On The Ledge - your Ontario politics podcast

Every day, the province of Ontario is setting new records for COVID cases, hospitalizations or deaths. The pandemic is raging out of control and the lack of an action plan is obvious. Media questions are met by questions from public health authorities and playback responses from politicians promising to do everything, at all cost to tackle the spread of the coronavirus. Yet, neither mental health nor long term care received any new funding in the November 5th budget. Yet, both files are a top priority, according to Premier Ford. #onpoliYou 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.

There are very few places on the planet where the number of COVID-19 cases isn't surging. Ontario is no exception. More than a month after moving the "hot spot" regions of Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa into a modified stage 2, the seven day average of daily cases has nearly doubled. As we mark the 8th month since the pandemic was declared, the question is: Who is in control of controlling COVID-19?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.

In keeping with the coming holiday season, Ontario's government has adopted a festive colour code to determine which municipalities get to open for business and which ones get coal in their stocking. The Ford government has presented yet another plan to tackle the spread of the coronavirus at time when the province is reporting record increases and a 7 day rolling average of 950 new cases per day. It means Ottawa, Peel and York will be able to return to what was Stage 3, allowing for indoor restaurant dining, and gyms and theatres to reopen as of November 7. Toronto will have to wait another week before the restrictions are lifted. In the meantime, the Premier is taking criticism for driving his political agenda under the cover of COVID.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.

Another week, another lost opportunity for the Ford government at Queen's Park to present something that resembles a clear plan, let alone a message, on how we'll flatten this latest curve. The province has already moved  restaurants, gyms and theatres in Toronto, Peel, Ottawa and York regions back to a modified version of Stage 2 - insisting the "numbers" indicate that's the best course of action without showing any numbers that suggest these business categories are the source of outbreaks or infections. This week, CTV's Queen's Park Bureau Chief, Colin D'Mello joins us to talk about the the COVID plans, one Tory MPP's unabashed flouting of mask and physical distancing rules, and what we should expect in next week's economic update.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.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is pushing back on criticism of his government's COVID-19 communications and public health guidance. Ford says "I don't think the guidelines can be any clearer." Really?? In this week's episode of On the Ledge, John Wright, Keith Leslie and Dave Trafford are joined by Melissa Lantsman. Melissa's not only the VP at Enterprise, she was the Tory war room director during the last provincial election campaign. She says the Ford government is running out of chances to get the story straight. "Confusing public health advice across every single jurisdiction is undermining public trust. We need to figure this out before an eventual COVID-19 vaccine becomes a reality. The consequences of getting the comms part wrong again will be devastating."  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.

Do you get the sense that we are feeling our way in the dark as the second wave of the pandemic comes crashing ashore? It's certainly the feeling the a number of industries have after Queen's Park decided to impose modified stage 2 restrictions on restaurants, gyms, performance centres in the Toronto, Peel and Ottawa regions. A ban on indoor dining, the closure of gyms, the cancellation of already restricted performance centres has left small businesses and not-for-profit groups grasping for financial lifelines. In this week's episode of On the Ledge we ask who's calling the shots in the effort to fight COVID while keeping the economy moving?  And what numbers should we be focussed on? We have more cases than ever had but urgent and critical care beds aren't being overwhelmed. 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 province's management of the COVID testing program has been just shy of a shit show. Reporting this week by the Toronto Star makes it pretty clear the Ontario government wasted its only opportunity to put a robust testing program in place during the summer months. It appears, for all the commitment to "do whatever it takes", the Ford government refused to spend the money to set up a complete testing system. That means establishing testing locations, establishing criteria for those who should be tested, providing adequate supplies and personnel to administer the tests. But the tests are completely useless if you can't turn the results around in less than three days. The RNA begins to degrade, meaning the results are immediately suspect. We learned this week the testing backlog is somewhere north of 90 thousand cases! There is no way any of these results can be trusted. And that's the issue for the Ford government now. Trust.  Combine the testing debacle with the inconsistent, if not conflicting messages from the province's public health authorities and the public officers of health in Toronto and Ottawa, and the Premier is on the verge of losing the trust of the same people who gave him such high praise in the Spring for his handling of the pandemic.  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.

Bad News: The second wave of COVID 19 has arrived. Good News: Fewer hospitalizations. Bad News: Ontario is setting new records for daily cases. Good News: Queen's Park has finally stepped up to protect Long Term Care homes. Bad News: 46 LTC homes report outbreaks. Good News: (stand by) Bad News: Hmmm...Seems we've run out of Good News.  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 Fall Plan is being presented one step at a time. It includes preparations for flu season, COVID testing at select pharmacies and Premier Ford's constant plea to Health Canada to approve saliva tests. But does the plan also include a snap election? John Wright's latest numbers from Maru/Blue suggest Ford's approval rating is starting to dip as his government struggles to get the kids back to class.  Oh ya! And whatever happened to the public inquiry into Long Term Care homes? Seems the commission has been holding its hearings behind closed doors!(??)  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 Ontario legislature is back in business and so is our podcast, On The Ledge. Getting kids back to school this week was akin to building an aircraft in-flight. Class sizes are larger than expected. Teachers are still learning who, what and where they're teaching. And dozens of bus routes have been cancelled because of a driver shortage. John Wright is Executive Vice President of Maru/Blue Public Opinion. Keith Leslie is political commentator at CHCH News and the Hamilton Spectator. And Dave Trafford is the Executive Producer of iContact Productions and host of the Weekend Morning Show on Newstalk 1010 in 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.