The 905er is a news, politics and discussion podcast for the GTHA region focusing on the region outside central Toronto where 4 million people live, but where news coverage and discussion hardly exists. Presented by Roland Tanner and Joel MacLeod, long-time activists, volunteers and sometimes even wannabe-politicians, we aim to provide a lively weekly podcast featuring interviews with people in the news, round-table discussions, analysis and more. It aims to be intelligent, though-provoking, ...
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What Lies Ahead for the Ontario Liberal Party?
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1:13:46We recorded this episode the Friday morning after the 2025 Ontario Election. It was an election that didn't see the dynamic at Queen's Park change all that much. Doug Ford and the Ontario PC returned with a third majority mandate, Marit Stiles and the NDP returned to the official opposition, and the Ontario Liberals returned as the third-place part…
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We are into the final week of this Ontario election. It seems that people are finally starting to check in to the fact that we are having one, and we're starting to see some change in the polls. But is it enough to change the government? What happens if nothing changes? What would happen to Bonnie Crombie or Marit Stiles's leadership? Both made pro…
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Can We Vote Smarter in this Ontario Election?
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54:41As this Ontario Election moves, the polls slowly shift away from Doug Ford's Ontario PC. Is there time for the opposition parties to capitalize on this trend? Or will the opposition once again split the vote? That's the risk in our first-past-the-post system. Without the anti-Ford vote coalescing around one party or leader at the moment, those who …
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What do our Municipalities Need from this Ontario Election?
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48:07As the Ontario Election moves a long, we seem to drifting further and further away from the issues that were prominent in our provincial dialogue only a few months ago. Housing, development fees, homelessness. These were the things that we were covering in previous episodes. The matters which were front and centre for many 905ers. Going so far as t…
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Hey Don't Forget There's a Provincial Election on Right Now!
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49:09It has been a whirlwind 2025, and we're only through January. Trudeau resigned, sparking a Liberal Leadership race, and most recently, as this podcast is being recorded, President Donald Trump is imposing 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, sparking a trade war in North America. In the shadow of all of this, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has decided to c…
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Loblaws and Sobeys Haven't Learned their Lesson
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43:59Earlier this month, the CBC broke a story detailing how Loblaws and Sobeys were overcharging customers for meat, but underweighting the amounts sold. With the cost of living increasing this was a blow to their brand and hurt consumers where it matters most. What was most shocking perhaps about the story is how it wasn't that shocking at all. This i…
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How Doug Ford Came Around to Agree with Kathleen Wynne
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59:17Whether or not we're going to an early provincial election has been hanging in the air over Ontario for a few months now. Doug Ford has been playing coy with will he won't he'll call one. However, the hints that he's keen to have been in the news recently. His government has announced several big policy initiatives. Minister of Energy, Stephen Lecc…
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905 Round-Up: Good Rental News and Teacher Investigations
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47:35Happy New Year 2025! We are back in the saddle for what is shaping up to be a huge year in Canada, Ontario and the 905. As we start the new year, we found some good news to reflect on. Rents in the 905 are dropping. As more and more inventory comes onto the market the laws of supply and demand the price of rent is dropping. After that, we look at H…
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905 Round-Up: Crombie’s Housing Plan and Ford Hits Back on Trump
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1:05:03Coming off our previous episode with Evan Scrimshaw, the Ontario Liberals announced a major part of their housing platform. Their plan would eliminate development charges from municipalities, replace them with a provincial fund, end the Land Transfer Tax for new home buyers and bring in phased-in rent controls for renters. Is this what progressives…
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Why the Ontario Liberals Are Going to Have a Hard Time in the 905
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1:03:12The Ontario Liberal Party attempted something of a rebrand of their leader, Bonnie Crombie at the start of December. At their leadership dinner fundraiser, the party brought in $1.65 million for their coffers before an expected spring 2025 Ontario election. However, what made headlines was her keynote address where she broke ranks with their federa…
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Mayor Carolyn Parrish Breaks her Silence on Police Funding
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30:45Police budgets are the biggest line item on any municipalities budget. It would logically follow that it would also be the most scrutinized. As it turns out it is virtually impossible to openly criticize and debate the use of tax dollars when it comes to policing in Ontario. This is something our guest today resigned their position on Peel's Police…
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Councillor Haley Bateman Stands Against the Notwithstanding Clause
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43:25We rarely expect to return to the topic so soon when we air our episodes. However, that was the case with our last episode with St. Catharine's Mayor Mat Siscoe. We spoke with him about his reasons for signing a letter with 12 other Ontario Mayors requesting Premier Doug Ford give municipalities the power under the Notwithstanding Clause to remove …
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Mayor Mat Siscoe backs his decision to request the Notwithstanding Clause
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36:28On October 31st, 12 Mayors from across Ontario wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford, requesting more powers to deal with the growing homeless and encampment crisis in our cities. Five of those mayors were from 905 cities. In the letter, the mayors went the extra step to request the Notwithstanding Clause be used if necessary to give them the ability…
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Is Mississauga Changing the Ways Hospitals are Built in Ontario?
