Guelph Politicast

If you've been following this project for the last month or so, you might have noticed a big whole in the coverage: Where is Ward 4? The west end has one of the races with the smallest number of candidates, especially compared to Wards 2 and 5. In 2022, one Ward 4 candidate ran on the slogan "Ignored no more" so in that spirit, we finally head to The Quatro!
First up, we will ask Guelph Safe Homes Project founder Jesse Guite about the ethos of “measure twice tax once”, why his project to help people make home repairs became a new political career, what Ward 4 needs from city hall right now, and why his issue this election involves a very simple addition to area parks.
Then, we will talk to former City of Guelph general manager Derek McCaughan about why he wants to make the pivot from staff work to oversight, what his vision for accountability looks like, having influence over the mayor’s budget, and managing community expectations as development begins on the Dolime Quarry site in the next few years.
So let’s hear from two more council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and you can now check out candidate questionnaires on the Guelph Politico 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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph you will never guess what we're doing... If you said we're going to be doing more candidate interviews with people running for Guelph city council this election, well, that was pretty predictable actually. On this week's show, we've got two incumbents and three challengers as we focus on north Guelph, and three wards each facing their own unique challenges and conundrums.
This Thursday, September 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Election Roulette Round #4. The 2026 municipal elections is underway, and by the time we get to the end of Election Day on October 26 there will be at least five new city councillors and a new mayor for Guelph. Like we did in 2022, Open Sources Guelph are dedicated to highlighting as many candidates as possible, and every week we are talking to five of the people running for a seat at city hall. On this edition, we’re talking to Dan Gibson, Mustafa Zuberi, Marty Williams, Jesse Guite and Linda Busuttil.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

One thing's for sure this coming election day, there will be at least one new city councillor in Ward 1 and at least one new councillor in Ward 5. Both wards have solid and well-liked incumbents, but what about those open seats? Why have one Daniel in Ward 1 when you can have two? And perhaps what Ward 5 needs is someone minding the details, like sidewalks?
In this edition, we will talk to housing activist and rental union organizer Daniel Kaufmann about why he wanted to make the transition from activist to politician, his point of view on commercial needs in the ward, managing the various competing priorities in the east end, and what he wants to do next in the battle to protect affordable housing.
Then we will zoom down to Ward 5 again to talk to businessman and serial community advocate Jon Christensen about standing out in a tough field, being an unrelenting optimist in uncertain times, issues of potential micromanagement as a councillor, and the sidewalk conundrum that has taken up so much of his campaign efforts.
So let’s hear from two more council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and you can now check out candidate questionnaires on the Guelph Politico 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.

This week on End Credits, we're running back to the theatres for the latest massive horror movie from a comedy director turned horror auteur. Yes, we're going back to Racoon City with the latest entry in the Resident Evil series, which is now in theatres. We're also going all the way back to 1976 again by tackling the latest entry in our "6 For '76" series. It's about boxing (hint).
This Wednesday, September 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
6 For '76: Rocky. I Play Rocky was a big hit at this year's Toronto International Film Festival and it's all about how Rocky got made 50 years ago. The movie won the 1976 Oscar for Best Picture, probably because it stuck out like a sore thumb from the more dour entries as an underdog story about a never-was who gets his shot at the big time. Plus, it made writer and star Sylvester Stallone an icon in the process. Why does Rocky still hit as hard five decades later?
REVIEW: Resident Evil (2026). So this is the eighth entry in the franchise based on a long-running video game series about monster and zombies, why is everyone so exciting? Two words: Zach Cregger. The director of Barbarians and Weapons (surprisingly) took on the goal of resurrecting Resident Evil for his follow-up project, and dare we say it paid off? Starring Weapons breakout Austin Abrams, Resident Evil seems primed to be another horror movie smash success in 2026, but speaking critically for a minute, does the hype pay off in the end?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

It's getting close to crunch time for the candidates in this election! This Saturday will mark one-month till Election Day, and there's still a lot of ground to cover for candidates and voters alike. For this podcast, it’s going to be another north and south situation, and it’s another incumbent and new candidate situation too.
First, in Ward 1, incumbent councillor Dan Gibson will tell us about why he’s focused on continuity this election, how being a councillor has changed over the last 12 years, how he handles being a thorn in his colleagues’ side, and what can be done about the housing bottleneck in the next term.
Then we will head to the south end to ask Ward 6 candidate - and previous council vacancy hopeful - Laura McQuillen how she became the change she wanted to see, learning the lay of the land in municipal politics, managing the rapid pace of change in Ward 6, and what it means to be a “normal person” on city council.
So let’s hear from two more council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and you can now check out candidate questionnaires on the Guelph Politico 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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're on the campaign trail again. More than halfway through September, candidates are now getting into some real campaigning, and that includes a 10-minute pit stop at CFRU with one of the two collegial hosts at the station's flagship news and politics show. For this edition, we've got five more city council candidates including one incumbent and four challengers, some of whom you may already know or have heard from before.
This Thursday, September 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Election Roulette Round #3. The 2026 municipal elections is underway, and by the time we get to the end of Election Day on October 26 there will be at least five new city councillors and a new mayor for Guelph. Like we did in 2022, Open Sources Guelph are dedicated to highlighting as many candidates as possible, and every week we are talking to five of the people running for a seat at city hall. On this edition, we’re talking to Rodrigo Goller, Michelle Bowman, Rebecca Adam, Ali Malik, and Danny Lui.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

