Guelph Politicast

End Credits #370 - December 18, 2024 (Kraven The Hunter)

This week on End Credits, we're hunting for content. In this last regular edition of the show for 2024, we're going to put on our favourite animal skins and run wild on what might be the biggest bomb of the year, and that's really saying something. We're reviewing Kraven The Hunter, and we're also going to look ahead to greener cinematic pastures in 2025! 
This Wednesday, December 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2025? So 2024 isn't even over yet, and we're already talking about the Best of 2025?! Not quite. There will be a whole year of movies in the next 12 months, and we probably won't be able to see them all, so we're going to get some of the organising done early by talking about some of the movies we're looking forward to seeing in the next 12 months. From a return to a zombie apocalypse, to what may be the last Mission, we'll check in with 2025!
REVIEW: Kraven The Hunter (2024). It's been a dry year for superhero movies, but there's one last stop at the oasis before we get to a veritable super-buffet in 2025. Have you heard of Kraven? He's a Spider-Man villain who's perhaps most famous for a storyline literally called "Kraven's Last Hunt", but someone at Sony Pictures thought he sounded like a pretty cool guy worthy of his own movie. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who's already gotten a taste of superhero life, got his body in fighting shape, but is this movie worth hunting for at the holiday box office season?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #447 – The Strong Mayor Year (feat. Cam Guthrie)

What do you think this year will be remembered for in the annals of Guelph history? Will it be the debate over the Public Space Use Bylaw? Was it the announced closure of the consumption and treatment site downtown? Was it when the mayor re-opened the 2025 budget to try and shave off two-thirds of the proposed levy increase? In any event, all roads lead back to one place, or rather, one person.
In a sense, the first day of the political year was February 8. That was the date of the State of the City speech at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre where Mayor Cam Guthrie said that he was going to use Strong Mayor Powers in three specific ways: To find a place for a tiny home encampment, leverage City-owner property for affordable housing and to cut the Guelph 2025 budget down to something more affordable. It was a surprise move by Guthrie, but it would not be his last this year.
The Strong Mayor Powers were the first of a couple of different pivots: He joined the Government of Ontario demanding that CTSes no longer operate within 200 metres of schools or daycares, he joined other mayors demanding that the Province use the notwithstanding clause, and he joined Mike Schreiner and Lloyd Longfield in dumping cold water on the community effort to declare the OR Lands a national urban park. So to help close the year, we're going to go inside the mind of...
...Mayor Cam Guthrie! He joins us this week on the podcast to hear about why he might have some regret about the way he announced his use of Strong Mayor Powers, how he might use them again, and how he’s tried to rebuild trust with the members of council. He will also discuss why he’s not totally against CTSes, why he’s hedging on support for a national urban park, and balancing criticism and collaboration with upper levels of government. Also, what is he thinking about for the 2025 State of the City?
So let's dig into this Strong Mayor Year on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow the mayor at CamGuthrie on Twitter and at MayorCamGuthrie on Facebook and Instagram. You can also check out his website for news and updates, or send him an email at mayor [at] guelph.ca. Council will not be back in session until Tuesday January 14 for the first Committee of the Whole of the Year, and that agenda will be published on Thursday January 2. 
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #497 - December 12, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're not done with 2024 yet, and it seems like the year is not done with us! Out of the Middle East this week some good news for a change, or at least some less bad news depending on what's next. We will also talk about the reaction to a very specific crime on the streets of Manhattan, and closer to home, we'll have a city councillor do a little year-end recap with us!
This Thursday, December 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bashir Bashed. If 2024 hadn't run out of surprises yet, there was one more and it came from a part of the world that has been longing for some good news. After decades of brutal dictatorship, the regime of Bashir al-Assad fell after an 11 day uprising that saw Assad flee to Russia for sanctuary while rebels released long-time political prisoners and looted the presidential palace. But in the midst of all the celebrating there's still a fundamental question that needs answered: What's next for Syria?
Begun this Class War Has? The cold blooded murder of United Healthcare CEO on the streets of New York last week had a surprising reaction online: A bipartisan consortium was dancing on Brian Thompson's grave. Politicians and pundits have struggled with this out and out celebration for what be an act of vigilantism if the suspected shooters suspected motives are to be believed, so now we must reckon with the possibility that people are now openly embracing violence as a solution to inequality. How concerned should we be?
Dan of the Year. It's been a long and busy year at Guelph City Council between managing issues of homelessness and addictions, debate about the use of public spaces, Strong Mayor Powers, heritage issues, a massive budget crunch and so much more. Helping us make sense of everything that went down at City Hall this year is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson who is going to join us to talk about the struggles to take action, the limits of council power, and some of the good news stories from his own backyard in the city's east end.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #369 - December 11, 2024 (The Substance)

