Elias Makos starts the week of with Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Gabriel Retta, special advisor to the current mayor.

• Just about two weeks ago, we learned that the SAQ would start delivering booze with Uber Eats.
• Faced with a rise in shoplifting, the SAQ has increased its in-store surveillance spending to $1.7 million last year
• Over the weekend, Journal de Montréal & Leger released new Quebec polling that shows a much tighter landscape than most were expecting.
• Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre survived his confidence vote Friday evening with a 87.4 percent approval rating. 
• Reports made to the City of Montreal for potholes have exploded since the beginning of the year, reaching a high not seen in more than a decade.

Elias Makos caps the week off with Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada, and Meeker Guerrier, Commentator at Noovo and RDS.

• U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose steep tariffs on Canadian-made aircraft.
• The Business Council of Canada is questioning Prime Minister Mark Carney’s strategy on how to deal with U.S President Donald Trump. 
• What if a Middle Eastern country were to help the province bring the Nordiques back to life?
• The faith of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre will be determined today as he faces a confidence from members of his party. 

Elias makos is joined by Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia, and Political analyst Karim Boulos.

• The trains don’t run. And they were down again this morning. Oh, and the elevators don’t work. Should we get a REM refund?
• In Trois-Rivieres, the police have launched a voluntary campaign to get citizens to add their smart doorbell cameras to a surveillance camera registry.
• According to the results of a survey done by Radio-Canada, 31% of students admit using Artificial Intelligence to cheat. 
• Ontario Premier Doug Ford was not mincing words yesterday when asked about his opinion of a potential sovereignist as the next Premier of Quebec.

Joining Elias on The Big 5 were Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor and Montreal journalist and broadcaster Sue Smith.

Among the topics discussed

• A new poll from Leger for Postmedia shows the Liberals in majority territory
• François Legault may not be leaving the National Assembly as quickly as expected
• One Montreal engineering school has decided beef is off the menu — literally — in the name of climate change
• According to the results of a survey done by Radio-Canada, 60% of students in Quebec use AI regularly, ranging from several times a month to several times a day

Elias Makos is joined by Andrew Caddell, columnist for the Hill Times and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy, and Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies. 

• Prime Minister Mark Cark reportedly backtracked some of his remarks from his speech in Davos when speaking by phone with U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday.
• With Parliament resuming after the winter break, Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled a new “Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit,” coming in the form of an increase to the GST tax credit. 
• A school secretary at the EMSB began demanding that “Emails giving instructions must be sent to me in French, as required by law,” which began a nightmare of back and forth communications with the OQLF.
• Bernard Drainville and Christine Fréchette have both entered the race that will see someone become the next Premier of Quebec.

Joining Elias on The Big 5 were Trudie Mason, Veteran Newscaster here at CJAD 800 and Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante.

Among the topics discussed were

• U.S. President Donald Trump revived one of his most pointed insults toward Canada on Saturday, calling Prime Minister Mark Carney “governor” and threatening to slam the country with a 100 per cent tariff over its growing ties with China
• Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to announce a GST credit increase this morning
• Turns out if you get arrested while climbing the Jacques-Cartier bridge, you can get away with it by claiming you're a climate activist. The trial for the two men who climbed the structure back in October of 2024 was cancelled officially back in December
• By now you’ve all heard of the TV show “Heated Rivalry,” which has already become a cult hit around the world. The author of the book series the show is based on, Canadian novelist Rachel Reid, says that she’s been on a five-year waiting list to see a specialist for Parkinson’s disease. But now that she has acquired fame, she’s getting an appointment in two weeks. Is this how Canadian healthcare works?

Joining Elias on The Big 5 were political analyst Karim Boulos and Daniel Tran, Director of Communication and governmental relations at Casacom.

Among the subjects discussed were 

• The saga between Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S President Donald Trump continued yesterday. The day started off with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at the World Economic Forum was “political noise” and criticized Canada’s recent deal with China.
• Perhaps one of the reasons we’re in this continuing quagmire is that Mark Carney and Donald Trump, despite their big speeches, did not meet at Davos. Instead, the PM returned to Canada before Trump’s arrival. Yesterday, ahead of the government’s weekend cabinet retreat in Quebec City, Carney delivered a “national address” calling on national unity.
• Yesterday on the program, we spoke to Patriotic Millionaires Canada, a group that argues that this country should tax the ultra-rich even more. 
• Canadian tourism to Las Vegas is down between 25 and 50 percent. In an attempt to attract more Canadians, three downtown Las Vegas hotels have begun accepting the Canadian dollar at par with the American dollar in an effort to spur Canuck travel. 

Neil Drabkin, is a lawyer who served as federal prosecutor and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government, and Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance.

• A framework deal over the future of the Arctic has been agreed upon between U.S President Donald Trump and NATO. 
• Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Canadians to boycott Chinese-made vehicles in the wake of a federal trade deal that will allow them into the country.
• Canada has quietly hit the reset button on TikTok — and the timing is raising eyebrows. 
• The federal government has drawn up a plan to ban social media for children under the age of 14. 

Elias Makos welcomes back Anthony Koch, Former National Spokesperson for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and current managing principal at AK Strategies, and Jonathan Kalles, Vice President at McMillan Vantage, a national public affairs firm, and former advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. 

• Mark Carney was reunited with his people yesterday, and it showed. A confident Canadian Prime Minister delivered a speech in front of the faithful assembled at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
• Mark Carney has left Davos and Donald Trump has arrived, and we track his speech in real time
• We are getting an update on what the plans could be for the high-speed rail between Toronto and Quebec City. 

Elias Makos is joined by Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada, and Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator with extensive experience analysing legal, political, and social issues and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program.

• The Globe and Mail reports that the Canadian Armed Forces have quietly run a hypothetical scenario most people would never expect — a U.S. military invasion of Canada, and how this country might respond.
• What do you think of Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace?" Today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said Canada won’t pay the reported one-billion-dollar U.S. entry fee to take part in the organization.
• Op-Ed in La Presse from the heads of Oxfam-Quebec and the non-profit Patriotic Millionaires Canada says that this country needs to tax the ultra-rich more. 
• The Federal Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that the use of the Emergencies Act during the Freedom Convoy four years ago was unreasonable.