GUELPH POLITICAST #464 – Guelph Politi-Chat (feat. Morgan Dandie)

These are some heady political times. We’ve already made it through one election this year, and we’re now in the midst of another. As we’re going to air, the consumer carbon tax is gone, the major parties are duelling to see who can be the most moderate, and it appears that things like environmental stewardship and compassion are just not affordable. Maybe it’s time to re-calibrate.

Let’s talk about the last few weeks at city council for a moment. This week’s Committee of the Whole meeting tackled the new Private Tree Bylaw and the potential use of the Drill Hall as an art and cultural centre, which the staff report made it clear that these are things we can’t fully afford now. And last week, the Public Space Use Bylaw was amended so there’s definitely message emanating from inside the halls of city hall: We’re now in a time of austerity.

It’s a dirty word that activists don’t like hearing, especially if they’re on the progressive side. Not wanting to get lost in the mishegoss of the federal election happening right now, we're going to re-calibrate and focus on city hall stuff, and regular council observer and a semi-regular council delegate Morgan Dandie is going to help us with that. She’s often been a fly in the ointment at city council on all kinds of issues, so how is she feeling about the current political moment as a council observer?

Morgan Dandie will answer that and other questions as she talks about the state of city council, the state of Mayor Guthrie’s perceived relationship with the other members of council, and how “Gotcha moments” are in the eye of the beholder. She will also talk about whether or not she thinks her delegations have an impact, being open to learning new things, her own successful efforts to improve herself as a speaker and a politician, and what keeps her hopeful as an activist. 

So let's get into some Guelph Politi-Chat on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can follow Morgan Dandie on Instagram. You can see what she said at Committee of the Whole yesterday and get other information about what’s coming up at city council meetings on the City of Guelph’s website. And a programming note: If you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North (which includes parts of Guelph), tune in on Thursdays on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca, or download OSG on Monday on this feed. 

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.