Doug Ford claims he’s all about building, but he sure has a thing for enthusiastically bulldozing the utopian public projects of yesteryear.First it was Ontario Place. Now it’s the Science Centre. At what point does he train his sights on TVO?Allison and Jonathan reflect on the legacy of Ontario’s public broadcaster and why its survival now rests on the shoulders of Steve Paikin.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

This episode is supported by Douglas. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

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Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

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It’s every-Ford everywhere all at once, as we celebrate the year’s most absurd and distressing developments in Ontario politics. What was the premier’s Falsest Promise? The Most Harmful Policy? The Best Fordism? You’ll never guess what insects Allison and Jonathan will swallow at the fourth annual(-ish) Douggie Awards.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

This episode is supported by Douglas. You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Socials:

Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

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It turns out Doug Ford and his "developer buddies" are more than just a metaphor. A recent report by Global News found a fleet of lobbyists and developers were invited to a Stag & Doe last August for the daughters of Ford, where they were "browbeaten" into making $1000 donations. While they have not been individually identified, the Ontario integrity commissioner confirmed the developers were "personal friends" of Ford. At this point are weddings and backyard barbecues in Etobicoke the only way to get an ear from Ontario's premier? And why would Ford need a Stag & Doe? All this on Wag the Doug today.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), Annette Ejiofor (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

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Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie 

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

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Conservatives don’t like Canada’s public healthcare system. They think it makes us like Cuba and North Korea.

Now, after years of working to gradually undermine it, Doug Ford has declared that the “status quo” isn’t working, throwing open Ontario’s doors to new for-profit clinics. But when it comes to performing surgeries, just how steady is the market’s invisible hand?

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), André Proulx (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Socials:

Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie 

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

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This episode is from our friends on the CANADALAND network, COMMONS! This season they are digging into monopolies and asking, is there something special about Canada that makes it especially hospitable to monopolies? To listen to the rest of the COMMONS: Monopoly season, use this link or search COMMONS in your podcast app of choice.

Canadians are being squeezed at every end. When it comes to cell phone bills, grocery bills, housing, entertainment, we’re all paying more than ever before.

But a small number of companies that dominate their industries are reaping in enormous profits.

This season of COMMONS we’ll be digging into all of the monopolies, oligopolies and cartels that dominate our lives. And for our first stop, we head to the supermarket.

Featured in this episode: Vass Bednar, Marco Chown Oved (Toronto Star)

To learn more

“are-hiking-prices-faster-than-necessary-and-profiting-from-inflation-star-investigation-suggests.html">Supermarkets are hiking prices faster than necessary — and profiting from inflation, Star investigation suggests” by Marco Chown Oved in the Toronto Star

Regs to Riches by Vass Bednar 

“competition-watchdog-to-investigate-grocery-industry-in-wake-of-soaring-food-prices.html">Canada’s competition watchdog to investigate grocery industry in wake of soaring food prices” by Ghada Alsharif in the Toronto Star

Credits: Arshy Mann (Host and Producer), Jordan Cornish (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Associate Producer), André Proulx (Production Coordinator)

Additional music from Audio Network

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Doug Ford loves calling things “corrupt.” But just how often must his party’s friends and donors reap rewards from their policies before the word can be liberally flung back? On this month’s show, Allison and Jonathan look at who benefits from dismantling the Greenbelt and then trade fave findings from the latest Auditor General’s report.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), André Proulx (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Socials:

Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie 

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Doug Ford learned that while it’s stunningly easy to toss out constitutional rights, it’s a heck of a lot harder to get away with that. By passing the Keeping Students in Class Act complete with notwithstanding clause, the government mounted an unprecedented attack on CUPE, and essentially all organized labour, picking a fight for which they were thoroughly unprepared.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), André Proulx (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music - included with Prime.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Socials:

Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie 

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet David Wallace, political fixer. After decades in the game he says he’s getting out, telling all, and dumping his files in public. The result is the viral "Klondike Papers" theory of conspiracies, conservatives, and cults. But are the allegations true? And why is he really implicating himself, and so many others? A wild, true story.

Series launches October 31st.

Subscribe now (link).

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With electricity demand set to rise and Pickering’s nuclear plant set to close, Doug Ford’s government is now scrambling to keep the province’s lights on. Perhaps spending hundreds of millions to cancel green-energy projects and dismantle new wind turbines might not have been the most forward-thinking of ideas.

With an eye on the thermostat, Allison and Jonathan plug in to Ontario’s frayed energy system, its Ticketmaster-like approach to billing, and how, in fleeing from the problem, Doug Ford has gone fission.

Hosts: Allison Smith, Jonathan Goldsbie

Credits: Kattie Laur (Producer), André Proulx (Managing Editor), Nathan Burley (Music)

This episode is supported by Douglas.

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody. 

Socials:

Jonathan Goldsbie on Twitter: @goldsbie 

Allison Smith on Twitter: @queensparktoday 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The province has got a housing crisis, and the only prescription is… more mayoral powers?? Allison and Jonathan probe the comically flimsy pretense under which Doug Ford has fundamentally, if casually, reshaped how Ontario’s two largest cities are governed. Because what doesn’t quite kill Toronto and Ottawa, apparently just makes their mayors stronger.

Clarification (September 22, 2022, at 8:46 p.m. EDT): Ottawa mayoral candidate and councillor Catherine McKenney uses "they/them" pronouns — not "she/her" pronouns, as used in this episode.

This episode is supported by oxio and Douglas.

Support Canadaland: canadaland.com/join

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