NOW and NEXT

Today on NOW and NEXT: While the Assignment Desks and show producers in Toronto newsrooms focus on who's name is at the top of the wanna-be-mayor's list of candidates, very little attention is being paid to to the number of Torontonians who will actually cast a ballot in the June 26 Mayoral byelection. The eventual winner could succeed John Tory with fewer than 30% of the popular vote. That's bad...

Today on NOW and NEXT: The interview table gets turned on me. I had the opportunity to sit down in studio at CIUT FM University of Toronto Community Radio and talk about my first gig in radio as a founding member of the station. Thanks to Steve Fruitman and Peter Stamp for the opportunity. We talk get into the work that went into putting an FM application together, making our formal pitch to the C...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Award winning broadcast journalists Barb DiGiulio and Kym Geddes join the show to pronounce Chris Licht "Dead man walking." It's become abundantly clear that Licht's short tenure as CEO at CNN Worldwide has been an unmitigated disaster for the network and, more broadly, for the state of journalism. A 15 thousand word "profile" of Licht was published last week by the Atlantic...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Political science professor and US constitutional law expert, David Schultz joins us from Hamline University in Minnesota. US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached a deal to suspend the Debt Ceiling for two years. The short term effect is allowing the government to move ahead an borrow more money to cover its budget spending. But does that solve l...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We're keeping an eye on the developments in the Halifax wildfires. Good news is the fires aren't expanding. Better news is there's a lot of rain in the forecast in the coming week. The worrisome news is today's high is 30 celcius and there are high winds expected. So, things could take a turn for the worse in a hurry. Also, the Stanley Cup Final and the Memorial Cup will be...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Canada's federal government is weighing whether to include Senate amendments to Bill C-22 - The Canada Disability Benefit Act. Critics say the amendments are unconstitutional because they handcuff the provinces' authority set criteria for their own disability benefit plans. Neil Hetherington is the CEO at the Daily Bread Food Bank. He testified before the Senate committee wh...

Today on NOW and NEXT: David Coletto, CEO and Founder of Abacus Data offers analysis into the Alberta election results. Polling numbers in December 2022 suggested the New Democrats were on track to return to government. But Danielle Smith led the UPC to a majority win this week. What turned the polls? Also, Ontario Premier Doug Ford should use the Toronto Mayoral byelection as an opportunity to re...

Today on NOW and NEXT: US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached a compromise deal to raise the country's debt ceiling. It still needs Congressional approval and a number of Republican members of the House say they'll vote to kill the deal. If that happens, the US would default on its loans. Finance expert Preet Banerjee, founder of Money Gaps says the Debt Ceiling is an...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We're excited to launch the second season of 1 CLICK 2 CYBER CHAOS with Kym Geddes and Jeff Musson. The first episode dropped this morning. It was recorded about a week or so ago - just about the time Jeff let us know, he'd been hacked! Listen in to hear Jeff's story. You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!) Follow Dave on Facebo...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Award winning broadcast journalists Kym Geddes and Barb DiGiulio join the show to weigh in on whether Olivia Chow can lead the Toronto Mayoral Campaign from wire to wire. Do the horse race polls really reflect voter preference or simply name recognition? Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie makes it official. She wants to lead the Ontario Liberal Party. She's not officially in t...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has made it official. Steve Clark has tabled legislation intended to dissolve the Regional Municipality of Peel. Doing so means Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon will become single tier municipalities with the elimination of the regional layer of government. ALSO: West Jet is cancelling flights in anticipation of a Friday m...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Five of the top six candidates for the Mayor's job in Toronto took to the debate stage this week. The event was hosted by the Daily Bread Food Bank. The issue was AFFORDABILITY. We're joined by Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington to get his assessment of the debate and we take an in-depth look at how the candidates performed as wannabe mayors. You can watch OR listen to this e...

Today and NOW and NEXT: The morning after Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank hosted a Mayoral debate featuring the top candidates for the job, it's clear all levels of government are failing the most vulnerable in our communities. In this episode, we talk to Owen Charters, President & CEO of BGC Canada (formerly Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada). The issues of housing, affordability and poverty hit...