This week on End Credits, we're getting in shape! As we approach the end of the year, and the usual discussion about what movies are best, we're going to take a deep dive on one of the films that may end up making the cut! We're going to inject ourselves with The Substance, and we're going to look at lessons learned by the movie business itself this year.
This Wednesday, December 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Trends of 2024! It's been another interesting year in the movie business, some big hits and sometimes some bigger misses. Coming off of massive upheavals caused by pandemic viewing habits and two major labour disruptions, this year was always going to be a rough one for Hollywood as they strived to survive till 2025. So to start this week's show, in advance of the Best Movies of the Year, we will talk about the movie trends of '24.
REVIEW: The Substance (2024). It's one of the most talked about films of the year, praised as a prime example of body horror from the female point of view. The Substance, from French director Coraline Fargeat, casts Demi Moore as an ageing star facing a forced retirement due to her age, but then she's introduced to a means to get her youth and vitality back, but it doesn't come without risk, or a price. The Substance may be one of the year's best, and now a Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture, but what do two men think about it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #446 – The Good Old Guelph (feat. Stephen Robinson & Jack Mallon)

There has been a lot of heritage news this year, and especially in the last couple of weeks. This should not be surprising because heritage staff in all municipalities have been in a mad scramble these last few years to designate as much heritage as possible before the end of this year due to Bill 23. That changed back in the spring, so it's probably a good time now to catch our breathe and look at the work done so far, and all the work that is to come.
You may recall that November’s planning meeting was super-sized over two different days, and that was largely due to two heritage matters: The proposed designation for the old conservatory on the University of Guelph campus, and the draft policy for the Heritage Conservation District at the Ontario Reformatory lands. That’s a lot of pressure to put on the heritage planning staff, but the pressure was being felt before last month’s meetings.
Back in 2022, the Ontario government passed Bill 23, which made a great many changes to municipal planning policies, including the direction to delist any properties on the heritage registry not already designated by the end of this year. Now, thankfully, our undesignated heritage assets have a reprieve until the end of 2026, but that doesn’t mean the workload is any less lighter.
Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon, who are heritage planners at the City of Guelph, join us this week to talk about what kind of year it’s been for heritage, the status of all the heritage conservation district studies and the special controversy around the recent presentation about the OR Lands HCD. They'll also talk about public engagement, why development is not a bad word, what’s coming up in 2025, and why we maybe need to start loving architectural brutalism(?).
So let's dig into the very busy heritage file on this edition of the Guelph Politicast! 
The next scheduled meeting of Heritage Guelph is on January 13, and in the meantime you can visit the heritage planning page on the City’s website to get the lowdown on various plans and strategies. For your information, you can see the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties here, and stay tuned for future engagement opportunities on the OR Lands, Downtown and Ward West Heritage Conservation District studies.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #496 - December 5, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're reminded that the history of this show is haunted by an orange-coloured goon in a Florida beach club. Yes, we're heading back to Mar-a-Lago this week, and we're also heading back to Queen's Park to talk about accountability, our favourite topic! For the interview, we're talking to a friend of the show about how we can help people not go hungry this Christmas and beyond.
This Thursday, December 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mar-a-Largesse. Last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to apply 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico as a means of stopping the flow of unauthorized border crossings and the trafficking of fentanyl, an early sign that we're going back to the unfettered chaos of 2017-2021. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Mar-a-Logo to try and nip this in the bud, but apparently Trump joked about making Canada the 51st state. Do we really have to deal with this again?
Shelley Shocked. Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence delivered her first report as AG and boy was it a banger. Essentially, her report said that the Ontario government did bad on Ontario Place redevelopment, MZOs, the addictions crisis, and unprecedented government spending. As the Ontario Legislature starts to shut down for the holiday break, and as the possibility of election still hangs in the air, we will dig into all this controversy at Queen's Park, which seems to be it's most reliable renewable resource.
The Hunger. There was another report released this week, Feed Ontario's Hunger Report. In its some 57 pages you will see a story about the incredible food insecurity crisis in Ontario as more and more people are using food banks to feed themselves. To help us talk about the highlights of the report and how we can address the increasing need being faced by food banks, we're joined by Feed Ontario's Carolyn Stewart who will tell us how we can give the gift of eating well for everyone this holiday season.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #368 - December 4, 2024 (Wicked)

This week on End Credits, we're not defying gravity, we're leaning into it! It's one of the biggest movies of the year, based on a stage musical and secretly the first of two parts. Oh yes, we're getting to Wicked, and speaking of things that people are looking forward to, we're going to each count off three of our most anticipated movies for the last four weeks of the year.
This Wednesday, December 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Great Expectations (2024 Edition). Now that we're in December, the end of the year is inevitable, and that means our Top 5 of the Year episode is coming up very fast. So to start this week, we will look at out lists and see where the gaps are; what movies do we have to see by the end of the year? What movies are we looking forward to before the end of year? With so much to see and so little time, what are we watching in our spare time?
REVIEW: Wicked (2024). It's starting to look like the biggest movie of the year! We knew that Wicked was going to be one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but now it looks like a box office juggernaut and firmly part of the awards season discussion. The plot? The politics of Oz before Dorothy arrived and how the Wicked Witch of the West's story is more complicated than you may think. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Wicked is winning over old fans and making some brand new ones, but are we among them?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #445 – New Blue Box, Same as the Old Blue Box (feat. Cam Walsh)

