Guelph Politicast

Open Sources Guelph #436 - July 27, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're a four quadrant success. We're going local, provincial, national and international with the news this week, and this is what we're talking about in no particular order: There's a new map of Guelph and you may not like it in the south end, patronage is back in Ontario, the prime minister hopes that new cabinet faces will solve all his problems, and Florida Man is still being Florida Man.
This Thursday, July 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Shuffle My Feathers. Rumour control said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was going to reshuffle his cabinet this week. Probably a good call since at the time of this writing at least three cabinet ministers have announced that they won't be seeking re-election. But between election interference, the Bernardo transfer, transportation problems, the dock strike in B.C., and ongoing problems with housing and affordability, how much can one shuffle solve?
Counsel Culture. It's been a pretty quiet summer for all things Doug Ford, but there's always controversy brewing underneath Queen's Park somewhere. While people are still trying to get to the bottom of the skulduggery around the Greenbelt, and express concerns around the growing privatization of healthcare, Ford decided to whip out a good, old-fashioned patronage scandal by naming Caroline Mulroney a King's Counsel, a position that no one's filled for 40 years. Why Doug?
Indict Club. By the time you're reading this, Donald Trump may have been indicted for a third time and even if he hasn't, it's only a matter of when. And then there's a fourth indictment coming sometime in the near future... So given all this, why is Trump still the frontrunner for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024? We will look at Trump's mounting legal troubles, and why none of his competitors, including Ron DeSantis, seem unable to catch him.
Map Battle. Last week, the Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario released their new maps for Ontario, and there was a surprise for Guelph: We're no longer one riding. Now that's not necessarily a surprise, the maps are unchanged from the proposed maps released last fall, but it now leaves Guelph in a position it's never experienced before, being separated by federal boundaries. Will this have an effect on city business, and why does this make our job harder?
*Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be taking the next two weeks off. Repeat episodes will air in the usual Thursday afternoon time slot with new episodes returning on Thursday August 17.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #307 - July 26, 2023 (Barbie)

This week on End Credits, it's a Barbie world, and we are Barbie girls! (So to speak). We had to make the proverbial Sophie's Choice when it comes to "Barbenheimer" and we sided on Barbie. We will have our review of that big summer hit, and speaking of summer hits, we will talk about some of the movie news that has made this summer very interesting indeed. 
This Wednesday, July 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Newsy Much? Obviously, the big news of last weekend was "Barbenheimer", the arrival of two of the biggest, most unexpected hits of the year, which opened at the same time. But that's not the only thing that's going on. What about the smash success of the highly dubious Sound of Freedom? And what about the fall of so many major franchises at the box office? And aren't their two big Hollywood strikes happening? We'll cover The News!
REVIEW: Barbie (2023). In a modern age of studio movies where ideas are almost exclusively derived from successful intellectual property, a movie based on Barbie just makes a lot of sense. But a Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig, the godmother of mumblecore? That's something weird enough to get excited about! Barbie may be the big hit of summer, but it got there following the least conventional path. Starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, the picture perfect Barbie and Ken, we will look at how Barbie became the unlikeliest hit of the year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #383 - The Housing Guru

