Guelph Politicast

GUELPH SPORTSCAST: Who's on First Base Coach?

Every year, four or five people are plucked from Guelph’s sporting history and are immortalized for all eternity on the walls of the Sleeman Centre, but one doesn’t spend a life in local sports to be immortal. It’s a passion that can span a lifetime, which is what decades of Royals might say about Paul Ante, who has been one kind of Guelph Royal or another for the last half-century.
Paul Ante been a part of the Guelph Royals Intercounty baseball team for over five decades as a player, coach, manager, and administrator. He's helped lead the team to championships, and he runs baseball clinics every year to help even younger players to develop their skills. Imagine all the lives that Ante has touched in 50 years being involved with the Guelph Royals and Guelph baseball.
And Guelph history is so indelibly tied with the sport of baseball. The Guelph Royals organization has existed in one form or another since 1861, and it even roped in George Sleeman in the 1880s who invested big in order to bring American talent to Guelph. The Royals are such an institution that they also survived their own near-death experience in 2016, and that's owed to the dedication of people Ante, who will once again be at first base on opening day later this month!
Ante took time out from getting ready for the 2024 baseball season to join us on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast to talk about his life and career in baseball in Guelph, how he feels about getting into the Hall of Fame, and what he thinks is the secret to his success in baseball. He will also talk about the difference between being a coach and being the boss, what to look out for in the upcoming season, and the role that sports has played in shaping his life and career.
So let's play ball on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast!
Paul Ante will be inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame at the Induction Ceremony & Kiwanis Sports Celebrity Dinner on Wednesday May 15 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can find info on tickets and other inductees here. The Guelph Royals 2024 season home opener is on Saturday May 18 at 1 pm at Hastings Stadium. You can get all ticket information at the Royals' 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.

End Credits #339 - May 1, 2024 (Challengers)

This week on End Credits, we work on our serve. Summer is here, so we have thoughts about getting outside and getting involved in sports, and romance (?) The two are combined in the new film Challengers, which was the number one film at the box office last weekend. And speaking of summer, it unofficially begins this weekend in theatres. Stand by for a preview!
This Wednesday, May 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer 2024 Movie Preview! For the first time since 2006 (excluding the pandemic), the summer movie season begins with a film that's not a Marvel movie. The Summer Movie Season officially begins this Friday with The Fall Guy, a straight-up action comedy starring Ryan Gosling, which is emblematic of what might the most uncertain movie slate of any summer in decades. Still, it looks like there will be some bangers, and we will seek them out!
REVIEW: Challengers (2024). Is Zendaya a movie star? Sure, she's a BFD to the Disney Channel set 10 years ago, and then she graduated to big franchises like Spider-Man and Dune, but can she hold court (heh) as one point in a romantic triangle in a big, old-fashioned Hollywood love story. The answer is in Challengers, the latest movie from Luca Guadagnino. Set against competitive world of tennis, Challengers followers three players caught between love, sex, ego, money, competition, and status. It's a capital 'S' star vehicle for Zendaya, but do we want to take the ride?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #417 – Guelph Stories

As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the Canada Company settling Guelph in just three years, you can expect to hear more about how we’re honouring our history in Guelph, both pre- and post-settlement. Between that moment John Galt cut down that first tree and this moment listening to this podcast, there’s been a whole lot of Guelph history, and one man has published a new collection about some of those lesser known bits that you should definitely know.
This week, we're joined by Ed Butts, a local author and historian. Butts has dedicated much of the last decade inspecting all of Guelph’s nooks and crannies, looking at all the forgotten tales, the forgotten celebrities, the newsmakers and royals who came to town, and all the times that no one liked what was in the headlines. Butts has taken all this and woven weekly adventures through Royal City history for Guelph Today, and the Guelph Mercury before that.
Now, Butt’s collected some of those tales in a new booked appropriately called Guelph Stories. From the origin of certain Guelph landmarks, to all the mysterious and still unsolved crimes in Guelph’s underbelly; from that time after World War II when Guelph City Council banned midnight movies to Anne Jamison who lived in Guelph between her birth in Ireland and Hollywood fame on the radio, Guelph Stories is 300 pages of local character that money can’t buy (although buying a copy of the book will cost you $30). 
On this week’s podcast, we will go behind the pages, as it were, to talk to Butts about how the book, and the history, came together. He will tell us about how his Guelph Story started, how he seeks out the history he tells and how, sometimes, the history comes to him. We will also talk about how he knows when he’s found a good story, and how he separates fact from legend when he’s doing research. Also, which local history nerd would win a round of Jeopardy! that focuses on Guelph history?
So let's dig into the story behind Guelph Stories on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can get your copy of Guelph Stories at The Bookshelf independent bookstore downtown, and at the gift shop of the Guelph Civic Museum. You can also email Butts about getting your copy by sending your order to edpbutts [at] yahoo.com. You can also stay up-to-date, so to speak, with all of Butt’s latest insights into Guelph’s rich and varied history by reading his weekly column at Guelph Today.
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 #468 - April 25, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we mark Earth Week by discussing some of the news that happened on this planet. We will travel from Washington D.C. to Kiev where there's finally some good news in that war effort, but it's just too bad that there wasn't any good news when it comes to funding our regional transit system. Also, we will talk and act locally with one of our Guelph city councillors.
This Thursday, April 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
For a Few Dollars More... At long last, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to send much need financial aid to Ukraine. Now three years into their all-out war against Russia, the Ukrainians have been fighting with anything they can as they desperately await help from the States, aid that was mostly held up by Russia's new fair-haired girl, Marjorie Taylor Greene. With the bullets set to flow again, might 2024 be a breakthrough year for our Ukrainian allies?
Slowpiercer. Last week, Premier Doug Ford announced expansion plans for several GO Train lines, but not everyone gets improved transit equally. While the Government of Ontario increased frequency on the Kitchener Line, those additional trains don't make it all the way to Kitchener, which is one of many gaps in a system that's desperately awaiting more service for users. Why is Ontario still so far behind on regional transit?
The Shroud of Erin. Council is taking the week off, but it's been very, very busy lately on a variety of topics. One of those topics was a series of complaints about the mayor's social media posts, and out of that came a couple of motions about beefing up council's online policies. The author of those motions was Ward 1 Councillor Erin Caton, who will join us this week to talk about about the results, and they will also look ahead to new council business in May.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #338 - April 24, 2024 (Civil War)

