The Big Five Podcast

Trudie Mason welcomes in Rudy Husny, political analyst and former advisor in the Harper government, and Victor Henriquez, public affairs and crisis management specialist at Public Strategy and Conseil.

• Liberal Leader Charles Milliard accused Premier Christine Fréchette of launching an unjustified attack on English-speaking voters' rights.
• The Quebec Conservative Party promised a new family allowance paying one hundred dollars a week to parents who keep children at home.
• Community advocates are pushing to move supervised drug consumption sites inside Quebec hospitals to improve neighbourhood safety.
• A trade war investigation revealed millions of cheap American eggs are flooding Quebec grocery shelves disguised by low prices.
• The Bank of Canada unveiled a new vertical twenty dollar bill featuring King Charles III and advanced anti-counterfeiting technology.

Trudie Mason welcomes in Meeker Guerrier, commentator at Noovo and RDS, and Lea Streliski, best-selling author, comedian, and columnist.

• Economy Minister Bernard Drainville faced immediate backlash and a walkback order after swearing at Donald Trump on air.
• Quebec Liberal insiders are panicking that Premier Christine Fréchette is successfully stealing their traditional federalist and economic base.
• Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada warned of traffic hell as a blue-collar strike threatens to disrupt the upcoming World Cycling Championships.
• A surprising new Leger poll reveals Canadian happiness is rising, with Quebec and Montreal leading the entire country.

Trudie Mason welcomes in Akil Alleyne, reporter, commentator, and manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program, and Dan Delmar, independent political analyst, media strategist, and co-founder of TNKR Media.

• Élections Québec announced voter information packages will be mailed exclusively in French to comply with provincial language laws.
• Investigative reports revealed PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon made multiple financial donations to the federal Liberal Party.
• Multiple provincial parties face intense scrutiny over candidate vetting failures following a series of controversial past revelations.
• Columnists Patrick Lagacé and Mathieu Bock-Côté clashed over the reliability and media weaponization of election poll data.

Trudie Mason welcomes in Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, and columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and Sue Smith, Montreal journalist and broadcaster.

• The Liberals swept three federal by-elections, flipping Chicoutimi-Le Fjord to protect Mark Carney's House majority.
• Fresh polls reveal a direct PQ and CAQ battle as the Quebec Liberals slide into third place.
• A new Léger poll shows sixty-six percent of Quebecers support Canada's retaliatory trade war tariffs despite rising prices.
• Tennis Québec is eyeing a Port of Montreal plot near Habitat sixty-seven for a massive new sports complex.

Trudie Mason is joined by Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist, and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Bonnie Feigenbaum, former Conservative Party of Quebec candidate, lecturer at Concordia and McGill, and media consultant.

• Prime Minister Mark Carney looks to secure a House majority as voters head to the polls for three federal by-elections.
• Liberal Leader Charles Milliard dismissed catastrophic claims about the decline of the French language in Montreal.
• Liberal candidate Michel Bureau caused a political stir by labeling himself a "Liberal Péquiste" and praising his PQ opponent.
• Premier Doug Ford installed a defiant border sign after Donald Trump issued an executive order renaming Lake Ontario.
• Internal documents revealed the projected cost for the Alto high-speed rail network has ballooned to one hundred and fifty billion dollars.

Robyn Flynn welcomes Rudy Husny, political analyst and former advisor in the Harper government, and Dan Delmar, independent political analyst, media strategist, and co-founder of TNKR Media.

• A new Synopsis poll commissioned by Lapresse says the race is now neck and neck between the Parti Québecois and the CAQ.
• A new war of words has broken out over the collapse of Canada-U.S. trade negotiations.
• Artificial intelligence could soon play a larger role in Quebec’s legal system.
• Montreal is expanding its every-other-week garbage collection to parts of four more boroughs.
• Is replacing your child's goldfish after it died bad parenting?

Robyn Flynn is joined by political analyst Karim Boulos, and Lionel Perez, former Montreal opposition leader and CEO of CorpCentre.

• Premier Christine Fréchette will launch a thirty-nine day provincial election campaign ahead of the October 5 vote.
• Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada outlined Montreal's provincial priorities, demanding thousands of shelter beds and water infrastructure funding.
• Insiders revealed US trade negotiators did not explicitly target Quebec's French language laws during failed tariff talks.
• Meta agreed to an eighteen billion dollar US youth safety settlement but excluded Canadian teens from new protections.

Akil Alleyne is joined by Andrew Caddell, columnist for the Hill Times and President of the Task Force on Linguistic Policy, and Paul Gott, lead singer of the Ripcordz and journalism professor at Concordia.

• Ottawa announced twenty-seven billion dollars in retaliatory tariffs and a seven billion dollar business support package.
• A scathing Auditor General report revealed major gaps in Montreal's emergency shelters and waste management.
• High-profile figures, including Pauline Marois, published a letter calling for a national summit on homelessness.
• Retiring and defeated Quebec MNAs stand to receive massive payouts following a recent forty-four percent salary hike.
• The panel debates the twenty-year legacy of Facebook and its overall societal impact.

Akil Alleyne is joined by Meeker Guerrier, commentator at Noovo and RDS, and Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, and columnist for the Montreal Gazette.

• Watchdogs cleared former Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez of wrongdoing, suspecting leaked text messages were completely fabricated.
• A new Léger poll shows the CAQ jumping four points into a second-place tie as tariff tensions benefit Premier Fréchette.
• Donald Trump threatened auto tariffs and a Lake Ontario renaming while denying he ever targeted French Canadians.
• Montreal City Council passed a heavily watered-down Gaza motion after stripping out all boycott and apartheid language.
• The panel reflects on twenty years of public access to Facebook and the broader cultural impact of social media.

Akil Alleyne is joined by Daniel Tran, Director of Communication and Government Relations at Casacom, and Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist, and former special advisor to Valerie Plante.

• Trade negotiations collapsed after Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected late US demands, sparking a full-blown tariff war.
• Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Christine Fréchette united to protect Quebec culture from Washington's trade pressures.
• A Leger poll revealed cost of living is the top issue for non-francophones, while many youth plan to leave Quebec.
• Montreal City Hall faces a heated debate over a Projet Montréal motion calling for a boycott of Israel.