Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #190 - Guelph Stuff (Local Election Update)

There's an election going on. If you know this already, then you are very well-informed, but if you turn on your TV to look for pundits to tell you what they think about the local race, you will be disappointed because they're all about the national leaders. Someone needs to fill the gap left by short-sighted mainstream media outlets. This sounds like a job for Guelph Stuff!
On this edition of Guelph Stuff, a recurring segment of the Guelph Politicast that focuses on analysis of local issues, we're joined by Scotty Hertz, who's doing double duty this week as co-host of Open Sources Guelph, and guest commentator on this Guelph Stuff episode of the pod. This time, Guelph Stuff is all about the 2019 Federal Election in the Royal City.
As Guelph Politico covered last week's social justice debates from the media table, Scotty watched the debate from the shadows audience, and we'll use this week's edition of the podcast to trade notes about the candidates; Who did well? Who did damage? Who might have made a less than perfect impression? Also, we'll talk about the whole race in Guelph, and how the candidates look to be handling the campaign trail with less than three weeks to go before Election Day.
So let's talk once again about Guelph Stuff on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Open Sources Guelph's interview series with the local candidates continues this week with Christian Heritage Party candidate Gordon Truscott, and People’s Party of Canada candidate Mark Paravolos. You can catch up with the interviews we’ve already done elsewhere on the Guelph Politicast 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 iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 - September 26, 2019

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we fly the orange flag of welcome for local NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir, the latest candidate to join us for our 2019 series of interview for this Federal Election, but that's just half the show. For the second half we're going to look out further at the national campaign, and then take in all the latest drama south of the border, which this week has been more substantial than usual.
This Thursday, September 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Nurse Aisha. This week, we continue our candidate profiles by talking to Aisha Jahangir of the NDP. Jahangir comes from a traditional New Democratic background being a nurse, and a labour organizer, but working as a mental health nurse, first at Homewood here in Guelph and currently at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, gives her experience that puts her at the intersection of a lot of the big issues face Canadians this election. We'll talk to Jahangir about her experience, the NDP platform, and why she wants to represent Guelph in Ottawa.
Back to the Regularly Scheduled Campaign? Any and every campaign story last week was blown off the proverbial front page due to the brown and black face controversy from Prime Minster Justin Trudeau's yearbook past, but nearly a week later it seems like that's old news even as Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh have a top secret phone call to talk about the matter. In the mean time, it seems like climate change is back on the national agenda, just in time for a week of climate strike events. So what does the Federal Election look like with just over three weeks till E-Day?
Once More Onto the Impeach! It looks like Donald Trump didn't get the message from the Mueller Report, and tried again to solicit help from a foreign power in an election campaign, but this time it might cost him. A news report about a whistleblower that heard something on a call they didn't like has snowballed into the impeachment drama we've long been expecting, but never thought we'd see. Will this week be remembered as the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, or is it just another bump in the road?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

WELLINGTON-HALTON HILLS POLITICAST - Ralph Martin, Green Party

So what is the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast? For the next couple of weeks, it’s a miniseries we’re doing to profile the people running in the riding of Wellington Halton-Hills, which basically surrounds Guelph, and has a very unique and different character from our political field here in the Royal City.
This first edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast features Wellington Halton-Hills Green Party candidate Ralph Martin, who's task to become part of a new class of insurgent Green MPs is made doubly hard because this riding is home to Conservative Michael Chong, a man well liked on all sides of politics, and widely regarded as something of a maverick, and a moderate, inside his own party.
Chong won Wellington Halton-Hills for the fourth time in 2015 with over 50 per cent of the vote, and in this election he's already received the endorsement of GreenPAC, an advocacy group for environmentally-friendly politicians. So Chong is popular, he's green friendly, and no Green politician in Wellington Halton-Hills has ever broken 10 per cent? Martin's got a steep hill to climb...
He's got the right credentials though. Martin grew up on a beef and hog farm in Wallenstein, before he left home and worked his way through academia to earn a Ph.D. in Plant Science at McGill University. He's the founder of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada, and he's the former Loblaw Chair, for Sustainable Food Production at the University of Guelph, where he still a professor and researcher.
On this edition of the podcast, Martin talks about dealing with Chong's advantages, and how he hopes to counter them. He also discusses how he covers the vast amount of territory that makes up the riding while doing so in an environmentally-friendly way. Also, he talks about the top priorities of the people in Wellington Halton-Hills, how food policy plays into discussions of climate change, and what the House of Commons might look like with the Greens holding the balance of power.
So let's hear from the Green Team on this inaugural edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast!
To find out more about Ralph Martin and his campaign, you can visit his website. The Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast will hopefully continue in the weeks to come with the rest of the riding's Federal candidates.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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.

