Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #364 - COVID Questions Remain

It was this week three years ago when the City of Guelph announced that they were closing all their public facilities, when the University of Guelph started sending all students in residents home, when all Guelph students started online learning, and every business in town, except for the most essential, closed their doors. It was start of the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, and three years later we still have questions.
First, let's think about how far we've come. In less than a year we had vaccines emerge that offered reasonably good protection from the virus. We were also able to emerge out of lockdown thanks to the public's willingness to take sensible precautions like masking and physical distancing. Was the response perfect? No, one lockdown turned into two and three and even four, but there was a heartening collective response for the greater good.
But then something changed in the last year. The mandates and protections started going away, but the virus did not. Cases locally have not gone under 100 since mid-fall 2021, and Guelph's once commendable 90 per cent rate of full-vaccinated has now fallen to less than 30 per cent as people are failing to keep up with boosters. Outbreaks are still being reported in long-term care homes, but completely gone is the urgency and sense of community. So are we done with COVID even though it's not done with us?
That's one of the questions we'll consider on this personal edition of the podcast that will dare to ask all the COVID-19 questions you might only ever think about. Why have we given up on masking and vaccines even though the virus is still among us? Was "zero COVID" only ever a pipe dream and did someone mislead us about that? What are people with disabilities and medical complications supposed to make of our disinterest fighting COVID? And what does a "steady" number of COVID cases mean for the future?
So let's talk about COVID-19 on it's third birthday on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can still get the weekly local case count and long-term trends about the spread of COVID-19 at the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health dashboard and it's updated every Wednesday morning. WDG Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer will be our guest on this week's episode of Open Sources Guelph Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or 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, 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 #416 - March 9, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to spring ahead with the underdogs. (Daylight savings time starts this weekend people.) First, we will head to Hamilton to catch up with the Ontario Liberals as they struggle to come out of the wilderness, and then we will talk about labour issues on the railways, and whether or not we should be concerned given recent events. And finally, we will spend some time with the other elected Mike from the Green Party. The one from Kitchener.
This Thursday, March 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Blown the Libs. The Ontario Liberals met in Hamilton last weekend to set a course for coming back from the political hinterlands, and it's going to be a long journey. While there are a lot of potential leadership candidates in the mix, both inside (Mitzie Hunter) and outside (Bonnie Cromby) Queen's Park, the Ontario Liberals still seem rudderless nearly one year after another election where they couldn't even achieve official party status. Can anything, or anyone, change that?
Rail of a Tale. Two different unions representing workers for CN Rail have now voted overwhelmingly to go on strike. Labour dissatisfaction among rail workers has been something under the surface for a while, but it's also occasionally taken the spotlight like it did last month after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, OH. We will talk about how rail has become the latest frontline of the labour fight, and whether Canadians should be concerned about rail safety here.
A Morrice Line. These are contentious times in Ottawa; Liberals are on the defense about foreign election interference, and Conservatives are on defense about having dinner with the wrong European politicians. But what does the Green guy think? This week, we're joined by Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice who will talk to us about the tensions on Parliament Hill, the appointment of a rapporteur of all cockamamie things, and some of his own personal projects including housing affordability and accessibility.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #287 - March 8, 2023 (Cocaine Bear)

This week on End Credits, we're just saying "yes" to drugs. Well, we're saying "yes" to movies about animals doing drugs and then attacking people. If you're unsure based on this complete lack of subtlety, we're reviewing Cocaine Bear, which may end up one day being a cult classic, but in case it doesn't, we'll suggest a few other movies that are already classics.
This Wednesday, March 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
A Cult Above the Rest. So the movie this week seems ready made to be a cult classic, a type film and a type of film fandom that's hard to define, but is usually around a film that was a box office bomb, controversial, and/or obscure but none the less gathered a small but passionate fanbase. So the level of diffi-cult-y is hard, but nonetheless we will talk about some of the best cult classics from pre-1970s, the 70s-90s, and post-2000.
REVIEW: Cocaine Bear (2023). In 1985 several bags full of cocaine were thrown from a plane over a national forest in Georgia. A bear found some the coke, ingested it, and then died of an overdose, but what if instead that bear went on a cocaine fuelled rampage in the woods, eating hikers and disembowelling park rangers? Filmmakers had a similar thought, and it fell to actress/director Elizabeth Banks to bring this tale to life with that rarest of mixes, horror and comedy. So how did Banks do? Is Cocaine Bear the cult classic in the making it wants to be?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #363 - The Future of Our Food Future

