The Corner Booth

Steven Guilbeault is stepping down from government. The Liberal MP for Montreal's Laurier—Sainte-Marie riding announced last month that he intends to resign his seat this summer, citing a desire to pursue the fight against climate change "in a different way." "I understand that, even before Prime Minister Carney was elected leader of the Liberal Party, that things were going to change. What I had not anticipated is the rollbacks," the former environment minister said in this week's episode of The Corner Booth, referring to Canada's changing climate policy direction.

Depending on how you look at things, Montrealers can be considered a pretty optimistic bunch. On the one hand, according to the recently released annual World Happiness Report, Canada has slipped to 25th among countries.“But if you separate Quebec, they’d be fifth,” observed Gazette columnist and author Josh Freed, who is this week’s guest on The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand at the Snowdon Deli. “Quebecers know that despite all of our complaining, we have a lot to be happy about.”

The spectre of trade tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump continue to loom over Quebec and Canada.Quebec’s business community greeted the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last week against Trump’s tariffs with tempered expectations, and then Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said the exact timing of a potential referendum within a first mandate of a PQ government had to remain adjustable because of economic threats from Trump.John Parisella, political analyst and former delegate-general of Quebec in New York, along with Julian Karaguesian, economist and McGill professor, joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to explain how instability in the U.S. is affecting our politics and economy at home.

Soraya Martinez Ferrada is about to reach her first 100 days as mayor of Montreal, and a lot has happened so far.On this week's episode of The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, the mayor talked about entering city hall having to deal with STM strikes that paralyzed the city. More recently, she went viral on social media for blowing out the tires of her car on potholes on Notre-Dame St. E., and had to contend with downtown businesses pleading for relief from construction woes on Ste-Catherine St.She also discussed job cuts to the city’s white-collar workforce and a plan to reduce the number of orange cones while using AI to plan work sites.

Charles Milliard is the last man standing in the race to run the Quebec Liberals.The runner-up less than a year ago to Pablo Rodriguez was teaching at Bishop's University when controversy unfolded in the party, which thrusted the political neophyte back into the leadership conversation.With the only other known candidate, Mario Roy, not being permitted to run, the coast is clear for Milliard to take over a beleaguered party still reeling from Rodriguez's resignation.Milliard discussed his plans for healing the fractured Liberals before October's provincial election with Aaron Rand and Bill Brownstein on this week's episode of The Corner Booth from Snowdon Deli.

It was not a total surprise François Legault resigned as Premier of Quebec this week. But the timing of it caught many off-guard.Legault's resignation on Wednesday sent shockwaves across the political landscape, and with a provincial election coming up in October, there's even more uncertainty about what's to come for Quebec.To make sense of it all, former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister David Heurtel joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli.

Times have changed in the world of organized crime. Not only are things becoming less and less centralized, younger people — including teens — are getting involved.With the criminal underworld in flux, will Montreal police be able to adapt to these new challenges? Retired police detective Pietro Poletti shared his unfiltered thoughts on the state of organized crime and Montreal police with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode at Snowdon Deli.

On this week's special year-in-review episode of The Corner Booth, guests Martine St-Victor and Raphaël Melançon, along with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, were given a near-impossible task:How do you cram 12 months of jaw-dropping headlines at the federal, provincial and municipal levels into one episode?Incredibly, they got it done. And without letting their Snowdon Deli platters get cold and dry.