Guelph Politicast

End Credits #402 - July 30, 2025 (Superman 2025)

This week on End Credits we are faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Get ready to pump iron, or make that steel, with the cinema's newest superhero in the bright and cheerful Superman. But is it one of the best movies of the year? TBD, in the meantime though we're going to talk about some other contenders!
This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Best of 2025... So Far! So we're a little late with this given all of our 400th episode festivities earlier this month, but it did buy us an extra month to take stock of the movie year so far. How are we doing? Well, we will dig into that very question by talking about some of our early contenders for the "Best of the Year" so far including something Canadian, something action-packed, something funny, and something sexy!
REVIEW: Superman (2025). It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... a reboot! James Gunn has flown the relative safety of Marvel (where he made the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy) and has taken on the massive task of creating a big, better DC Universe starting with Superman. This Man of Steel is less serious and dour than its predecessor, but Gunn's still injected a surprising amount of real world relevance. Plus, there's a super dog! There's a lot riding on Superman, especially as the comic book movie bubble is bursting, but can we still believe a man can fly?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #481 - The Business Climate (feat. Andy Veilleux)

Donald Trump’s return to the White House promised economic disturbances if not outright challenges, and this is on top of the challenges that already existed like supply chains, wages, turnover, and the high cost of housing and real estate. It’s also worth noting that these are not Guelph-specific challenges, but that's okay because the new president of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is not from Guelph.
What will be impact when Trump slaps 35 per cent on tariffs on Friday? On the other hand, maybe Trump will initiate another pause on implementing new tariffs. Does it even matter at this point? Businesses big and small depend on stability because if things are stable, you make reasonable predictions for the future in regard to planning, growth, marketing and hiring. 
Andy Veilleux arrived in the president’s office at the Guelph Chamber the day after Trump retook the White House, and when we say “arrived” we mean from outside of town. His most recent job was as Director of Policy & Government Relations at the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, a community similar to Guelph in some ways, but very, very different in others. There’s a lot on Veilleux’s desk, so what does he intend to do about it while also adapting to life as a new Guelphite?
We will dig into all that and more on this week’s edition as Veilleux discusses his background and experience, why he made the move to Guelph, and what he’s learned about life in the city so far. He will also talk about the present business challenges, and why the Chamber of Commerce is about more than just business interests. Plus, he will discussthe importance of the University of Guelph to the city’s overall economic health, and what he wants his tenure at the Chamber to be about. 
So let's talk about business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can follow him on social media @andyveilleux on Twitter and Instagram, and you can check out his poetry at his website. He will also be speaking at the Rotary Club of Guelph in their monthly meeting on Friday September 19 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can register at the Rotary Guelph website. For more information about the Guelph Chamber of Commerce, you can find them at their website or on social media on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.
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 #529 - July 24, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph everybody is fighting! Our national and provincial leaders are gathered to strategize and fight back in a trade war, while the leader of the opposition (in exile) is fighting for his political life so that he can get back into the national debate. Meanwhile, we will talk to an area Indigenous leader who's helping to lead the fight against legislation they got no say in by taking two different levels of government to court. Can't we all just get along?!
This Thursday, July 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Fifty Trades of Grey. At a meeting in Huntsville this week, Canada's First Ministers met with Prime Minister Mark Carney to talk about - what else? - the trade war with the United States. Donald Trump has made another one of his famous proclamations, 50 per cent tariffs will be put on Canadian goods starting August 1, but what can Canada do about it? That's a question no one can answer. Is there any way out of this mess, and is inter-provincial trade really the answer?
Battle River Front. As Carney looks at getting one over on Trump, Pierre Poilievre is looking to get back into the House of Commons. His route back to the chamber is through a by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, a riding the Conservative candidate won in April with 83 per cent, so easy, right? Not so fast, because about 200 people are crowding the ballot for the August 18 vote, and Poilievre can't show weakness before a January leadership review. Can Pierre take his perch back?
Kill Bills. Last week, nine Ontario First Nations launched a constitutional challenge to both Bill 5 in Ontario and Bill C-5 nationally. The two omnibus bills make legislative short cuts for massive infrastructure projects, and they were passed without any consultation with First Nations leaders, who are now forcing the issue. This week, we're joined by one of those leaders, Chief Todd Cornelius from Oneida Nation of the Thames east of London, about the goals of the Constitutional challenge and the state of reconciliation in Canada.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #401 - July 23, 2025 (I Know What You Did Last Summer 2025)

