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With less than a month before Canadians head to the polls, party leaders were on the campaign trail this weekend. Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was in Ottawa on Sunday. He unveiled his party’s $8 billion plan for Canadian families. The plan includes a $1.2 billion pledge for provinces to create new child care spaces. But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty believes the Liberals’ promises are not affordable. 

Conservative leader Stephen Harper promised to extend the fitness tax break. He would double the children’s tax credit to $1,000, and would introduce a $500 tax credit for adults. This plan would go into effect when the budget is expected to balance in 2015. 

NDP leader Jack Layton was in Gatineau. He spoke about health care and promised again to hire more doctors and nurses across the country. 

Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe is still waiting for a $2 billion payout from the government. Quebec has yet to receive any compensation from Ottawa after harmonizing its sales tax in 1992. Ontario and British Columbia received almost $6 billion for harmonizing their sales taxes.

US President Barack Obama announced his bid for re-election this morning on his website. Joe Biden will be running along side Obama for the office of Vice President. Using his new slogan "It begins with us", Obama told his supporters that the campaign had started. This means that the race for contributions is on.

Obama’s first re-election fundraiser will take place in Chicago on April 14th. The President chose to make his campaign official a little earlier than what's typical in order to get a head start on fundraising. Obama’s team has asked campaign bundlers to raise 350,000 dollars each, a difficult task given the financial laws limit gifts to 2,500 dollars per donor.

No Republican contenders have been formally announced, although it seems like the campaign is well on its way. Republicans have already traveled to key voting states meeting with supporters across the country. In addition, it is said that two former White House staffers will set up a third-party outside spending group.

When I heard Nelly would be coming to Montreal I was pretty excited. In 2000 Country Grammar was released as Nelly's first solo project and the single of the same name became a number one hit. I loved the song; I knew it by heart, but, to be honest, I had no real clue what it was about. With references to a “street sweeper” and something about puff and pass, I was somewhat lost.

Lost or not, I went out and was one of the approximate 8 million people who bought the album (back when people bought albums). I would go on to buy his second album NellyVille and then.... my interest in Nelly fell off. I would check out his singles when they would drop, but as my taste in commercial artist started to waiver I moved more towards artist like Tech N9ne and Vast Aire.

No matter what though, Nelly was always a great entertainer and I knew I couldn't miss his return to Montreal. Usually when I hear about a concert I'm looking forward to I listen to all the music I have at my disposal by the artist but this time round I didn't. I don't know why, but for some reason I just wanted to go to the show and enjoy it.

The first opener was Toronto native Page and he came out to a very small crowd. At this point in the show, I was somewhat worried about the turn out. There were maybe 100 people in front of the stage and another 100 around Metropolis' various bar areas. Page gave it his all, tried to hype up the crowd, and tried to get people involved. The many technical issues that came up during his performance made it hard to continue, but he did. The last song he preformed was "Still Fly" featuring Drake, which was a very successful song when it came out and the crowd reaction was amazing, but midway through the song started to skip and Page had to stop. I felt for him in that moment, and I was worried about the rest of the night. Technical issues within the first performance are never a good sign.

Next up was Cali Swag District, a group from Inglewood, California. They are best known for their song "Teach Me How to Dougie", a song I just don't understand. It's not a bad song, the main thing is I just don't get it, but I'll chalk that up to being an old man in his late twenties. My first thought when CSD (as they are also known) took the stage was, how old are these guys? Later when two members took their shirts off and the teen girls in the front row started screaming at the top of their lungs, I realized these guys were essentially a hip hop boy band. I've never seen a boy band performance live but they really were working the whole "we're sexy and you love us" angle. They performed numerous tracks, most of which I had never heard, but I did enjoy the title track that will be coming off their new album, The Kickback. They ended their set with "Teach Me How to Dougie" and the crowd was really starting to fill in.

