Guelph Politicast

This is a big year for Guelph. Our downtown landscape is changing, we have an election in the fall that will usher in a new mayor and council, and then we will mark the city's 200th birthday in the spring. Two centuries ago, it all began with one man from Scotland cutting down a tree near what we now call the Eramosa River, but how much about John Galt do we actually know? Well, as you will recall, one local academic knows a lot...
A lot of assumptions have been made about Galt, and the popular wisdom for years was that he was a failure as the head of the Canada Company, yet the city he created survives and thrives 200 years later. But what about Galt as a colonizer? It may surprise you to learn that Galt, ever the iconoclast, had some unusual ideas for how settlers and Indigenous people should get along as equals, and it was among the reasons why he was sent back to Scotland two years after founding Guelph.
This week, we’re joined by someone who might know Galt better than anyone (in the 21st century). Gil Stelter, a professor emeritus from the history department at the University of Guelph, has dedicated his life’s studious endeavours to the man who’s name is on the proverbial patent for Guelph. In his career, Stelter has amassed quite a number of insight into the man, his career as a businessman and author, and what his intentions were for Guelph, some of which actually came to pass.
Revisiting an interview from the podcast in August 2023, Stelter gives us a breakdown on who John Galt was, and his notoriety beyond the borders of Guelph. He will also talk about what Galt’s written works tell us about his thinking, how his relationship with John Brant informed his thinking when settling Guelph, and what Galt might think of Guelph now nearly 200 years later. Also, he will talk about how Galt might have been right at home among the celebrity businessmen of modern day.
So let’s talk again about the John Galt you don’t know on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
Learning the basics about the life of John Galt is relatively easy, but if you want to follow up on this particular discussion, you can consult Galt’s written works, including The Apostate or Atlantis Destroyed, which you can buy through Vocamus Press. You can also watch Stelter’s presentation to the Guelph Historical Society on Rogers’ YouTube channel.
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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're building bridges. And speaking of bridges, we will talk about a famous new bridge down in Windsor, which may now be a monument to the latest phase of the Canada/U.S. trade war. In other news, we will talk about a new study that paints a worrying picture of Canada's healthcare system (again!), and in the interview we will focus on local matters and the end of the council term with a member of Guelph city council.
This Thursday, July 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Howe You See Me. The Gordie Howe Bridge spanning Windsor and Detroit finally opened this week, but only after Canada capitulated to Trump administration demands, and in the midst of a renewed trade war no less with President Donald Trump seeking supposed payback for Canada's hard line on American alcohol, lumber and dairy products. Canadians, especially opposition Conservatives, are now wondering if Mark Carney has a plan to take on Trump and his cronies, but when, if ever, will we see it?
Emergency Care. A new report released this week shows that 1-in-10 emergency room doctors are thinking about quitting their specialty. Why? They feel like they're not being given the support they need to give patients the care they deserve. This comes a week after Canada's first ministers released a statement demanding more stable funding from the federal government, and yet it's the provinces that are in charge of healthcare spending. So is anyone listening to doctors or are they just passing the buck?
Term Limits. Guelph City Council is now on summer break, and when they return in September there will be only two more meetings before the election. So we're essentially at the end of the term, and who better to indulge in a little self-examination that Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt? Allt will join us to talk about the ways this term of council will be remembered, plus he will wax on some of the breaking news this week including the sale of the Niska lands and the repeated appeals of police officer Corey McArthur.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Programming Note: Open Sources will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Thursday August 6 and 13. We will be back with new episodes on Thursday August 20.

This week on End Credits we get topical. We're tackling two movies this week, one new and one old, and they both have the state of society on their minds. First up, from 1976, we will continue with our ongoing series and a satire that's still razor sharp, and for the review we will get into the latest film from a provocative filmmaker that was recently in theatres for too short a time.
This Wednesday, July 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
6 For '76: Network. Continuing on with our series dedicated to the movies of 1976 we come to the pièce de résistance: Sidney Lumet's Network. Hailed for the last 50 years as a stinging satire, and a prescient polemic, Network has one of the most famous scenes in movie history when Peter Finch as network news anchor Howard Beale declares, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." How does this movie still hit so hard in 2026?
REVIEW: I Love Boosters (2026). It's been eight years since Boots Riley's first film, Sorry to Bother You, a stunning and star-studded debut that was bursting with ideas and a point of view. Get ready for I Love Boosters, which is also full of ideas but this time it focuses on a group of organized shoplifters - called Boosters - practicing "fashion forward filanthropy" (branding!). That's just the beginning though because the plot gets so much more complicated, and weirder, than you can possibly imagine. So the question of the hour is, do we love I Love Boosters?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

