The Big Five Podcast

Elias Makos welcomes in Catherine Hogan, high school teacher at Westwood Senior High in Hudson, and Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program.

• t seems nothing is going right for François Legault. His poll numbers in the province continue to slide
• Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party continues to make gains in Quebec as support for Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party continues to decline
• Taylor Swift is TIME magazine’s Person of the Year

Elias Makos is joined by Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the PR and content firm TNKR Media, and Andrew Caddell, a town councillor in Kamouraska, columnist for the Hill Times in Ottawa and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy.

• The Bloc Québécois and Conservatives are both demanding that House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus resign from his post
• Math scores of Canadian students have fallen off a cliff
• Going to see the Habs play and hoping to get a hug from Youppi during the game? Well get ready to fork out $195 dollars to do so.

Elias Makos kicks off the week with Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia, and David Heurtel, Former Quebec liberal cabinet minister, Council at Fasken and political analyst.

• Pierre Poillievre managed to get people’s attention for a full 15 minutes over the weekend, releasing a mini-documentary called “Housing Hell.” 
• François Legault’s approval rating is at an all-time low. Angus Reid has the Premier’s at a 31% approval rating, a 16-point drop in three months
• 15 former members of Option nationale are sending a message to the current QS members: Ditch Québec solidaire and head toward the Parti québécois

Elias Makos ends the week with Jimmy Zoubris, special advisor to the Mayor, and Sue Montgomery, former journalist and former mayor of CDN-NDG.

• There’s a new Bill 15 amendment and it would let Santé Québec deny the right to offer English services
• Conservative MP Rachel Thomas has apologized after asking Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge if she could answer questions in English
• Another bike path, another battle. This time it’s in NDG on Terrebonne street

Joining Elias on The Big 5 this morning were 

• Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance 
• 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 subjects discussed were
• Canada's Environment Minister travelling business class
• Quebec's legislature unanimously adoption a defense of Christmas
• The unfairness of the Bell Centre paying less property taxes than home owners

Joining Elias on The Big Five this morning were Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia & Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the PR and content firm TNKR Media

The topics discussed were

-Quebec potentially backtracking on their proposed university tuition hikes

-the Finance Minister was headed to the Big Apple to take part in Bloomberg’s Canadian Finance Conference

-Quebec Solidaire wanting a minimum wage of $20

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

• A petition calling for more public consultation has reached 3,000 signatures, and one doctor is going so far as to call the Bill “the CAQ government’s Waterloo.”
• Education Minister Bernard Dranville is reiterating the government’s offer to striking teachers
• Is Jagmeet Singh too fancy to lead the NDP? Yet another example of the leader’s opulence is making the rounds. He was spotted with a Versace bag outside the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto

Joining us on The Big Five this morning were Jonathan Kalles, Senior Consultant at McMillan Vantage, a national public affairs firm, and former advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Political analyst Karim Boulos.

The subjects discussed

• The Bell Centre’s incredible shrinking tax bill
• Quebec Solidaire's crackdown on men
• lease transfers being blocked

Elias Makos caps off the week Jimmy Zoubris, special advisor to the Mayor, and Raphaël Melançon, a political analyst for CTV Montreal News at 5 and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies.

• Can Pierre Poilievre’s snarkiness derail the Conservative’s surge in the polls?
• Six months before she announced her new plan to ruin Camillien-Houde Way, Mayor Valerie Plante was told about how it would impact accessibility, add time to people’s commutes, and about a 95-year-old legal agreement with Mount Royal Cemetery that could torpedo the whole idea
• As of January 1st, Montreal’s public libraries will have the authority to throw out anyone inside their building who is deemed to have very bad hygiene

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

• The minister of the French Language Jean-Francois Roberge is set to plug what he calls a “loophole” that sees over 100 thousand new quebecers in the past 20 years take vocational training in English
• Voting begins tomorrow to see who will become the new co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire and the race has become nasty
• Why are so many progressive feminists turning a blind eye to the sexual assault and rape of Israeli women at the hands of Hamas