On The Ledge - your Ontario politics podcast

OTL SHOW NOTES The OTL gang is assembled! 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: Why do we even listen to Bonnie Lysyk? Sure, the annual Auditor General’s report makes for great headlines. So, what? John Wright says the AG rep...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: Ontario’s premier has been AWOL this past week, skipping out on Question Period, failing to attend the Order of Ontario ceremony and ghosted Ottawa’s newly elec...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: CUPE and the province go down to the wire hammering out a contract for support workers. If Ford Nation is all about taking care of the Children, where are they...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: It’s Remembrance Day in Canada - November 11th. We take time to reflect on the service and sacrifice of our military and their families. AND, we are featuring a...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: Ford Nation may have won the battle, forcing a contract on education workers but what kind of war has begun? Has Ontario's use of the Notwithstanding Clause pus...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: Horwath, Del Duca, Brown, Tory and Crombie are likely to help Ford Nation move quickly on the affordable housing file. The province has a surplus! Good for taxp...

The OTL gang is assembled! 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: The Ford government is prepared to cough up $365 million to parents of school kids while telling education workers the government doesn’t have enough money to m...

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. In this episode: Is there room for optimism in the education contract talks? Is it time to declare education an essential service? John Wright admits he’s not a Mathlete! Where is the Health Minister? Latest numbers say hospital wait times are...

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. In this episode: Quebec re-elects Legault and the UCP in Alberta chooses Danielle Smith to succeed Jason Kenney and the province’s premier designate. It puts pressure on federal-provincial relations. Is Trudeau up to the task? An Angus Reid su...

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. In this episode: We mark the second annual Day for Truth and Reconciliation, and the truth is dozens of First Nations communities in Ontario remain under boil-water orders. We hear from Sol Mamakwa, MPP for the riding of Kiiwetinoog in Northwe...

The OTL gang is assembled! Sabrina Nanji from the Queen's Park Observer, Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. In this episode: It's not debatable but we talk to Keith from his vantage point in Nova Scotia on his preparation plans as Fione bears down on NS, PEI and NL. The latest Angus Reid survey suggests...

The OTL gang is assembled! Sabrina Nanji from the Queen's Park Observer, Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. In this episode: MPP's barely got back to business at Queen's Park and the Ford government has adjourned the legislature until AFTER municipal elections on October 24th. The “More Beds, Better Care...

Friday, September 9, 2022 is the first full day of the Caroline Era. King Charles lll arrived at Buckinham Palace midday, meeting and greeting some of the thousands of people who are holding vigil outside the palace to pay tribute to the new king and his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth ll. Charles delivered his first public speech as the monarch at 6pm in the UK. He acknowledged the sacrifice and...

We've got a newish cabinet at Queen's Park. It's version 1.5 - not quite 2.0 considering how few changes we see around the table. One exception is the announcement of Michael Ford as Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism. The On The Ledge panel joins this edition of The Daily Brief to talk what's next and what to expect in the next Ford mandate. You can watch OR listen to this episode on ou...

All this talk about a Liberal-NDP merger in Ontario is utter nonsense. Why would the NDP waste any energy or time "merging" with the leaderless Liberals, when they're well positioned to stage a hostile takeover.  A re-energized NDP could easily render the Liberals irrelevant before the 2026 campaign.  Sabrina Nanji at the Queen's Park Observer quotes a pair of party insiders on their thoughts abou...

The sleepiest of campaigns turned out to be one for the history books on a number of counts.  First Doug Ford won a second majority in Ontario. Second, he won more seats in this election than he did in 2018. Third, he won more of the popular vote this time around than he did in 2018. Fourth, both main Opposition leaders called it quits after the results were obvious. Fifth, the Liberals failed, fo...

Bob Reid at Broadway Strategy and Communications spent time advising Mike Harris when he sat in the Premier's chair in Ontario. What's it like for the leaders and the staffers on Election Day. The campaign is over. It's up to us to mark our ballots. You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!) Follow Dave on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and X And you ca...

The Toronto Star says Doug Ford broke their Fact Checker because, for the most part the far and few between statements he made between May 25 and May 29 stated uncheckable facts. To me, that means he's spent the bulk of what little time he's spent speaking publicly uttering meaningless slogans. On average, he's spending 5 minutes a day speaking publicly in the final stretch of the campaign.  On th...

Sabrina Nanji just gets on a roll over Steven Del Duca's prospects of winning his seat in Vaughan-Woodbridge when she falls off the internet! No injuries reported. But it speaks to the shift in media coverage at Queen's Park and on the campaign away from in-person scrums in favour of remote video links and a one-question-one-followup format. You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube C...

You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!) Follow Dave on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn and X And you can leave us a voice comment here ! For more information go to Dave's website .

Before we get to the poll, we begin this edition of the Writ Race with a Friday FART JOKE! That's what the Ontario election campaign has come to with less than a week to go before Election Day on June 2.  The Toronto Star's got its hands on ANOTHER set of leaked polling numbers - this time from the NDP. Surprise, surprise! The NDP's confidential, internal memo says they've got the "wind at their b...

We are a week away from counting the final ballot tally that will determine who will sit in the Premier's Office in Ontario.  And here's where we stand. Andrea Horwath is running to keep her job. Steven Del Duca is running to win his seat. And Doug Ford is sleep walking his way towards another majority. Will the final week make any difference in the campaign? Probably not. All but one number has s...

All agree Doug Ford's below-the-radar approach to this election campaign is working for him. All indications are, he'd have to stumble hard to be reduced to a minority government. But does the peek-a-boo strategy hurt when several communities were hit by a deadly and devastating spring storm? Meanwhile, have the Liberals admitted they can't win? Internal party polling was leaked to Rob Benzie at t...

Polling and seat projection numbers seem to be fluid, with less than 2 weeks to go before Election Day in Ontario. In three separate stories over the Victoria Day weekend, the Toronto Star says the Liberals could hold Ford Nation to a minority, the NDP is gaining at the expense of the Liberals, and the Liberals out poll the NDP but would finish third. So, we turn to John Wright, SVP at Maru Public...

It seems the United Conservative Party of Alberta's not all that united. Jason Kenney's spectacular fall from grace suggests the "big tent" approach is an unmitigated failure for conservatives in Alberta. And this is in Canada's conservative heartland! You've got to think Kenney's meagre 51.4% support in this week's leadership review reflects a similar schism in the federal ranks. Today on the WRI...