As you may know, Ontario has set the goal of building 1.5 million houses by 2031, and Guelph’s share is 18,000, but there’s a difference between setting a goal and having the means to reach it. One of the people that's been trying to promote that idea is a man named Mike Moffatt. You might have heard have him. Certainly everyone concerned about housing in Ontario has!
Dr. Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at the Ivey Business School at Western University. He was a special presenter at a Guelph city council meeting in February before our city council signed the housing pledge, and offered some interesting insights into the process and the challenges.
Moffatt explained to council that the 1.5 million target for Ontario is about right, but he also wondered if it was a bit on the low side too. He pointed out that Ontario’s never built more than 850,000 homes in a 10-year span. He noted that the issues with housing are multifaceted and multi-level, and that they're issues that the municipality can’t resolve alone no matter how many legislative changes that the Government of Ontario passes.
This is where we pick things up on this week's podcast. Moffatt will talk about whether any municipality will be able to achieve their housing pledge, and whether they’ve been set up to fail. He will also talk about the role of developers in reaching the pledge, and the role of other groups like upper levels of government and post-secondary institutions. And finally, he will discuss why the lack of mobility in the market is a big problem, and how we can address housing needs now.
So let's talk housing with the Housing Guru on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the work of the Smart Prosperity Institute at their website. You can follow Mike Moffatt on social media at "MikePMoffatt" on Twitter to get insights daily. As for Guelph, you can watch Moffatt’s presentation at the February 28 meeting of city council, and you can follow this link to find the City of Guelph’s story map about housing in the city.
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, Stitcher, 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 #435 - July 20, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we don't do summer fun, we do serious issues. One the one hand, there's a refugee crisis in Toronto that no one has an explanation for, and on the other hand you have a presidential candidate saying crazy things, and you can't call him a Republican this time. We're serious on local news too, and one of our friends from city council is stopping by to lend a first-person view on big issues facing our city hall right now.
This Thursday, July 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gimme Shelter. It's not an usual site to see people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Toronto, but it is kind of weird when all of those people are 1) concentrated in front of one shelter, and b) are actually asylum seekers who were referred to that one shelter to get help. What the hell went wrong? That's a question that a lot of people want answers to as the blame game between the various levels of government has given way to some temporary solutions, but what about permanent ones?
Bobby Pinhead. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a famous name, and it's probably for that reason alone that this man has been allowed to get away with vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories for this long. But he stepped in it this weekend when he was caught on tape suggesting that COVID-19 was designed to infect White and Black people and not Chinese or Jewish people. Even his sibling couldn't ignore his blatant flirtation with anti-Semitism, so is this end of RFK Jr's White House run?
Yes We Ken. Guelph City Council is about to wrap up for the rest of the summer, but you'd have a hard time arguing that anyone at 1 Carden Street is slacking off right now. There was a double-header at council last week, there was a double-header at council this week, and there's a lot of unfinished business from Committee of the Whole to deal with next week. To help us sort all that out today is Ward 6 Councillor Ken Yee Chew, who will tell us about progress on housing and other issues before the horseshoe.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #306 - July 19, 2023 (The Blackening)

This week on End Credits, we're doing a little extension of Black History Month into July. It's also time again for some horror talk, which maybe makes this a little like Halloween Summer. Whatever the occasion, we will review the new film The Blackening, and in its spirit we will talk about some notable Black characters in horror movies who are winning even if they may not survive.
This Wednesday, July 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Character Study. As you will see in this week's movie, it's not easy being Black and being in a horror movie. There's a certain trope about the fate of all Black characters in horror movies, especially if there's only one Black character, and while there's a certain truth to that, we couldn't help but wonder about where the tropes get it wrong. This week, we'll look at great Black characters from horror movies, some of whom don't die first, or even at all!
REVIEW: The Blackening (2023). What started as a short film from the comedy troupe 3Peat is now a full length feature film. Inspired by movies like Get Out, Antebellum, and other elevated horror movies with a social message, the makers of The Blackening ask the most pointed question: If the Black character always dies first, then who dies first when the whole cast is Black? The Blackening wants to lampshade a lot of the tropes we've come to know and love from the horror genre, but does it hit just as hard if you're more of a casual horror fan (or not at all)?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #382 - સમાચાર (The News)

