Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #82 - Linda Terry, Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries

Jesus said, "The poor you will always have with you," but that doesn't mean we have to be okay with that. Poverty is as real, and tortuous today as it was two thousand years ago when that was written in the Book of Matthew, and try as we might, it seems that Jesus' words are not just gospel, but prophetic. So how can we change that?
Numerous social service and activism groups have been trying to find ways to undo the stranglehold of poverty for decades, but the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries realizes that they need a key partner to make real change happen: the media. Their 12th annual Poverty Symposium will focus on the topic, "Solutions to Poverty Includes Media", and will bring together a variety of media representatives to talk about how media can be used to increase awareness and action on poverty and related issues. Guelph Politico will represent the "new media" there.
So as a bit of prep work before the symposium, I asked Linda Terry, the executive director of the SPCCND to join me on the podcast to talk about her organization's work to combat poverty, how the media has shown in can make an impact in the recent past, and the difficulties in making an issue as big and multifaceted as poverty a media priority. As recently demonstrated, it's clear that this topic has struck a chord in our own committee, the need to talk about poverty and its effects more, so I hope that this podcast, and the symposium Thursday, starts a grand discussion about how local media can best help society's most vulnerable.
So let's talk about anti-poverty activism, the media, and how we can help each other on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The 12th annual Poverty Symposium "Solutions to Poverty Includes Media" takes place this Thursday at 8:30 am at the Preston Memorial Auditorium, 1458 Hamilton Street in Cambridge. To register on Event Brite, click here. To learn more about the work of the Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries you can visit their website here.
The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - June 8, 2017

This week on Open Sources Guelph we go around the world! Not literally, of course, and mostly in North America and the U.K., but what we're saying is that there are world wide implications. From someone that might be the Prime Minister of Canada if he can get his party's leadership, to a contest to determine who the leader of the United Kingdom will be, to a guy once called the "Leader of the Free World" but seems not even remotely interested in being a leader in his own house. Politics, elections, the environment and terror are all on the docket for this week's show. 
This Thursday, June 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Peter Can! The answer to the question: Who can best lead the New Democratic Party into the next election depending on who you ask. New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian came through Guelph last weekend looking to tap into that same progressive activist spirit that colleagues and fellow leadership candidates Charlie Angus and Niki Ashton have already tapped. We talked to Julian about his ambitious plan to turn grassroots groups and social movements into the base of the NDP, why the media's drumming up of a false narrative about the divide in the party, and how New Democrats have to find a way to remind Canadians they're the real progressive choice.
2) The Wrath of Khan. A terrorist attack in London Saturday that killed seven and injured nearly 50 became the third such attack in Great Britain in almost the same number of months, and on the eve of a fundraising concert to support the victims of the Manchester suicide bomber at an Arianna Grande show. Englanders approached the matter with their renowned "keep calm and carry on" stoicism, but on the other side of the ocean, the U.S. President seemed lose what little was left of his sanity. We'll talk about the wave of terrorism that's been affecting Britain, and how it might affect the outcome of Thursday's election across the United Kingdom. Speaking of which...
3) May's Day. After surprising everyone with a national election call that was a few years early, Theresa May will find out if she can get the broad support she needs to pursue tough Brexit negotiations sometime after our show's over Thursday night. May bet all her chips on Jeremy Corbyn not being able to mount a strong contest for the residency of Downing Street, but Corbyn's been turning out big crowds at his campaign rallies, and he has some old timey Labour members sweating that the electoral fate of the party is now completely tied to Corbyn in what was supposed to be his last hurrah. John Atkin, a former editor at the BBC, will join us to talk about the campaign and what we can anticipate when the returns come in.
4) Climate Discord. President Donald Trump seemed to put the nail in the coffin of both the planet, and on American leadership last week when he announced that the U.S. was leaving the Paris Climate Change Accord and throwing his lot in with Nicaragua, who think the deal was too weak, and Syria, who've got *ahem* bigger concerns. But something interesting happened. The world turned around and decided that they didn't need the U.S., or at least federal U.S. leadership. A dozen state governors and the mayors of 150 American cities have said they'll commit to the accord on their own. Can America, and the world, pursue a carbon neutral future without the support and funding of the federal government?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - June 7, 2017

