The Big Five Podcast

Elias Makos is joined by Meeker Guerrier, Weekend News Anchor at Noovo and a commentator at RDS and Neil Drabkin,  Lawyer who served as federal prosecutor and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government on The Big 5.

• Jagmeet Singh pulling the NDP out of the deal with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. Could an election be ahead?
•  The LaSalle–Emard–Verdun byelection riding is plastered with campaign signs ahead of the September 16 vote, with advance voting starting tomorrow.
•  Plante wants 300 photo radars to make streets safer, particularly around schools.

Elias Makos is joined by Justine McIntyre, Strategic Consultant and former city councillor and Paul Gott, Lead Singer and Guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia on The Big 5.

• Pierre Fitzgibbon is stepping down. The Quebec businessman turned SuperMinister will not see some of his most important projects come to fruition as a member of government.
• Yesterday the multi-million dollar Royalmount complex was unveiled to the media. 
• Aspiring Liberal leader Charles Millard says he fears that the party will be perceived as a branch of the Liberal Party of Canada if they don’t swear some sort of allegiance before taking leadership.

Elias Makos is joined by Jimmy Zoubris, Special Advisor to the Mayor and Gabriel Retta, a Montrealer active in politics and government service at all three levels for the last 20 years. He is currently serving as Chief of Staff to the Official Opposition at Montreal City Hall on The Big 5.

• Mayor Valerie Plante finally got around to denouncing the vandalism we saw happen on Friday at McGill.
• That Airbnb problem the city of Montreal promised to tackle? How much are they going for now?
• The City of Montreal wants to drop the licensing requirement for tour guides. Raising concerns within the tour industry about potential impact on the quality and accuracy of city tours and the quality of them.

Elias Makos welcomes in Caryma Sa’d, Lawyer, Independent Journalist and Satirist based in Toronto, and Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the PR and content firm TNKR Media.

• Quebec continues to expand its government-run cannabis store footprint while in Ontario, private chains falter. What province handles our personal libations best?
• Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez is set to meet with Via Rail after passengers were left stranded for about 10 hours in Quebec over the long weekend
• While the focus in Canadian politics is Justin Trudeau’s historically unpopular Liberal government and Pierre Poilievre’s continued double-digit polling lead, can we talk about the party and its leader that seems unwilling or unable to capitalize?

Elias Makos is joined Christina Chough, Spanish teacher and Chair of the modern languages department at Dawson College and Neil Drabkin, is a lawyer who served as federal prosecutor and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government on The Big 5.

• Poilievre challenging NDP counterpart Jagmeet Singh to pull support for the Liberal government in order to prompt a fall election.
• CNN’s much-hyped first interview of Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate aired last night. Sad to report that Westmount High School was not brought up a single time.
• The CAQ’s youth wing wants new rules & more discipline in Quebec schools to stop the spread of violence and lack of civility in the classroom.

Elias Makos is joined by Political analyst Karim Boulos and Anthony Koch, Former National Spokesperson for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and current managing principal at AK Strategies on The Big 5.

• Some Liberals staffers have had enough of Justin Trudeau.
• Your electricity bills could increase significantly in 5 to 10 years.
• Do degrees mean as much as they used to?

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 on The Big 5.

• The Quebec Liberal Party now says that the province’s capacity to integrate immigrants and provide them with social services has been exceeded.
• The arrival of Federal Minister Pablo Rodriguez in the race for the Quebec Liberal leadership race could change the game. 
• If elected President, Westmount High School graduate Kamala Harris is promising to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the southern border wall

Elias Makos welcomes political analyst Anne Lagace-Dowson 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.

• Justin Trudeau's three-day retreat with his Liberal cabinet ends today, with a focus on U.S.-Canada relations.
• Student housing in the city has gone up. And students are struggling to find affordable housing with some paying more than $1,500 dollars for a 3 1/2.
• The Montreal by-election for LaSalle-Emard-Verdun is set to have the most candidates in federal election history.

Elias Makos is joined by Jimmy Zoubris, special advisor to the Mayor and Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia on The Big 5.

• Instead of dealing with Quebec emergency rooms or walk-in clinics that seemingly don’t take walk-ins, people drove to Plattsburgh. They waited 5 minutes to see a doctor.
• Justin Trudeau is continuing a three-day meeting with his cabinet, with many behind the scenes saying that major changes are needed to save the party from election oblivion.
• A new project is underway in the Villeray district to try and get drivers to park their vehicles better.

Elias Makos is joined by Political Analyst Karim Boulos and Bonnie Feigenbaum, Conservative Party of Quebec candidate in last provincial election and a lecturer at Concordia & McGill University, media & government relations consultant on The Big 5.

• Westmount High School graduate Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.
• Responding to criticism from many in the Anglo community over the idea, Charest says the Quebec Liberal Party's proposed project would allow anglophones to support a vision that includes them and secures their rights.
• Nicotine packets will now be sold at pharmacy counters… A decision made by the federal government.