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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 from The Spec showing that a ban on drinking in public parks by law, hasn't existed since 2005.  So why were fines issued in 2021?  And more than that, why do we ban drinking in public parks at all?  Isn't it time to update our Victorian-era Puritanical laws on alcohol? Lastly, as it turns out Brampton is a very diverse and multicultural city in the 905.  So why doesn't its city hall bureaucracy match the facts?  No doubt it's due to the fact that city halls are slow to adapt and change.  And in case you were wondering, yes this is what structural racism looks like. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!  

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 to create two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!  

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-Cooksville MPP, Kaleed Rasheed.  While many at first looked at this as a clear scandal of financial abuse, Roland wrote for our website a detailed article on why it is not.  Joel and Roland debate the ethics of this and whether or not this is actually a scandal or just a case of too much money to spend. Then, after the break, Roland and Joel focus their attention on Hamilton.  Specifically, the latest revelations of the Red Hill Valley Parkway scandal.  How did Hamilton get to this point?  While the truth is slowly coming out, we have to wonder whether or not a culture of obtuseness, secrecy and arrogance was a factor in this report and truth being so difficult to come to the surface.  These traits in 905 municipal governments are a troubling trend.  Both Roland and Joel explore what this means for the region. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 in between elections.  Level the playing field. Then we look at the potential legal minefield the City of Hamilton is going into with their declaration that unvaccinated transit workers will be terminated on May 31.  The problem is a combination of poor rules from the province and delayed action by the city in our opinion.  We dive into it! 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 attention to the other party platforms as and when they become available. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 is a nuance to be explored here.  And the secretive nature of Burlington City Council's repeated use of in-camera meetings without providing justification or explanation remains unaddressed.  Roland and Joel look at the story and ponder just how damaged the relationship between the council and its citizens has been eroded after this sordid bit of Burlington history. Then after the break, we examine the rising cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton as well as the province at large.  It seems that people are eager to ignore that a pandemic is still happening.  While lockdowns have grown to be unnecessary in the current wave, there have emerged other problems that are not being addressed.  Namely the fact that worker sick days are not flexible enough to handle the wave of illness we are facing.  A new deal for workers coming out of COVID may be necessary. However, going into this year's provincial election none of our political parties seem to be wanting to address it.   We take a look at all of it in this episode. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 seat in 2018 as part of the Liberal collapse, but in the ensuing leadership election in March 2020, he became leader of the Ontario Liberals on the first ballot with overwhelming support from the party membership. In what appears to be a highly confusing polling landscape just days before the election writs are issued, the Ontario Liberals appear to be running marginally ahead of the NDP, with a seat projection that might put them back into second place, but far from forming a majority. The extent to which Del Duca can make an impact with Ontario voters over the next few weeks will be crucial in deciding whether the OLP and NDP split the progressive vote, or one of them is able to unite the public behind them enough to prevent a second term for Doug Ford. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!  