End Credits - September 25, 2019 (Ad Astra)

This week on End Credits we're going all the way to Neptune, so pack a lunch! Actually, we're just going to the movies to watch Ad Astra, which is set, in part, around Neptune. Speaking of space cases, we'll talk about the hiring practices of SNL and the Crazy Rich Asians sequel, plus a startling glimpse at an alternative present, and why the world apparently needs remakes!
This Wednesday, September 25, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Vince Masson will discuss:
Low Down Dirty Shane. Saturday Night Live is no stranger to controversy, it's just usually after they've aired an episode. New cast member Shane Gillis though was hired and fired before he ever made it to air because of some questionable "comedy" choices, so has the veritable franchise lost its ability to find talent?
10 Per Cent Effort. Crazy Rich Asians was one of the biggest success stories last year at the movies, but it's one of this year's hottest controversies as Adele Lim, one of the two screenwriters on the original, was offered one-tenth the pay as her co-writer Peter Chiarelli to write the sequel. Is this an instance of the racism just under the surface in Hollywood?
What Coulda Been. In his new book, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that it was his belief that if Steve Jobs had lived then there was a very good chance that Disney and Apple would have merger. Under Iger's watch Disney consumed Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox, so the question is, just how much bigger does Disney have to be?
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Remake. So many remakes have been announced this week, most of them for new streaming services like Quibi's new version of The Fugitive, and Peacock's updates of Saved By the Bell and Punky Brewster. The most egregious one though was the suggestion that The Princess Bride can be remade. So what's driving this remake fever?
REVIEW: Ad Astra (2019). Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of Brad Pitt. His mission: to find his lost father in deep space, uncover the mysteries of universe, and reverse his own feelings of loneliness and isolation. To boldly get that Oscar, which has so far eluded him! Yes, Ad Astra is a thinking man's (and woman's) space opera, but will it cross Hollywood's final frontier to become a commercial success and an award season darling?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #189 - Maude!

Guelph knows water. We're the largest community in Canada that depends exclusively on ground water for our needs, and we're hyper aware of the dangers to our water supply and the urgent need to protect them. You know who else knows about working hard to protect Canada's water? You should, she pops by with impressive regularity this time of year.
Maude Barlow has many epitaphs, but she's mostly known for her tireless and vocal advocacy on protecting water resources from exploitation and privatization, and keeping them in public hands. The local chapter of the Council of Canadians has brought Barlow to town every fall for the last few years, but this year Barlow's got a new book, her 19th!
In Whose Water Is It, Anyway?: Taking Water Protection into Public Hands, Barlow talks about the Blue Communities Project, an endeavour by the Council of Candians to get cities around the world to recognize water as a human right, phase out and ban bottled water from municipal facilities, and to promote publicly financed water and wastewater services. Guelph isn’t officially a Blue Community, but it can definitely be argued that we hold up those values.
With so much to talk about, Barlow joins the podcast this week to discuss her Guelph appeal, what inspiration that she hopes her new book will create, and why cities all over the world are becoming Blue Communities. She also talks about why protecting water resources seems to be the one area of environmental action that isn't political, and why there’s still so much work to do to get people out of the bottled water habit. And naturally, we also talk about that well-known bottling plant down the road from here.
So let's hear about water from Canada's water warrior on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Maude Barlow will be speaking at HOPE House on Tuesday October 1 at 7 pm, and you can get more details here. Barlow's new book, Whose Water Is It, Anyway?: Taking Water Protection into Public Hands, is now available from wherever you buy fine books.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 - September 19, 2019