This week on End Credits, it's war! Yes, it's time to get political again with the movie that everyone's talking about, whether you follow every last detail about American elections or not. Yes, we're tackling Civil War, and we're also going to talk about the studio that launched this controversial (and lucrative) project, and some of their less well-known (and controversial) efforts.
This Wednesday, April 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
F***ing A24! In 2012, a new studio was launched to try and capture some of those new and eccentric voices that were getting squeezed out of the market. Within a decade, A24 had won an Oscar for Best Picture (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and fostered talent like Ari Aster, Ti West, Greta Gerwig, Sean Baker, and many, many more. Civil War is their biggest film yet, but we're dedicated the first part of the show to some of their underappreciated gems.
REVIEW: Civil War (2024). It's the talk of the culture right now, a movie called Civil War, coming out in an American election year where people are talking about a second U.S. civil war. There's no doubt that Alex Garland has his finger on the pulse with this one, a tale of four journalists travelling across war-torn America to get to the frontlines outside Washington D.C., but Garland seems less concerned with up-to-the-minute political analysis when compared to the inner-psychology of the people that document death and destruction, so is that okay for this audience?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #416 – Day of Mourning 2024

If it’s the end of April, then you know it’s time for the annual National Day or Mourning. Although the pandemic is over, it's worth remembering there was a whole class of workers who had to keep working as it happened, and that meant intentionally putting themselves at risk. This was important, but even before the pandemic, workers across Canada in all sorts of work were taking risks every day, often unknowingly, and they still are.
According to the Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada, in 2022, there were 993 workplace fatalities recorded in Canada. Among these deaths were 33 young workers aged 15-24. Now, there are dangerous jobs in the world, jobs that can expose you to dangerous people, or dangerous circumstances, but would you classify climbing a ladder under the category of “dangerous work”?  Sometimes the little dangers become big problems with high personal costs.
According to lore, two labour activists were driving to a union meeting in 1983 when they were stopped for a funeral procession. The deceased was a firefighter who died in the line of duty - he died on the job - and they were struck by an idea: Not everyone that is killed on the job is given this kind of remembrance. The Government of Canada legislated the Workers Mourning Day Act in 1990, and since then workers in Canada stop on April 28, and remember colleagues hurt and killed on the job.
Here in 2024, we will be joined by Sarah Neath and Janice Folk-Dawson from the Guelph and District Labour Council. They will talk about the things they think about during the National Day Mourning, the things they hope you’re thinking about, and the things that they want the people in power to think about in order to make sure that fewer people die on the job. Also, they will talk about how affordability plays into issues around worker safety, and their own experiences with workplace safety.
So let's talk about marking another year of people killed on the job on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The local commemoration for the National Day of Mourning is on Sunday April 28 at 1 pm at Goldie Mill Park off Cardigan Street, and that will be followed by a reception at Diana’s Downtown on Upper Wyndham. You can also follow #DayofMourning on social media to stay on top of all the events and all the advocacy that comes along with the issues behind worker safety on the job across Canada. You can follow the Guelph and District Labour Council on Facebook or at their 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 #467 - April 18, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to have an "orgy of spending." That's how one Conservative MP described this year's federal budget, and we're going to talk about why, and speaking of elicit sex, we're going talk about the criminal trial of the former U.S. President. In the back half of the show though we're going to keep things nice and professional with a future election candidate.
This Thursday, April 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Eat the Rich? The federal government released the 2024 budget on Tuesday, and it was meant to be a balm to Canada's affordability crisis, especially for young people. The new spending claims to have no impact on the deficit because of modest increases to the capital gains tax, but there's a big question mark about whether this spending will have a real impact. We'll talk about what all's in this budget.
Blight Court. For the first time, a former President of the United States is on criminal trial, before you ask if that's Donald Trump, let me tell you, it's Donald Trump! The case is about about the alleged use of campaign funds to buy the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels about their dalliance that one time, and it means some long, boring, embarrassing weeks in a court room for the Republican nominee. We'll talk about the first two days.
Folk-Dawson's Creek. The next federal election is still more than a year-and-a-half away, at least if the confidence and supply agreement holds up. But even if it comes apart, the NDP in Guelph are ready because they have a candidate in place, and it's Janice Folk-Dawson. A well-known and accomplished labour activist, Folk-Dawson will tell us about making the move to politics and why she wants to put the labour back into Canada's labour party.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #337 - April 17, 2024 (Lisa Frankenstein)

