The Big Five is the quintessential Montreal podcast, and the best way to get caught up on the top stories impacting the city. Every weekday, host Elias Makos and a roster of Montreal thought leaders debate and inform.

On today's Big 5: Caroline Codsi, Founder and Chief Equity Officer at Women in Governance, and Lea Streliski, Best-selling author, comedian, and columnist.

• Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is officially boycotting the E.U.-Canada summit opening today in Montreal, choosing to send diplomat Pascal Paradis instead after Prime Minister Mark Carney denied his request to deliver an official speech.
• Negotiations at the summit have shifted as the term "associate membership" is dropped from the table, replaced by a softer diplomatic promise of "ever closer association" between Canada and the European bloc.
• A family doctor in Gatineau is speaking out against public servants, revealing that over 90 percent of recent requests for work-from-home medical certificates are medically unjustified and take away vital appointment slots from sick children.
• A political scheme has unraveled in Alaska, where a New York Times report exposes that Democratic operatives intentionally recruited a second candidate named Dan Sullivan to run for U.S. Senate to trigger voter confusion at the ballot box.
• Montreal Mayor Sorraya Martinez Ferrada is marking her one-year anniversary by walking back inflation-linked tax limits to fund critical infrastructure repairs, while openly teasing a potential future bid to bring the Olympics back to the city.