NOW and NEXT

Today on NOW and NEXT:

New research from Abacus Data suggests the Ford government would sweep to power with a larger majority government if an election were held today. David Coletto is the CEO at Abacus. He says there's no appetite for change in Ontario but points out more than half of those survey think the premier does more to support his friends and supporters than he does to support the well being of the province. Is the perceptual stain enough to shift votes? Not yet.

And the recent cabinet renovation, shakeup in Ottawa was sheer pleasure and excitement for the Parliament Hill press gallery but David says it did little to move the needle for the federal Liberals. His latest survey suggest 8 in 10 Canadians think it's time for a change of government in Ottawa and the prime minister's new front bench is unlikely to do much to swing that number in his favour.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

I'm hooked on the World Cup tournament. The Canadian women are poised to move onto the next round and I'll probably be up for the 5am ET start on Monday!
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/worldcup/soccer-womes-world-cup-canada-group-stakes-1.6919678

Trudeau's cabinet shakeup includes a lot of new faces and experiences to the table. But what does it mean for the progress of the new Canada Disability Benefit?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/who-are-new-ministers-in-cabinet-1.6918557

The Ford government will be auditing the books in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon, Newmarket and Peel Region to figure out how or if the province is going to make the muncipalities whole now that Queen's Park has canceled developer charges intended to pay for infrastructure in new build housing communities.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-audit-municipalities-1.6919177

An exclusive report in the Toronto Star says the Ford government commands 41 per cent of popular support among Ontario voters based on the latest numbers from Abacus Data. That's the good news. The shaky news for Ford? "The survey found 54 per cent of respondents think Ford’s “decisions have been primarily about what’s in the best interest of his friends and supporters.”
https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/a-bad-sign-for-doug-ford-s-future-majority-of-ontarians-think-his-decisions-benefit/article_9343bf58-642b-53fe-8962-d46a055b10a4.html?

And it's Feed Drop Thursday. We feature episode 10 of The NEXT NORMAL, (originally posted September 8, 2021), we confront ageism – particularly in the workplace. Lisa Taylor, President at Challenge Factory debunks two myths about older workers. Whatever we call our ageing workforce, Lisa shudders when we refer to it as the “grey tsunami”.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Gerard Kennedy is a former member of the federal and Ontario parliaments and served ten years as the Executive Director of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank in the 80s and 90s.

He says Canada, we Canadians face a national character test as we emerge from the pandemic. More Canadians live in poverty. More Canadians are going hungry. And Kennedy says, "Hunger is a quiet noise." At the same time, "the Food Bank noise is getting louder." The question is, are we prepared to pay attention? That's the character test.

It's also a time to test governments and their anti-poverty policies. Will the new Trudeau cabinet reinforce its commitment to eradicate poverty? Does the new Canada Disability Benefit Act make a difference?

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow and Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath should be leading the national charge on homelessness and housing. Two NDP mayors in two southern Ontario cities facing crises prompted by the wilful ignornace of Liberals in Ottawa. Chow and Horwath should be leveraging their relationship with Jagmeet Singh and the hammer he and the federal NDP hold over the Trudeau minority to force the feds to act.

Laura Babcock, President at POWERGROUP and host of OShow joins us with more than a few thoughts on the matter!

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Three years ago this morning, I was broadcasting the Newstalk 1010 morning show LIVE from Cow Bay, Nova Scotia when Marigold Brynn arrived to make me a grandfather of TWO! Happy Birthday Marigold.

Minnesotans are facing lousy air quality thanks to the smoke from fires in BC and eastern Canada.

And David Schultz, professor of political science and constitutional law at Hamline University joins us to weigh in on the big political issues facing the US.

1. Will Donald Trump be indicted for a third time?
2. Will Trump skip court proceeding and trial prep in favour of campaigning for the GOP nomination?
3. Will abortion be a ballot question in the 2024 election campaign?
4. Can the GOP House of Representative really "expunge" Trump's impeachments?

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

In the wake of Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie accusing Nate Erskine-Smith of ageism, (https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2023/07/17/bonnie-crombie-let-me-be-perfectly-clear-im-a-63-year-old-woman-and-i-am-in-it-for-the-long-haul.html) we connect with Lisa Taylor, President of Challenge Factory and our go-to voice on the future of work.

Lisa says Crombie's accusation of ageism has merit. But, Erskine-Smith can't take all the blame. The question posed by Bob Hepburn at the Toronto Star made Crombie's age an issue in her run for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Ageism isn't simply an HR issue, it's baked into our culture because each of us internalizes ageism. We are all conscious that our age, whether you're 25, 45 or 65, somehow diminishes you in the eyes of others. To make the point, Lisa says ageism is on full display in the birthday card aisle.