This is it! The first episode of End Credits! Every week in this space, we, a small but dedicated group of local movie lovers, will talk about some of the latest news items from the realm of pop culture and review a recent cinematic offering. This week, we have concerns. We have concerns about using soured fruit to rate the quality of a film, about the portrayal of women in movies (even the prestigious ones), and about men's rights wackos getting scared of women enjoying a movie without them. All this, and a journey back to World War I with a warrior princess, on this week's inaugural show!
This Wednesday, June 7, at 8 am, Adam A. Donaldson, Candice Lepage, and Jenna Gare will discuss:
1) Something Rotten With the State of Tomatoes? Disappointed with the opening weekend returns of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Baywatch, some studio execs are blaming the know-it-alls on Rotten Tomatoes for giving those films such terrible notices. Really? Now the Tomato-Meter is to blame for terrible movies getting terrible reviews? There's always bene a push/pull between studios and critics, but are the former complaining about the latter too much? Especially when those same studios love to celebrate when their movie's are "certified fresh".
2) Jessica Chastises. At the close of the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival, shortly after Sofia Coppola became only the second woman in the festival's history to win Best Director, actress Jessica Chastain told a press conference that she was "disturbed" by the portrayal of women in the films she saw as a jury member. Chastain's comments caught a lot of people's attention, not out of surprise, but because she's given voice to some pretty broad concerns about women in movies both in front of and behind the camera. We'll discuss Chastain's comments and where the debate could, and should, go from here...
3) Ladies' Fight. Leading into our review this week, we'll talk about why so many men were upset at the idea of ladies' only screenings of Wonder Woman. The Alamo Drafthouse in several U.S. cities is hosting the sold-out screenings, which made certain men mad because the idea of women gathering on their own without men around is... scary (?). We'll talk about how bizarre this situation is, and why a proposed "men only" screen Star Wars was doomed to failure, and not just because of the incredibly false assumption that there's no such thing as a female Star Wars fan.
REVIEW: Wonder Woman (2017). The latest entry in the DC Extended Universe is now in theatres everywhere, Wonder Woman. Not only is this the first major superhero movie to feature a female hero, it's the first major comic book movie to be helmed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. So does Wonder Woman succeed as a superhero movie with all the weighty expectations of fans for the art form? Does it succeed as a glass ceiling shattering social statement that women can play the game just as good as the men? We'll talk about all the action and all the social commentary as Gal Gadot fights for truth, justice, and box office dominance in Wonder Woman.
End Credits is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 8 am on Wednesday.

Open Sources Guelph - June 1, 2017

It was a big, big week for Canadian political news, and Open Sources Guelph is here to analyze it all! Or some of it. Or four different topics in it. Well, three really. Okay, so obviously the big story is that there's a new Official Opposition Leader, and he's got a lot to do if he's to unite the party and put together a campaign policy that can defeat the Trudeau Liberals in two years. We'll talk about what happened at the Conservative convention, talk about what's happening with the B.C. government, and how one form of terrorism is not being covered like the other. 
This Thursday, June 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) 13 Rounds. 13 candidates, 13 rounds of voting, one leader with barely 50 per cent of the vote. More on that in a minute, but what did the leadership convention teach us about who the Conservative party is, where the party's going, and the job that winning candidate, Andrew Scheer, will have to do to keep it all together? Social conservatives made a surprisingly strong showing, which demonstrates that they've still got a firm hand on the wheel to direct the party. Erin O'Toole also made a strong showing all the way through to the second-to-last round proving that there's a place for a disciplined Red Tory on the podium. As for Bernier, well, there's always next time...
2) Scheer Passionless. Yes, Andrew Scheer was the surprise winner of the Conservative leadership race and he has assumed his position now as the Leader of the Official Opposition. But is he a Prime Minister-in-Waiting? Social Conservatives think they've hit pay dirt, but Scheer's already ruled out re-litigating same sex marriage and abortion, both of which he's against. He's abiding by the Harper playbook on that one. On the other hand, one of Scheer's first official statements as Official Opposition leader was to suggest that he might revoke funding for Canadian universities that don't support Free Speech, which seems very Trumpian, and his campaign website was taken down before the final vote was announced. So now what?
3) Orange and Green. The surprising results and uncertainty stemming from the recent provincial election in British Columbia got a whole lot less certain and a great deal more surprising this week when Green Party leader Andrew Weaver and B.C. NDP leader John Horgan announced that they were teaming up to form a government. With the Greens three seats, it gives an NDP coalition government a two-seat leg up on the Liberals, but how will Christy Clark react? She has two choices: give up power magnanimously, or force another election on a deeply divided B.C. electorate. What's next for the B.C. legislature, and what becomes of the Kinder Morgan pipeline dreams if the coalition gets to proceed?
4) Right Flight. It was just a normal day in Portland when Jeremy Christian decided to harass a woman wearing a hijab on a commuter train. When two good samaritans, Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, stepped in to help, Christian allegedly stabbed them to death and a third person that survived. The reaction by U.S. President Donald Trump was tepid, only posting a reference to the incident at his @POTUS Twitter account 72 hours after the attack. One must ask the question: Would Trump have done the same thing if it were a Muslim man harassing a white woman and stabbing good samaritans coming to her defense? And what of the media? Are two types of terror being treated differently?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