Today on NOW and NEXT: What were the big brains at CNN thinking? They coughed up an hour of prime time on the network for Donald Trump to not only spew misinformation, downright lies and exaggerations to a room full of sycophants who laughed when he challenged the jury decision this week finding he did sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. This was NOT a townhall. This was a mini-rally i...

Today on NOW and NEXT: John Wright, EVP at Maru Public Opinion joins us to talk about the latest Maru Household Outlook Index. The numbers suggest Canada's in a "funk" but there are hints of growing optimism across the country when it comes to the national economy and our personal finances. BUT FIRST! John and I remenisce about our Dad's. Today, May 10, 2023, would have been my Dad's 85th birthday...

Today on NOW and NEXT: David Coletto, Chairman and CEO at Abacus Data joins the show and weighs in on the popularity of podcasts, the popularity of Justin Trudeau and what that means to the federal Liberals, whether the Chinese interference scandal is moving the needle among voters, how have the wildfires disrupted the Alberta election campaign, and what's the biggest worry for Canadians as we fac...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Actor. musician, playwright, producer, Beau Dixon joins us. He is among four other performers, including Jacob MacInnis, Evangelia Kambites, David W. Keeley and Chilina Kennedy who offer their exceptional talent and interpretation in Episode 9 of Northern Tracks: A Canadian Mixtape. It was released on April 30, 2023, and focused on the classics of Gordon Lightfoot. Sadly, on...

Today on NOW and NEXT: With all deference to my Star Wars friends, May 4th is Dave Brubeck Day ! Write the date 5/4 and it's all about Dave's legendary jazz composition TAKE FIVE (in 5/4 time). Check it out here https://youtu.be/vmDDOFXSgAs ALSO: It's Feed Drop Day and we share an episode of The NEXT NORMAL, first published on July 13, 2021. It focuses on the Future of Work in this COVID era. This...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Former Harper cabinet minister, Lisa Raitt joins us to discuss the latest leaked top-scret documents that suggest MP Michael Chong was being targeted by Chinese intelligence agencies here in Canada and in China. Chong is demanding to know why he wasn't told about the potential threats. Raitt says the Trudeau government is losing all credibility on this file. Also: To use a D...

Today on NOW and NEXT: The legendary singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot passed away May 1, 2023 at the age of 84. Veteran, award-winning broadcast journalist Barb DiGiulio joins the show to talk about Lightfoot's extraordinary career and catalogue of music. Lightfoot appeared at a Hugh's Room gathering in 2016 to celebrate what would have been Stompin' Tom Connor's 80 birthday. He tells a great st...

Today on NOW and NEXT: The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is banning the use of paper bags claiming it will "save trees". Not really. Aside from the fact that harvested trees are replaced, stopping the production of paper bags doesn’t necessarily save trees or the environment. Paper is made from parts of trees that aren’t usable, ie, the scrub branches, sawdust etc. The trees are still harvested...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We're joined by Juno Award winner singer=songwriter Melanie Doane who is the Executive Director and Founder of the Doane Music School . This week, they released their latest "class project", a recording of "Ooh Child" featuring 150 Doane Music School students playing ukuleles and singing with the great Molly Johnson! Check out the song here You can watch OR listen to this ep...

Today on NOW and NEXT: It doesn't erase the indignity of the Game 7 collapse at the hands of the Boston Bruin 4 years and a night ago, but the Leafs can, at least put that bit of infamy in the rearview mirror after roaring back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period with 10 minutes to go and beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 in OT. The only thing that would have made it better is if it were the...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Former TTC Chair Josh Colle, current SVP at EY weighs on how to tackle ridership woes, confidence in the system and real worries about public safety. The Toronto Transit Commission decided to cut services to dozens of routes to meet budget pressures. But where was the innovative, creative thinking? Why are we still running forty foot buses on suburban routes that are empty?...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Happy SSNiversary to us! Story Studio Network CEO and Co-founder Erin Trafford joins the show to talk about the fun we're having and her plans to reposition journalism and evolve SSN from a major market podcast production house to a new media company. It was two years ago today, I sent my “Got time for a quick call” text to Erin. I already had four clients locked and loaded...