How long do you have to live in Guelph to be considered a Guelphite? As one of the fastest growing communities in Canada, there have been a lot of new people coming to town, and there's a natural friction between them and the ones who have been in Guelph for years. So do you have to put in a lot of time as a Guelphite before you can run for council?
First up from Ward 2, Kim Fry will join us to talk about realizing her long-time dream of moving Guelph in recent years, struggling to justify her place in this campaign as a newcomer, her family history in municipal politics, and why she’s running on optimism in local politics and not doomerism.
Then, we will then go one ward over to Ward 3 and join incumbent city councillor and lifelong Guelphite Phil Allt on the patio to talk about his case for getting a fourth term, how the housing challenge before council is changing, how he wants to redefine value, and what Ward 3 needs from city hall in terms or support.
So let’s hear from two more council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and you can now check out candidate questionnaires on the Guelph Politico 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.

This week on End Credits we go to court. Cartoon court! Our review this week will focus on a movie you probably hadn't heard about unless your deep in the wilds of Film Twitter, in which case you were very excited about this release. We're talking about Coyote Vs. Acme, which is now in theatres and we will further sew our film dork reps by talking TIFF.
This Wednesday, September 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The TIFF of the Spear! The Toronto International Film Festival continues in downtown Toronto, and while not everyone can go and take part every year, it's usually not too hard to find the movies that make a big splash there. So we will talk TIFF by talking about some of our favourite movies that premiered there in the past; from indie classics to all-in-one-night rom-coms. We may not be celebrities or gossip reporters, but we can TIFF too!
REVIEW: Coyote Vs. Acme (2026). It's been a cause célèbre among Letterboxd types for years. Originally earmarked for deletion in order to reap tax benefits, Warner Bros. eventually let someone else release Coyote Vs. Acme, a courtroom comedy featuring Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote suing the Acme Corporation for years of buying crappy products in his effort to eat the Road Runner. Starring Will Forte and John Cena, no one was expecting much of Coyote Vs. Acme, so why might it end up being one of the best surprises of the 2026 movie year?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

September is half over, and the campaign is heating up. The Guelph Politicast is coming back to you with two more candidates and once again we're mixing up the wards, two from each of the two busiest races in this year's election. This week, we’re going to talk about being a busy bee with one candidate and then we’re going to talk about business with another.
First up, we will talk to Ward 2 candidate, beekeeper and captain of the (Hive) collective Mike Barber about his history with bees, his ambitious plan to tackle homelessness and how he’s rallying the community to support it, and how he thinks we can balance downtown priorities between taking care of business and taking care of people.
We will then head to Ward 5 and talk to former CEO of Innovation Guelph and business consultant James Doran about what he’s laid out in his blueprint for Guelph, why business ideas can generate community benefits, and how he thinks he stands out in a very big and very diverse field in Ward 5.
So let’s hear from two more council candidates on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
To learn more about important election dates, and to see the list of candidates running in all the races, go to the City of Guelph website here. You can watch the videos of these and other interviews on the Guelph Politico YouTube channel @PoliticoOnVideo, and you can now check out candidate questionnaires on the Guelph Politico 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.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, election fever is becoming an election pandemic! (Too soon?) Now that Labour Day and Back to School is in the rearview mirror we can dedicate all of our attention to our local elections, and that's exactly what we're going to do on this edition with another quintet of candidates including a young person, another young person, a young mother, a business owner, and an incumbent.
This Thursday, September 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Election Roulette Round #2. The 2026 municipal elections is underway, and by the time we get to the end of Election Day on October 26 there will be at least five new city councillors and a new mayor for Guelph. Like we did in 2022, Open Sources Guelph are dedicated to highlighting as many candidates as possible, and every week we are talking to five of the people running for a seat at city hall. On this edition, we’re talking to Laura McQuillen, Dakota Cherry, Cathy Downer, Owen Martens, and Michael Barber.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.