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After the Parti Québécois won a minority government on Monday with only 28 per cent of the popular vote, some political commentators have downplayed the chances of a sovereignty referendum in Quebec.  Pablo Rodriguez has some qualms with this assessment — if history is any indication, the temperature can change swiftly when it comes to Quebec independence. Rodriguez, a former Liberal MP who briefly led the Quebec Liberal Party in 2025, came on The Corner Booth to discuss the results of Quebec’s provincial election — as well as life after leaving politics.

The Quebec election is officially in the books, with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois winning a minority government. In this special election recap episode of The Corner Booth, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand at Snowdon Deli to share his thoughts the rise of the Quebec Conservatives, the wipeout of the CAQ and what he thinks PSPP’s first 100 days in office might look like.

Audio-only: Stéphane Dion calls Monday’s provincial election a “double election” for Quebecers. The former federal Liberal leader, who drafted the Clarity Act in response to the 1995 Quebec referendum, establishing the conditions under which the government of Canada would enter into negotiations if a province voted to secede, joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand for a special edition of The Corner Booth at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Westmount to explain why.

The latest polls say Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s Parti Québécois is potentially on the cusp of winning a majority government in Monday’s provincial election. Should the PQ be held to a minority, all eyes will be on the other main sovereignist party — Québec solidaire — and whether they’ll work with or against Plamondon’s goal of holding a referendum. The way party co-leader Ruba Ghazal described it to hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli, Québec solidaire’s vision of an independent Quebec is quite a bit different from the PQ’s.

The Quebec election campaign is in the final stretch. Right now, it’s looking like the Parti Québécois are on the cusp of a majority government. For Quebec Liberal leader Charles Milliard, that means his final days on the trail will be spent reminding the 70 per cent of voters who don’t currently want a referendum that his party could be the federalist alternative with the CAQ in a free-fall. He joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to explain why the Quebec Liberals are "the most rational people in town.”

The five main party leaders in the Quebec election got a chance to make their pitch to the people with two French-language debates this week. Which leader made their mark? Who stood out with undecided voters? Who needs to step up as the campaign hits crunch time? A pair of Gazette political columnists, Raphaël Melançon and Robert Libman, joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth from Snowdon Deli to give their grades to the five leaders and predict where things might be headed with less than three weeks until election day.

Canadian Party of Quebec leader Joseph Cianflone knows his party won’t win the upcoming provincial election. But that doesn’t mean the underdog party can’t play a role in steering the conversation. The leader of the self-described “only fully federalist party” in Quebec joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand for this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli. Cianflone pitched his party’s platform and gave his perspective on how the race is shaping up, including CAQ leader Christine Fréchette dodging questions about whether she considers herself a sovereigntist.

This week, it was revealed for the first time in a provincial campaign, election guides and notices are being mailed only in French. Voters seeking English versions will instead be directed to the Élections Québec website, either directly or through a QR code printed on the French documents. But around one in five Quebecers 75 and older do not own a smartphone, computer or tablet. Lawyers Frédéric Bérard and Eric Maldoff joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth from Snowdon Deli. Maldoff is part of a group of lawyers planning to file legal action against the provincial government.

Tom Mulcair thinks the  answer to who will win October's Quebec election "will come in the last two weeks of the campaign," but that won't stop him from making an early prediction. The former NDP Leader and Quebec Liberal MNA told hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli that although he has no dog in the fight, as an outside observer, he's seeing where the trends are headed.

When it comes to the Donald Trump White House's tariff threats against Canada, every day is Groundhog Day. And while this week saw both countries go down to the wire to sign the latest trade deal, it won't be long until the United States returns asking for revised terms. At least, that's how economist Julian Karaguesian and former Delegate General of Quebec in New York John Parisella see it. They joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth from Snowdon Deli.

Flooding in parts of the West Island have become a nearly annual occurrence. Now residents — 1,500 and counting — are fighting back. Two proposed class-action lawsuits are taking aim at the cities of Montreal and Dollard-des-Ormeaux. The lawsuits allege the municipalities were “grossly negligent” in preparing for last month’s flash floods that left drainage systems overwhelmed and basements ruined. Lawyer Jeff Orenstein and Paul Henry Danylewich, president of the Association of the Citizens of Dollard, joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at the Snowdon Deli to talk about how government inaction has spurred this fight.

As Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, Robert P. Sanders experienced first-hand the change in tone between Canadians and Americans going from the Joe Biden administration to Donald Trump’s. The career  apolitical diplomat, who previously held posts in a variety of locales from Islamabad to Port-au-Prince, is wrapping up his time in Montreal, but not before joining hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on an audio-only episode of this week’s The Corner Booth to talk about navigating the position with relations between the countries at a low-point.

Moving Day is coming up for more than 115,000 Montrealers on July 1, when a critical mass of Quebec leases expire, and it’s become a day housing advocates dread. “ This is a really tough day for the city. It’s funny, it used to be a day of transition. A day of newness. A day of hope. A day of change,” said James Hughes, president and CEO at Old Brewery Mission. With July 1 around the corner, Hughes and Amy Darwish, co-ordinator with Comité d’Action de Parc-Extension, joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to sound the alarm on what’s sure to be a difficult moving season for  the more than 3,000 Montrealers Hughes estimates could be without a place to live.

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.

Antisemitism has been front and centre in Montreal news the last two weeks. So when Projet Montréal announced its plan to bring a motion to council Monday condemning Israel for “genocide” of Palestinians, The Gazette’s Allison Hanes suggested the timing risked inflaming social tensions. Liberal MP for Mount Royal Anthony Housefather and CRARR executive director Fo Niemi joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to discuss not only antisemitism, but rising hate in general, including a racist rally in Shawinigan.