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47:26For the better part of a decade, municipalities have been expected to chip in a portion of new hospital infrastructure. This practice was brought in under the previous Ontario Liberal government and is continued by the current Ontario PC. When hospital infrastructure runs upwards into the billions of dollars this can become quite the burden on a mu…
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905 Round-up: The Malicious Incompetence of Doug Ford
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1:02:58There have been a few stories that popped onto our radar recently that made us think we ought to do a 905 Round-Up Episode to cover them all. In the course of our discussions about them though, we discovered a common thread. All of the problems we discuss are a result of the poor decision-making of the Ontario PC Government. The Mississauga LRT pro…
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Is Ontario Facing a Teaching Shortage?
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33:58As reported by Global News earlier this month, an internal document to then Minister of Education Todd Smith states that the province could be facing a teacher shortage. Too many teachers are leaving the profession with fewer new teachers joining their ranks. The Ministry of Education is predicting that as early as 2027 we could start seeing a gap …
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Does Marineland Have a Future in Ontario?
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50:45Last week saw news that another beluga whale died at Marineland. For years now, the Niagara Falls-based theme park has been under intense scrutiny, after evidence of animal mistreatment and deaths have emerged at the park. The Ontario Solicitor General has stated that the park is under inspection by the province but will not divulge what it has bee…
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Ahmad Elbayoumi on What Happened at the Ontario Liberal AGM
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52:03Last month the Ontario Liberal Party held their AGM in London. Normally this isn't newsworthy, but this time a few items put it on our radar. Policy proposals to change the nature of the party's provincial council, limiting the number of Young Liberals on it, as well as potentially changing the leadership review process allowing current Leader Bonn…
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905 Round-Up: We Call Out Doug Ford on his A-S-S
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47:20The last week has seen many out-of-touch comments on the part of Ontario's Premier, Doug Ford. A visit to Hamilton saw him brush off criticism of his failure of the housing file by stating that the plight of homeless encampments in 905 cities would be solved if those living there got off their quote 'A-S-S' and applied for jobs. The fallback positi…
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It seems that downtown Hamilton has been under fire for the last few months. The federal tax court recently shut down citing gun violence. Tent encampments are a feature in city parks, and most recently the President of LiUNA made the outrageous claim that busloads of homeless people were being brought into the city to take advantage of services in…
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Walking for Mental Health In Burlington
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43:02This week we’re talking to Melanie Walker, co-chair of “Walk to the Lighthouse” in Burlington, and social worker in Mental Health and Addiction Services at Burlington’s Joseph Brant Hospital, where she has worked for 22 years, in addition to her own private practice. In the previous decade Jo Brant hospital received a major expansion and renovation…
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905 Round- Up: Ontario is Failing It's Children
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46:21Warning this episode deals with child abuse and endangerment We welcome back to the podcast Ajay Sharma for this episode. As we prepared to cover this episode several news items broke ground in Ontario that we felt could not be ignored. First was the Ontario PC government's plan to back out of the $ 10-a-day daycare funding formula for private dayc…
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It's the End of Summer, Where are Bonnie and Marit?
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52:19It's the end of summer and Ontario and the 905 are returning to work and school. We thought it prudent to take a moment and look back on the summer that was. This summer, Doug Ford faced the first LCBO strike ever, suddenly shut down safe consumption sites across the province based on his gut feeling, and lost his Education Minister at the last min…
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Will a San Francisco Start-Up Make EVs Cheaper in the 905?
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39:01We are back from vacation folks! After some needed time off Roland and Joel are back to talk shop and of course the first you do when getting back to work is...cleaning out the ol' email inbox. In the process, we discovered an interesting email from a San Francisco start-up Optiwatt. Optiwatt is partnering with The Atmospheric Fund here in Ontario …
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905 Roundup - Is Downtown Hamilton Too Dangerous to Work?