It was about this time back in 2019 that Guelph and Wellington County were announced as the winners of the Smart Cities Challenge. The challenge was to develop a circular food economy that was going to reduce food waste, promote sustainable food development, and increase access to nutritious food and produce. By many metrics, the project has been a success, so what happens when the funds run out this year?
To start the Smart Cities Office, Our Food Future, Guelph and Wellington County got $10 million from the Federal government, and they nearly doubled that investment between an additional $17 million from various sources plus almost $2 million from in-kind donations. That money has, among other things, diverted over 86,000 tonnes of food waste, turned nearly 76,000 tonnes of food waste into new products, and saved over 116,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Not too shabby, but the primary funding for Our Food Future runs out in December. A February report to the Committee of the Whole explained that the Our Food Future office is on track to deliver on all its milestones; some projects will come to their natural conclusion while others will end up under the umbrella of one of Our Food Future’s many community partners. But will there still be an actual Our Food Future office in 2024, and what happens to all that work if there isn't?
David Messer, who is the executive director of Our Food Future, joins us this week to talk about that. He will discuss the accomplishments of Our Food Future, how the pandemic might have helped accelerate the goals of the project, and the office’s usefulness creating one place for anyone interested in the circular economy to collaborate. He will also talk about the long-term impacts of Our Food Future and why the office won’t just disappear before New Year’s Eve at the end of the year. 
So let's talk about the future of Our Food Future on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find out more about Our Food Future at their website. There’s also been two different reports about the work of Our Food Future presented in the last month, one to Guelph Committee of the Whole and the other to the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health just last week, and you can see the coverage of both those meetings here on Guelph Politico. 
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 #415 - March 2, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're crowding the national news leaders by stealing their thunder. From our non-existent news headquarters in Ottawa, we're going to look at the increase in use and rhetoric around unofficial border crossings, plus the new controversy around Chinese election interference. We're also going to discuss the importation of far-right European politics (for a week anyway), and then the two old men who host this show are going to discuss Tik Tok!
This Thursday, March 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
On the Roxham. Canada's most famous unofficial border crossing is back in the news with an increased number of people coming into Quebec from the U.S. since the end of 2022. Quebec Premier François Legault and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre are both demanding that Roxham Road be closed but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has warned that this comes with its own set of complications. Can Canada respond compassionately, or are we doomed to a 'Build the Wall' narrative?
China Breach. So it's not a good week for Trudeau or his party now with competing investigations into alleged election interference involving the Liberal Party, key ridings, and the Chinese government. Media reports accuse the PM of ignoring the warning signs in 2019 and 2021, and the opposition parties are united in their demand for further investigation, but how long can Trudeau ignore the issue and are we seeing the cracks that will lead to another election?
The Passion Over Christine. Unless you're a fan of the Freedom Convoy or far-right European politics, you probably haven't heard of Christine Anderson. Essentially, her political party, the AfD, is the closest thing to the Nazis that Germany has seen in 80 years, and last week, Anderson did a tour of Canada that some politicians, including sitting Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, are trying to live down. We'll talk about why this is a big deal.
Tik Tok... Boom! Back to China concerns, and it was a rough week for everyone's favourite new social media phenomenon. Tik Tok has now been banned on all Federal government devices, several provincial governments have made, or are thinking about making, the same move, and even the City of Guelph is taking a good, long look at the app. Security and privacy concerns are rank when it comes to Tik Tok, but is there a way to balance those concerns and its popularity and influence?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #286 - March 1, 2023 (The Fabelmans)

This week on End Credits, we're going to talk about movie magic. Of course, that's essentially the basis of this show, but on this episode we're deconstructing some of that magic with the person more credited than most with creating it. We're going to review The Fabelmans and we're also going to turn a famous director's illustrious career into a game.
This Wednesday, March 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Spielberg Draft. We've talked a lot about Steven Spielberg on this show, and why wouldn't we because if you grew up anytime during the 70s and afterwards then Spielberg has been a pretty big part of your pop culture experience. This week, we will draft what we think is the best work for the director from each of the last five decades, or "Spielb-eras", and come up with another definitive list of the best from the Greatest of All Time (?).
The Fabelmans (2022). In Steven Spielberg's 34th movie, he finally turns the camera on himself. A lot of Spielberg's movies have been about some aspect of the director's inner-life, but The Fabelmans is very explicitly *his* story, and that of his family. In the 1950s, young Sammy Fabelman is taken to The Greatest Show on Earth, the Oscar-winning movie, and he's set on a course that will take him to the upper strata of Hollywood, but not before his family breaks up and apart, which would further inform Sammy's - Steven's - vision. So how does this one rank?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #362 - A-Salt on the Water