Dhwani, which in the Gujarati-language means "The Voice" or "The Sound", launched back in March and it immediately tested a few assumptions. Could you successfully start a newspaper in the year 2023? Is there an audience for a community paper that’s specifically pitched to an ethnic community? It turns out the answer to both questions is "yes", but how big can it get?
It’s been over a decade since someone tried to start a newspaper in Guelph. There have been calls, especially at the time of the Guelph Mercury’s closing in 2016, but there was a fundamental understanding that no one could start a newspaper in this digital era. But what if that paper wasn't written in English? Guelph is a growing community that's also becoming a more diverse community, but it's hard to reach people and get them involved if you’re not speaking their language.
The City of Guelph’s communications department is trying to make those changes, but helping people get informed about community happenings is one of the reasons that the news media exists. This was also a thought that Hitesh Jagad had last year when he was running for city council, and the co-proprietor of  Kirtida's Kitchen decided that the time was right for an idea he had been cooking for several years now: There are people in Guelph who need news that literally speaks to them.
That’s just the beginning of the journey on this week’s podcast as Jagad tells us about why he started Dhwani, and why he wanted it to be a physical newspaper first. He will also tell you about how Dhwani works, what his future expansion plans are, and why Google Translate is just not the same as someone writing in another language. And finally, he will discuss when you might see reporters working for Dhwani, and why you need to always to make time for the community.
So let's talk about the news, or સમાચાર, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
If you speak the language, you can find a copy of Dhwani at over 30 locations between Guelph, Waterloo Region, Brantford, Hamilton and the GTA, and you can find a digital copy here. If you don’t read Gujarati, you can always visit Kirtida's Kitchen on Eramosa Road at Metcalfe, and you can follow Jagad on social media on Twitter and Instagram.
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, Stitcher, 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 Courtesy of Hitesh Jagad/Kirtida's Kitchen.

Open Sources Guelph #434 - July 13, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, things get awkward. It's hard enough to criticize your political enemies, but what happens when you criticize your friends and then you have to fly off to Europe and see them face to face? That's one question this week, and another question is how concerned we should be about a mosquito-borne disease that's making a local-ish comeback? In the second half of the show, we will hear from the woman who hopes to hold on to a nearby riding for team orange.
This Thursday, July 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Cluster F**k Up? Last week, the United States announced that it was making cluster munitions available to Ukraine for deployment on the frontlines with Russia, which offered a rare moment of disunity among the united front of NATO. Canada was among the countries that called out the U.S. for the move, but everything seemed hunky dory in Lithuania when the full complement of NATO met to welcome Sweden to the team and affirm their dedication to defeating Russia. So what's next?
Malaria Code. It's a mosquito-borne infectious disease that usually causes fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches, but can also cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or even death. Malaria is still a problem in many parts of the world, but it was eliminated from the United States in 1951. It's back now with new cases in Florida and Texas, but while it's only a handful of patients, it's gotten some doctors worried about an underappreciated aspect of climate change. How worried should we be?
It Can Chapman to You! There are a couple of Ontario by-elections happening at the end of the month, but one of them isn't in Kitchener Centre. That doesn't mean that there's not any election action happening up the road, and to prove that we're joined this week by Debbie Chapman, current city councillor and now NDP candidate. Chapman will tell us why she hopes to succeed fellow NDP politician Laura Mae Lindo, how it feels to face off against fellow City Councillor Aislinn Clancy, and why she wants to trade the council table for a bench in the Ontario Legislature.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #305 - July 12, 2023 (Master Gardener)

This week on End Credits, we have reason to be happy and we have reason to be sad. On the happy side, we will talk about some of our favourite movies from this year, which is going to be fun. As for the sad, Paul Schrader is back with another movie, so you know what time it is. This week, we're reviewing Master Gardener, which may yet be one of the best movies of 2023!
This Wednesday, July 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Simply the Best (of 2023 So Far). We're more than halfway through 2023 so that means the time has come to take stock of what's been released so far and pan for those gold nuggets. This year represents the closest we've been to a normal movie release schedule since the start of the pandemic, so there are a lot of expectations. From a true Canadian tech story, to a documentary about a true Canadian icon, we will talk about the best so far!
REVIEW: Master Gardener (2023). The latest entry is Paul Schrader's "Sad Man" trilogy, or "Man Sitting at a Table" trilogy, is about a gardener at a massive Southern estate. Like Pastor Ernst Toller in First Reformed, and William Tell in The Card Counter, Narvel Roth is a man with a dark past desperately trying to live a life of quiet contemplation as he desperately tries to avoid his own memories. And then a stranger comes along. Joel Edgerton is the sad man this time, and if you're familiar with Schrader's recent work this will definitely seem familiar, but how does it work for us now?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #381 - G2G Trail Fail

