Guelph Politicast

Open Sources Guelph #447 - October 26, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we realize that it's always darkest just before Halloween. At least that's what it seems like when we open social media or a news app on our phone. We've got a full slate of political news for you from the latest in the Middle East and the frontlines in Israel to the battle lines in Queen's Park. And then, we go to Saskatchewan where there was some constitutional experimentation, and speaking of experimenting, might Guelph be flirting with the blue team?!
This Thursday, October 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. Week 3. It's been now nearly four weeks since a brutal Hamas attack in Israel, and as the Gaza Strip is being bombarded almost constantly, there's still great concern about the fate of Palestinian civilians when and if an all-out ground invasion begins. Meanwhile, international pressure seems to have forced Hamas' hand, they've released a couple of hostages but it's being seen as little more than a delay tactic. Is there still no end in site for this crisis, and is there any chance for peace?
Pump Out the Jama. She's barely been in office for six month, but on Monday Hamilton Centre MPP Sarah Jama was censured by the Ontario legislature and then ejected from the NDP caucus, and it was all because of a statement about the Israel-Hamas War, which the legislature has no influence over. But while that drama was happening, there were more Official Plan changes, a lawsuit against the feds, and did Doug Ford call Mike Schreiner "Mr. Green"? We'll talk about a crazy week at Queen's Park.
The More You Moe. Last Friday, the Saskatchewan legislature passed Bill 137 using the notwithstanding clause of the Constitution. What law could possibly make Premier Scott Moe call a special session to use the proverbial "nuclear option"? Pronouns. The so-called "parental rights" bill has been called transphobic and homophobic, and the passage of Bill 137 came just one day before another series of nation-wide 1 Million March 4 Children protests. So now what?
Royal Blue? An article in Guelph Today quoted a poll from 338Canada that said there's a 52 per cent chance that the Conservatives could win the federal riding of Guelph if the next election were held today. Say what? Guelph hasn't sent a Conservative to Parliament Hill for over 30 years, the legendary Bill Winegard left office in 1993 and since then it's been a series of Liberal MPs, but with the waning popularity of Justin Trudeau's Liberals is it possible we're looking at a Blue Shift?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #318 - October 25, 2023 (The Exorcist: Believer)

This week on End Credits, it's Halloween! Obviously. Let us mark the occasion, appropriately enough, with a review of a horror movie, and this time let it be The Exorcist: Believer. The Power of Christ will compel us to render a verdict about that movie, and it will also compel us to do something new as we hand out the first ever Horror Oscars!
This Wednesday, October 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Horror Oscars. You thought we were still months away from awards season? Not so fast! With Halloween next week, and with a new The Exorcist in the queue, we will pause this week to address the awards backlog: The Horror Oscars. If the Best Picture race was all about horror movies in 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003, and 2013 (to mark 50 years since the release of the original Exorcist), which movies would make the cut, and which ones would take home the prize?
REVIEW: The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Five decades ago, the late great William Friedkin redefined terror with the improbably Christmas release of The Exorcist. Different filmmakers have tried four times to continue the story, but they've all failed either commercially or artistically (or both), but now along comes director David Gordon Green. Green, once an indie darling, restored Halloween to its former glory and they made some questionable creative decisions with his own follow-ups, so what about Believer? Can The Exorcist make a believer out of us?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #394 – Guelph, After Dark

