Guelph Politicast

End Credits #389 - April 30, 2025 (Presence)

This week on End Credits, things get spooky! That's a weird thing to say when summer is almost here, but in today's episode we'll confirm that Summer Movie Season is definitely here, and we will talk about what you can expect in some of the weeks to come. After that, we get into the spooky stuff with a ghost story from someone we recently talked about on this show.
This Wednesday, April 30, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Summer Movie Preview Part 1. This is the last show for April, on the last day of April, and you know what that means... It's Summer Movie Season! This requires a preview, and in our endless quest for completism, we will keep doing this until we get through all the movies that are coming out this summer starting with what's being released between now and the first week of June including good guys, bad guys and something weird.
Presence (2025). We've already done one Steven Soderbergh movie this year, Black Bag, but did you know that two Soderbergh movies have been released - so far - this year? The other one is now available on VOD, and it's called Presence. It's a ghost story, but it's from the ghost's point of view, watching the strange dynamics of this family that moved into a new house and struggle with all their internal drama including Chloe, the one member who senses... The Presence. We will talk about why you shouldn't ghost on Presence.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #468 – The Slow March to 169 (feat. The CFRU News Team)

By the time you're listening to this you know how it all turned out: Carney's the PM, a plurality of voters went Conservative though not enough in Carleton to send the leader back to the House. The NDP are decimated, the Greens are down to one seat again, and the Bloc have called a truce in the name of "national unity"(?). What an election! Let's live through it all again!!
From 8 pm to midnight on Election Night, the tag team of me and Scotty Hertz, plus CFRU programming director (and renowned Wikipedia editor) Christopher Currie, were live to air covering the results as they came into the CFRU newsroom... through the CBC's live vote tracker page. The focus was local, with coverage of the two Guelph ridings, but our view was nation-wide from coast to coast to coast.
And there were some special guests as well! Over the course of the night we heard from Emily Blake, the associate editor of Cabin Radio, a Local Journalism Initiative reporting on the Dehcho region and the Northwest Territories' housing crisis that's funded in part by the Government of Canada. We also heard from Kim Siever from The Alberta Worker, an independent media outlet that focuses on labour and politics founded in April 2020.
So let's relive the 2025 Canadian Election on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Keep tuning in to Open Sources Guelph Thursdays at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca!
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 #516 - April 24, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph we get to the end... of this election. (Sorry, we always make that joke.) It's been a long, hard election covering two ridings, and in this final pre-election episode we will cover one person from a new party, one person from a still newish party, and one person that's been involved in politics for about 20 years. For the last time in 2025, let's hear from the candidates in this super-sized episode!
This Thursday, April 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Michael Drop. If there's a lock this election, it just might be the return of Michael Chong to the House of Commons. His riding's boundaries might have changed, but there's no doubt that Chong is still a force to be reckoned with in Wellington County, so the question is whether he will be now be a force in South Guelph. Chong will join us to talk about why the country should take a chance on a Conservative government and why Wellington-Halton Hills North should stay the course with him as MP.
The Future Party is Now. A lot of emerging parties have been taken for a test drive in Guelph, and in this election  it's the Canadian Future Party that is dipping their toes in the waters of Guelph. Yurii Yavorskyi is Guelph's CFP candidate, one of 19 across the country trying to make the case for a non-partisan, evidence-based approach to governance. In fact, right on their party platform is a message to the major parties to steal their ideas. Yavorskyi will join us to talk about why the CFP's ideas are worth stealing.
Three Times the People. Syl Carle is a successful businessman and former RCMP officer, and for the third time he's trying to become the People's Party MP for Wellington-Halton Hills (North now). So he must be pretty dedicated, right? Why don't we let Carle speak for himself. To wrap up our extensive election coverage, we will talk to Carle about what keeps him coming back to the PPC, how he intends to finally get past Michael Chong and why he wants to sit in the House of Commons for this riding.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #388 - April 23, 2025 (Sinners)

This week on End Credits, in keeping with the theme immediately following the Easter weekend, we will talk about people coming back from the dead. Creatures of the night aren't the only ones making beautiful music in Sinners, which features a potent combination of leading man and filmmaker, and that's making us think of other great movie duets, so to speak.
This Wednesday, April 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Teams. This week's movie features once of the most potent modern film teams of a great actor and a great director: Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler. In film history, there have been all kinds of actor and director teams who did great things together not just once, not just twice, but three times or more. To begin this week, we will talk about some of the greatest who ever did it, and how they did it together!
REVIEW: Sinners (2025). Ryan Coogler's fifth movie is his first wholly original work, the story of two bootlegging brothers who come home to Mississippi to go into business for themselves only to find a bigger monster than the KKK. To play his hero, Coogler has relied on the man who's been featured in each of his movies so far, Michael B. Jordon, and he has to bring his considerable charm to this genre bending movie that's equal part horror, musical, thriller, crime drama and racial reckoning. Can a movie this bold possibly live up the hype?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #467 – The Two Guelphs Election (feat. Scotty Hertz)

