This Matters

Guests : Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, NDP Leader Marit Stiles, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner Star's political columnist Martin Regg Cohn also leads the TMU Democracy forum, where he recently sat down with Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, NDP Leader Marit Stiles and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner to discuss what they might do for Ontarians if their party wins the upcoming election. Doug Ford...

Guest:  Toronto Star health reporter Megan Ogilvie Ontario is racing towards a snap election on February 27 and for a lot of voters, two issues loom well above the rest: housing and healthcare. Both are at breaking point and both are dominating party platforms. As part of the Star's pre-election coverage, we're delving into these issues. Where do things really stand, are any of the candidates offe...

Guests: Toronto Star Queen's Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie and Queen's Park reporter Rob Ferguson On Valentine's Day, and then again on Family Day, the provincial leaders engaged in this Ontario campaign's two debates. Rob and Rob from our Queen's Park bureau recap why they may be the most substantial events of the campaign so far, allowing viewers to dig into many of the issues that define life...

Guest:  Toronto Star Queen's Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie During an election campaign, it's unusual for a premier to take his campaign to stops in foreign countries — but these are unusual times, and this is an unusual Ontario election. The Star's Robert Benzie joined Doug Ford and Canada's other premier's on their visit to a snowy Washington, D.C. this week and tells us who they met with, what...

Guest:  Toronto Star City Hall Bureau Chief Ben Spurr The city, we often hear, is a "creature of the province," and as such almost all city hall business hangs on the indulgence of the premier. So for Toronto, the stakes in the provincial election would seem to be high. It's not hard to think of specific examples of issues that could turn based on the results, from bike lanes to Ontario Place to s...

Guests:  Toronto Star Queen's Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie and Queen's Park reporter Rob Ferguson Doug Ford looked strong in announcing retaliatory measures planned in response to threatened tariffs from Donald Trump, but then after that threat was put on pause, comments he made privately about celebrating the U.S. president's victory became a problem, and even a potential turning point in the...

Guest : Toronto Star Queen's Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie After months of speculation, Premier Doug Ford finally called an election, sending voters to the polls more than a year ahead of schedule. Robert Benzie discusses Ford's stated rationale for the campaign, and also unpacks the reasons behind the months of groundwork that prepared for this early election. Tax rebate cheques are hitting mai...

Commentator: Robert Benzie It's likely Doug Ford will call a snap election nearly a year and a half before the province is due. Queen's Park Bureau Chief Robert Benzie gives a brief analysis and explains why now is an ideal time for Ford to call this election: what's at stake, what issues are most pressing, what his opposition thinks, and what is the historical precedence in Ontario for snap elect...

Guests: Richard Warnica and Alex Ballingall On Monday, we saw the result of an unprecedented political comeback as Donald Trump was officially sworn in as President of the United States – again. His second run comes four years after being voted out of office, and being impeached for attempting to overturn that result. Senior Opinion writer Richard Warnica and Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief Alex Ballin...

Guest: Toronto Star Editor-in-chief Nicole MacIntyre talks about the genesis of the "Toronto the Better" series which looks for ways to improve life in the city in ways big and small This is the time of year for winter blahs, and it arrives amid what seems to be a years-long Toronto blues, in which Star Editor-in-chief  Nicole MacIntyre admits she's felt in danger of "falling out of love" with the...

It's been a historic week in Ottawa. On Friday, Jan. 10, members of the Star's Ottawa bureau sat for a discussion about how we got to the point where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided he must step down as leader of the federal Liberal party and PM, and exactly where the Liberals must go from here. Join the Star's Deputy Ottawa Bureau Chief, Alex Ballingall, Ottawa Bureau Reporter, Ryan Tumilty...