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’re going to really get into the election issues, and for a change it’s not going to involve punditry. This week, we’re going to start our candidate interviews with two back-to-back contenders in the form of Communist Party candidate Juanita Burnett, and then we're going to talk about other controversies with the election.
This Thursday, September 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
A Matter of Work. The first candidate we’re interviewing in this election needs no introduction because this is not her first time as a candidate, or as a candidate being interview on Open Sources. Juanita Burnett is running for the Communist Party for the third time, but in her first time as a Federal candidate, and we’ll talk to her campaign and making workers and labour a priority in 2019.
What a Week. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau really stepped in it this week, or we should say, he stepped in it 20 or 30 years ago. The brown face, and then black face, controversy hit the stolid campaign trail like a tonne of bricks, and made international news in the progress. So can Trudeau mount a comeback and save his re-election hopes, and what about the deeper racial implications at the hear of the controversy? 
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - September 18, 2019 (Hustlers)

This week on End Credits, we’re going to talk about how we survived TIFF even though we didn’t actually attend this year. Still, that film festival has heavily influenced our slate this week, with a review of Hustlers, and some discussion about the movies with the buzz post-festival. Also, we’re going to talk about the new terms in the streaming wars, Jim Cameron’s kingly ambitions.
This Wednesday, September 18, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Lucky ‘Rabbit’. Taika Waititi won the Toronto International Film Festival, but taking the coveted People’s Choice Award, an early predictor of the Oscar Best Picture race. So is Jojo Rabbit the one to beat in awards’ season? Also, what happened to all the talk about female directors and people of colour? Did TIFF get too distracted by all the famous people again?
Joker’s Wild. One of the most talked about movies to come out of TIFF was Todd Phillips’ Joker, the ultra-violent, realistic exploration of the famous Batman villain. Unlike the Venice Festival though, not all the buzz about Joker at TIFF was over-the-top praise. We’ll look at all the Joker related news that came out of the Toronto Film Festival.
Plus Doesn’t Mean More. Disney’s new streaming service Disney+ may be changing the way we watch TV even before it launches. New shows on Disney+ will not be bingeable, so you’ll have to watch them week-to-week, instead one after the other, and Netflix has noticed, making the same move for a couple of its upcoming shows. Is this the end of binging as we know it?
King James’ Version. Director James Cameron used to have number one and two of the biggest box office earners of all-time, domestically and internationally, but now he has none. We’ll talk about Cameron’s somewhat sedate new interview on the subject, and whether he’s plotting to reclaim his crown with four Avatar sequels.
REVIEW: Hustlers (2019). There wasn’t a single business or group that wasn’t effected by the economic downturn of the Great Recession, and that includes exotic dancers. Based on a true story, Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez lead a crew of ladies to get payback against the guys that tanked their careers and the world economy, but that’s only part of the story. We’ll review this funny, touching and daring new movie that’s more than a tease.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #188 - The Correspondences

Five hours after the council meeting began, the main library project was back on track. After a couple of months of mixed messages and confusion, the library advocates were pleased with the definitive 9-4 decision to proceed with a new main library and the hard cap price tag of $67.1 million. But not all voices were heard.
In the ever expansive quest to maximize our local democracy, many us wonder if all those correspondences at the back of the agenda are given due consideration. A lot of the people who appear at council can be classified as "frequent flyers," people who know how to delegate, and do it often. But they're not the only ones that speak on an issue.
For people unable to come to council because of work or family reasons, or for people who might have a bit of stage freight or another sort of social anxiety, being able to write your thoughts down and send them to the clerk is a good second (or even first) option. Still, it feels like we weigh these two types of engagement differently. The live delegates get reported on, but do the equally engaged and enlightened writers?
That changes this week. On this edition of the podcast, you will hear a reading of some of the numerous, and occasionally lengthy, written submissions for Monday's council meetings. Some of them are a short couple of sentences, others are highly detailed, but you'll notice that they're all in favour. We're always making a case the there needs to be more listening in modern political discourse, so let's do just that.
So let's here from you, the people, on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Do you want to know how it all turned out? Recap the city council meeting here, or subscribe to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet every Tuesday and Friday 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 iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, 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 - September 12, 2019