If you listen to this show promptly on Wednesday then it’s just five more sleeps till Election Day! About a quarter of us have been so excited that we just couldn’t wait to vote; 7.3 million Canadians made voting part of their Easter weekend festivities, a new record. What’s been driving all this excitement? What about the party platforms? The manoeuvres of the national party leaders? And what the hell happened at those post-debate scrums?
Once you might have been right saying that the electorate was eager to replace an old and tired regime under Justin Trudeau for the slick sloganeering of Pierre Poilievre, but as he usually does, Trump changed everything. Not content to make himself the main character of American politics, the U.S. President’s large shadow has been cast over the 45th Canadian general election, and that means it could be Mark Carney’s game even more than Poilievre.
But this is the Guelph Politicast, so let’s talk about Guelph, which is a riding, but not the only riding with Guelph in it. Guelph is now carried over two ridings: Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North. That means when the election is over, about 20,000 Guelphites will have an entirely different MP from the rest of the city, and if the polls are to be believed, they will each be represented by two different parties. Perhaps the post-election period is going to be even more interesting than this whole election...
But that’s a conversation for a later day. This conversation is with Open Sources Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz, back by popular demand, to talk all about the election. We'll discuss the added level of difficulty of covering two local races, the impact of splitting Guelph between two ridings, and the considerations being made by local voters. We will also talk about how people seem to be embracing stability, the politics of independent media, and why you shouldn’t move your stuff using a Cyber Truck(?). 
So let's talk about the Canadian election campaign in 45 minutes or less on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can tune into election night coverage on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca on Monday starting at 8 pm, and if you’re interested in hearing interviews with the candidates running in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North, tune in on Thursdays on CFRU or download OSG on Monday on this feed. You can also watch the interviews on Open Sources new YouTube channel. I will also be appearing at this week’s Breezy Breakfast at DeBar to talk more about the election, assuming that you haven’t had enough already
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 #515 - April 17, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got two hours! If you thought the show was over at 6 o'clock today, you're wrong because we have so much election coverage we've got to double the size of the this week's entry. Completing our all-Guelph, all-female set this week we will welcome back to the show one long-time labour activist and one-long time doctor and medical professional. Their goal: Convince you to vote for one of them!
This Thursday, April 17, at 6 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Notorious JFD. Janice Folk-Dawson has been a labour activist in Guelph for years, you've seen her face just about anywhere you've seen organised labour locally, but for the first time she's put her face on a campaign sign. Running for the NDP is not easy these days, but Folk-Dawson has been calling them the "conscience of Parliament", which is the reason why she hopes Guelphites might send her there. Folk-Dawson will joins us to talk about why she's ready to make trouble in Ottawa, and why you should want to send her there.
Doctor Change. Do we need a doctor? Anne-Marie Zajdlik thinks we do. Well known in the Guelph community for both her medical practice and her leadership on fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Zajdlik is now getting political with the Green Party. Hoping to make history in the mold of Mike Schreiner and Mike Morrice, Zajdlik thinks that the region can be a Green powerhouse, and now she just has to convince you and several thousand Guelphites. Zajdlik will talk about why Guelph's colour is still Green this election!
Programming Note: This is the second of back-to-back episodes of Open Sources Guelph this week and airs at the special time of 6 pm!

Open Sources Guelph #514 - April 17, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get really super-sized! Come for one regular hour of the show and you will get a second bonus hour of the show for no extra charge. What are we doing? We're put together a slate of interviews with candidates running in the riding of Guelph, and to kick things off we've got a well-known character from the show, and a brand new friend making her first appearance!
This Thursday, April 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Crimson Dominique. You probably already know Dominique O'Rourke pretty well, especially if you live in Ward 6 where she's still one of your city councillors. Now she's seeking higher office. O'Rourke is looking to make a move to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP, the fourth Liberal representative that Guelph has had in the last 30 years plus, and a few months ago that might have seemed dicy but now...? O'Rourke will join us to talk about why she wants to go back to the House of Commons (you'll see) and why she thinks Mark Carney is the man for the moment.
Dual of the Baetz. Guelph is not unfamiliar with the Communist Party of Canada, it started right here in town on Metcalfe Street, but the socialist flag this election is being waved by the Marxist-Leninist Party and Elaine Baetz. Who are the Marxist-Leninist Party and why should you throw your vote behind one of the 35 people they've got running across Canada this election? Baetz will tell you, and she will also explain why there's an opportunity this election to build a more consensus-driven governance, and why she thinks Guelph is ready for a real change.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Programming Note: Another episode of Open Sources Guelph will immediately follow this one on CFRU!