[File upload corrected] We have talked about a lot of bad behaviour at city halls in the two years this podcast has been running. We've seen bullying and threats on social media. We have seen councillors who see their entire reason for existence as disrupting and derailing council meetings. We've seen activists and volunteers abused and cross-examined for hours as councillors call their integrity into question. There are councillors who don't understand the most basic aspects of their job, who constantly need to be reminded about how meetings are supposed to be run. There are councillors who frankly don't work very hard, but get re-elected because nobody ever knows. There are councillors who work part time on other jobs. There are councillors who seem to take pride in just how rude they can be to constituents. None of these things apply to Shawna Stolte. Stolte has been a hard-working councillor since she was elected in 2018. She has worked especially hard on Burlington's tree by-law, housing affordability, and ensuring openness and transparency in council business. In council meetings she is polite and respectful and the opposite of disruptive - even at a meeting that talked for three hours about how much pay she should be docked. Whether you agree with specific policies or not, Stolte has been an exemplary councillor. She has now announced that she will not seek re-election in October 2022. Why? Because of complaints made by her colleagues against her of revealing confidential information. These complaints followed Stolte's campaign to have clearer rules via an updated Closed Session Protocol, a campaign that has frequently exasperated and irritated colleagues who make it clear they can't see any point. We dedicate this whole episode to discussing one of the most counter-productive and unhappy instances in recent Burlington history. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 our questions, free from soundbites, spin and rhetoric.  A chance for them to really project their vision for the region and province.  And a chance for you to listen and really grasp if they got the issues or not.  The idea was if you liked what they said, or if you didn't do well then it would be the fault of the leaders, not us. To that end, we bring you our episode with Mike Schreiner of the Green Party of Ontario.  Mike is the first Green Party MPP elected to the legislature and currently represents the riding of Guelph as of 2018.  He is of course looking to expand his party's seat count in the legislature and has his eyes on the 905 as a region that would respond well to his party's policies.  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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 by his own riding association in a nomination meeting for Sandeep Singh.  In Brampton North, approximately 150 people were able to over rule the voice of 100,000 people before the provincial election this June.  What does it say about our democracy when so few people in a riding association are able to decide the candidates to represent so many people in our places of power?  Joel and Roland are no stranger to the machinations and mischief that can happen at nomination meetings.  This episode they use their insight to critique something that all parties in Canada are guilty of and ponder how can the system be made more democratic and transparent for all citizens in a democracy? 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

There is carnage on the streets of Hamilton in recent weeks. It's too easy in the world of journalism and current affairs to reach for overly dramatic language when describing a problem. Too easy to suggest a disagreement is a crisis, or an inconvenience is a calamity. But if there is any word other than 'carnage' to describe what has been happening on Hamilton's streets in recent months, we'd like to hear it. Death after serious injury after death has been announced, reaching a grim milestone two weeks ago when much-loved conductor Boris Brott, who brought classical music to thousands upon thousands of Canadians, was senselessly killed in an alleged hit and run incident. Only weeks before, three people were killed by a car crashing into a sidewalk. Days later, a young man was killed on the mountain by another hit and run incident. Hamilton is signed up to Vision Zero ... an objective to eliminate road deaths through better design. As Vision Zero Canada states, "The essence of Vision Zero is not a nice sentiment or a target. It is, rather, the action of continuously and preemptively removing the very possibility of violence (and that means serious injury as well as death) from our transportation systems." It is about making so called 'accidental' road deaths and serious injuries impossible. But that objective appears to be a very long away from realization. To talk about this subject and much more, and the resistance of some Hamilton Councillors to consider anything that might inconvenience drivers, we spoke to Alex Bishop. Alex Bishop (alexbishop.info) is a business leader and consultant to executives and politicians. He has successfully created hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mental health programs and has advocated to prevent legislation that would have trampled on Indigenous People’s Rights. His firm was credited by CUPE Ontario as the reason Ontario Schools didn’t go on strike in 2019. His advocacy work stems from turning his life around and getting sober in 2011 and a realization that any privilege comes with a duty to give back. He writes regularly for National Publications as well as being a regular contributor on television. He is most proud of being a father of two extraordinary children. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

[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 Regional Police Service Chief Steve Tanner. Chief Tanner was born in Oakville and entered the police service in 1982. After stints in Guelph, Belleville and Kingston, he returned home to Halton as Chief of the Halton Regional Police Service in 2012. 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

Don't worry, you didn't miss the week!  Due to a scheduling conflict, our Thursday episode of The 905 Round-Up is today! This week had huge news in Hamilton.  Local area MPP Donna Skelly earned some local headlines, by saying that #Hamilton city council made the wrong call in not expanding its urban boundary earlier this year. At the same time, the PC government tabled legislation based on the Housing Task Force report, and this gives a lot of power to developers, restricting municipalities in how they respond to proposals, and puts it all basically on the Ontario Land Tribunal to sort it out. It appears that the Tories are showing their true colours on development. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!    

