The Big Five Podcast

Elias Makos is joined by Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance, and Lea Streliski, Best-selling author, comedian and columnist. Francois Legault will remain leader of the CAQ until a new one is elected. What will your memory of Legault be as Premier? Was François Legault a good Premier of Quebec?  With Legault stepping down, the question now becom...

Elias Makos is joined by Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies, and Trudie Mason, veteran Newscaster here at CJAD 800. U.S. President Donald Trump visited a Ford factory in Dearborn, Michigan on Tuesday, and dismissed the relevance of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement,...

Joining Elias on The Big Five were Meeker Guerrier, Commentator at Noovo and RDS & Graham Singh, Pastor at St-Jax Church. Among the subjects discussed on The Big Five were Inaccurate headline alert: “Canadians feel that crime is worse than five years ago, despite decline in major cities.” The city of Montreal unveiled this year’s budget yesterday Mark Carney and his delegatio...

Elias Makos welcomes in Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia. “Montreal’s Olympic Stadium started 2026 the same way it began the 1976 Games: under construction and without a roof.” Despite Montrea...

Elias Makos is joined by Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada & Lionel Perez, Former city councillor and former leader of the Official Opposition at Montreal City Hall Among the topics discussed were Montreal’s police chief, Fady Dagher, says the mental health and homelessness situation in the city...

Elias Makos is joined by Andrew Caddell, columnist for the Hill Times and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy. & Sue Smith, a Montreal journalist and broadcaster.  Among the topics discussed were After facing pressure from the opposition, Chrystia Freeland has announced that she will be resigning as MP on Friday. Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to travel to China for f...

Elias Makos is joined by Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies & Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor Among the topics discussed were If you were in Greenland, how much would the U.S. have to pay you to become an American? What about if he...

Elias Makos is joined by Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator with extensive experience analysing legal, political, and social issues and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program, and Victor Henriquez, Public affairs and crisis management specialist at Public Strategy and Conseil. Former Quebec Premier Jean Charest says Canada needs to be vigilant and that Canada coul...

Elias Makos kicks off the new year with Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Political analyst Karim Boulos. Was Trump right or wrong to capture Maduro? Is the United States a force for good? Prime Minister Mark Carney’s reaction on social media to the capture of de facto leader Nicolás Maduro left many unhappy over t...

Jay Farrar, in for Elias Makos, is joined by Paul Gott, lead singer and guitarist for Montreal punk rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia and Justine McIntyre, strategic consultant and former city councillor on The Big 5. The Quebec Liberal Party has announced that a new leader will be crowned on March 14th next year. If you thought waiting at the hospital was long, imagin...

Robyn Flynn, sitting in for Elias Makos, is joined by Dan Delmar, co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada and Sterling Downey, city councillor for the Desmarchais-Crawford district in Verdun on The Big 5. A segment that was dropped from the CBS investigative show “60 minutes” mysteriously showed up on Monday under th...

Robyn Flynn, sitting in for Elias Makos, is joined by Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante and Andrew Caddell, columnist for the Hill Times and President of the Task Force on Linguistic policy on The Big 5. Federal conservative leader Pierre Poilievre says he is ready to collaborate with his federal colleagues in the No camp if a refer...

Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia, and Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator with extensive experience analysing legal, political, and social issues and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program. Christian Dubé has resigned from his position as Quebec’s Minister of Health an...

Elias Makos is joined by Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance, and Sue Smith is a Montreal journalist and broadcaster. With Pablo Rodriguez out as leader, rumours are already swirling surrounding who will replace him.  Three thousand dollars worth of food was stolen from a Metro grocery store on Monday in the Plateau. A group called Robins des ruelles s...

Elias Makos is joined by Meeker Guerrier, Commentator at Noovo and RDS, and Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor. Quebec Liberal Party Leader Pablo Rodriguez steps down Canada’s national figure skating body is blacklisting Alberta — saying the province is off-limits for major competitions because of its new law on transgender athletes. Laval wants to a...

On this Tuesday edition of the BIG 5, Elias is joined by Neil Drabkin, is a lawyer who served as federal prosecutor and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government and Dan Delmar, Co-founder of the content marketing firm TNKR Media and co-host of the podcast Inspiring Entrepreneurs Canada. Another morning, another very bad Journal de Montreal front page for Pablo Rodr...

Elias Makos starts off the week with Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Jonathan Kalles, Vice President at McMillan Vantage, a national public affairs firm, and former advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in a shooting targeting the country's Jewish community at a Ha...

Elias Makos caps off the week with Lea Streliski, Best-selling author, comedian and columnist, and Meeker Guerrier, Commentator at Noovo and RDS. Information is being released about what is in the agreement in principle between the province’s family doctors and the Quebec government. A dozen former Liberal MNA’s and ministers are calling for the resignation of Pablo Rodriguez from...

Elias Makos welcomes back Graham Singh, Pastor at St-Jax Church, and Sue Smith is a Montreal journalist and broadcaster. The breaking news this morning - a tentative deal between Quebec’s GPs and the government. Are breathing a sigh of relief? Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, UPAC, has announced that it will open a criminal investigation into the Quebec Liberal Party. Radio-Canada repor...

Elias Makos is joined by Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance, and Political analyst Karim Boulos. Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., is stepping down in the new year as the country’s top diplomat in Washington.  Two years after the government put a ban on flavoured vaping products, sales on the black market have flourished.&n...

Elias Makos is joined by Victor Henriquez, Public affairs and crisis management specialist at Public Strategy and Conseil, and Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor. Steven Guilbault has decided to air his frustrations with Prime Minister Mark Carney this morning in an opinion piece in La Presse.  Micheal Stern, The newly-elected mayor of Westmount has apologi...

Elias Makos welcomes back Jimmy Zoubris, Montreal businessman, longtime activist and former special advisor to Valerie Plante, and Raphaël Melançon, political analyst for CTV Montreal and CJAD 800, columnist for the Montreal Gazette, and president and founder of Trafalgar Strategies.  It's CJAD’s 80th anniversary today. What does CJAD mean to you? A surreal Friday in Washing...

Elias Makos ends the week off with Neil Drabkin, is a lawyer who served as federal prosecutor and a political commentator who was a chief of staff in the Harper government, and Lionel Perez, Former city councilor and former leader of the Official Opposition at Montreal City Hall. Some are banking hopes on an encounter between Prime Minister Carney and President Trump on the sidelines of the FIFA W...

  Elias Makos is joined by Akil Alleyne, Reporter and commentator with extensive experience analysing legal, political, and social issues and Manager of the GemStar Circle of Excellence Scholarship Program, and Caroline Codsi, Founder & Chief Equity Officer, Women in Governance. Quebec will ban brownies – not the ones you bake, but the ones you give to buy leadership votes. Tired of...

Elias Makos welcomes back Paul Gott, Lead singer and guitarist for Montreal Punk Rock band the Ripcordz and a journalism professor at Concordia, and Justine McIntyre, Strategic consultant and former city councillor. Quebec Liberal Party leader Pablo Rodriguez has expelled Marwah Rizqy from the party. Just one day after being named to the post, Marc Miller, who is now in charge of official lan...