The 905er Podcast

For the first time in a long time home-owners and home-buyers in the 905 are facing the prospect of house prices that go down instead of up. Is this entirely bad? A needed but hopefully limited adjustment triggered by interest rates? An unexpected fix to affordability? Or none of the above? The Ontario Liberals are beginning a new phase of reflection and self-analysis after finishing the provincia...

It's time to look forward to summer again. One of the largest music festivals in Canada happens right here in the 905.  This year bands like Finger Eleven, The Trews and The Tea Party are playing to crowds of hundreds of thousands on Father's Day weekend in downtown Burlington.  And most important, it's free.  Yes, that's right free! The previous two years have been challenging for artists and liv...

Join us on YouTube at 9pm this evening (2nd June) when the polls close as Roland, Joel and special guests discuss the Ontario election results and what they mean for the 905 region. Here's the link you'll need: https://youtu.be/AMBnJb-JqT0   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn...

Don't miss our election night live stream on Thursday. We'll spice up this election or die trying. Either way, it should be a fun evening for our listeners, and we're hoping to have some special guests. Join us and drown your sorrows or unexpectedly celebrate the (what colour do you get if you merge Green, Orange and Red?), er, 'Brown Wave'© of 2020. But, so far, this is not looking to be an elect...

The saga surrounding Robert Bateman High in Burlington continues! First off we look at the Aird & Berlis report clearing the City Council of wrong doing in the Shawna Stolte disciplinary matter.  While technically they are in the right, there is a big caveat of whether or not they should keep going with how they have been acting so far.  Roland lays out a big criticism of the city council that sti...

Here is The 905 Round-Up! Coming off our episodes on the Green Party, NDP and Ontario Liberal Party platforms, we get a chance to dive into some polling data!  Abacus Data issued a poll on Monday, May 16th, which seemed to back up a lot of what Roland and Joel have been saying about the performance of the so-called progressive parties in this election.   Then after the break, we look at a story fr...

In keeping with our coverage to date of the Ontario Provincial Election, here is Joel and Roland's take on what works and what doesn't in the Ontario Liberal Party Platform. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing.  Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time...

This week saw the media and political parties foam at the mouth at the revelation by the NDP that Lisa MacLeod, Ontario PC MPP in Nepean was given an allowance of $44,000 over the last four years from her riding association.  Further investigation saw that up to 8 other PC MPPs took thousands of dollars from their riding associations in similar manners.  Including here in the 905, Mississauga East...

The Green Party of Ontario's platform gets the 905er treatment today. But first, are we even smart enough to manage to download the darn thing? Listen to find out. This episode of The 905er is brought to you by our sponsor: South River Brewing.  Listen to this episode to see how you can save money on your next order by visiting the link below: South River Brewing It takes money and time to create...

Joel and Roland take a look away from the Ontario election beginning and focus on the municipal candidates declaring their candidacy for this falls election.  Why is there such ridiculousness around the public property not being used for campaigning?  It is publicly owned and are we not smart enough to know a campaign when we see it?  They are already used enough by sitting councillors and mayors...

Following our interviews with the leaders of the Greens and Ontario Liberals in the last two weeks, we take a look today at the NDP's platform for the election which gets properly underway on Thursday. The NDP are first out of the gate with their full platform, and we choose the things we think are good and not so good from the NDP's program for government. In the coming weeks we'll turn our atten...

The 905 Round-Up is up and running! Coming off our coverage of the Burlington City Council's decision to reprimand Councillor Shawna Stolte we look at the very public and lengthy response to the situation from Mayor Marianne Meed-Ward.  The Mayor pins the situation as a necessary task for the common good and explains the decision by relying on the integrity commissioner's report.  However, there i...

In the second of our interviews with Ontario party leaders, this week we are joined by Steven Del Duca, leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. Steven Del Duca was first elected to the legislature in 2012 when he became MPP for Vaughan following the retirement of Greg Sorbara. In 2014 he became Minister of Transportation, one of the most high-profile ministries in the Wynne government. He lost his se...