"Read the cards and replace the age for any other characteristic, for having red hair, for being a certain race, for having a certain gender identity. You would never give that card to someone you care about and love."

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Former TTC Chair, Toronto City Councillor and current SVP at EY in Toronto Josh Colle joins the show to talk about the need for quick fixes and quick wins for Mayor Olivia Chow. In the short term, the mayor needs to be seen to be making the city "better" for average Torontonians. At the same time, she has to forege her image as the city's champion.

Start by telling Queen's Park and Ottawa, the city will no longer pay for services the province and the feds should be covering. Toronto's going to save money by cutting the maintenance and plowing budget for the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. The city's closing refugee shelters to save and stop adding space to the current shelter system. That would account for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chow should also be calling out the 23 of Toronto's 25 federal MPs who are all sitting in the Liberal benches. And ALL 25 ran as Liberals in the last federal election!

And, by the way, the mayor should be holding Jagmeet Singh to account for his failure to bring political pressure to bear on the Trudeau minority to pay its share of the bills owing.

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Veteran journalist/columnist, host of The Daily Edition on Sirius XM radio and co-founder of The Line, Matt Gurney joins the show to give us a start-ups perspective on the mess that is Bill C-18, the Online News Act.

That's the mess of regulation passed by Canada's federal government requiring Google and Meta to pay for news links posted on their platforms.

Matt says the legislation will do little or nothing to support start-up news organizations like The Line. In fact, Bill C-18 means organiztions like The Line will lose the opportunity to promote its work and content if news disappears from Facebook and Google.

Check out Matt's latest column re: C-18 on The Line. https://open.substack.com/pub/theline/p/matt-gurney-australia-but-in-a-bad?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Today on NOW and NEXT:

Olivia Chow is officially Toronto’s 66th mayor. Now what? Where to begin?

The biggest challenge for the new mayor is political capital. Does she have what it will take to unite city council behind her agenda. Does she have what it will take to convince the province to strike a new deal with Toronto to ensure the city’s long term financial stability. And does she have what it will take to persuade the Trudeau government and its Toronto caucus of MPs to cut a cheque for refugee services rendered by the city?

My guess is, we’ll have a pretty good sense before the end of the calendar year whether Chow is a success or a one term mayor.

From the BBC this morning. They’re calling it the CERBERUS HEAT WAVE - named after the three headed monster in Dante’s Inferno! Temperatures spiking well above 40C across most of southern Europe and NW Africa. High’s in Italy today could surpass 48C!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66183069

Today in the Globe and Mail, the Editorial Board makes a compelling argument for nuclear power to be part of a green future. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-nuclear-power-is-a-key-part-of-a-green-future/

A follow up on CBC reporting we told you about earlier this week https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/michael-rice-auditor-general-greenbelt-1.6904603 A second developer is asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to block a summons from Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. This in connection with the AG's review of the process and timing around the Ford government's decision to lift building and development restrictions on some of the Greenbelt lands.

The Toronto Star continues its digging and reporting on the Ford government’s decision to reinstate the King’s Counsel designation for lawyers in Ontario. Today, the Star is reporting, none of the former Liberal or NDP AG’s was offered the KC designation. https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2023/07/13/no-thanks-ford-government-only-offered-kings-counsel-title-to-tory-ex-attorneys-general.html?rf

AND...
It’s FEED DROP Thursday on NOW and NEXT.
Today we feature another episode of the first show we produced for SSN - The NEXT NORMAL. This episode aired Aug 31, 2021 and we explore the changing nature of the American social contract; the decisions we entrust to our leaders. What does it mean to lead post-pandemic?


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Today on NOW and NEXT

Did Australia's legislation aimed at saving that country's media and journalism from a slow painful demise really work? Did the "pay for links" law really force Google and Facebook to bend the knee?

NEWS FLASH!! No. No it didn't.

Yet, Canada's legacy media, (including the CBC), and the federal government see Bill C-18 as the only path to survival for the journalism ecosystem in this country. The federal law not only misunderstands the state of media in Canada, it thinks the CRTC, the broadcast and telecom regulator, should now decided which organizations meet its definition of journalism.

C-18 is a mess. It's going more to hurt and already damaged sector than to help it.

Scott White, CEO and Editor in Chief of The Conversation Canada and the former Editor in Chief at Canadian Press joins us to discuss the real challenges facing Canadian journalism. He says the heart of any short term fix or long term solution has to be a renewed and reinvigorated trust in media and journalism. He points to the latest Reuters Institute research that suggests trust in Canadian media has dropped from 55% in 2016 to 40% in 2023.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/canada

It's fair to say, the lack of transparency and misguided thinking behind C-18 does nothing to boost that trust, let alone boost the bottom line for the news organizations that need it most.

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