GUELPH POLITICAST #81 - Kristina Virro, Nutritionist and Psychotherapist-in-Training

You may recall the this past school year was marked with a particular sadness on the University of Guelph campus. Several students took their own lives over the course of the fall and winter semesters, leaving a campus community in mourning and searching for answers. How could so many, feel so lost and alone, and see no other alternative for themselves but to take their own lives?
While the local media has done a good job of saying, "Hey, there seems to be a problem here!" as usual, nothing's been done to get to the root cause or to figure out what can be done to help students when they return to university in the fall. How can the university administration, professors, classmates, and others help those that think they can't be helped before it's too late? These are questions I've been preoccupied with in addressing what happen at the U of G last year.
And that's how I happened to come across Kristina Virro. She's a nutritionist who's now pursuing her degree in psychotherapy at the University of Guelph, and with a background in journalism as well. Virro is using her Fresh Insight blog to talk about the intersection between mental health, physical health and what we consume, and the negative effect it might be having on our general well-being. There have been studies into the correlation between what we eat and how we feel, and let's just say that one look at the meal variety at the University Centre is not the key to happiness.
So with her practical and academic expertise in hand, I invited Virro to take part in this week's podcast. With an eye to the fact that we don't know, and may never know, what went on the heads of those students that took their lives, we talk about the reasons why young people sometimes take their own lives, what the warning signs are, why we sometimes miss those warning signs, and how we all might be able to get better health in general by making a couple of simple lifestyle changes today.
So let's get healthy on this week's Guelph Politicast.
You can get more tips and advice from Kristina Virro at her website here.
The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - May 25, 2017

A couple of big, ongoing political storylines are coming to a head on this week's Open Sources Guelph. Our favourite wildly unqualified President of the United States is been on his first field trip and making new friends (glad that he and the Pope finally buried the hatchet as seen above), and this weekend, the cliffhanger on the leadership of a major Canadian political party will finally be answered. In other news, we'll welcome an old friend to the show and get the lowdown on the latest goings on with our local government. 
This Thursday, May 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Trump World. It's been a while, and a purposeful hiatus on our part, since we took a dive into the thoroughly undrained swamp, but President *sigh* Donald Trump did something new this week, and went on his first foreign trip for a packed nine day journey through the Middle East and Israel (inside joke), and then on to the Vatican, and NATO and G7 conferences. To Trump's credit, he didn't rhetorically nuke foreign relations, which is good, but there were some flubs and odds memes. And by the way, the trip has done nothing to end all the troubles, scandals and investigations on the domestic front. Welcome back to Trumpland!
2) Countdown to a Leader. After almost two years of waiting, wondering and debating, the Conservative leadership convention goes down this weekend to finally determine who will be Stephen Harper's successor, and not a moment too soon because Rona Ambrose has one foot out the door already. Maxime Bernier seems to have the inside track as the surprise consensus candidate, but you can't count out Erin O'Toole, who might have a chance to come up the middle and claim the leadership on a second or third vote. Kellie Leitch seems out of the running, and fellow populist Kevin O'Leary burnt out without really trying. So who will the winner be? Your guess is as good as ours...
3) Phil Past Due. It's been over a year since he was last on the show, but we're pleased to welcome back "The Philosopher", Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt to the program.  We were going to talk about some of the usual city hall things, but then this past Monday council quite nearly ground its own work to halt by putting an end to Committee-of-the-Whole. We'll talk to Allt about the pandemonium he helped create Monday night, the current mood at city council and other recent controversial votes. We'll also talk about one year of Breezy breakfasts, and we'll discuss Allt's recent tenure mentoring a high school student about the ins and outs of municipal affairs.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