This week on End Credits, we're going to raise the dead. Sounds serious, but it's not. It's funny! Our main review this week was thought dead on arrival when it was released in theatres earlier this year, but all movies can live again on VOD and today we're going to see if there's some life left in Lisa Frankenstein. As for the rest of the show, we go full zombie with a modern classic! 
This Wednesday, April 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Shaun of the Dead at 20. In 2004, Edgar Wright did something remarkable: He made a zombie movie that was funny. Forget that this was a time when the business wasn't making a lot of zombie movies, the idea of taking the trappings of that genre and making it a laugh? Impossible! Well, Wright proved them wrong, and on the 20th anniversary of Shaun of the Dead's U.K. release, we will talk about why the movie still slaps after two decades of zombie overkill.
REVIEW: Lisa Frankenstein (2024). The year is 1989 and Lisa is not like the other girls. Her mom was killed by an axe murderer (no, really), she's been wedged into a new family where she sticks out even more, and she's more than little into the morbid side of life doing things like hanging out in a graveyard. And that's where true love finds her! From the mind of Jennifer's Body scribe Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein combines 1980s excess and 1800s excess in a unique package, and this week we'll determine if it's the can't miss movie we missed.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #415 - Doors Open Preview

Doors Open Guelph is one of dozens of similar events across Ontario that celebrates local history and heritage by throwing open the doors to buildings that are typically pretty inaccessible to the general public. There’s no shortage of history and heritage nerds in Guelph who all have their favourites so how are the sites chosen, why are they chosen, and why are these buildings on the 2024 tour?
The Ontario Heritage Trust started organizing Doors Open events around the province in 2002 and Guelph started doing it’s own a few years after that and it’s been a regular appointment every April. Well, almost every April. You might recall that there was a pause in going to strange places four years ago with the COVID-19 pandemic, and while that means there are still no tours of private homes that doesn’t mean there’s no shortage of juicy stops on this year’s tour!
On Saturday April 27, a dedicated group of community volunteers will be ready to receive you at nearly dozen different places around Guelph. You can go from duelling city halls downtown, to the home base of the Guelph Black Heritage Society; from Dublin Street United Church, which is marking their sesquicentennial this year, to the literal end of the line at the mausoleum of Woodlawn Memorial Park. Also, you can blind yourself with science at the Guelph Research and Development Centre on Stone Road!
This week, we're joined by Susan Ratcliffe, who is one of the organizers of the annual Doors Open Guelph, and she will take us through the program to talk about each property, the secrets it holds, why it was chosen, and what you’re going to see when you get there. We’re also going to discuss how Doors Open is organized, how the program comes together every year, how pandemic concerns are still impacting what appears, and Ratcliffe’s personal, favourite pick from this year’s line-up. 
So let's learn more about these Doors that will Open on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can take part in Doors Open Guelph at all the locations we discussed on Saturday April 27 from 10 am to 4 pm, and you can get the full of locations and addresses at the City's website. You can also take part in Doors Open After Dark, which takes place the day before from 5 pm to midnight at the Guelph Civic Museum.
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 #466 - April 11, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still recovering from eclipse fever! More earth-bound matters are our concern this episode, and that means talking another trip to the Middle East to talk about the war inside Gaza, but it also means acknowledging that we've got defence problems closer to home too. In the back half of the show, our concern is going to be about work, and the people coming here to work.
This Thursday, April 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
180 Days. It's now been a little over six months since Hamas fighters launched a terrible terror attack on Israel, but in that time any sympathy seems to have faded due to Benjamin Netanyahu's disproportionate counteroffensive. Even U.S. President Joe Biden seems ready to put conditions on aid as sources inside the Israeli government says the date for the invasion of Rafah has been set. So what now?
The Two Per Cent Solution. The Government of Canada this week announced billions in new defence spending, but despite that we will still fall short of the NATO pledge to dedicate two per cent of our GDP to the cause of our own security. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried to play it cool and say that more could be coming, but the pressure is on for Canada to carry it's weight in the Alliance. Is this enough?
Migrants at Work. With the planting season here, more migrant workers will be arriving in surrounding communities to help with the busy and strenuous tasks that come with farming. But there's more than one type of migrant worker, and they are facing all kinds of challenges as they're going about their jobs and to help us sort all that out, we will be joined by Kit Andres from the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.