The 905er Podcast

We welcome back to the podcast President of the Auto Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada, Flavio Volpe. A while back we had Flavio on, to discuss their still just and idea concept car, Project Arrow. At that time we promised that we'd have him back on once it was completed and unveiled. Well that time as come. This year Project Arrow was finally revealed to the public at the Consumer Electro...

After a bit of back and forth, Roland and Joel have made a decision on how the 905er is going to be structured going forward. We're looping all of you in on our decision making process and announcing how we'll be producing this podcast going forward. Have a listen. It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we ca...

Climate change is the biggest threat to our existence. Its effects can be seen all around us. So it's no surprise to find efforts being made to combat it's effects. Its common place these days to find companies engaging in public relations campaigns to showcase their efforts to be more conscious of climate change. Whether that's in the promotion of a more sustainable product or service, or perhaps...

Long time friend of the podcast Laura Steiner returns! It's not news per se, that Peel region is a hot bed of car thefts. It's so common now, that you can find videos of thefts in broad daylight posted on social media. Cars have been reported found in shipping containers in Montreal or Halifax destined for the other side of the world to be resold by organized crime rings. Police have yet to make a...

Brian Lilley waded into the Hamilton Centre By-election with an accusation of antisemitism against the NDP. The Liberals jumped on his bandwagon with candidate Deirdre Pike demanding an apology from NDP candidate Sarah Jama to the Jewish community. Jama fought back by accusing Pike of racism. Jama and Pike have both dedicated their lives to activism on behalf of disadvantaged and persecuted groups...

The Ontario Liberal Party for the better part of last year was written off for dead. A humiliating result from the last provincial general election made many in Ontario think that the party would quietly fall into the trash bin of history. With no gains of seats in the legislature, the Ontario Liberal Party does not even have party status at Queen's Park. It's former leader Steven Del Duca resigne...

We like to pride ourselves on being open to opposing view points. We concede that sometimes we don't always get it right However, we also pride ourselves on offering the chance for those opposing viewpoints to come on and clear the record. Which is sort of the story on how we invited our guest this week to the podcast. Last week we listened to another local podcast called What's the Point, produce...

Nobody works harder than Joey Coleman to monitor and report everything done at Hamilton City Hall. His opinions demand respect. After October's change election saw major changes in personnel on Hamilton council, there were high expectations for not just a change in tone at City Hall, but an activist and courageous council. Yet it came into being with perhaps its greatest challenge already determin...

The 905 Round-Up is coming to you early this week! A follow up on stories we've already touched upon on the podcast. Starting with the Halton District School Board. Last year, the board made international headlines when a transgender teacher was photographed wearing enormous prosthetic breasts in a shop class at Oakville Trafalgar High School. At the time the board stated that it had no dress code...

It shouldn't surprise you to know that housing is at a crisis in not just the 905, but all of Ontario.  In fact, across Canada, housing prices and supply are in crisis mode.  Our supply of housing in whatever form you wish to choose, whether it's a detached house, a condo or rental isn't keeping up with the population.  We have just not built enough to keep up our numbers.  We do not have enough p...

February as many of you are aware is Black History Month Each year through the month of February figures and prominent individuals of african origin whether they be activists, politicians, artists, musicians, authors or historical figures, are front and centre in our schools and libraries. People of African descent have lived and worked on this continent since the first Europeans arrived.  Slavery...

If you're a fan of this podcast, then you'll no doubt be aware of our fan of smart urban design.   For years the car guided how we designed and built our cities.  The idea was that we would alway require a car to get from place to place where we live.  Spawl became a way of life and almost official policy for development in the 905.  In recent years however, sprawl has become problematic.  We have...

The Premier hosted a Stag and Doe for his daughter's wedding last year and surprisingly all of his closest developer buddies got an invite whether they liked it or not to attend. To literally hand over envelopes of cash. How this does not topple his Premiership is a mystery to us. This event singlehandedly might make Doug Ford's government the most corrupt in Ontario political history. So where ar...

