Guelph Politicast

End Credits #383 - March 19, 2025 (This is The Tom Green Documentary)

This week on End Credits, we're going out to the farm. Everyone yearns at some point for a more simple life on the land, and it looks like one of them is Tom Green... so he made a film about it. On this episode we're reviewing This is The Tom Green Documentary, and we will also take the unusual step of critiquing the critics and the rare times they've got it wrong.
This Wednesday, March 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Wrong Turns. The subject of this week's film is Tom Green, who once made Freddy Got Fingered, which was declared by one critic as "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history". Hyperbolic? Probably, which reminds us that sometimes critics are wrong, or at the very least over-the-top in their negative assessment of a movie, so to begin this week, we will talk about some critical misses.
REVIEW: This is The Tom Green Documentary (2025). At the turn of the century a simple man made a splash on Ottawa cable access TV with his out-there sense of comedy. Tom Green took his eponymous show to Hollywood and then they started putting him movies. The world was his oyster, but then he got cancer and his career never fully recovered. In his new documentary about himself, Green looks at his wild ride and his latest turn as a proud farmer in Eastern Ontario, but is the life of Tom worth celebrating on film?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #462 – Has It Really Been Five Years? (feat. Dr. Nicola Mercer)

Maybe you don’t remember, or want to remember, but it was this time five years ago that the world closed down as COVID-19 became so virulent that it required us to be sequestered for months or else keep six feet apart while wearing a mask or other PPE. Many of us have memory-holed those events, some have re-written it as an overreaction or, even worse than that, a conspiracy, but perhaps the time has come to face our trauma about the pandemic.
Here are some of the headlines from the March 20, 2020 edition of the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter: “All City of Guelph facilities are now closed to the public including City Hall", “The two remaining city council meetings for March have been cancelled”, and “The Guelph General Hospital, as well as other area hospitals, have initiated more stringent measures on who can visit the hospital and when”. There was a lot going on, and no one knew how it was all going to shake out in the end.
It may not seem like it, but on this fifth anniversary of the pandemic, COVID-19 is still around. Even once diligent maskers don’t mask anymore, even when they’re sick, fewer people are getting their booster shots, and when you talk to people about their pandemic memories it’s about how we took it too seriously and spent too much in response. Is that how you remember it? What should we be thinking about following our COVID experience now half-a-decade later?
The perfect guest to answer these and similar questions is Dr. Nicola Mercer, who is the Medical Officer of Health for Wellington, Dufferin, and Guelph. She's going to talk about the warning signs she saw in advance, what she and Public Health got right about the pandemic response, and what she thinks they might have done better in hindsight. We will also talk about the lessons learned, the current state of COVID-19, and how our experiences might inform the response to the next pandemic.
So let's rewind to 2020 on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health at their website, where you can find links to information about immunizations, health alerts, data dashboards, and agendas for the Board of Health meetings. You can also follow them on social media @WDGPublicHealth on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
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 #509 - March 13, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph we order a side-helping of change and economic concern. The new prime minister and the new-old premier met this week to talk about their common enemy: the crazy person currently occupying the White House. For the other half of the show, we will look to more local concerns with one of the members of city council from the first (in numerical order) ward!
This Thursday, March 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Carney in Charge. It wasn't exactly a horse race and in the end it seemed like a rocket ship, but Mark Carney is now set to be the next Prime Minister of Canada... but for how long? The once long odds for the Federal Liberals now look better with many polls showing a statistical tie between them and the Conservatives, and Carney already looks like a man of action even without yet being sworn into the role. Can Carney complete the greatest political comeback in Canadian history?
Ford Tough? Two weeks after winning his snap election call, Doug Ford has thrown himself into the tariff fight with the Trump White House, which resulted in a 25 per cent surcharge on electricity exports to the United States that were then paused when Ford secured a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. What comes from that meeting is still to be determined, but Ford's role as Captain Canada seems minted even as we're asking: Does Ford know what he's doing?
Caton Expectations. Last week at Committee of the Whole, Guelph city council looked at an update to the Code of Conduct that will govern social media use, and there was a lot of confusion about what it was supposed to do. Also, there were some questions about the Accessibility Advisory Committee's desire for more autonomy and self-governance. We have the perfect person in mind for further discussion on these matters, and it's natural techspert, accessibility advocate and Ward 1 City Councillor Erin Caton!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #382 - March 12, 2025 (Heart Eyes)