Maybe you’ve heard the term "dark tourism", there’s a whole Netflix series about it, but you don’t have to go abroad to somewhere famous to get a taste of dark tourism. Would it surprise you to learn that we have a hot little dark tourism industry right here in Guelph? As we approach Halloween on Tuesday, perhaps it’s time we appreciated just what kind of a sorted little town we have here, historically speaking.
Now there’s an actual definition for “dark tourism” and we will get into that in the podcast, but what’s interesting about dark tourism as it pertains to Guelph is multifaceted. First, the City of Guelph has been dedicating time and resources lately to developing a tourism strategy, and the focus has been on some of the usual suspects like sports tournaments, music festivals, and classical heritage like Catholic Hill.
Second, our thriving dark tourism industry is largely grassroots. It’s people like Greg Taylor, and Jay Wilson, and Bonnie Durtnall, people who have turned their fascination with the dark corners of Guelph into a lucrative side hustle. But would it surprise you to know that the University of Guelph actually has a professor who studies dark tourism? Perhaps he might be able to answer this question: Is Guelph a dark tourism hot spot and we don’t know it?
This week, we're joined by Brent McKenzie, who is a professor in the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph. He will give us a formal definition of “dark tourism” and talk about the local examples of the trade. He will also talk about the grassroots nature of dark tourism, whether dark tourism can go "too far", and some of McKenzie’s favourite dark tourism experiences whether they’re in Guelph or not.
So let's talk about Guelph's dark tourism future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you’re interested in some local dark tourism experiences, there’s no shortage of things to do this Halloween week. Ghost Walk of Guelph will be running walks from Thursday to Saturday at 8 pm. Jay Wilson will be leading one more walk this season with his performance of “The Unfortunate Man” on Friday at 7 pm, and you can get tickets at Eventbrite. You can check out a wide variety of history walks from the OR lands to Guelph’s hidden burial grounds with Guelph Urbex. And finally, local historian Bonnie Durtnall will talk about her new book Haunted Guelph at the main library on Thursday October 26 at 7 pm.
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, Google, 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 #446 - October 19, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a kind of rerun. On the one hand, there's still violence in the Middle East and it seems to be getting worse despite the interventions of foreign leaders and aid agencies. On the other hand we've got a great big new convoy, except it might not be as big as the previous one, but it's still kind of annoying. And then, on our hidden third hand, we will talk about local stuff with a member of city council and how that might impact your wallet.
This Thursday, October 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. Week 2. The last week did nothing to cool tempers in Israel and Gaza, and though an all-out ground war/invasion of the Strip hasn't happened (yet), the violence and the death has only accelerated, and that was before Tuesday's bombing of a hospital in Gaza that both sides are now frantically trying to blame each other for. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden is was in Israel on Wednesday offering personal first hand support, but is there anyway this can't get worse for the people in Israel and Gaza?
Ode to Convoy. It may not have been front page news this time, but there's a new convoy making trouble in Ottawa the last few weeks. This time it's the "Save the Children Convoy" and they're operating out of a rural base outside of Ottawa and been making daytrips into the National Capital Region, harassing politicians and spreading lies and misinformation about LGBTQ+ inclusion, so how are the police dealing with this convoy, and should it be bigger news?
Saved By Michele. It's been a busy couple of weeks at city council with a pre-budget workshop and a meeting exclusively about the housing crisis this week. The message is clear: this is going to be a very difficult budget year thanks to the wide variety of issues from provincial changes to inflation to the increase demands for social services. Joining us this week is Ward 3 Councillor MIchele Richardson who will guide us through some of those considerations and challenges as we countdown to this year's budget deliberations.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #317 - October 18, 2023 (Flora and Son)

This week on End Credits, we'll cue the music, and no, we don't mean the usual mid-show music segment. The movie we're reviewing this week is a kind of musical, or at very least a musical celebration. Can the power of music save your soul, your relationships, and your love life? Flora and Son will tell us, and we'll also talk about other movies about making music.
This Wednesday, October 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Music, Man! Can you have movies without music? Even in the days of silent films, there was a live musical accompaniment, but as movies integrated sound they would soon give birth to the musical, and along with that, movies about musicians and movies about people making music. True, a lot of those are about famous musicians in bio-pics like The Doors or Bohemian Rhapsody, but there are lots of movies about regular folks making music. We'll talk about a few.
REVIEW: Flora and Son (2023). Writer/director John Carney has made an industry creating movies about regular Irish folks finding love and fulfillment through the power of music. Flora and Son is a lot like that. Eve Hewson is the titular Flora, who's trying to reach her distant son with the discovery of an acoustic guitar, but it's Flora that finds something to sing about as she starts taking guitar lessons from a handsome American teacher over Zoom. The rest of this might seem pretty predictable, so does Flora and Son rock out or is it the tune the old cow died on?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #393 - You’ve Got Mailbag!