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49:31A day late, but hopefully not a dollar short. Joel is away, and for technical reasons the upload is a little later than usual, but hopefully you'll forgive us. Standing in for Joel, we have a return visit from Ajay Sharma, professor in the political science department at the University of Guelph, and a contributor to the Toronto Star on recent poli…
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905 Round-Up: Climate Change Doesn't Affect the 905
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45:53The news moves fast and people are moving on from the flooding in the 905 last week. However, those affected by the intense rainfalls still struggle to make themselves whole again. Joel's neighbourhood was one of the most intensely impacted by flooding, and thus he attended a neighbourhood meeting with his city councillor to discuss what came next.…
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The 905 Flooding Is Only the Beginning
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1:04:54Last week the 905 saw flooding that overwhelmed many parts of its respective cities. Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga and Toronto saw an estimated $3.1 billion in damage to infrastructure and homes. This isn't an isolated incident either. In the last few years, the region and Canada have seen an increase in the frequency and severity of storms and…
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It looks like this is going to be a dry summer for Ontarians. Just as schools let out, the government's talks with LCBO Unionized employees broke down. All LCBO retail locations are closed for the summer, leaving only grocery and convenience stores available for Ontarios to purchase wine or beer. For the union, this is to ensure that LCBO locations…
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We ask Emma McIntosh: Where are the plans for Highway 413?
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48:21The proposed Highway 413 is the Doug Ford government's landmark project. It has been promised for years by the Ontario PC, despite facing court battles and criticism from grassroots organizations and environmentalists. It has been heavily criticized for its effectiveness and the environmental impact it could have on habitats and farmland. Yet despi…
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905 Round-Up - Doug Keeps Teasing Hamilton's LRT
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55:54Last week, Premier Ford visited Burlington's small business community. The purpose of which, of course, was to find clout with the small businesses. In the lead-up to a potential election? Who knows. During the visit, however, Premier Ford was asked about Hamilton's LRT project, and when it would begin construction. Ford reiterated his government's…
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Ajay Sharma on the Raw Deal of Ontario's Cities
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1:00:23We planned on finishing our coverage of the Mississauga Mayor's By-Election with our episode last week. However, something crossed our path that we couldn't ignore. A column appeared in the Toronto Star, titled Good luck, Mississauga. With your new mayor, you’re going to need it. The column was written by Ajay Sharma, a university political science…
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Nokha Dakroub on the Mississauga Mayor By-Election
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42:00When Bonnie Crombie stepped down as Mayor of Mississauga to be the Ontario Liberal Party leader, it triggered a by-election to replace her in the city's top seat. Twenty people put their names in the ring to run for Mississauga Mayor. Of those twenty, four rose to the top as contenders for the job. Dipika Damerla, Alvin Tedjo, Steve Dasko and Carol…
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905 Round-Up: Doug Shuffles Cabinet then Takes a Break
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1:06:10It's a good old-fashioned 905 Round Up! The Ontario government is on break now until October. However, Doug Ford shuffled his cabinet before he let out the Ontario Legislature. It's not anything incredibly noteworthy in our opinion. However, one raised our attention, and we thought threw fuel on the rumours from last week of an early election in On…
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Sabrina Nanji Talks Early Ontario Election Rumours
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45:10Rumours are circulating in Queen's Park of Doug Ford's interest in an early election for Ontario. Polls show he is riding high, possibly earning another majority for the Ontario PC party. He just won two by-elections in Milton and Lambton Kent Middlesex. He is moving ahead on the construction of the new Highway 413 in the 905 and is currently annou…
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Is the 905 Pushing Back Against More Housing?
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54:00A couple of stories caught our eye the previous week. In Newmarket, the town council heard pushback from the community over a proposed 9-story condo project, over concerns that a Tim Horton's drive-thru down the road could face increased times at the window. In Oakville, the Town Council received a harsh letter from Federal Liberal Housing Minister…
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Times are tough these days. It's getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Rent, mortgage, and gas are increasing, outpacing real wages and salaries for the average Canadian. Most noticeable to Canadians coast to coast is the price of food. It's harder and harder to stretch your dollar when feeding your family these days after stepping foot in a…
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Pam Damoff Talks Civility in Politics
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37:36At the beginning of May, Pam Damoff, the Liberal MP for Oakville - North Burlington announced that she would be retiring from federal politics at the end of this term. She would not be seeking re-election. Her reasoning was a common refrain from female politicians across all party lines. The misogynistic and violent threats to her personhood and fa…
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Milton Votes Tory, So We all Get the Highway 413
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42:19Well, the Milton By-Election has come and gone. The people of Milton handily supported Zee Hamid and the Ontario PC’s to represent them in the Ontario Legislature until the next general election. During the by-election, Doug Ford gave special attention to the riding. In the last week of the campaign, Doug Ford made a point to reiterate that the con…
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Taking Ontario to Court over Basic Income
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40:27When we started this podcast, one of the first episodes we ever did was covering the aftermath of the basic income pilot project here in Ontario. One of the first acts the then-newly elected Doug Ford government did was to break their word and cancel the project without warning. In that episode, we interview Jessie Golem, a resident of Hamilton who…
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Are Ontario Municipalities Safe Against Cyber Attacks?