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're just really eager to get this election started, Justin! (He might be listening.) So we'll kick off this week's episode with an election preview, and then we'll get into the week's news, which is also, for the most part, about elections. We'll discuss the increased security for a Federal cabinet minister because of online threats, the results of the Manitoba election, and some more of the U.S. President's patented Kool-Aid Man diplomacy. 
This Thursday, September 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Super Karate Monkey Death Car Election Preview. It's almost here! And it may be here by the time you're reading this. Yes, this is the final countdown to the 2019 Federal Election (or the official launch depending on how all the timing works out), so we'll look at where the parties stand as the writ is drawn up. Who has the biggest advantage? Who has the biggest challenges? Is this Justin Trudeau's election to lose, or Andrew Scheer's election to win? Let's get election ready!
Troll Through the Park. In another kind of preview of Election 2019, it was reported that Catherine McKenna, the Minister of the Environment, has been given added security because of online threats. It's no secret that McKenna triggers a certain kind of troll, pejoratives like "Climate Barbie" have been all the rage since she was appoint to cabinet in 2015, but how has this gone as far as death threats? Also, and we really should be asking this more often, what's wrong with people?
More Life for Brian? The Manitoba Provincial Election was this past Tuesday, and if the advanced polls are to be believed, then Progressive Conservative Premier Brian Pallister walked to another victory in the Keystone province. So what did any of this prove? Did this cold, cynical polliticking of calling an election midsummer, and a year early, work, and what effect will this have on Manitoba voters as they face back-to-back elections?
The Negotiate Story. In a surprise Twitter announcement (as if there's any other) U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was cancelling a meeting with the President of Afghanistan and the leaders of the Taliban at Camp David to discuss a peace treaty. It was bad optics that they were meeting on the 18th anniversary of 9/11, but there are worse optics like the rare split between Trump and V.P. Mike Pence on the whole idea of the meeting. We'll discuss the latest example of Trump's so-called "diplomacy."
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - September 11, 2019 (IT Chapter 2)

End Credits is back! Did you miss us? Of course, you did, so let's talk about what we're going to talk about. We're reviewing the horror sequel IT, so hopefully that coulrophobia stuff is under control. We're also going to discuss the summer that was at the movies, the year that was for women and people of colour, a couple of new trailers, and what's new with some of your favourite stars.
This Wednesday, September 11, at 2 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin'. It was a tough summer at the box office unless your name was Walt Disney Studios, which had the Top 4 money-makers with a billion dollars each to their name. For everyone else - from Godzilla, to the Men in Black, to the animated Pets - things did not go the way they wanted. So who won the box office, and who had a cruel summer?
The Colour of Money. The year 2018 was a good year for blockbusters, but it was also a pretty good year to star in them if you were a woman or a member of an underrepresented minority. The number of movies with those people in leading or co-leading roles went up in a big way last year, but the question remains, was this a fluke, or the start of a trend?
Profiles in Flourish. It's film festival and award season, so the magazines and papers are packed with profiles of some of the biggest players of the day. The New York Times had Brad Pitt, THR had Scarlett Johansson, and Variety had Robert Pattinson. We'll talk about what insights were gleamed from these most high-profile actors.
Two of a Kind. Getting into fall, there's going to be a lot of speculation about the best movies of the year. These will not be two of them. The Bad Boys are back 25 years after they first shot up Miami, and a Killer Sofa is going to kill all those wanting a good sit. You've heard the expression "read 'em and weep," well this is the watching version.
REVIEW: IT Chapter 2 (2019). Two years ago (27 in movie time), the first chapter of IT became one of the highest grossing horror movies ever! Was it the kids? Was it the clown? Was the time finally right for a Stephen King renaissance with a deep appreciation for the master's words? With an easy sequel ready to assemble, it seems right to think that this IT is going to go all the way to the bank again. So did this sequel deliver, or did it disappoint?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 2 pm.