This week's podcast is dedicated to you, the people, who sent in questions for this Guelph Politicast mailbag over the weekend. Guelph is filled with lots of curious people who are deeply concerned about issues and politics, and some of you came up with some very deep and probing questions for this first mailbag edition since well before the start of the pandemic. Get ready for 45 minutes of one annoying person talking!
Here are the topics that the mailbag will cover:
1) Is Doug done?
2) Two concillors per ward versus one.
3) Challenges to the incumbent mayor.
4) Internet voting.
5) The police budget.
6) Affordability.
7) Changes to the Blue Box program.
8) Guelph Politico.
So let's dig into the mailbag on this week's episode of the Guelph Politicast!
Don't forget to sign-up for the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet on Substack. Please feel free to send guest suggestions for the 400th episode on December 6 and the Christmas episode on December 20. Stay tuned for the Halloween special next week, plus the second part of the "Caution's Creek" episodes about the Kortright Waterfowl Park, and the Remembrance Day episode marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War in the week's to come.
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, Google, 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 #445 - October 12, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got to get serious for bit. Well, more serious. As we were enjoying the Thanksgiving long weekend, there was no rest for the people in Israel and the Gaza Strip and now a full-scale war seems to be inevitable. In lighter news though, there's more dysfunction in the Republic Party for us to laugh at, and for the interview this week, we'll head back up Highway #7 to visit another provincial election candidate.
This Thursday, October 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
War. A surprise attack on the southern border between Israel and Gaza has sparked some of the worst violence in the region for nearly a decade. Hamas' brutality has been on display, rocket fire has been exchanged and hostages have been taken as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to be preparing for an all-out invasion of the Strip in order to root out Hamas. But how many innocent Palestinians and Israelis still have to die? We'll talk about the war, and the political posturing in this country.
Not My Kevin. After having the audacity to work with the opposition party to keep the government open, Rep. Kevin McCarthy is now the former Speaker of the U.S. House. You may recall that it took McCarthy 15 tries to secure the job in January, so his grasp was always tenuous, but far-right members of the GOP seem to think that "My Kevin" is not as ideological as a modern Trump-loving Republican is supposed to be. So what happens next, and who takes over this important and influential role in U.S. politics?
You Only Live Steiss. It might be kind of sticky in Kitchener City Hall these days because two city councillors and one member of staff are all running in the future Kitchener-Centre by-election. This week, we're being joined by the staff member. Kelly Steiss is the Liberal candidate, and she wants to use her two decades of experience working for the City to try and find solutions to healthcare, housing and affordability, but can a candidate of the leaderless Liberals pick up a seat from the NDP and an active Green Party campaign effort? Steiss will answer that and other questions.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #316 - October 11, 2023 (The Equalizer 3)

This week on End Credits we're thankful for good movies. Obviously. After a long weekend off, we're back with not just one movie, but one movie and four shorter movies. As you can see from the picture, we're going to mark the VOD release of The Equalizer 3 by talking about why it's so awesome, plus Wes Anderson made some stuff for Netflix. Did you notice?
This Wednesday, October 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Anderson Four. In 2009, Wes Anderson made The Fantastic Mr. Fox, his first feature length stop-motion animated film based on the children's novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. Anderson has returned to stop-motion, but he hasn't gone back to Dahl... Until now! Anderson has made four short films based on four different Dahl stories and they're all available now on Netflix. We're going to talk about all four and discuss whether they work better on their own or as a package.
REVIEW: The Equalizer 3 (2023). Denzel Washington is a movie star, so that's why we're getting a third chapter in a mid-budget action movie series based on a cult classic 80s TV show about a former spy turned vigilante for hire for the everyman. In The Equalizer 3, the action moves from big city Boston to a small town in coastal Italy. as our man Robert McCall (Washington) finds himself in a one man war against the mafia to save his idyllic new home. So is it still satisfying to watch Denzel beat up Euro-trash bad guys or has everything truly been equalized?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #392 – Caution’s Creek Part 1: The Past