GUELPH POLITICAST #80 - Danna Evans, General Manager of Culture, Tourism & Community Investment

Is Guelph a tourism destination? That's debatable. Certainly many Guelphites would argue that there are reasons that people who don't live in Guelph should visit Guelph. Great festivals, a cool downtown, a big church you can see from everywhere... the Royal City is where it's at, and this week, I talk to the person in charge of making sure you know all about it.
On this week's Guelph Politicast, the guest is Danna Evans, General Manager of Culture, Tourism and Community Investment at the City of Guelph. It's a big job, three different portfolios that all end up being tied together because we create a culture that people want to visit that then turns into investment as people want to become a regular part of that community and encourage more people to visit. It's a vicious circle of delightfulness, and Guelph is well ahead of the curve with a variety of festivals, events and cultural destinations.
You see, the City of Guelph does not do much itself to create tourism, but it leans on partners to create the conditions to draw people to town, partners like the Downtown Guelph Business Association who put on a number of events throughout the summer, or the Guelph Arts Council, or festivals like Kazoo!, Hillside, the Jazz Festival, or the upcoming Guelph Dance. So a big part of Evans' job is co-ordination, but she also oversees operations at the River Run Centre, the Sleeman Centre, Guelph Museums, and now the Farmer's Market.
So on this week's podcast, I talk to Evans about her daily responsibilities and how she makes the long term plans, how she works with groups within and without of City Hall to promote Guelph, what tourism to the Royal City looks like, and all things that make Guelph a great place to visit as well as the things we need to do to make tourism even better. If you think you know Guelph then you should hear how the woman in charge of bring people to Guelph does her job.
Who's coming, why they are coming, and what they're doing when they get here is the topic of this week's Guelph Politicast!
To stay up-to-date on all the festivals and festivities in town, you can go to the Guelph Tourism website here.
The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - May 18, 2017

News coming out of the U.S. this week is too heavy, so we're going to focus on some lighter topics on this week's Open Sources Guelph: cultural appropriation, poverty, and electoral reform. We jest, of course, these are all very heavy topics in our own right, and we will aim to address some very key questions. Is it alright for white male writers to mock the idea of encouraging aboriginal people to tell their own stories? Is it weird that we seem to keep overlooking issues of poverty and loss in our community? And how are local activists trying to encourage the government to keep its promises? 
This Thursday, May 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Appropriations Fill. I am not the Walrus, Jonathan Kay had to admit when he stepped down as the Editor-in-Chief of the "general interest" magazine last weekend. Kay was a casualty of an online uproar over a Writers’ Union of Canada’s magazine article that discussed having an "Appropriation Prize" for the "best book by an author who writes about people who aren’t even remotely like her or him.” After the article's writer, Hal Niedzviecki, was forced to resign for it, Kay came to his defense in the National Post, when 24 hours later, he himself was forced to resign from his job. So what's the take away from all this drama? Were Kay and Niedziecki martyrs for free speech, or are they two white guys that don't get it?
2) Struck a Nerve. A column co-host Adam A. Donaldson wrote for GuelphToday.com seemed to get some unexpected and widely-shared attention last week. The topic was about Guelph's underclass, the poor, the sick, the addicted, the disenfranchised, and how we constantly seem to be praising our own achievements in the Royal City as being a livable and enjoyable place to be, while there is a wide cross-section of our fellow citizens who are not having such a great time. We'll talk about why poverty and these related issues are under-reported, how we can raise awareness, and what role the media might play in highlighting the needs and issues of people in our community that so desperately need the help.
3) Democracy (Guelph) Now. When Justin Trudeau promised to reform Canada's electoral system during the 2015 election, he got a lot of people in Guelph excited, and when he reneged on that promise earlier this year, he conversely made a lot of people in Guelph mad. A non-