This week on End Credits we're nostalgic. Not for our own past now 401 episodes in, but for our collective movie past. First we stop in the 80s and talk about everyone's favourite movie about accidentally getting seduced by a parent after travelling back in time, and then we will go to 90s where someone will always know about what someone else did last summer!
This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Back to Back to the Future... at 40! So for the first episode of our four-hundreds, we're going back to where it all started, the 80s! This month marks four decades since the release of Back to the Future, the time travel adventure comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, and we will start this week's show by doing a deep dive into why the affection for this movie spans generations.
REVIEW: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). Speaking going back in time, this week's movie takes us back to the 90s. Sort of. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return along with a new generation of hot young people who make a big mistake one summer night and start paying for it one year later... with extreme severity. Before we get the hook, we will head back to legacy town where we will learn again that while we might be through with the past, the past is not through with us. And neither is the guy with a fishhook!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #480 – The Encampments You're Not Seeing (feat. Danny Liu)

It’s been almost a year since Guelph City Council approved the Public Space Use Bylaw. You may not see as many tents as you once did, especially in the open in places like St. George’s Square, but don’t think that they’re gone. There are still many people in Guelph who are unhoused, unwell, and are still searching for help that’s hard to come by, and this week will talk to one of the helpers.
In the wake of the growing number of encampments downtown council adopted the Public Space Use Bylaw to restricted them to certain areas, and then early this year they restricted them further with an amendment to bar encampments in parks near schools and daycares. Then, the Ontario government passed new laws to allow the swift removal of encampments last month, which is all meant to appear that there's progress on dealing with homelessness. 
In reality though, it has just made life for people living in encampments a lot harder. Seeking help could be an invitation to getting yourself, and anyone else in the camp, evicted, and then where will you go? In this situation, there are very few people you can trust, but one of them is Danny Liu, who was a pharmacist in Guelph for years but now spends his days visiting the people in greatest need in all the places they’ve tried to make some kind of home. Today, he’s going to talk about how things are going. 
Lui joins us on this edition to talk about the current conditions in encampments around Guelph, the kinds of issues he’s seeing, and the barriers they’re currently experiencing when it comes to getting the help they need. Also, he will talk about the impact of the closure of the safe consumption site, and why self-medication is sometimes the only relief that unhoused people can get.  He will also share his insights about the ways that Wellington County social services is falling short.
So let's learn about the current state of encampments on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Both the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington have pages on their websites about how they assist residents who are currently unhoused. If you’re looking at ways you can help out with donations or volunteering your time, you can talk to Stepping Stone, Guelph Community Health Centre, and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community.
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 #528 - July 17, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going down the rabbit hole. In Canada, and down into the United States, it seems like a lot of people are losing their minds and some of that might be dangerous. We will looking at a quartet arrested in Canada for terrorist activity, and the clash over conspiracies in the MAGAverse, plus, for something a little more normal, we will talk to a city councillor about Guelph stuff (no lie).
This Thursday, July 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
G.I. Jerks. Last week, the RCMP arrested four people in Quebec on the pretty serious sounding charges around a plot to commit an act of "ideologically motivated violent extremism," and, as an unexpected bonus, three of them are presently active duty members of the Canadian Forces. It's been a concern for a while that the ranks of our military include members with extremist sympathies, but this is the first time anyone's been taken into custody for them. How concerned should we be?
Working the Jeff. In 2019, financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in federal custody. Or did he? The fate of Epstein, and any damaging information he might have had on other alleged sexual predators, has been the subject of much conversation, speculation, and a traunch of conspiracy theories, including ones submitted by several MAGA luminaries. But now Donald Trump has declared that there's bigger fish to fry, which is tearing MAGA apart with internal fractions. Is this the beginning of the end of the red-hatted cult?
Ward Three's Company. Just because it's July, that doesn't mean that things are not busy inside the council chambers at Guelph city hall. This week there were two meetings, and there are two more next week, including the all-important meeting to choose a new representative for Ward 6 out of 26 potential candidates. What will make a good city councillor is a decision that will be left up to all the other city councillors, and this week will be joined by one. Ward 3's Michele Richardson will join us to talk about her thoughts, plus the tricky balance on heritage designations and the local housing crunch.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #400 -July 16, 2025 (The 21st Century Movie Draft)

This week on End Credits, we reach another milestone! We've been coming to you every week on CFRU for the better part of a decade, we've have a laughs and we've seen a lot of movies (at least 400), and every now and then we play a game. To mark our fourth centenary, we will put our collective heads together to consider the century, or a least the first quarter of it.
This Wednesday, July 16, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The 21st Century Movie Draft. Leave your stupid comments in your pocket, it's time for the event you've been waiting eight years for, End Credits 400th episode! There have been a great many movie bangers in the last 25 years and this week we will remember approximately 24 of them. From hobbits to serial killers, and from dog shows to Martin Scorsese's Oscar, we will talk about why the movies of the 21st century have been tearing us apart, in draft form!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #479 – Summer in the City (feat. Mike Ashkewe)

