NOW and NEXT

Today on NOW and NEXT:

We're joined by Phil Gurski, President and CEO Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting. He brings his 30-plus years of strategic analysis and international intelligence gathering to our discussion of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel and the likely quagmire of war that is escalating in the region.

• How much of the initial Hamas attack was an "intelligence failure"?
• Did the internal instability of the Israeli government create a window of opportunity for Hamas?
• Is Iran really "behind" these attacks?
• Is Washington's response handcuffed by the political paralysis in the House of Representatives?
• And, Phil says Canada's absence from a G7 statement condemning the terrorism speaks volumes about the way our allies view the Trudeau government - especially after the prime minister publicly cited intelligence gathered by an ally that suggested India is behind the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

I was deeply saddened this week to hear about the death of Caron Shepley. Caron was life partner and business partner to Barrie Shepley. Caron had been living with cancer for the past five years or so and, on this past Sunday, it got the best of her.

Caron, Barrie and partner Sheldon Persad founded Personal Best in 1991 and that's about the time we first met. They coached and coaxed me to be a runner. I ran several marathons and a few triathlons with their good guidance.

I was crushed to hear of Caron's passing and shaken with grief for Barrie. In this episode, you hear one of Barrie's "Caron stories". He's been posting them daily on his Facebook page. I'd encourage you to visit his page and read the stories.

I had the chance to chat with Barrie a while ago to talk about his book "Chasing Greatness". He has a litany of tales about ordinary people achieving extraordinary results - each of whom benefited from guidance, support, and coaching provide by Barrie and Caron. The interview tells you everything you need to know about his personality and how important Caron has been to his success.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

It's been a busy couple of days as we welcomed the newest member of the Trafford clan to the world. Elliot David Trafford joined humanity Monday evening and was the centre of all of our attention Tuesday, (so, I'm late posting this episode!)

Our first visit was wonderful and fun to see Elliot meet his big brother James.

Also in this episode, we talk to Susan Larkin, COO at Look Good Feel Better. It's a mission driven not-for-profit that provides personal, communit and emotional support to those being treated for cancer. And, October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we thought it was a good time to connect with Sue to talk about their work and a new podcast. Facing Cancer Together is set for release mid November 2023.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

On The Ledge, you Ontario politics podcast is here for your listening enjoyment!

Today,

There's the Greenbelt. Then there's the Greenbelt. And, oh ya, the Greenbelt.

Ford Nation might have wished it was a mere typo, but no! It seems the premier's team has messsaging issues and massaging issues - all laid bare this week as the Legislature got back to business at Queen's Park.

John Wright, Sabrina Nanji, Keith Leslie and Dave Trafford agree this might be one of the worst quarters a government has suffered at Queen's Park in recent memory. All all agree, "This ain't over yet."

The Greenbelt land swap has turned into the political version of a Haggersville Tire Dump Fire.

Questions:

1. What would be worse for Doug Ford? An RCMP investigation or a public inquiry?
2. Does Doug Ford have the political stamina to deal with the Greenbelt fallout until 2026?
3. Does the PC caucus have the premier's back?
4. Has the Ford housing initiative gone up in smoke?

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Premier Doug Ford sort of resembles the Pig Pen character in the Peanuts cartoon. No matter how hard he tries to shake it, he's got this cloud hanging around him. In the premier's case, it's the political smog being spewed out by the Greenbelt scandal. That's not going away anytime soon.

Word at Queen's Park is Ford's more than mad about the way this mess has splashed on his front bench. I heard one Tory suggest the firings and resignations were Ford's angry response to the way the Greenbelt land swap was handled. Seriously? There's more evidence to suggest the premier's P-O'd because he was forced to finally admit to a colossal screw up.

We'll dive into this a more Friday morning when we convene the On The Ledge panel! John Wright, Sabrina Nanji and Keith Leslie are all frothing at the bit to engage on Your Ontario Politics Podcast!

ALSO today:
Meet Lisa Boivin, Dave Dale and Ben Sargent. They are the small but might team behind our North Bay Echo podcast, (To North Bay with Love) and the North Bay edition of the Echo Essentials newsletter. They're reviving local media, with local voices and local stories in their community AND Story Studio Network is thrilled to be a partner in this adventure.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Anthony Rota represents the community of North Bay in the House of Commons. He's been forced to resign as Speaker of the House because he not only invited, he honoured a Second World War Ukrainian veteran who served in a Nazi SS Division. But he story barely gets any local coverage.

Why?

Because there's barely any local media to do that job.

We sit down with Erin Trafford, CEO of Story Studio Network and Scott Clark, President and CEO at Clark Communications and talk about the state of local media, the need for communities to have a media voice and how Team Clark and Team SSN created a new, modern media model to serve that need.

Erin and Scott are the braintrust behind Echo, the Community Podcast Network. We launched our first community network in North Bay, Ontario on September 14th, 2023. It's our intention to roll that model out in more markets across the Canada!

Listen to the Echo origin story!