Another weekly brace of stories affecting the 905. When is disrupting a democratic meeting appropriate? Uncle Doug is building nuclear power plants. Uncle Justin is thowing money at the provinces to spend on healthcare to make up for the fact the premiers won't throw enough money at it themselves. Isn't that just rewarding the delinquents? And is the fact Canada's 'fiscally prudent' premiers are a...

Roland spent most of January in Scotland, and took the time to record his impressions of Edinburgh's Tram network, which opened it's first phase in 2014. The tram's construction was anything but smooth (sound familiar?), but now it's here, what's it like? It takes money and time to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep imp...

Laura Steiner sits in for Joel as we discuss the late Hazel McCallion's legacy for Mississauga and the 905 region. And we share some first impressions (recorded before Tuesday's interview with Kate Graham - go and listen to it if you haven't heard it yet) on the 40 Liberal insiders who have put their names to an attempt to co-opt Mike Schreiner from the Ontario Greens. It takes money and time to c...

At 10am on Sunday former Ontario Liberal leadership hopeful Kate Graham posted an open letter on her Twitter account which certainly achieved something Ontario's Liberals have not done too often lately--it got people talking about the Ontario Liberals. The letter was a public invitation, signed by forty prominent Liberals, including such noteable party grandees as Greg Sorbara, Deb Matthews and Ly...

Roland returns to the show, and Joel has the privilege of bringing him up to speed on all he's missed around the 905 and the province in his absence.  Share in the shock and awe! We recap privatization of health care.  It turns out Hazel McCallion, who made her reputation on sprawl in Mississauga is now over seeing the Greenbelt. And speaking of which it appears our property taxes are poised to ta...

The Greenbelt continues to be front stage in Ontario politics.  Doug Ford's reversal on his stance to allow developers to begin building inside the Greenbelt is proving to be rather unpopular to say the least. According to the Ontario Progressive Conservative government the land is too valuable to not build housing on.  However, is that the only way to view the Greenbelt?  As a plot of land waitin...

Joel is joined by guest host Laura Babcock for this episode. The last municipal election saw Hamilton being the only municipality which saw real change.  An old council was effectively replaced by fresh blood.  Bringing in new ideas and perspectives to solve long time problems in the city, and possibly re-shape the relationship between the city and possibly the 905 and the province. A few months l...

While searching for stories to cover on this podcast, we often look through social media to keep an eye on what we think is relevant to life in the 905.  In that process, we come across various personalities online. If you’re on Tiktok and follow anything political, chances are you’ve come across Frank Domenic.  If you’re not entirely familiar with his online content we’ll provide a link to his pr...

With Roland on a break for a bit, we reached out to a former guest of the podcast, Laura Steiner to come on and fill in on the mic. We pick up on our closing story of 2022, and how Doug Ford's greenbelt troubles are only starting.  This week the OPP announced they were looking into what actually happened in Bill 23.  As well what the results of no development charges will actually mean for a town...

We are back from our break for 2023. Just prior to the New Year, word spread around the province of the tragic killing of OPP Officer Gzregorz Pierzchala in the line of duty, just outside of Hamilton.  The accused in that case have been apprehended and will face their charges in a court of law.  This episode is not about the details of that case. Instead this is about a tweet.  Just after news of...

This is our last episode for 2022 folks! As per a yearly tradition, Roland and Joel look back at what they saw as their top stories of 2022.  Without going too much into detail, the Halton Catholic School Board's fight over the Pride Flag as well as the surprising twists and turns of the Hamilton Municipal race topped out the stories.  As we highlight in the episode, Hamilton is turning into a new...

(Updated with corrected interview file.) Once again we are looking today at the Ford government’s attack on environmental protections, and its handing of power and financial windfalls to a small number of major developers who just happen also to be major PC donors. Last week Environmental Defence and Democracy Watch formally called for a police investigation into the circumstances surrounding appa...