On The Ledge - your Ontario politics podcast

The OTL gang is depleted!John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion and Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer are on the IRL, using up their portion of our healthcare dollars.That just gives Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford more elbow room around the table.In this episode:Keith and Dave run down the longer than usual list of items on last week's FRIDAY DUMP list.You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.It's the morning after the latest Ford government budget. It represents the largest spending in the history of the province. It's also the largest revenue numbers. All BIG numbers but to what end? Will it have any ripple around kitchen tables across the province?Meh.But it will resonate in municipal assemblies. The province keeps kicking the can down the road on its promise to "make municipalties whole" now that Queen's Park has eliminated development charges for new construction condo and housing builds. That leaves cities and towns billions short when it comes to paying for the infrastructure to support that expansion.Oh ya, and was Queen's Park right to sidestep the City of Toronto's billion dollar shortfall?Have a listen. Share!You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.In this episode:Ana Bailao has made it official. She is running for Mayor of Toronto. Bailao is a former city councillor and served as Deputy Mayor during John Tory's first term in office. Bailao told John Moore on Newstalk 1010 it's time for the province to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. She says that would free up cash to spend on upgrades to transit and other city services.You can hear the entire interview here.The NDP win in Hamilton Centre. No surprise. But voter turnout was around 22%!The provincial accountability officers are a joke. The Integrity Commissioner all but admits he hasn't gpot much clout when it comes to holding government to account.And don't expect too many surprises in the upcoming budget.You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

Welcome to the first EVER edition of On The Ledge EXTRA!In this episode, we feature a sit down interview with former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. It ran as the March 7, 2023 episode of Now and Next.How does she view the state of the Liberal movement and Ontario.Wynne admits she prefers the delegated convention.She doesn't think she'd have won the OLP leadership in 2013 if it had been a one-member-one-vote convention.She thinks Trudeau mishandled the question of whether China has meddled in Canadian elections.Toronto's next mayor will have to be a consensus builder but needs to be more of a risk taker than John Tory.She's not endorsing anyone, but says Bonnie Crombie would make a great leader of the Ontario Liberal Party and Premier of the province.Above all, Kathleen Wynne is enjoying her private citizen life after politics spending more time with her family and grand kids.You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table. Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer, has taken the day off from the podcast.In this episode:A post mortem on the Ontario Liberal Party's Annual General Meeting.We re-litigate the benefits of a Wieghted One Member One Vote process to choose the next party leader.The Financial Accountability Officer says the Ford government is underfunding healthcare by more than $46 billion over two years.Meantime, a private company is setting up surgical shop in ORs at The Ottawa Hospital.AND, Premier Ford's former Chief of Staff is promoting formber Toronto police chief Mark Saunders as a candidate to succeed John Tory as mayor of Toronto.You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie's potential leadership in the Ontario Liberal Party is discussed. One-member-one-vote vs. delegated convention, upcoming AGM details, and Premier's inaction on municipal election rules are debated. John Wright even jokes about running for Mayor of Toronto.

The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.The New Democrats seem to think they'll get a different answer from the Integrity Commissioner to the same complaint about the Ford family "stag and doe".Meanwhile, the Minister of Health has NO answers, NO guarantees that privately operated surgery clinics will poach medical staff from hospitals.The Liberals would like you to think they're circling the wagons in anticipation of the as-yet-unannounced leaderhip race. But the party's circling the bowl.You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

We're BACK!The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.In this episode:John Tory steps away from the Mayor's Office in Toronto. What does that political hand grenade do to the Ford agenda at Queen's Park as the Ontario Legislature gets back to business next week?You can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

The OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.In this episode:Premier Doug Ford tells Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie to stop whining and be a good partner! (At least he didn’t tell her to stick to her knitting).Ford goes off on a rant over Crombie’s opposition to Queen’s Park’s plan to eliminate Developer Charges as a means of incentivizing developers to build more housing.Crombie wants to know how municipalities are going to cover the added costs of new infrastructure if the DCs disappear.Ford doesn’t have an answer.John Wright says the Ford government has taken a turn towards autocracy and that’s good news for the Liberals.OTL will be taking a break over the Christmas recess. We’ll be back around the table in the New Year!BTW, if you enjoy On the Ledge, you’ll probably enjoy our daily SSN podcast - NOW and NEXT with Dave Trafford and Erin Trafford.Support Now and Next! For $10 a month, you can subscribe to our Exclusive Supercast feed for access to Now and Next EXTRA with Dave Trafford on Saturdays and Sundays - including the full length interviews featured on The Daily Brief, early access to Now & Next episodes, AMAs and our message board.You’re just a few clicks away. Start here: nowandnext.supercast.comYou can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.

OTL SHOW NOTESThe OTL gang is assembled! Keith Leslie at CHCH-TV, John Wright SVP Maru Public Opinion, Sabrina Nanji, Publisher and Editor of the Queen’s Park Observer and SSN Chief Executive Producer Dave Trafford are around the table.In this episode:Why do we even listen to Bonnie Lysyk? Sure, the annual Auditor General’s report makes for great headlines. So, what?John Wright says the AG report is nothing better than clickbait.Toronto Star Investigative reporter Kevin Donovan has had more effect on holding governments accountable than all of Lysyk’s annual reports combined!Doug Ford says he won’t use the Notwithstanding Clause to overrule a court decision striking down Bill 124. (He also said he wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt.)And, what does it say about the NDP when they’re on the verge of acclaiming the Official Leader of the Opposition? BTW, if you enjoy On the Ledge, you’ll probably enjoy our daily SSN podcast - NOW and NEXT with Dave Trafford and Erin Trafford.Support Now and Next! For $10 a month, you can subscribe to our Exclusive Supercast feed for access to Now and Next EXTRA with Dave Trafford on Saturdays and Sundays - including the full length interviews featured on The Daily Brief, early access to Now & Next episodes, AMAs and our message board.You’re just a few clicks away. Start here: www.nowandnext.supercast.comYou can watch OR listen to this episode on our YouTube Channel (Be sure to subscribe!)Follow Dave on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and XAnd you can leave us a voice comment here!For more information go to Dave's website.