After a very short intermission and some random people walking back and forth across the stage, the St. Lunatics took the stage. Made up of Ali, Murphy Lee, City Spud and Kyjuan, the St. Lunatics got the crowd hyped up, and, just when people couldn't take it anymore, Nelly took the stage. I hadn't seen him in a long time and I didn't recognize him. I know that when he was in the remake of "The Longest Yard" he bulked up for the role and decided to keep up the routine but this was a far bigger Nelly than back in the day.

I forgot how many top charting tracks Nelly had released, and as the night went on the songs came back to me. There was "E.I." and "Hot in Herre", two songs that were anthems for their respective summers; then the whole team performed "Air Force Ones," to which the now packed house went insane. Tack on "Grillz," "Shake Ya Tailfeather," "Pimp Juice," "Batter Up," "#1" and the wildly well received "Ride Wit Me" and the shows first half alone was worth it. When you throw in "Country Grammar", his cross over track "Over and Over" with Tim McGraw you start to get an idea of how Nelly evolved as an artist. At one point he stopped to thank his fans for letting him be musically free; as in being able to experiment as an artist and not judge him for his musical decisions, something that not many artist have done or can do. Some highlights of the show were the St. Lunatics interludes. Murphy Lee did a few tracks off of his upcoming project and then brought out Avery Storm, a singer who's album Nelly is working on.

Towards the end of the show Nelly slowed it down a bit, but not before bringing three women on stage for a runway competition to the song "Body On Me". Moving into more slow jams and then doing his new single "Gone" featuring Kelly Rowland, which is the sequel to their 2002 song "Dilemma."

By the end, I was very impressed with the show. I went in expecting very little, not because I didn't think he would deliver, but more because it had just been so long for me. Granted, I had stopped really paying attention to Nelly as an artist awhile back but it seems he never lost the talent. He has been a gifted artist for a long time and he will continue to produce amazing tracks and I hope to see him back in Montreal sooner than later, next time to a packed house.

-Brian Doc Holidae co-hosts Phantastiq Cypha on Fridays from 4-6pm

This past Friday was the one year anniversary of GET NICE Fridays at Blizzarts, and if you weren’t there, well, you should’ve been! First off let's be real, any event that can get Montrealers out of their house before 11pm is already a success. So you can imagine my surprise when I strolled in around 11:15pm to witness a packed dance floor and girls already climbing up Blizzart's swanky new booths. DJ Cosmo was on point as usual and made sure to satisfy his strong and still growing fan base with hype mixes and bumping bass. At around midnight he handed off the tables to their special guest, DJ Nu-Mark, from Jurassic 5. Now GET NICE has been known to bring in some pretty amazing guests but this was a serious treat! DJ Nu-Mark spinned for three hours straight, hitting the crowd hard with some serious turntable skills. I swear, I didn’t even think it was anatomically possible to scratch that fast. He started off by reviving a few hip hop classics, mixing in a quick MJ tribute and followed it all with some fresh new tracks from the US of A. Without a doubt, the best moment of his set was when he sampled a few of the tracks off his newest mix CD, Take Me With You, which is inspired by his travels; the tracks feature powerful Afro-Latin rhythms that inevitably get your booty moving. Looking out into the crowd, I saw everything from serious hip hop heads, to university party girls, to badass b-boys dancing to the sounds of Sergio Mendes, and once again I was proud to be a Montrealer. DJ Cosmo came back on the decks right before the end to send off his troops and left us on "Faithful To The End" by DJ Rogers, which is exactly what his fans have been all year.

-DJ Nu-Mark (photo by Jazmin Million)

Much respect to the GET NICE crew, we all had great time and I can’t wait to see what you guys have in store for this summer. Again if you’ve never been to one of the GET NICE nights, put it on your to do list for next Friday. This isn’t your regular hip hop club scene where the same old Kanye track is used and abused. DJ Cosmo and his guests never half step it, so it’s a guaranteed good time.

Happy anniversary GET NICE!

GET NICE Fridays, Blizzarts Bar (3956 St-Laurent), 5$

-MF Gold will be hosting Say Word! on Mondays at 10-11am, starting April 18th