This week on End Credits, we're still having February thoughts. Although it's March now, we're going to revisit Valentine's Day with the rom-com/horror mash-up Heart Eyes, and because we can't escape the ramifications of what's going on everyday in the White House, we will talk about how Canadian cinephiles can do their part in the trade wars. 
This Wednesday, March 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Trade War Movies. You may have heard that there's a trade war happening. Anger at the U.S. President has extended to all things American, including streaming sites like Netflix and Prime Video, which people are cancelling in frustration. So in that spirit, we will start this week with some trade war programming. We will talk about where you can find some great Canadian movies on some great Canadian streaming sites.
REVIEW: Heart Eyes (2025). Two genres that play by their own well-established rules: rom-coms and slashers. Two great tastes that taste great together? That's the question at the heart of Heart Eyes, which essentially asks "What would happen if there's a Hallmark movie and suddenly there was a masked killer farting around?" The makers of Happy Death Day, Werewolves Within, and It's a Wonderful Knife answer that question, but whether or not that answer is satisfying for two well-known horror heads is a bigger question.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #461 - Dispatches From a Quixotic Legislative Quest (feat. Mike Morrice)

When we talk about the affordability crisis, you sometimes hear the term “legislated poverty”, meaning the state of social assistance rates like Ontario Works and ODSP that assure people can never get ahead because the amounts paid never cover all the real costs of daily life. That’s why Mike Morrice decided to act when he was elected to the House of Commons in 2021, but like all great quests, it hasn’t ended up the way he envisioned.
Can one person make a difference? This is the question when you elect anyone, but without a party whip or a legislative agenda, an MP pretty much has to follow their own north star and Kitchener MP Morrice followed his star to a private member’s bill called the Canada Disability Benefit Act. The goal was to offer low-barrier, additional assistance to people with disabilities to help get them out of legislated poverty, but as always happens, reality couldn’t live up to aspirations.
When finished, the act proposed that people with disabilities in Canada will receive *up to* $200 per month once they’ve been approved for the Disability Tax Credit and all the requisite forms have been filled. On top of that, there was even doubt for a while that disabled people would even start getting their $200 this summer because the Treasury Board hadn’t approved the regulations until last week, which wouldn't have happened at all in the event of a snap election.
So how does the man who sponsored the Canada Disability Benefit Act feel now that he’s on the other side? Morrice will talk about that, why he fought so hard for the act, and why, even though it’s watered down, it’s still going to be a game changer for people with disabilities in Canada. He will also talk about the ins and outs working with the government to get the bill done, fighting for key provisions to make the bill better, and the marathon the last few weeks to get the regulations finished before any potential election. 
So let's talk about how the proverbial sausage gets made on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canada Disability Benefit Act on the Government of Canada’s website. You can also check out Mike Morrice’s ongoing advocacy on this and other issues at his website.
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 #508 - March 6, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're coming down from election fever, and maybe get ready to catch it once again...(?) Yes, the time has come for a new Liberal leader to be selected, which is its own drama, but nothing compared to the drama in the White House, which is exactly how its main occupant likes it (and the rest of us hate). For the interview this week, we've got a two-for-one special!
This Thursday, March 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Garbage Disp-Oval. There's been no doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump is hostile to continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, but even by those standards what happened in the Oval Office last Friday was a disaster. A gathering in the U.K. on the weekend sought to buttress the rest of NATO in supporting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the bigger question is whether we can any longer be called the "Leader of the Free World".
Carney of Won? At the end of this weekend, we will know who the new Liberal leader and Prime Minister of Canada will be. The safe money now is on Mark Carney, the former head of the Bank of Canada, and it certainly seems like the Conservative Party sees him as the prime minister in waiting, but what are Carney's chances really, and is Canada's favourite banker primed for an upset this Sunday?
The Green Book. The Green Party of Ontario had one goal in last week's provincial election: Win more seats. That didn't work out, but party members and supporters can't say it was a total loss. For the first time in Open Sources history, we are hosting an entire party caucus from the Ontario legislature - Mike Schreiner and Aislinn Clancy - who will join us to talk about the election results, the lessons learned and what comes next.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #381 - March 5, 2025 (The Monkey)