Guelph City Council is now on summer break, a long break and then just a few more meetings before the municipal election campaign can really get underway. Perhaps you can't handle anymore council talk, maybe you just want to be free to think about getting an ice cream at the Boathouse, or plan to visit all your favourite vendors at Ribfest, but after this you will be free... The recap of May, June and July's council meetings!
A lot of big stuff came down in the last few months. Remember the debate over the McQuillan's Bridge and whether the City should get a newer, cheaper bridge? Of course that wasn't the only debate involving trails, which was a recurring theme with a lot of planning discussions. And speaking of planning, there was also a big debate about eight hectates of the Niska lands, a debate that did not turn out the way people hoped. And on the topic of hopes, how is the City of Guelph doing with achieving the goals of the strategic plan?
Let's find out as we recap the spring and summer events at council on this edition of the Guelph Politicast!
There are two more council meetings before the election, and they're both in September. First the planning meeting will take place on Wednesday September 9 and that agenda will drop on the City of Guelph website on Thursday August 27. Stay on top of council coverage every week by following @adamadonaldson on Blue Sky and by subscribing to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter. The Thursday edition is the recap of that week’s council meeting.
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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph we get suave. There's always controversy to be had in these late summer months and no one does controversy bigger than the Ontario government and this one might be their biggest blunder yet. Meanwhile in London, the prime minister hopes to avoid controversy with effectiveness, but can he succeed? As for the interview, it's going to be lit because we're talking to a expert on wildfires for some very timely insights.
This Thursday, July 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Accommodation Tax. Another spending scandal at Queen's Park has scooped up over a dozen government members and has already cost one cabinet minister his position. The revelation that members of the PC Party have been enjoying stays at downtown Toronto hotel rooms despite the fact that they live a short (and in some cases very short) drive from the legislature has rocked a government that normally doesn't get rocked by this sort of thing. Will "Hotelgate" bring down the Ford government?
Fine and Andy? In the space of about a month, Andy Burnham has gone from Mayor Manchester to MP of Makerfield and now he's the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and leader of the Labour Party. Such a meteoric rise would be notable if not for the fact that Burnham is the seventh PM in the last decade, and before him are all the same problems that stymied his predecessors and pushed them all to an early retirement. Can the so-called "King of the North" rise to the occasion?
The Quest for Firefighting. The smoke has cleared here in southern Ontario but the fires still burn up north, and all the reports say that this is going down as the worst year for wildfires there's ever been in Ontario, and the University of Guelph's Dr. Ze’ev Gedalof  agrees. The director of the Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics Research lab joins us to talk about why this fire season is so bad, the ways that climate change is making the problem worse, and what governments should be doing to make sure we're better prepared.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, we go big *and* go home! It feels like we've been waiting for it forever, and last weekend it finally arrived on all the biggest screens available. That's right, we're talking about Christopher's Nolan's epic re-telling of The Odyssey, now definitely in a theatre near you, and sticking with Nolan, we will talk about one of his forgotten(?) classics.
This Wednesday, July 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Tenet and the Mind of Christopher Nolan. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Christopher Nolan insisted that they release his sci-fi action flick Tenet in theatres no matter how limited the attendance restrictions could be. That's one of the reasons Tenet is seen as a rare Nolan misfire, but as we look ahead to The Odyssey, and Nolan's status as a Hollywood blockbuster juggernaut, we will re-examine Tenet and what it can tell us about the director.
REVIEW: The Odyssey (2026). Hotly anticipated for well over a year, we are finally delivered The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to his Oscar-winning magnum opus Oppenheimer. The story is well-known, Trojan War hero Odysseus undertakes a decades long quest to return to his home and his wife, while Penelope is being courted by a large group of suitors who want to replace him on the throne of Ithaca. Matt Damon leads an all-star cast who all fill parts big and small, but is Nolan's epic "too big to fail", or is it worthy of all the hype?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