As promised, we are bringing you our talks with the leaders of the major Ontario political parties prior to the campaign starting next month. We had wanted to do this for some time leading up to the election.  A chance to sit down with the various leaders and get a sense of how well they grasp the issues and problems we face here in the 905.  Our goal was a simple interview where they would answer...

This episode of the 905 Round-Up is short and sweet this week.  Due to Joel feeling under the weather it was decided to keep this episode to the point.  As well, despite Joel's assertions, the day after recording this episode he tested again and discovered indeed that he contracted COVID.  Reminder folks! Masks work! The NDP made news this week when sitting MPP Kevin Yarde in Brampton was ousted b...

[The incorrect file was initially uploaded with this episode. It has now been corrected.] At the same time as society has been dealing with COVID-19, another public health crisis has been taking place. This is the epidemic of deaths being caused across North America by overdoses above all from synthetic opioids like Fentanyl. To discuss the scale and nature of the problem, we spoke to Halton Regio...

The mayoral race is heating up in Hamilton as a familiar face finally throws his hat into the ring. Meanwhile, Waterdown and Flamborough area councillor Judi Partridge announces she’s not running again, bringing the remaining Hamilton council to the verge of ‘lame duck’ status. Last week the announcement that Halton District School Board was re-allocating all its librarian teachers caused a stir o...

Rory Nisan is a city and regional councillor for Ward 3 in Burlington and Halton and Maureen Wilson is a councillor for Ward 1 in Hamilton.  Both of them join us today to give their perspective on why the municipal votes in Hamilton and Halton to repeal mask mandates were so one-sided when the public seems far from united on the wisdom of abandoning masks. Last month, Doug Ford announced that vacc...

We are joined by a special guest on this Round-Up.  Milton Reporter, Laura Steiner returns to The 905er to share her insight on 905 politics! Doug Ford and the PC government is lifting mask mandates across the province, however...they forgot to tell the 905 municipalities.  So every regional and municipal government in the 905 is rushing to hold special council meetings to repeal the mask mandates...

On this episode of The 905 Round-Up, it's all political. Mayor Patrick Brown has announced his campaign to become the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.  One might think this would make his being mayor of Brampton rather difficult.  We agree.  Roland and Joel ponder what does it mean for the people of Brampton, now that they have a part-time mayor?  And just what are Patrick's odds of win...

This week, Burlington lost an elder statesman of local politics. Former Mayor Walter Mulkewich passed away this week.  His legacy in Burlington and Hamilton's civic as well as political life will be missed by many.  If you were involved in local politics in Burlington, there wouldn't be any doubt that in some circle or another Walter Mulkewich would be a figure.  And always for the better.  Roland...

Coming off our well-received episode on the #halton boundary debate, Joel and Roland look at both sides and how we think the debate over land use needs to progress in #the905. After that, we look at recent statistics provided by our friend Alan Kan on #Mississauga's apparently drop in population.   And lastly, we look at Doug Ford's loss of candidates leading up to this spring's #Ontario Election....

Last Thursday we mentioned a new idea that had been mooted in Hamilton media the same day as a way to solve the current homeless crisis. That idea is being advocated by the Hamilton Alliance for Tiny Shelters - HATS - an alliance of poverty reduction activists, churches and Hamilton residents looking to reproduce a successful project launched in 2019 in Kitchener. To discuss the background to the...

On this episode of The 905 Round-Up: Of course, all we can talk about is the trucker convoy in Ottawa.  While the eyes of the country are on Ottawa right now, the convoy passed through the 905 drumming up supporters demonstrating at overpasses.  One day the convoy is going to end and these people will return home, here to the 905.  So what does that mean for our civil discourse and what ought to b...

January is National Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Alzheimer's is the most common form of a range of diseases that is collectively referred to as dementia.  In Canada, dementia affects over 500,000 Canadians.  The annual costs to the Canadian health care system come in at around $10.5 billion.  In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, shortcomings in our health care system and more specifically our lon...