This week on End Credits, we can't stop doing the monkey! Not the dance, but the movie of the same name that has been winning fans at cinemas all around the country these last couple of weeks. So yes, we're talking about The Monkey, and we're also going to be talking about the life and movies of another Hollywood icon! 
This Wednesday, March 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
For Gene. While the circumstances of his passing still has many unanswered questions, there's no doubt that Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen. From The French Connection to Unforgiven to The Royal Tenenbaums, Hackman's legacy has been secured, and that's not bad for the guy his classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse called "least likely to succeed". To start this week, we honour Gene.
REVIEW: The Monkey (2025). The Monkey represents a horror trifecta: It's based on a story by Stephen King, produced by James Wan, and directed by Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins. Perkins' success last year with Longlegs established himself as cinematic stylist and he brings all his skills to bear on this story about a cursed toy monkey that brings a swift and terrible death to the people around it. But The Monkey is actually a comedy too, which is not always an easy needle to thread, so has Perkins delivered the blood and gut(buster)s?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #460 - Now What? (feat. Diana Chan McNally)

Although housing and homelessness has been THE issue for the last few years, it feels like they didn’t make a dent in the recently completed provincial election. As the news obsessively tracks the tariff war and Doug Ford’s response to Donald Trump’s latest drama, the struggles of growing unaffordability and homelessness seems to have taken a back seat., So now that the election is over, does anyone in authority still care about these issues?
Back in December, Premier Ford held a media event at Queen’s Park. In the company of several mayors he announced the Ontario Restoring Safety to Parks and Public Spaces Act, a bill that expanded police powers in dealing with encampments and offered stiffer penalties for people who repeatedly break trespass laws and use illegal drugs in public. But just before the election call there was a turnaround, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing said that maybe it wasn't needed after all.
Not wanting to take chances, the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People’s tried to rally the political parties to all make the same campaign promise: A clear public commitments against criminalizing homelessness. Three of the four major parties signed up in common cause, but guess which one did not. With a new four-year majority for the Ford government secured there are now a lot of questions about what will happen next on the homelessness file.
There many questions to ask, and this week we're asking  Diana Chan McNally, who is a community and crisis worker in Toronto and co-ordinator of the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People. She will talk about her expectations before the election, how issues of poverty got overshadowed by tariffs, and her concerns about another attempt at criminalizing homelessness. She will also discuss what the action plan is now, and why the next fight with the provincial government will be through municipalities.
So let's talk about where we go no on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about The Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People at their website. You can follow her on social media on Twitter and Blue Sky and you find links to her activism, op-eds and other work at Link Tree. At present there’s no word on when the legislature will return or when and if the government will table the Ontario Restoring Safety to Parks and Public Spaces Act again.
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.

Election Night in Ontario - Februrary 27, 2025

It's four weeks of snow, promises, confusion, and apathy and after the longest shortest month of the calendar, we have finally come to this: Election Day! Now typically on Thursday there's a new episode of Open Sources Guelph, but because Election Day falls on Thursday, we're going to do it later, and we're going to do it live!
Thursday February 27 at 8 pm, the Open Sources and CFRU News teams will go live to talk about the incoming results and immediate analysis as Ontarian choose their government for the next four years. Has Ford fumbled? Did Stiles slip? Will Crombie crush it? Will Schreiner turn his dynamic duo into the fantastic four? All questions will be answered including, why are we doing this again?
For the Open Sources interviews with the Guelph candidates, click on the links below:
Robert Coole, PC Party
Carina Fraser, New Blue
Mike Schreiner, Greens
Cameron Spence, NDP
Mustafa Zuberi, Liberals 
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #380 - February 26, 2025 (The Wild Robot)

This week on End Credits, we're heading back into the wild! Things always get pretty wild when it comes to Oscar-season as one team of PR flacks tries to 86 the other, but things also get wild on an uninhabited island where even robots can enjoy a world without rules! On this show, we're reviewing The Wild Robot and we will talk about the Oscars!
This Wednesday, February 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Not An Oscars Ballot. The 97th annual Academy Awards will be given out this Sunday live from Hollywood. Who will win? We'll get to that. Emilia Pérez has the most nominations, but not many fans among cinephiles who would much rather see honours go to Brady Corbet and The Brutalist or Sean Baker and Anora. To start this pre-Oscars show, we will lay out the ones we think will win the show, and the one's that should win.
REVIEW: The Wild Robot (2024). Speaking of the Oscars, the movie we're reviewing this week is nominated for one. The Wild Robot debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, and then it had long legs in theatres even long after it was released on premium VOD. Why? That's what we wanted to find out so this week we check out The Wild Robot, which you can now stream on Prime Video, to see how this Oscar-nominated film hit a nerve and maybe if it will hit our nerves too.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.