NOW and NEXT

Pierre Poilievre says he's running to be Canada's next prime minister, skipping right over the need for him to win the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. He's either ignoring or taking for granted the will and intention of the party. His candidacy announcement flirts with the fringes of facts and and champions the language of the Ottawa occupiers. It's a string of cliches and bumper s...

Excited to tell you that my radio-days colleague and friend Glenn Crouter will be bringing his Winter sports reports to Story Studio Network. He and I are going to embark on a limited series called "Head for the Hills". We won't talk about ski conditions but will talk about the state of the sport. We're planning to launch the show Feb. 11!   You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube C...

In a country where 34 per cent of the popular vote isn't enough to form a government but 33 per cent is enough, isn't it time for conservatives to admit, the Reform/Progressive Alliance is a failed experiment? Erin O'Toole's demise makes that clear. John Wright, Executive VP at Maru Public Opinion joins the Daily Brief to review the entrails of the Ground Hog Day massacre. You can watch OR listen...

Erin O'Toole's political obit will be read by the end of the day but it was written back in October when his caucus planted an IED on  his leadership path. It's kind of appropriate that his "fellow" Conservatives are using the clout of the "REFORM ACT" to make him pay for his progressive conservative tack. In this episode of The Daily Brief, how can the Conservative Party of Canada be struggling t...

The numbers are staggering. Researchers say the "lost years" hit 1.25 million when they extend the number of unintentional ODs to those between 10 and 24. It certainly punctuated my reaction to Dopesick, the limited series that tracks the lengths Purdue Pharma went to cover its tracks while it developed and promoted OxyContin. We may be able to claim we didn't see COVID-19 coming. But the opiod cr...

On this edition of the Daily Brief, Story Studio Network co-founder, Erin Trafford applauds the call for Spotify to reasses its values but what about other content being sold and promoted on the platform by convicted criminals? And is this movement going to focus on Apple and Google, et al? And the FREEDOM CONVOY in Ottawa proves you're free to be a racist, free to spread misinformation, free to d...

Today on the Daily Brief: You wanna know why people are pissed off and angry in Canada? On the one hand we've got Ontario's top public health doc saying we need a balanced approach and we have to LIVE WITH COVID. On the other hand we have arbitrary vaccine mandates that aren't supported by science. I had the chance to join some robust discussions about this very subject on Newstalk 1010. You can w...

I'm sure Neil Young will be just fine now that he's parted ways with Spotify. In fact, based on the way musicians, writers and producers get paid through the streaming service, Neil's Spotify revenues probably didn't amount to much in the grand scheme of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career income. I recently had the chance to talk to Juno Award winner Chantal Kreviazuk about the state of the ind...

It started out as a protest against Ottawa's demand for all cross border truckers to be double dose vaccinated. It quickly turned into an Anti-Vax venue which has been overrun by alt-right wing nuts who compare their "suffering" to the Jews who were imprisoned an murdered by Hitler's Nazis. Then there is the cohort who aren't quite sure what it's all about but are making Twitter guarantees that th...

You'll be forgiven if you can't up with the Canadian truckers' protest. It's morphed from an anti-mandatory vaccine rules to anti-vax to threating to shut down the country for no obvious reason. And then, politicians and media want to roll it all into supply chain issues, as if we only just started experiencing product shortages. Combine COVID protocols with a shortage of truckers and an unusual a...

Today on the Daily Brief: Under "studies that tells us stuff we already know" - First Nations kids are unhealthy when they live in homes filled with mould! Apparently there's still a place for racism in pro hockey. And Sarah Palin and Alex Jones find themselves on opposite sides of the defamation laws in the Unitied States. Jones wants to use it as a free speech shield. Palin wants to change the l...

Wrapping up my second Monday-Friday workweek in about four years. Up until the January 1, 2022, I'd been working 7 days a week!  Today, on the 10:10AM Daily Brief: Doug Ford's pandering his way through the pandemic. Struggling to put food on the table isn't an inflation story. It's about the growing number of Canadians living on the verge of poverty. Trump and Hannity define irony! And...the thing...

Today on the 10:10AM Daily Brief, if you're looking for that glass half full of sunshine and unicorn, holding your breath for this final push through the pandemic, you might wanna sit down. A new study says Earth is in the middle of its next MASS EXTINCTION EVENT and there's no stopping it. Similarly, there appears to be no end to the B.S. spewing from the clowns running the circus at Queen's Park...

I can’t believe we spent some much angst and oxygen over declaring SNOW DAYS this week instead of pivoting to online learning for all.   And while the media was enthralled by pics and viz of Doug Ford helping dig cars out of the snow, I want to know who shot the video? Who took the pictures? Newsrooms aren’t asking. It’s a small thing, but that’s LAZY. The lack of context is unacceptable. I can ge...