The Big Five Podcast

Elias Makos welcomes back Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada, and Anne Lagace-Dowson, political analyst.

• It was hyped as a “generational budget,” but did it live up to that hype? Prime Minister Mark Carney tabled his first ever budget yesterday.
• The budget cuts the luxury tax on yachts and private jets and boosts funding to the CBC while giving them a super-specific new goal: bringing Canada into the Eurovision contest. Is this what Canadians were asking for?
• The federal liberals are now one step closer to a majority while the federal Conservative are screaming treason towards a former party MP that has crossed the floor.
• The city of New York has a new mayor.
• NFL football legend Tom Brady says his new dog Junie is a clone. Would you you do the same?

Elias Makos is joined by Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies, and Victor Henriquez, Public affairs and crisis management specialist at Public Strategy and Conseil.

• It is budget day for the Carney government, but could it also be the start of another federal election?
• Not even 24 hours after being elected the new mayor of Montreal, Soraya Martinez Ferrada may already be breaking one of her promises.
• The Premier of Manitoba Wab Kinew stirred up controversy yesterday after saying that child pornography offenders shouldn’t just be jailed, but buried underneath prisons.
• You soon could be eating cloned animal meat without even noticing.

Elias Makos kicks the week off with Jonathan Kalles, Vice President at McMillan Vantage, a national public affairs firm, and former advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor.

• Soraya Martinez Ferrada is the new mayor of Montreal, defeating Projet Montreal’s Luc Rabouin by around eight percent at last count.
• Martinez Ferrada set herself some lofty goals during the campaign, including priorities for the first 100 days. What should she get done first as she attempts to quickly transform the city?
• The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that one-year mandatory minimum jail sentences for accessing or possessing child pornography is unconstitutional.

Joining Elias in studio for The Big 5 were Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies and Daniel Tran, Director of Communication and governmental relations at Casacom

• Some Quebec doctors have taken up the offer to call the Premier of Ontario Doug Ford and apply to move to Ontario to continue practicing medicine. 
• Quebec’s labour tribunal has authorized bus drivers and metro operators with Montreal’s transit agency to hold a one-day strike on Saturday, with no essential services other than paratransit
• With three days away before the election, a new poll from Pallas Data has Soraya Martinez Ferrada of Ensemble Montreal 15 points ahead of their next closest rival

Elias Makos welcomes back Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance, and Political analyst Karim Boulos.

• Quebec Premier François Legault is hopping mad with his Ontario counterpart, Doug Ford. With many doctors in Quebec up in arms over Bill 2 and how it will change the way they work and are paid, Ford took the opportunity to roll out the red carpet for Quebec’s doctors
• Today marks the 30th anniversary of the 1995 referendum. We came close to losing this country - but in the end, the No camp won the referendum with 50.58% of the vote compared to 49.42% for the Yes side. What do you remember most of that time? 
• A sign that we’re headed towards an election? The parties are courting women voters. Despite all indications being there will be a massive cutback in spending in next week’s federal budget, the government announced new money to support women

Elias Makos is joined by Graham Singh, Pastor at St-Jax Church, and Trudie Mason, veteran Newscaster here at CJAD 800.

• There is a spike in the amount of doctors leaving the province for New Brunswick.
• Quebec’s Health Minister Christian Dube wrote an opinion letter in the Journal this morning defending the new legislation towards doctors.
• The province’s food banks say they handled nearly 3.1 million requests for help in March 2025 according to the 2025 Hunger Report released Monday. 
• Ahead of next month’s global climate summit in Brazil, COP30, Bill Gates has dropped a new memo that rattles the consensus of the climate movement.

Joining Elias on today's Big 5 were Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator with extensive experience analysing legal, political, and social issues and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program & Andrew Caddell, a town councillor in Kamouraska, and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy.

Among the topics discussed by Andrew and Akil,

• Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Prime Minister Mark Carney saw the controversial TV ad that pushed Donald Trump to walk away from trade talks and threaten new tariffs against Canada
• A month after saying he might leave Quebec, businessman Andrew Lutfy has returned to the fray with his criticism of the François Legault government
• The Alberta government will use the notwithstanding clause to force striking teachers back to work

Elias Makos kicks off the week with Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada and Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia.

• Prime Minister Mark Carney says Ottawa and Washington were "close to an agreement" before Donald Trump ended negotiations on Thursday.
• The Quebec government adopted special legislation in the early hours Saturday to force a new remuneration system on doctors.
• After telling voters they were a party that had “no slogans, only solutions,” Projet Montréal changed its tune over the weekend, with party leader Luc Rabouin telling reporters on Sunday that he would be the "mayor of 514, not 450."

Joining Elias on The Big 5 were Sue Smith, Montreal journalist and broadcaster and
Christina Chough, Spanish teacher and Chair of the modern languages department at Dawson College.

• U.S. President Donald Trump says he is terminating trade negotiations with Canada following new anti-tariff ads from the Ontario government that features the voice of former U.S. president Ronald Reagan
• Internal documents obtained by the New York Times this week reveal that Amazon plans to replace – or rather, avoid hiring – more than half a million U.S. workers by the end of the decade… by letting robots do the work instead
• In the first nine months of this year alone, food safety inspectors issued $150,000 in fines to Quebec grocery stores, bakeries and butcher shops

Elias Makos is joined by Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor, and Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance.

• Was it a pre-budget speech, or a pre-election stump speech? Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed Canadians last night ahead of the upcoming budget.
• Transition Montreal leader Craig Sauvé is standing up for one of his candidates despite extreme, violent, rhetoric posted online. 
• Michel Leblanc, the former head of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, says he is supporting Soraya Martinez Ferrada to win the Montreal municipal election.
• 36 percent of this year’s municipal election candidates in Quebec are women. While it's a slight increase compared to 2021, big cities like Laval, Montreal and Quebec cities saw a decrease this election period.