NOW and NEXT Story Studio Network, Dave Trafford, Erin Trafford

This week on Now and Next:

(We recorded the show a couple of hours BEFORE President Joe Biden was forced to pause his campaign after testing positive for COVID-19)

Our Comms Crew, Bob Reid, Anne Marie Aikins, Brad Ross and Lindsay Broadhead join the show to disect the latest in the US Presidential election.

They offer up first reactions to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. 
Has it tilted the campaign in Trump's favour?
Has it humanized Trump?
Trump's silence is proving to be powerful. How long can he keep that up?

And, the RNC Convention's all but buried the last vestiges of Ronald Regan's GOP.

In this BONUS episode of Now and Next:

I was inspired to post this BONUS edition after listening to the latest episode of The Line, a podcast hosted and produced by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. They discuss reporting by the Globe and Mail suggesting staffers in the PMO don't think Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland is managing the Liberal government's messaging all that well.

Should the PM fire Freeland? 

He probably should if he is at all serious about keeping his job as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and his front bench seat as PM.

I recently talked to Abacus CEO David Coletto suggesting it's the least Trudeau needs to do.

This week on Now and Next:

The NATO Summit has wrapped up in Washington D.C. and Canada’s defence spending was a more than touchy subject. 

House Majority Leader Mike Johnson called Canada's lack of commitment "shameful". The minimum contribution for NATO members is 2% of GDP. Canada spends less than 1.4%.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadian spending will not be driven by some "nominal" target. At the same time, he made a meaningless gesture to hit the 2% target by 2032 - EIGHT YEARS from now.

Retired Major General Scott Clancy served in the RCAF and as Director of Operations for NORAD. He says government after government make defence spending announcements BUT the Armed Forces never spend it. In fact, the CAF routinely turns back hundreds of millions of dollars every year because they CAN’T spend it.

This week on Now and Next:

Lindsay Broadhead, Brad Ross, Anne Marie Aikins and Bob Reid join the roundtable.

Calls for US President Joe Biden haven't slowed down. In fact, they're heating up a week after his disastrous debate performance.

Justin Trudeau says he's "listening" to Canadians after his party's devastating defeat in the Toronto-St. Paul's by-election. But is he listening to his MPs? So, far, the PM is dismissing calls for an emergency caucus meeting.

And new polling suggests Bonnie Crombie's provinicial Liberals would run away with seats in Toronto if Ontario Premier Doug Ford decides to pull the chute and call an early election in the Spring of 2025.

Also, what's going on at Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario? The latest numbers for the Ontario Line suggest the budgets have more than doubled since the project was announced. 

Anne Marie and Brad know a thing or two about the money messaging at the TTC and Metrolinx!

This week on Now and Next:

David Coletto, CEO and Founder of Abacus Data, joins the podcast to analyze the results from the By-election in the federal riding of St. Paul's.

He says there's no way to consider this outcome as anything other than a crushing, if not shocking result from the Trudeau government. The Conservatives won the mid-town Toronto seat by 600 votes this week. And St. Paul's might be considered one of THE safest Liberal seats in the country. They've held it for more than thirty years.

The St. Paul's loss amounts to a referndum on Prime Minister Trudeau's plunging popularity. It puncuates perceptions that his government is rudderless, with little or no understanding of what  Canadians need or want.

That's going to create some serious challenges for the Liberal party as it prepares for the next election, set for the fall of 2025.

"The Prime Minister has never been as unpopular as he is today", says Coletto. "There are some (Candians) who are tired of him. They don't dislike him. They just are tired of him. They don't think he's relevant for the times, that he's got the energy left. And then there's a lot of Canadians who just really don't like him."

This week on Now and Next - Story Studio Network's flagship podcast

Our comms crew assembles! Lindsay Broadhead, Brad Ross, Anne Marie Aikins and Bob Reid join Dave Trafford at the Now and Next table to go hard and deep on stories that need more than just headlines.



Calgary's water main break was predictable and preventable. But city council's wilfful ignorance created an H2O OMG crisis on the eve of the Calgary Stampede.Meanwhile, Toronto City Council wastes hard to come by tax dollars to change the name of Yonge-Dundas Square to disassociate it with Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville PC and Baron Dunira. Dundas is accused of single-handedly delaying the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.New research from Food Banks Canada suggests one in four Canadians live in poverty.Who's spying and who's lying. Accusations by Canada's intelligence overseers suggest some of our MPs cooperated with foreign agents to influence political outcomes. But it's all HUSH HUSH.Who should get fired for writing Deputry PM Chrystia Freeland's dystopia dissertation on the need for a new Capital Gains Tax. Freeland says failing to tweek the tax will lead to untold, unwanted pregnancies across the country!!BUT WAIT...there's good news.Bob just came off a grand trans Canada tour!Lindsay's looking forward to taking in a Sarah McLachlan concertBrad survived an encounter with his Auto Insurance company.AMA is flitting through Wedding SeasonAND DT got to be a Tourist in His Own Town with his Grand Daughter Piper!