NOW and NEXT

Today on NOW and NEXT: What the hell was that?? The Toronto Maple Leafs have known who they were playing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the New Year, yet they still weren't prepared to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning. To call it an embarrassing showing is a gross understatement. It was disastrous. And it falls squarely on Head Coach Sheldon Keefe. He had one job heading into...

Today on NOW and NEXT: The housing crisis is worse than its ever been. Food insecurity is worse than it was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Poverty in Toronto has become normalized through governments' inability, or worse, indifference, to take action. Daily Bread Food Bank CEO, Neil Hetherington says the old faithful economic indicators just dont add up. Unemployment rates are low. That s...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Comms and Strategy expert Lindsay Broadhead joins us for a wide ranging conversation about the gap between the "promising" economic indicators and the growing demand and pressure on food banks and homeless shelters. From the race for the Mayor's Chair in Toronto, (43 candidates and counting), will Olivia Chow jump in, to the need to get our act together in Toronto if we're g...

Today on NOW and NEXT: I don't understand the hue and cry over the Toronto Star story detailing, (somewhat), a letter of intent from the city of Toronto to enter into a contract with MLSE to help organize and execute the 2026 World Cup games that are coming to the city? The letter hasn't been seen by city councillors but there's already a lineup of "critics". And the spin on talk radio in Toronto...

Today on NOW and NEXT: I thought it was interesting to sift through a report from Harvard University called the Canadian Media Index. It details the leading sources of news in Canada. Two numbers stuck out for me. One: MSN News was the number TWO source where Canadian consume news and information. Two: Global News is number five on that list BUT doesn't even register in the top 20 places where Can...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Veteran broadcast journalist Barb Digiulio is our guest and wonders whether the future of Ontario Place will be an issue that makes a difference in Toronto's mayoral race. Also, how should we deal with high schools that inflate the grades of their grads. And this is the best season to be a sports fan - from the Masters to the Jays' home opener, for the Leafs' prep for the pl...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We feature a conversation with former Toronto City Councillor and Toronto Transit Commission Chair, Josh Colle. Josh wasn't considering a run for the Mayor's chair. He's happy in his role as Senior VP at EY. But his phone started ringing shortly after John Tory's bombshell at the clam shell on February 10. He was being coaxed to throw his hat into the ring but decided agains...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Call it wilful ignorance or indifference. Either way it's led to a pattern and culture of inaction that all levels of government have normalized. Our governments have normalized poverty. The Ford government and the Official Opposition at Queen's Park stand by mumbling meaninglessly while poverty grows at an historic and alarming rate in the City of Toronto. Ontario's MPP's c...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Abacus Data Founder and CEO, David Coletto offers some insights into the insights we can glean from polling done during Toronto's Mayoral By-Election. He says considering the size of the field, the number of candidates who have a shot at winning and the generally low name recognition of all those who've registered so far, the "horse race" headlines will be nearly meaningless...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Bob Richardson, Senior Counsel at National Public Relations is no stranger to organizing and running political campaigns. Bob says the shortened mayoral campaign in Toronto is going to put a good deal of pressure on each candidate's ability to build an effective ground organization. At this stage there are as many as 8 credible candidates with a real shot at winning this rac...

Today on NOW&NEXT EXTRA: David Schultz, professor of Political Science and US Constitutional Law joins us to read the tea leaves now that former US President Donald Trump has been indicted by a New York Grand Jury. Aside from this being the first time anyone elected to the Presidency has ever been indicted, it's hard to quantify the amount of history that was made in that moment and harder sti...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Jeremy Diamond, Founding CEO of the RCAF Foundation joins us to mark an historic anniversary. The Royal Canadian Air Force begins it's centenary year on April 1st, 2023. To mark the occassion, considering it's also FEED DROP Thursday, we highlight on of the four episodes we produced for the Foundation called Pathway to the Stars. We feature the story of William Barker. You c...