As we all now ease into summer vacation mode - even if we’re still working at our many labours - we’re taking stock of this busy year so far. We’ve made it though two elections and some long nights at council with at least a couple of more long nights to come before city council takes August off. (Or will they, given that there’s been a special August meeting the last few years?) So where do we currently stand with the first six months of 2025 behind us?
To help us, we're talking this week with Mike Ashkewe, who wears far too many hats in our community to be listed briefly here. Now Mike doesn’t just comment on the news, he sometimes makes the news. Back in April, Mike was one of several members of the former Accessibility Advisory Committee who walked away in the middle of their last meeting due to the unwillingness of city council and staff to give the AAC members the autonomy they were seeking. 
The sudden departure of the AAC has cast a big shadow on the way that the City of Guelph handles accessibility issues, but no one talked about it last week at Committee of the Whole as council talked about putting new temporary ramps around Guelph, especially downtown. Of course, that wasn’t the only topic at that meeting that had to do with Downtown Guelph including future construction and the Memorial Cup bid, and if accessibility and the Storm are in the news then it makes sense to talk to Mike!
So Mike joins us this week to talk about the construction issues coming to downtown, why there needs to be more variety in the core to develop a sense of community, and how hosting the Memorial Cup might generate more of that downtown. He will also address the mass resignation of the previous AAC, and what he thinks the City of Guelph learned from that protest. Also, why is Guelph’s subreddit such an infinitely interesting place for discussion? 
So let's talk about summer in this city on this week's Guelph Politicast! 
You can follow Mike Ashkewe on the socials @BirdmanDodd on Twitter, and Instagram, and follow him at birdmanguelph on Blue Sky. You can listen to Mike and sometimes me every week on the This Week in Geek podcast, which you can find on all major podcast platforms. And if you see Mike out and about and you have a dog, let me pet your dog…
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 #527 - July 10, 2025

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're doing a Law & Order riff. With political barbecue season underway, we look to the police beat by talking about potential civil rights violations in a major Ontario prison and the province-wide chain of stores that apparently can sell an illegal product with (near) impunity. Don't worry, we've still got some political chat for you... local politics!
This Thursday, July 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Prison Dilemma. A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners inside Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton has raised questions about the abuse, specifically a December 2023 incident where nearly 200 inmates in an entire unit were stripped, searched and forced to sit with their hands zip tied behind their back in the hallway for hours. With four-out-of-five inmates being people awaiting trail, and not yet convicted of a crime, are we ignoring civil rights violations because of a presumption of guilt?
'Shroom Boom! Have you seen these FunGuyz locations around Ontario? A mysterious entrepreneur is funding a chain of stores selling magic mushrooms, and while the government is more open now to the potential benefits of psilocybin, it's still a highly controlled substance in Canada and very illegal to sell. And yet, why are there storefronts all over the place selling mushrooms for cash, and why are police so wildly inconsistent in shutting them down?
On the Downtown. It's a busy month at Guelph city council as the members and staff count down to summer vacation, but there's a lot of business to get done between now and August and we're already seeing some of that work out. This week, council tackled massive construction coming to downtown and a Memorial Cup bid, and coming in a few weeks they will choose a new Ward 6 city councillor. This week, we go a little north to Ward 5 in order to ask Leanne Caron what she thinks about all these doings in the Royal City.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #399 - July 9, 2025 (F1)

This week on End Credits, we're off to the races! Get on your mark, get set and get ready to watch a movie about guys driving cars in a circle dozens of times, which is actually much more exciting than it sounds when you're watching the new film F1 in a theatre near you. We will talk about that, and we will also talk about Oscar winners from the last 25 years!
This Wednesday, July 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
21st Century Oscars (Not a) Draft. For our last warm up before episode #400, we're going to tackle Oscar winners in the 21st century. As the famous golden statue approaches it's own century mark in a couple of years we've seen a lot of changes and milestones, like the first Black woman to win Best Actress, or the first woman to win Best Director, or all the provocative snubs that still sting. This week we draft (not draft), our favourite Oscar winners.
REVIEW: F1 (2025). Professional car racing has never really yielded a great movie - think about Rocky and boxing, or Field of Dreams and baseball - but has that changed? Joseph Kosinski has followed up Top Gun: Maverick with a tale as old as movies about sports: a seasoned veteran on the cusp of irrelevance (Brad Pitt) takes on a confident but untested protege (Damon Idris) for an underdog effort to become champions despite how the odds are stacked against them. Sounds simple, but has F1 won the summer movie season anyway?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.