMPOSTABLE GROCERY BAGS AND THE GREEN BIN?

Libby Znaimer is joined by Matthew Caschera, Director of Infrastructure & Resource Management for Solid Waste Management Services and Dr. Paul van der Werf, Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University.

Today: We explore the COMPOSTABLE garbage bags ban imposed by Ottawa and the impact these products and we get some clarification on the kinds of bags you can line your green bins with. Call in with your questions.

ZOOMER SQUAD: HOW THE ROLE OF GRANDPARENTING HAS CHANGED

Libby Znaimer is joined by Bill VanGorder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Policy Officer of CARP; Anthony Quinn, Chief Community Officer of CARP; and John Wright, Executive Vice President of Maru Public Opinion.

Today we start things off by discussing the demo of grandparents and how their societal role has changed over the years.

THE RIGHT TO REPAIR: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Libby Znaimer is joined by Ellen Roseman, Consumer advocate and journalist as well as Dr. Natasha Tusikov, Associate Professor of Criminology at the Department of Social Science at York University.

It was in the federal budget: a plan for Right to Repair is set to kick in for electronic devices and home appliances in 2024. Ottawa will begin consultations for the policy this Summer. Right to Repair is all about letting consumers have the freedom to fix the expensive products they buy where they want or themselves. But many manufacturers don't allow for this to happen (they make money on fixes) and design their products to be fixed exclusively by them. Our guests weigh in on what Ottawa wants to do to make it better for the customer.

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!

Today on Free For All Friday: Canada's food economy; Toronto's mayoral race; memories of Ontario Place; feeding wild animals; climate change...and more!

Listen live, weekdays from noon to 1, on Zoomer Radio!