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52:22The City of Hamilton saw itself come under attack by cybercriminals in early 2024. City Council, apps, phone communication and the city's library system were all inaccessible or unavailable. Criminals used malware to hold the city hostage until it paid a ransom. The city did not pay and eventually, and order was restored. This is not an isolated ev…
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Sabrina Nanji Talks About the Milton By-Election
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50:49Sabrina Nanji of the QPObserver joins us on this episode as we get into the weeds with the Milton By-Election. When Parm Gill announced that he was stepping down from the Ontario PC's to run for Pierre Poilievre's Conservatives, it of course opened up a By-Election to replace him as Milton's MPP. Normally, By-Elections are sleepy affairs with littl…
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Cameron Kroetsch Vs the Hamilton Police Board
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51:57Hamilton Police have been having a pretty bad start to 2024. Last month, the Hamilton Police Board made headlines when it took disciplinary action against one of its members, Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch for asking questions surrounding its budgetary process. As of this airing date, Councillor Kroetsch is suspended from serving on the Police …
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What Happened to the Hamilton Jewish Film Festival?
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37:09Last month, we released an episode on the rise of anti-semitism in the 905. We released it and thought it would be some time before we might have to revisit the topic. We were shocked to find out that only a few weeks later the topic would rear its ugly head once again in Hamilton. On March 19th, without warning The Playhouse Cinema in Hamilton ann…
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Mayor Liz Roy Asks Where's Whitby's Hospital?
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43:41For years, the Doug Ford government has promised Whitby a new hospital. As the region continues to grow it is becoming apparent that the status quo in terms of its health care will not do. In a notoriously safe PC riding like Whitby and Durham, it seems like they would be a shoo-in for a brand spanking new hospital, just like Doug promised. So wher…
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Scott Radley on Hamilton's Looming Gridlock
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49:43A few weeks ago, Hamilton City Council voted to redesign its major street running into its downtown core. The new plan is to essentially divide Main St, a one-way six-lane wide boulevard running through the middle of its downtown into a two-way street, despite concerns from city staff that this would create a problem with traffic, leading to conges…
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Paolo De Buono on Catholic Education in Ontario
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56:39Coming off our previous episode, we wanted to examine the state of Catholic education in Ontario. Sparked by the recent York Catholic school board controversy, along with the stories of Catholic school boards fighting against raising the Pride flag, we were wondering about its future in Ontario. What is the support for Catholic education, and does …
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905 Round Up - York Catholic Sex Ed and Higher Education Woes
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50:25A few things in the world of public education cropped up on our radar this week. In the York Catholic District School Board, the Our Lady of the Lake Academy, saw students upset at what they viewed as an inappropriate presentation from a right-wing anti-abortion organization. The Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethics gave a presentation in the school audi…
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How to Fix Political Culture in Ontario?
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45:52The Doug Ford government is looking to protect political staffers in Ontario's city halls. As reported by The Spec on February 21, 2024, Minister of Municipal Affairs Paul Calandra will be tabling legislation that would see Mayors and Councillors thrown out of office for workplace harassment. Ontario Liberal MPP Stephen Blais had similar legislatio…
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Lorraine Sommerfeld, author of the long-running Motherlode column in the Hamilton Spectator and multi-award-winning journalist at Driving.ca returns to discuss her new novel "A Face at the Window", before taking the time to dive into what on earth is going on with the recent driving-related announcements from the provincial government. "A Face at t…
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Anyone who has looked at the news in the past 6 months knows of the enormous shift in political leanings happening. Polls from various sources have shown that an enormous shift is coming in the federal government. According to the polls, the overwhelming number of Canadians in the 905 and the country at large want Pierre Poilievre and the Conservat…
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