End Credits #387 - April 16, 2025 (Drop)

This week on End Credits, we're on our phones. No, we're not being rude and using our phones in the movie theatre - we're not savages! - but this week's movie is about what happens when bad guys spend too much time on *your* phone. Don't meme yourself because we're checking out Drop and in that spirit, we're going to talk about other times tech has gone wrong! 
This Wednesday, April 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Tech Gone Bad. This week's movie features a premise where a smart phone is used to taunt a woman into doing something sinister. Technology can be used to do great things, but it can also be used to do some very bad things and in honour of the release of Drop we will drop other titles where technology leads to some very bad outcomes for both people and the world at large, and we're not just talking about horror movies or Terminators!
REVIEW: Drop (2025). First dates are hard enough, but imagine being a widow on your first date after your husband's untimely (and unnatural) death and your phone starts going off with threats from an anonymous person: Kill your date or your little boy and your sister die! Christopher Landon, the filmmaker behind Happy Death Day and Freaky, puts White Lotus season two star Meghann Fahy through her paces in modern take on a classically Hitchcock affair, but can Drop get the drop on two cynical movie reviewers?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #466 – Remember The Alma? Oh.

We’re at the end of another school year, and while some students are looking forward to summer, they’re also looking forward to next fall. Or perhaps even stressing over it. Housing is a big issue in Guelph, and it’s somehow even bigger when it comes to student housing. Last summer, the largest first-year student enrolment ever weighed on students and the greater Guelph community, but relief may be coming if city council doesn’t get in the way(?).
So what, city council doesn’t want student housing in Guelph? Let’s just say it’s complicated. This is about phase two of the Alma, which is on the site of the former Holiday Inn at Stone and Scottsdale. The renovation of the old hotel was phase one, and phase two will add another nearly 600 beds, but there's a snag and it's whether or not Forum Asset Management has to pay over $15 million in development fees.
The Ontario government has made student residences exempt from DCs, but there’s some question about how you define “student residences”; does that apply only to student residences owned and operated by a post-secondary institution itself, or can it also apply to a private for-profit development like The Alma that just so happens to be on land owned by a university? This will be a question that council will have to answer on April 29, and this week, we will hear about the stakes.
Owen Ellis, who is the president of the Real Estate Students Association at the University of Guelph, is the guest this week to talk about the current state of student housing in the city, and what options that students would like to see when they're looking for a place to live in the Guelph. We also talk about the expectations and responsibilities for the University of Guelph, private developers, and why we all need to organize to do better for student renters.
So let's dig into another great housing debate on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can check out the website for the app he’s working on here. City council will look at the appeal of the development charges for phase two of the Alma on Tuesday April 29, and that agenda will be published on the City’s website this Thursday. Remember: 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 to Open Sources Guelph 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.

Open Sources Guelph #513 - April 10, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got bonusing! In our grand effort to cover all the candidates in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North this election, we will be hitting your ears at the above average length of 90 minutes so you can hear from three of the dozen or so candidates running for the two local federal offices, our first interview with a Guelph candidate and two more for Wellington-Halton Hills North!
This Thursday, April 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Swack and Field. In their first election, the People's Party secured over a thousand votes in Guelph. In their second election, it was over 3,000 votes, which was nearly 2,100 votes less than the fourth place Green Party. So what about 2025? This time, the PPC flag is being hoisted by Jeffrey Swackhammer, a 23-year-old Guelph resident who, like a lot of young people, has a lot of concerns about housing and affordability, so does he have what it takes to make it rain purple in this election?
Stiles and Substance. It's not easy being Green these days. The Green Party of Canada is struggling to hold on to two seats and fending off a serious challenge to stay relevant in what looks more and more like a two-party race. In Wellington-Halton Hills North, a first time candidate will try to make a case that there's still room in the discourse for an optimistic take on a more environmentally-friendly future, and Liam Stiles will tells us why you should take a closer look at him and the Greens.
Get to the Chopper Pilot! Sean Carscadden has a hard job, and we don't just mean his day job as a Ornge air ambulance pilot. He's asking voters in Wellington-Halton Hills North to send him to Ottawa, to join a Liberal government already in progress, and to fire a well-known, well-liked, and popular Conservative MP to do it. Carscadden believes that a case can be made, and he will tell us why he's just the sort of fresh face and voice that help make voters think that the Liberals are ready for more.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.