As you may have heard, there are changes coming to your blue bin starting in January, and if you’re confused about what that means when you put the bin out on the curb in 2025, you’re not alone. You probably want to know what's going on, and how you should react, so due to popular demand, this podcast will ask all the questions about blue box changes you wanted to know, and some of the ones you didn’t.
Guelph has a history of making history when it comes to the blue box: We were one of the first cities to get one, and we were one of the first cities to make the transition to three streams of waste, and we were one of the first to make the transition to the new bin system. What's next is the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, which is moving the responsibility of collecting recyclables to the producers of those materials.
Starting on January 1, 2025, Waste Management Corporation of Canada (WM) will be collecting residential recycling and providing related customer service in Guelph. As you will hear today, you probably won't notice a lot of change to start, but 2025 will be a transition year for not only who collects your blue bin, but what you will be able to put inside it and who else might now get service as WM takes over for the City of Guelph.
To understand all this, we're joined by Cameron Walsh, the Division Manager of Solid Waste at the City of Guelph, who will tell you what happens on January 2 when you put your recyclables out on the curb. He will also talk about the process the City has been undertaking to facilitate these changes, what will happen over the course of 2025, the ongoing review of collection downtown, and the impacts on the City’s fiscal bottom line. Also, what will the future of waste collection in Guelph look like after 2025?
So let's dig into the blue box on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the changes coming to the collection of recyclables next year at guelph.ca/waste, where you can also find links to the Solid Waste Master Plan, and other info. Also, if you have any questions, send emails directly to waste [at] guelph.ca. You can also download the Guelph Waste app from the App Store and Google Play, it not only sends you reminders about garbage day, but it can help you sort your waste.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

Open Sources Guelph #495 - November 28, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we wish we could shake it off. It would be our wildest dream to come on the radio one week and have something normal to talk about, but we knew this was trouble when we saw it cross our newsfeeds this week. We're going to discuss what happened in Montreal last weekend, an arrest warrant for a controversial world leader, and final thoughts about the 2025 Guelph budget with one of our councillors. Hopefully, no bad blood there.
This Thursday, November 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gone in Swiftie Seconds. While Justin Trudeau was dancing to Taylor Swift in Toronto, Montreal was burning down... That was the message on social media Friday night, painting the PM as out of touch, hanging out a concert as a Canadian city was under siege. Except that's not what happened. We will talk about what really happened on the streets of Montreal on Friday, how it got so overblown so fast, how Trudeau has become a useful boogeyman on the right, and how we need to start understanding why.
The Warrant Trap. The International Criminal Court last week announced that they had issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Many western governments have said that they won't be enforcing that warrant, but Canada is not one of them. Still, it seems pretty unlikely that Netanyahu will stand before The Hague any time soon, so what do these warrants do and can they inflict any leverage on Israel even as a ceasefire with Lebanon's been secured?
The Six Per Cent. Guelph City Council added amendments to the 2025 budget on Wednesday and thus closed the annual process. The increase for next year is just over six per cent, which isn't the four per cent Mayor Cam Guthrie wanted, but it isn't the 10 per cent he didn't want either. We talked to Ward 3 Councillor Michele Richardson just before the budget vote to get insights into the 2025 numbers, and what she thought about this complicated process going into the last meeting.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #367 - November 27, 2024 (Gladiator II)

This week on End Credits, we go on a Roman Holiday! Not the movie, but a trip backwards in time to the original Rome, the imperial one with insane emperors doing dirt and the only honour you can find is killing for sport. It's time for Gladiator II, and to bring this episode full circle, we're going to talk about the movie that inspired the other big release this week.
This Wednesday, November 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Wizard of Oz at 85! Last weekend's release of Wicked is perfectly timed consider this year marks the 85th birthday of Victor Fleming's iconic musical based on the L. Frank Baum book. A Hollywood classic by any objective measurement, Oz has been the source of many hours of enjoyment, plus many sources for urban legends and stories about a cursed production. So looking back nearly 100 years later, does The Wizard still have the magic?
REVIEW: Gladiator II (2024). "What we do in life, echoes in eternity." And if it helps, make a sequel! Nearly 25 years after the release of the original Gladiator, Ridley Scott returns to Rome where another warrior is beaten, enslaved, and turned into a Colosseum warrior looking to seize his perch for a chance at revenge. This time, your titular Gladiator is Paul Mescal, and caught between the conflicted Pedro Pascal and the duplicitous Denzel Washington we only have one question going into today's show: Are we not entertained?!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.