The Big Story

A recent string of food recalls from cucumbers to almond milk have a lot of Canadians wondering: are the products we buy at the grocery store as safe as they used to be?

 Since 2023, 12 Canadians have died from either listeria or salmonella in outbreaks linked to contaminated food.  

 These deaths are a tragic reminder that food safety can’t be taken for granted.

 Is Canada’s food inspection system up to the task?

 Host David Smith speaks with Keith Warrnier is a food safety expert, professor in the Department of Food Sciences at the University of Guelph, and a past president of the Ontario Food Protection Association.

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After some consumer optimism earlier this fall, new research now shows positive views on the economy are on the decline after the U.S. election.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is describing it as a "vibecession".  

Host Mike Eppel is digging into this with Nik Nanos, the chief data scientist at Nanos Research.  

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If it feels like your kids are bleeding you dry, there's evidence that it's actually true.  

A new story in the Walrus suggests the average amount to raise 2 kids until they're 17 is $293,000, even more if the kids attend post-secondary.  

Host Kris McCusker is speaking with the writer of the piece in the Walrus, Chantal Braganza.  

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It's been one week since Pat King, one of the key organizers of the convoy protest, was found guilty of 5 of the 9 charges against him.  

The verdict came as we continue to wait on rulings for two other leaders of the demonstration that crippled the capital in 2022.

So what will this first verdict mean for the other cases, and where is the alt-right movement heading in Canada amid these proceedings and a change of administration in the White House?  

Host Cormac Mac Sweeney speaks  with Dr. Carmen Celestini with the University of Waterloo, who researches extremism, conspiracy theories, and politics in North America.

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Canada's NATO allies have called us out.  

Our defence partners, especially the United States, want Canada to increase defence spending to at least 2% of annual GDP.  

The Trudeau government says it has a plan to get there, but not until 2032.  Is that good enough and what is the current state of our military?  

Host David Smith talks to Richard Shimooka, a defence policy expert and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. 

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He's not even president yet, but Donald Trump's promises around tariffs are sending shockwaves and even some panic across the country.  

Are these empty threats?  What comes next? 

Our Mike Eppel sits down with Ian Lee, Associate Professor of Management, Sprott School of Business at Carleton University.  

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The  holidays are coming and times are tough.  We're digging into whether the federal government's 2 month GST holiday and upcoming rebate will actually help the economy and your family.  

Host Cormac Mac Sweeney is in conversation with Kevin Page, former Parliamentary budget officer and current President of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa.  

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After years of increasing immigration to Canada and record population growth, the Trudeau government has reversed course.  

The Prime Minister now admits they made a mistake.. The feds have slashed Canada’s immigration target for 2025 from 500,000 to 395,000 and restricted the number of non-permanent residents who will be able to come to work or study here.  

At the same time, new research shows that highly-skilled immigrants have been leaving Canada in record numbers.

Is now the best time to cut back on immigration?

Daniel Bernhard is the CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, he explains why the government might be missing part of the picture with its new policy.

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Torontonian Henry Wolfond is traveling into space today as a paying customer aboard Jeff Bezos' New Shepard rocket.  

He joins The Big Story with host Richard Southern to talk about why he’s doing it, what he’s paying for it, and about the Taylor Swift bracelets his granddaughter wore to the pop star's Toronto show that he's bringing with him into the great beyond.

Guest: CEO of Bayshore Capital Henry Wolfond

Host: Richard Southern, NewsRadio

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This week marked 1,000 days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Vladimir Putin has updated Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine in response to Joe Biden authorizing long-range missiles for the Ukrainian military. Experts say the world’s nuclear temperature just went up. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is set to take back the Oval Office in January. He has threatened to pull U-S support for Ukraine entirely. He has said he will end the war on his first day in power.  

The fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance.  

Professor Elliot Tepper is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University.

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