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 online—a total of 90 school librarians will no longer be librarians. What’s it all about, and if anybody deserves to receive blame, who should it be? 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 vaccine passports and mask mandates would be a thing of the past. For many across Ontario, this was good news.  For others real trepidation and fear took hold.  What would this mean for possible future waves of COVID-19?  No one could give clear answers.  Only our scientists wished for more time to learn what was around the corner.  But there was no time for that.  Instead, Premier Ford pushed forward. Only he hit a snag.  The provincial government wasn't the one who had implemented the mandates, it was actually the various municipalities around the province that did the heavy lifting.  So it would be them to have the debate and determine the proper course of action right?  Actually no.  The municipalities of the 905 rushed with seeming little debate to lift all restrictions. Between Hamilton and Halton only three councillors voted in favour of keeping mandates. Three. Why was this the case? Why was the argument so one-sided? To get a sense of what was going on, we spoke to two of the three councillors who voted to maintain mandates. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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.  We just ask, where is the debate over this?  Shockingly there seems to be very little resistance to the idea of repealing mask mandates at the local level.  Especially as the public mood over mandates is not uniform one way or another.  We have to ask ourselves is this politics over science? Then we look at the party's various chances of success in the upcoming provincial election in the 905.  Where are the star candidates and why does it seem that no one is eager to really have this election?  Despite there being a feeling of exhaustedness with this current government in the air? Lastly, we have to discuss the impact the NDP and Liberal agreement in Ottawa will play on the provincial election here in Ontario?  Will this be a sign of things to come in the provincial election? We examine it all on this episode of the 905 Round-Up. Check out Laura Steiner's work here: https://miltonreporter.ca/ 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

If you live in the 905 Region, there is a good chance you live relatively close to a gravel quarry, and there’s a good chance that the existence of the quarry is or has been controversial. Aggregates, to give them their proper name, are one of the constituent ingredients in a huge amount of infrastructure. Multiple environmental groups have recently formed the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition aimed at province-wide change to the aggregates industry. They are calling for an immediate moratorium on all new gravel mining approvals in Ontario, to allow a pause and consultation on a new approach to balancing the need for aggregates for infrastructure with the needs of the environment. We are joined by Greg Sweetman, EVP of James Dick Construction to put the aggregate industry's case, and singer, songwriter and activist Sarah Harmer and activist Graham Flint, co-chairs of the Reform Gravel Mining Coalition, to explain why they think now is the right time for a moratorium. 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

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 winning anyways?  Either way, it doesn't appear that the people of Brampton will come out on top. Then we look at Doug Ford's edict prohibiting his caucus members from helping any of the federal Conservative leadership candidates' campaigns in Ontario.  This is a similar rule to one passed in the last federal election, in which no Progressive Conservative caucus member actively helped out their federal cousins.  Is this a strategy of actively distancing the conservative party of Canada's largest province away from its federal counterpart? Lastly, we take a look at Hamilton City Council.  Well, whether or not the allegation of former mayor Larry DiIanni that the council is too left has any merit.  We don't think so.  As well, maybe the shift we've seen in Hamilton lately is due to the longstanding desire to see business done differently in Hamilton.  It's all discussed on this episode! 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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!    

Among the unexpected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, surely one of the better ones is a nationwide rediscovery of the Canadian outdoors. Today we are joined by Eleanor McMahon, President and CEO of the Trans Canada Trail. Eleanor has over 30 years of experience within the private, public and non-profit sectors in a resume that defies easy summary because of the sheer number of areas in which she has played a leading and influential role. But she is perhaps best known as the founder of the Share the Road Cycling Coalition - formed in the wake of the tragic death of her husband - and then for the period between 2014 to 2018 when Eleanor served as MPP for Burlington, entering the Ontario cabinet as Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and later President of the Treasury Board. But the reason we are speaking to Eleanor McMahon today is not connected to any of those achievements but in connection with her current role as President and CEO of the Trans Canada Trail. As we shall hear today, the Trans Canada Trail is much more than a pathway across Canada. Much more than “just” the largest trail in the world. Eleanor describes the numerous ways in which in the first thirty years since the Trans Canada Trail concept was born, it has come to embody and symbolize something truly important for our heterogeneous nation.   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 two podcasts a week. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. Why not buy us a coffee? Or you can support us by becoming a patron for a month, for six months, or forever. See https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Patreon listeners also get to hear our episodes without commercial interruptions. Thanks to our existing patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team. Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!