There’s been a lot of discussion around the council table lately about the future of cycling in Guelph and whether or not staff and council are serious enough about taking on the challenge, and some of that debate centred around the G2G Trail. While the trail is 99 per cent complete, the one per cent of the portion that’s incomplete is exclusive in that second “G” in the trail’s name, Guelph.
The 132-kilometre trail runs a course from Downtown Guelph to the shores of Lake Huron and passing through Blyth, Milverton, Milbank and Elmira along the way. It follows old rail lines, which is appealing for people looking to enjoy a nice relaxing ride because it’s mostly flat the whole way, and it’s also appealing for more than just a nice steady bike ride. At least until you get to Guelph. 
If you access the trail map you will note that much of the Guelph end of the connection is coloured in a dark yellow when the vast majority of the rest of the trail is coloured green. This is why three different cycling advocates last week came to city council and used the presentation of the Future Guelph Strategic Plan to push for the completion of the Guelph end of the trail. Why is it so hard to invest a couple of million dollars and complete the last three kilometres of a potential tourism draw to the area?
To talk about that we're joined by Lorenz Calcagno who is the treasurer of Guelph Cycling Club, president of the Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Association, and a spokesperson for the Guelph portion of the G2G Rail Trail. He will tell us about the history of the G2G Rail Trail, and why it’s so appealing to recreational cyclists and the local tourism picture. He will also talk about the problems with the Guelph end, and why it's been so hard to make progress to finish those last three kilometres.
So let's fig into the G2G enigma on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Guelph-to-Goderich (G2G) Rail Trail at their website,  including the complete map of all 132 kilometres and ways you can get involved as a volunteer. You can also find them on social media at @g2grailtrail at Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, plus @g2grailtrail84 on 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, Stitcher, 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 #433 - July 6, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, the weather is hot, and so are the topics! It's an all news show this week as we look to some international news that happened in own backyard, and some international news that happened in France but has a very familiar tone to it. In news from across Canada, we'll talk about the problem with News Brunswick, or its premier at least, and why your favourite leader of His Majesty's loyal opposition is changing things up, for the better(?).
This Thursday, July 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss
Attack on Gender Studies. News about last Thursday's assault in a philosophy class where three people were stabbed - a professor and two students - was all the more frightening because it happened so close to home, up the road at the University of Waterloo. As people try to understand the violence and the reasons for it, others are concerned about the security failures on campus and whether this is just an isolated incident. We'll try and make sense of the senseless.
Pain and Blaine. New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has been fighting public blowback, including some blowback inside his own cabinet, about changes to Policy 713, which is legislation meant to protect LGBTQ+ students in schools, but has now been perverted into something that could now potentially put them at risk. To many, Higgs is making a cynical political calculation to tact to the far-right and galvanize the anti-queer sentiment, but might he lose his job in the process?
Mid-Plight in Paris. Just months after civil unrest around the increase in retirement age, people are taking to the streets of French cities to protest an instance of police brutality, a 17-year-old kid who was shot dead by police. There are shades of similar killings here in North America, but the clashes in Paris have been occasionally more brutal, and the family of Paris' mayor were nearly victims themselves. Can France make it through their Black Lives Matter moment?
A Pierre to Remember? Something's changed about Pierre Poilievre. He's lost those nerdy glasses and the stuffy suit for something more relaxed, laid back, and dare we day, Trudeau-esque? Just in time for the summer barbeque season, there's a new Pierre on the block, but is it enough to make people forget the old Pierre, the one that spend most of the long weekend attacking Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra for talking about his sneakers in a CBC article?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.