GUELPH POLITICAST #79 - Hans Zegerius, Petrie Photographer

Underneath that big green tarp near the corner of Wyndham and Macdonell is a world of mystery. The Petrie Building has been a subject of intrigue, speculation and regret for years, if not decades, and it's facelift is opening up that world as the Trycathlen partners proceed with the renovation and restoration of the Petrie, and one man has been there to capture the transformation as it's unfolded.
The guest on this week's Guelph Politicast is Hans Zegerius. He may not be the most well-known name associated with the Petrie, but his job may be the most important. The real estate photographer and designer was brought in at the very beginning of the redevelopment process to capture what was there, what was being done, and, in the end, how the new building will look. It's an epic journey for one photographer.
Hans' background is in taking pictures of buildings, usually houses for realtors to post in an effort to sell them, but this new mission required the former engineer to not just use his skills, but learn some new ones too. We talked about his process on this podcast, as well as how Hans became the Petrie's official photographer, how he chooses what to shoot, some of the things he's discovered along the way, and what his plans are for all his hard work. (A coffee table book, perhaps?)
So let's head back into the Petrie and capture the moments in time through the camera lens of Hans Zegerius as described on this week's Guelph Politcast.
You can see Hans Zegerius' photos of the Petrie Building right now at the Boarding House Gallery at 6 Dublin St through June 10, or you can see samples of his work at Hans' website here. You can also purchase a print of the various photographs on display, with a potion of the proceeds going to the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario,
The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Open Sources Guelph - May 11, 2017

Comey Who? We've got a lot of Canadian stuff on our plate this week on Open Sources Guelph, so Donald Trump can go about his shady business without our discerning eye. In the meantime, we've got two big interviews in the form of another NDP leadership candidate and one of Guelph's city councillors, and then we'll be looking at the results of the B.C. Provincial Election, which is as close to a nail biter as we ever get in Canada. 
This Thursday, May 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Niki Heat. Charlie Angus was in Guelph a few weeks ago, Guy Caron was in Waterloo last week, and this past Sunday Niki Ashton was down at Red Papaya in Old Quebec Street. It seems that our area is key to most of the NDP leadership slate, as Ashton and others look to local members to help bolster their ambitions, and the ambitions of the party going into 2019. We talk about some of that in our interview with Ashton, and we also talk about how the party played it safe in the 2015 election, how they have to go back to their socially-progressive, worker-friendly roots to be on the left of the Liberals again, and how she is uniquely qualified to understand the struggles of Canada's young people.
2) (Barely) Clark County. In a very close election, the B.C. Liberals under Christy Clark now find themselves in a minority position with only a two-seat difference between them and the NDP. On top of that, the B.C. Greens now hold the balance of power by winning an historic three seats in the legislature. So what the heck happened? British Columbia has the best economy in Confederation, so that should have presumably been enough for BCers for endorse Clark and Co. no matter how half-heartedly, right? Apparently, not so much. So what made the difference in this election? And how long can Clark last in this rare minority situation?
3) Gibson Tide. It's been a while since we've had a member of Guelph City Council in our studio, and that's an oversight on our part, but getting back on our local politicians, we're pleased to welcome back to Open Sources, Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson. Gibson has been fairly busy in the last couple of months, bring forth a motion to put renewed effort into commercial development in his ward, and he's next bringing forward a motion to take the City of Guelph's assets to a net zero designation, which would be a huge step towards a carbon neutral City Hall. We'll talk about that with Gibson, as well as recent issues at council including affordable housing, online voting, and the allocation of budget variances.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.