Today on NOW and NEXT: More Pride celebrations in the NHL this week and obvious by their absence are any gay NHL players who are leading the Pride events. It begs the question, why are gay pro hockey players unlikely to come out? Toronto City councillors and mayoral candidates sound like they're ready to run against other levels of government. Neither the province nor the feds accounted for any su...

Today on NOW and NEXT Veteran sportscaster Rod Black joins us to talk Blue Jays, Leafs and Raptors. Rod likes the pitch clock, would like to see the Leafs and Edmonton play for a Cup and says the Raptors may not go far in the post season but they'll be fun to watch! But first we kick around the latest fallout from the sex assault allegations levelled at members of the 2018 Canadian Junior Hockey s...

Today on NOW & NEXT EXTRA! The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. It's the morning after the latest Ford government budget. It represents the largest spending in the history of the province. It's also the largest revenue numbers. All BIG numbers but to what end? Will it have an...

Today on NOW and NEXT: A test of OpenAI's ChatGPT-4 has failed a "fact check" exercise by "internet trust tool" - NewsGuard. It's latest report found "the latest version of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence software scored zero percent in an exercise assessing its ability to avoid spreading significant misinformation." NewsGuard used 100 false narratives as the criteria for ChatGPT-4 articles. The...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We're joined by David Schultz, professor of political science and US constitutional law at Hamline University in Minnesota. As we recorded this edition of the podcast, various legal proceedings involving Donald Trump are drawing closer to conclusion and the expectation is the former US President will be indicted in at least one case. In the short term, it's amounted to a fun...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Bob Reid, Principal at Broadway Strategy joins the podcast as we wade thru the latest flurry of declared candidates joining the race for the mayor's chair in Toronto. Former Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders, former Post Media columnist Anthony Furey and current Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow marked the first full day of Spring 2023 officially declaring their intention...

Today on NOW and NEXT: We weclome veteran award winning broadcast journalist Barb DiGiulio to the podast. We talk about the state of broadcast and local media. They're both hurting! [Listen for our LIVE RADIO moment part way through the show;)] Also what does Barb think of the Globe and Mail's decision to allow the C-SIS whistleblower to publish an anonymous Opinion piece on March 18, 2022? AND wh...

Today on NOW and NEXT EXTRA: We welcome the OTL gang again! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. In this episode: Ana Bailao has made it official. She is running for Mayor of Toronto. Bailao is a former city councillor and served as Deputy M...

Today on NOW and NEXT: Pressing questions. Do you own the copyright on content you create with ChatGPT? Corrine Boudreau, host and producer of Get It In Writing has the answer. Could you rebuild the Gardiner Expressway out of wood? Can we convert bank tower commercial space into apartments or condos? How can you defend yourself against attack on the subway? You can watch OR listen to this episode...

Today on NOW and NEXT: It was mere weeks ago when we were talking about the marvels of ChatGPT - the AI app that can generate written content on demand, on virtually any subject based on the commands you provide. Ground breaking! A game changer when it is combined with the search capabilities of BING! Today, I see OpenAI is already boasting about GPT-4 being the head and shoulders better than Chat...

Today on Now & Next: I know it's allowed. I know it's legal. But Toronto City Councillor Brad Bradford should announce he's resigning his Ward 19 Beaches- East York seat before he registers as a candidate for mayor of Toronto. His housing announcement at City Hall makes it abundantly clear running for mayor while keeping his council seat, engaging in decision making, preening for media gives h...

Today on NOW & NEXT: It's hard to be positive when the headlines are filled with a shooting war in Europe and strategies to avoid war in Asia. Oh ya, and we can't forget COVID, bank failures and threats to democracy. So, that's why we sit down with Tony Chapman, host and podcast producer of Chatter that Matters. I had the privilege of working with Tony when he launched his series in the Summer...

Today on N+N EXTRA: The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer, has taken the day off from the podcast. In this episode: A post mortem on the Ontario Liberal Party's Annual General Meeting. We re-litigate the benefits of...