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

We're back in the saddle after some time off to celebrate my wife's retirement! We managed to extend our summer with some great weather, great food and great friends in Europe - all the while the Greenbelt lit a poltical fire around the Ford government, the federal Liberals appear to be in free fall in the polls, and our House of Commons unanimously applauded a Ukrainian Second World War veteran who fought for and with the Nazis!

Yikes! So much for quiet summer recesses on the Hill and at Queen's Park.

Abacus Data Chair and CEO, David Coletto says both the Trudeau and Ford governments have been staggered by self-inflicted political wounds. The feds are talking down to Canadians who are still suffering as we recover from the pandemic. And Ford's got his hands full fighting a fully involved dumpster fire he ignited with the Greenbelt land swap.

Check out David's newletter "InFocus with David Coletto"

ALSO, we're excited about the launch of the Echo Community Podcast Network. We launched this new local media network in North Bay https://www.northbayecho.ca/ and we're and we're determined to set up local networks in other communities that need a modern local media voice!

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

The Meta response to Bill C-18 makes it clear that government has no place in regulating journalism. Bill C-18 has been a collasol failure and will do nothing to stablize the economics for news producers in this country.

The only way we're going to create a space that allows journalism to thrive is to recreate the media and journalism business model. We need to have a serious conversation about the role of the CBC and public broadcasting. We need to talk seriously about who owns and operates our news agencies.

Telecoms are making it clear they don't want to be in the news business. Bell Media's asking the CRTC to grant exemptions from local content production and that includes news. I don't blame Bell. Local news doesn't fit the business any more.

So, will the Commission grant the exemption and leave it at that? Will the Commission play to type and completely misread the needs ot the media and news sectors, nevermind the needs of media and news consumers across the country?

Also today,
Has our COVID experience created a global climate experiment? We feature another episode of The NEXT NORMAL on Feed drop Thursday.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:


Today on NOW and NEXT

I had one of those weird "work" dreams last night. I was in a newsroom I didn't recognized and told we had no one to cover shifts. After a few anxious moments and efforts to solve the problem, I realized - it's NOT my problem. In fact, I DON'T EVEN WORK HERE! And I walked out.

That's when I woke up:)

I was clearly triggered by the Meta story! (I am a Recovering News Director after all.)

The Meta decision to block news links from Facebook and Instagram is being positioned as a big tech versus big government story. There has been some misguided notion among legacy media commentators that the Canadian government would simply wait out Zuckerberg and Facebook would come back to the table.

That's not what's going on...entirely.

Zuckerberg isn't just taking on the feds. He's setting the stage, here and elsewhere, to take on Elon Musk on his own turf.

Remember, Threads, (Zuckerberg's "Twitter killer"), is still publishing news links. Threads isn't covered by C-18. And Threads is not in the legislative crosshairs, yet, of law makers in the US or other jurisdictions considering their own C-18-like bill.

It's worth remembering, journos and news geeks generate most of the traffic on Twitter. Zuckerberg doesn't need to keep all 100 million people who've downloaded the Threads app in order to beat Elon. He just needs to win the news link war over Twitter...er X.


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Today on NOW and NEXT:

The reasons we aren't buying up EV in this country are because the auto companies aren't producing the vehicles most of us want, there's next to NO charging infrastructure in place, and dollar for dollar - they're too expensive in a world that becomes less affordable every day. Ask yourself, would you buy a gas fueled SUV if there were no gas stations between your home and your office?
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thehouse/electric-cars-low-emissions-climate-1.6381856

The Ford government must have sore arms after all the effort they've made patting themselves on the back over increasing Ontario Disability Support Program payments by $58/month and indexing the pension to inflation. Reporting from CTV Toronto makes it pretty clear, Queen's Park has little or no intention to put more money into the program to lift people out of poverty.https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/documents-reveal-ontario-has-no-immediate-plans-to-increase-odsp-ow-funds-despite-steadily-growing-caseload-1.6498417

Toronto has to stop crying poor. Some important reporting and insights from Matt Elliott at City Hall Watcher says the city is sitting on billions of dollars in reserve funds rather than spending them on much needed programs. https://toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/chw238

Democracy might be a great "concept" but Professor Shaun Narine at St. Thomas University reminds us, the most powerful of 21st century democracies, (Canada included), have ben built on the suffering of others. Check out his piece at the conversation.com. https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-most-powerful-democracies-were-built-on-the-suffering-of-others-208443

Can we crown Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee a year before the Republican convention? Niall Stanage at The Hill says "not so fast". https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4129822-will-trump-inevitably-be-the-gop-nominee-heres-the-case-for-and-against/

Canada was "well beaten" in the final game of the first round at the World Cup this week. Australia won by a 4-nil shutout sending the Olympic champion women's squad home. The question about a lacklustre performance will be part of the post-tournament discussion. But it's worth noting Captain Christine Sinclair's post match comments about Canada Soccer which has decided its in the best interest of the women's game to nickle and dime the program.

"(I)t is like a wake-up call for our federation -- the lack of a professional league, the lack of support for our youth national teams.

"I think you're just going to continue to see teams reach our level, surpass us, whatever you want to call it if things don't change."
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sports/canada-captain-christine-sinclair-sounds-warning-in-wake-of-early-world-cup-exit-1.6501064

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