The weather has been pretty good reminding us this past week that winter is dangerous, especially when driving on snowy icy streets. That’s why we salt, but the evidence is building that we salt our roads too much and it’s had a profoundly negative impact on our rivers and streams. So are we sacrificing our water quality for winter road safety, and is there a way that we can have both?
It was about two years ago that a study was released in the journal Facets that found levels of salt in rivers and streams exceeded federal exposure guidelines in 89 per cent of samples from four different watersheds in the greater Toronto area, and that one-third of the studied sites showed that one-quarter of all species are impacted. The real concerning part though was these sample were taken in the proverbial dog days of summer, late July and August.
If salt levels are hitting dangerous levels in summer, what must they look like in the winter with all the winter maintenance? Or what happens in a winter like this, where we get a winter storm, lay down salt, and then watch it wash away with a rise in temperatures, melting and then rain before starting the process all over again? Lauren Lawson, who’s an ecologist, conservation scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, will try and answer those questions.
Lawson joins us on this week's podcast to talk about our history with road salt, why high salt levels are so dangerous to waterways and animal life, and why it’s so dangerous to human beings as well. She will also discuss why the salt levels are so surprisingly high in the summer, and whether or not the damage to the environment is reversible. And finally, she will talk about best salt management practices, and how Lawson made this problem her academic life’s work. 
So let's talk about things getting too salty out there on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can watch a webinar Lawson hosted for Watershed Canada here, plus you can check out this info sheet with facts and information about proper and sustainable use of road salt. You can also find the City of Guelph’s own salt management plan on the City’s website, and you can follow Lawson on Twitter and through her website.
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 #414 - February 23, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go back into the shadows. In the realm of extremism and conspiracy theories it was a rough week because one year after the Freedom Convoy it turns out that the government was right to use the Emergencies Act after all. That's okay though, because we're found the real cause of all our problems, and you will never guess what it is! For the interview, we're talking to a local city councillor about more down-to-Earth issues.
This Thursday, February 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Commission Complete. The Public Order Emergencies Commission delivered their final report last Friday, and their finding was that the Federal government met the “very high threshold” for using the Emergencies Act. That's not the end of the story because the report also pointed out that there were missed opportunities to stop the so-called "Freedom Convoy" before it got out of hand, and there were some especially harsh words for the inaction of the Ontario government. But did we learn anything new?
15-Minute Warning. The idea of 15-minute communities has been around for years. It's an urban planning concept that proposes that everything you need daily in a community - shopping, services, schools, and employment - should be a 15-minute walk or bike ride away, but now some people are calling 15-minute communities part of the global cabal's efforts to control your life, and some big names like Chris Sky and Jordan Peterson are running with it. We'll look at this latest silliness.
Dan With a Plan. It's only February, but it's been a very busy year so far at Guelph City Council. Lately, there have been some concerns about the proposed operations campus, renewed calls for affordable housing by leveraging private developments, and coming up next week is the Ontario government's housing pledge and the intricacies of expanding the Elliott. To look at these issues from his perch at one end of the horseshoe is Ward 1 Councillor Dan Gibson, who will share with us his thoughts on all these council developments.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #285 - February 22, 2023 (Somebody I Used to Know)

This week on End Credits, we've got a little bit of a post-Valentine's Day treat for you, the listener. On the docket for this episode is a romantic comedy made by a husband-and-wife filmmaking team, which kind of makes it a Valentine for Valentine's. So we're reviewing Somebody I Used to Know and talking about other movies made by couples.
This Wednesday, February 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Power Couple Rankings. This week's movie is the combined effort of a director and star who are married in real-life, which is not an unusual condition in Hollywood where romantic partnerships are born of professional ones, and vice versa. So to kick off this week's show, we will talk about some our favourite movies that work (or not) thanks to the love match behind the scenes and the interpersonal dynamics of the filmmaker and their lead both in-front and behind the camera.
Somebody I Used to Know (2023). It's not an original story, a small town A-type personality sees their well-laid dreams come to a sudden halt, which forces them to reconsider their lives back home where a romantic reunion makes them rethink their future. This time, the star is Alison Brie, she co-wrote the script with her director and husband Dave Franco, and the story finds reality show producer Ally landing at home just in time for her old boyfriend's wedding weekend in her quaint little Washington State hometown. So how well do we know Somebody I Used to Know?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #361 – The Convoy Was the End of the Beginning

Thursday marks one-year since the official end of the “Freedom Convoy”, a series of protests against COVID protection measures, vaccine mandates and lockdowns that paralyzed downtown Ottawa and border crossings at Windsor and Coutts for weeks. Yes, the Convoy flamed out, but the complex web of thoughts and ideas behind the Convoy are still out there.
The images from the Freedom Convoy, especially in the Ottawa Capital Region around Parliament Hill, are pretty indelible. You might think about the appearance of Nazi regalia or the party atmosphere with people in hot tubs, or people moving around jerry cans filled with diesel, or trucks and vehicles running all hours of the day. Still, the average Canadian had no idea how the Freedom Convoy came about, or how online radicalization turned into full blown civil disturbance I.R.L.
This week, we're joined by a few of the people connecting those dots at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies, an independent think tank dedicated to the critical study of the far-right in Canada. This panel includes Dr. Luc Cousineau, the co-director of research who studies gender and power; Dr. Amy Mack, the other co-director of research who focuses on how social media radicalizes people into entho-nationalism and white supremacy; and Kathleen Mah, a research fellow investigating critical public health and anti-mask groups. 
This distinguished panel joins us to talk about their immediate academic reaction to the Convoy, and how they’ve been tracking the groups and leaders after the Convoy was broken up a year ago. They will also discuss how we can use education without being accused of indoctrination, and how real problems feed into far-right extremism without presenting any real solutions, And finally, they will talk about the responsibility that politicians have in spreading information whether they’re pro- or anti-Convoy.
So let's talk about the future of the Convoy, even if there is no Convoy, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies at their website, or on Twitter. You can read the report from the Public Inquiry into the 2022 Public Order Emergency at their website, and we will be discussing it on this week’s Open Sources Guelph on Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU.
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.