This is one of those episodes that’s based on events that predate many of us that have come to call Guelph home in the last few decades. It’s also a story about land issues, and the desire to protect sensitive land from development. It's had a lot of names over the years including the Kortright Waterfowl Park, the Niska Lands, and the Hanlon Creek Conservation Area, but the story around this property is just as complicated to sort out.
Perhaps the most concise history of the area was written in an article by Cameron Shelly for Metroland in 2021. It starts with a man named Horace Mack, a person of unique vision who bought a piece of property at the mouth of the Hanlon Creek for a bird sanctuary in 1948. He called it Niska Farm, “Niska” being the proper Cree name for the Canada Goose, but Mack only got to live his vision a short time. He died in 1959, but his dream would live on till 2005 when the area was finally closed to the public.
Now, nearly 20 years later, there's a plan on the floor about how to proceed with the four portions of the Niska Lands now under management of the Grand River Conservation Authority, and there's pretty much one person to thank for this. Dr. Hugh Whiteley, a retired professor and hydrologist from the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph, secured a pathway to ensure a public process for the redevelopment of this area. So how does he think it's going?
That’s one of the questions Dr. Whiteley will answer on this week’s podcast along with discussion of the site's vast history, the various plans for the area that have come into play over the last seven decades, and the City of Guelph and the GRCA's roles in determining the property’s future. We will also talk about his decision to bring the appeal of the Official Plan to the Ontario Municipal Board, and whether he thinks all sides have lived up to the spirit of that agreement. Plus, what does the future look like?
So let's dig into the past of the Niska Lands before we dig into the future on this week's Guelph Politicast! 
You can see background and information on the Grand River Conservation Authority website. You can also see the GRCA’s future plans for the site and some of the notes provided by the members at their last meeting in the latest Guelph Politico coverage. A final decision about the Niska Lands is likely to come before the GRCA membership at their November 24 meeting
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, Google, 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.
Photo credit: Former Kortright Waterfowl Park executive director Eileen Hammill in 1975 from the Guelph Public Library archives. 

Open Sources Gulph #444 - October 5, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're thankful for scandal. As we head into the long weekend, we're going to talk about the ongoing issues facing the House of Commons that have kind of made a mockery of Canada on the international stage. It's good fodder for a podcast, which might soon be under the regulatory umbrella of the CRTC. In the back half of the show, we're going to talk about the recent increase in the minimum wage, and why it still isn't good enough.
This Thursday, October 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Third Week Watch. Can you believe this is only the third week of the fall session? It's been a busy three weeks of controversy that's for sure. While Greg Fergus made history by being elected as the first Black Speaker of the House of Commons, the long shadow of Parliament's warm welcome for Yaroslav Hunka and the accusation that the Indian government had Hardeep Singh Nijjar killed continue to linger. We will talk about the latest developments on those issues.
Podcast Away. The CRTC announced last week that they were looking at changes to regulate streaming content, which is a big change from the regular order. Streaming and podcasting has been the Wild West, mostly lawless and left to its own devices, so initiating any kind of regulation is a big change, which is why some people - including foreign provocateurs like Elon Musk and Glenn Greenwald - have been throwing gas on the fire, but what are the real stakes?
Wage Match. Last weekend, the minimum wage in Ontario was increased to $16.55, which makes us the third highest in Canada, but a minimum wage is not a living wage, and depending on where you live in Ontario it's tougher and tougher to close that gap. In fact, the living wage for Guelph is still about three dollars higher than the minimum. This week, we’re joined by Craig Pickthorne from the Ontario Living Wage Network to talk about affordability, the minimum wage hike, and the giant gap in-between.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.