Guest: Toronto Mayor Oliva Chow Host: Edward Keenan In this episode of This Matters Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow talks about the housing and school nutrition progress she says are her biggest achievements of 2024, reflects on passing the biggest tax increase in post-amalgamation history and fields a question on what Torontonians should expect from the tax increase coming in the 2025 budget. Also, she...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate. Of all the climate solutions out there, the  heat pump  is a no brainer. Not only will it reduce your emissions by 60 per cent or more, it's  cheaper to operate , improves air quality and makes your home more comfortable. Despite these many qualities, many people are getting talked out of get...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate. Sometimes it feels like you need a PhD to figure out how to shop for lower carbon groceries. Why isn't there a simple rule of thumb to follow? Host Marco Chown Oved starts this episode with a simple question: What's more important for the climate, what you eat or where it comes from? And the...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate. We live in a world built for cars. But as we sit in endless traffic, it's hard not to think they've become a victim of their own success. Enter e-bikes. They're big enough to replace delivery trucks, but small enough to zip past the bumper-to-bumper gridlock. They're increasingly popular amon...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate. Plastic is a miracle substance that's revolutionized healthcare, keeping things sterile, and has replaced glass and metal packaging, reducing carbon emissions from shipping goods. It even keeps produce fresh for longer, reducing waste and the carbon emissions that come from rotting food. But...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast Small Things Big Climate. The way we talk about climate change needs to, well, change. Everything is either invisible, like emissions, or incomprehensible, like megatonnes, or inconceivable, like reductions of national emissions 25 years in the future. The cause of climate change is simple: it's fire. To end global wa...

This week, This Matters is publishing episodes of the Toronto Star's new podcast  Small Things Big Climate .    The Star is often inundated with emails from readers asking what they can do to fight climate change. While there are lots of things people can do to lower their personal carbon emissions – and it's important to feel like you're part of the solution – individual action cannot end global...

Guest: Toronto Star reporter Mark Colley and contributor Aisling Murphy In this episode, This Matters looks at the Tay-Tay-takeover of Toronto, in which the pop star's six concerts over 10 days have been estimated to bring in as many as a half a million tourists and pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the economy. Reporter Mark Colley provides some perspective on the phenomenon and all it ha...

Guest: The Toronto Star's Richard Warnica, reporting from Washington, DC In this episode, This Matters returns from hiatus with a special episode on the U.S. Election. Knowing all that they know about Donald Trump — after the court convictions and the insurrection and the threats and open bigotry, and after a campaign in which he sometimes seemed increasingly undisciplined — Americans sent him bac...

Guest: The Toronto Star's Richard Warnica, reporting from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Less than a week after a would-be assassin wounded former U.S. President Donald Trump, he accepted his party's nomination to run for president again on a stage in Wisconsin. In between, he selected a vice-presidential candidate, created a new political fashion trend for ear bandages...

Guest:  Alex Boyd , Toronto Star reporter  The investigations continue into what drove 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to open fire last weekend, at former president Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, before being shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. But moments after the shooting, social media platforms were  flooded with conspiracy theories  with both right and left-wing voices a...

Guest : Allan Woods, Toronto Star global and national affairs reporter On the weekend, a 20-year-old gunman opened fire at a Donald Trump campaign rally, apparently injuring the former president, killing a bystander, and injuring two others. Toronto Star reporter Allan Woods wrote this week about the history of political violence and assassinations in the U.S., and about what that history might te...

Bruce Arthur and Dave Feschuk take a final tour through Toronto's recent sports history. They touch on the bean-counting days of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Rogers to the more ambitious days of Bell and Rogers, with Larry Tanenbaum in between. They muse on the bad old days of the Leafs, Raptors and Jays to the current era of Brendan Shanahan, Masai Ujiri, and Mark Shapiro in Toronto spo...

Guest: Legendary sports broadcaster Dave Hodge, formerly of TSN and Hockey Night in Canada Hosts: Bruce Arthur and Dave Feschuk When Brendan Shanahan took over the helm of the Maple Leafs in 2014, he vowed not to repeat the sins of various predecessors accused of rushing the team-building process. Shanahan insisted he would exercise patience. But after eight post-season runs in which the Maple Lea...