It seemed to pass by without much commentary earlier this year, but January 29 marked the tenth anniversary of the last edition of the Guelph Mercury. Recently, with the closure of 570 News in Kitchener, a discussion about the shrinking state of local news is timely again, and as we head into municipal election season, shouldn’t it be more top of mind as we get ready to elect a new mayor and council?
Two weeks ago, Rogers Sports & Media announced that they were cutting 230 jobs and closing six radio stations across Canada, including 570 News in Kitchener. It’s kind of a big hit to the Waterloo Region eco-system because The Mike Farwell Show was a fairly popular platform to discuss local issues, and 570 was the radio broadcast home for the Kitchener Rangers. An important community hub was zapped just like *that* on a random Tuesday!
And on top of that, these cuts come at the worst possible time as every Ontario municipality enters election season this fall. So in the wake of these recent cuts, and in anticipation of the labour intensive work coming this fall, we tap into the experience and expertise of the Ink-Stained Wretches, a grassroots advocacy group dedicated to building a culture of appreciation for quality journalism in aid of democracy. How can we know who we're voting for without a robust local media eco-system?
Mirko Petricevic. the chief "Ink-stigator" of Ink-Stained Wretches, joins us today on this edition of the pod as we talk about why the closure of 570 News came as such a big blow, and why it continues to be so hard to make the erosion of local news a community issue. He will also talk about walking the fine line between mutual interest and accountability, why local media still has an advantage in securing people’s trust, and why we need a “buy local” campaign for our community news outlets.
So let's talk again about the state of local news on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Ink-Stained Wretches at their website, or you can follow them on Facebook and Blue Sky. For some more conversation about the state of local media, especially in Waterloo Region, you can check out a panel discussion that was hosted at the Ink-Stained Wretches Journalism Film Festival, which took place earlier this spring, at Midtown Radio here.
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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we... [coughcoughcough]! Ugh! This air is just [cough]! I mean really you can't [coughcough]! without [coughcoughcough]! Yes, the air is bad, but then again, so is the news. We're heading back to Iran, and then we're heading back to Alberta for our first showdown with data centres. And if we can spare the air, we will spend the second half of the show talking to a Farmer who has some Climate Solutions!
This Thursday, July 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Strait Story. It's been almost five months since Donald Trump launched his two-week war against Iran and this week peace seemed more elusive than ever. After reports about a standing threat against Trump's life by Iran, the United States went back to nightly bombings, and Trump began pondering war crimes again like bombing critical infrastructure. How many do-overs does Trump have left in order to stop the war he so foolishly started?
Data Centre Stage. Last week, Meta announced that they're building a new A.I. data centre in a small Alberta town. Premier Danielle Smith thinks that this is great news, but an increasing number of Canadians don't like the sound of more data centres opening, or the potentially negative impacts on power and water supplies. Is there a hope that the people might have a say in how much time, effort and energy is put into these data centres, or is this project the first domino to fall?
Farming Out Climate Solutions. Notice something strange about the air and sky this week? Once again the signs of the climate crisis are all around us and interest in solving it seems to be at an all-time low, but there are people who's livelihood depends on having an environment in good working order, and the livelihood of all us depends on them too. This week, we're joined by Brenda Hsueh of Farmers for Climate Solutions to talk about how farmers are working the problem, and why they need more help to get it done.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, we're doing a clip show! Taking a break from the summer movie madness, we will revisit our reviews for what are objectionably the best movies of the year so far, one is a buddy space adventure to save the world, one is a buddy movie about suffering for your art, and the last one is a buddy film about pushing your buddy too far. Well, sort of.
This Wednesday, July 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Best of 2026 So Far. Critics can have different ideas about what does and doesn't make a "Best of the Year" list, but for 2026 so far, there seems to be three picks that just about every critic agrees are the best of this year! On this week's show we will go back to space with Tim for Project Hail Mary, try and get a show at the Rivoli with Peter and Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie, and we will break a One Wish Willow and get obsessed all over again with Obsession. Relax this week as we get mentally ready for the next big thing...
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.
 

Due to circumstances beyond our control, this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast is a combination of two interviews from recent editions of Open Sources Guelph. Housing remains a big issue in this city, as we saw as recently as last night's council meeting, but housing is an Ontario-wide issue too so for this episode of the pod we will open our gaze to areas beyond our borders.
Two times now, Waterloo Region has tried to evict a homeless encampment on the site of proposed transit hub project in Kitchener, and twice an Ontario court has upheld the Charter rights of the people living there. Now, the Region and the Ontario government are trying to take things to the Court of Appeals, but will they have any greater success there? In part one, Waterloo Region Community Legal Services executive director Ashley Schuitema, who represents the residents, will tell us why she’s holding all the cards.
For years, we’ve been waiting for all levels of government to make substantial progress on getting more affordable homes built, but some advocates are now wondering if maybe working within the present system is worth their while. In part 2 we will be joined by Matt Whitfield and Gaetan Heroux, organizers of the People’s Assembly for Housing Justice, who tell us why fighting Toronto’s housing crisis may not involve getting involved in the local election this fall.
So let's look at some housing issues beyond the immediate Guelph area on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Waterloo Region Community Legal Services, including updates about the fight for the Kitchener encampment on their website. You can learn more about the Parkdale Housing Justine Network on Instagram and you can learn about the Toronto Tenant Union at their website. If you would like to learn more about Guelph's own nascent tenant union will be taking part in Breezy Breakfast this Thursday at 8 am at Uptown Grill.
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.