The Big Five Podcast

Elias Makos is joined by Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor, and Meeker Guerrier, Weekend News Anchor at Noovo and a commentator at RDS.

• Marwah Rizqy has made it official, she won’t seek reelection in 2026. And she couldn’t be any clearer as to why: She wants to be a mom
• The Liberals seem to be rejecting the Bloc Québécois’ demand to boost Old Age Security benefits for seniors aged 65 to 74
• The province is bowing to international pressure, and moving towards a more “ethical” recruitment strategy that doesn’t poach nurses from countries that are already struggling from providing their populations with healthcare

Elias Makos is joined by Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the PR and content firm TNKR Media and host of the Inspiring Business Hour - Saturdays at noon on CJAD and Jimmy Zoubris, Special Advisor to the Mayor on The Big 5.

Justine McIntyre is joined by Political analyst Karim Boulos, and Jimmy Zoubris, special advisor to the Mayor.

• François Legault’s government is halfway through their second term
• Yesterday Quebec’s newly appointed SuperMinister joined Tout le monde en parle where she talked about the controversial Northvolt project
• Schools have been progressively banning playground games. Have we made recess *too* safe? 
• Hurricane Helene tore through Florida and a number of other southern States

Elias Makos caps off the week with Neil Drabkin, lawyer and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government, and Meeker Guerrier, Weekend News Anchor at Noovo and a commentator at RDS.

• Do you remember that spectacular video of a Toronto woman stealing a man’s car and driving the car over him? Well the woman, an 18-year-old by the name of Sarah Badshaw, has been released on bail
• Toronto is building a new 50,000-seat concert venue just so it can host as many of them as possible, Is Montreal falling further behind, or will we show them with our multi-billion-dollar renovated Olympic Stadium in five to ten years?
• Members of Canada’s Haitian community are upset that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau glossed over a comment made by late night talk show host Stephen Colbert

Elias Makos welcomes back Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the PR and content firm TNKR Media and host of the Inspiring Business Hour - Saturdays at noon on CJAD 800, and Akil Alleyne, Reporter and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program.

• Bedlam in the House of Commons on Wednesday. The nastiness between the Liberals and Conservatives reached new heights
• The Bloc Québecois has issued its list of demands to keep the Liberals in power
• Are we giving Northvolt ‘bad press’? That’s certainly what one CAQ MNA is suggesting. Louis Lemieux, the MNA for Saint-Jean and a former journalist himself, is denouncing what he calls a “witch hunt"

Elias Makos is joined by Trudie Mason, veteran Newscaster at CJAD 800, and 
Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia.

• The provincial and federal governments granted $9 million in financial assistance, with Quebec granting more than $6 million of that sum
• Francois Legault is taking the heat over his $7 billion dollar agreement with Northvolt
• An update on the La Tulipe story…. The legendary Montreal concert hall is shutting down, “for now.” 

Elias Makos is joined by Bonnie Feigenbaum, Conservative Party of Quebec candidate in last provincial election and a lecturer at Concordia & McGill University, media & government relations consultant and Andrew Caddell, a Town Councillor in Kamouraska, Columnist for the Hill Times in Ottawa and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy. He was previously a diplomat, ministerial advisor and broadcast journalist on The Big 5.

Elias Makos kicks off the week with Jimmy Zoubris, special advisor to the Mayor. and Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor.

• Real estate mogul Luc Poirier is thinking about a run for mayor, saying the city of Montreal needs saving
• Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will appear on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight
• Federal immigration minister Marc Miller has admitted that we waited a little too long to slow down immigration

Elias Makos caps off the week with Andrew Caddell, a town councillor in Kamouraska, columnist for the Hill Times in Ottawa and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy, and Meeker Guerrier, Weekend News Anchor at Noovo and a commentator at RDS.

• Quebec Premier Francois Legault on Thursday urged the Bloc Quebecois to help topple the federal Liberal government and trigger an election, saying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues to disrespect the will of the province
• Yves-François Blanchet does believe that the Liberal Party of Canada will end their mandate earlier than expected
• Radio-Canada spoke with Pierre Fitzgibbon about his love life, and what really led to him stepping down. His new love was apparently 30% of the decision - but so was the direction the party was taking

Elias Makos returns with guests Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program, and Neil Drabkin, a lawyer and political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government.

• The Bloc Quebecois says it won’t support an upcoming non-confidence vote
• A Laval elected official has made taxpayers pay more than $1,000 dollars for his Costco run and his Apple watch
• Federal Minister Pablo Rodriguez is running for the Quebec Liberal leadership. Rodriguez is of course the federal Minister of Transport and will resign his cabinet position this week to focus on the leadership