Guelph Politicast

Open Sources Guelph #419 - March 30, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thinking about life in the capital. There's always a lot of controversy up in Ottawa, and for the last couple of weeks that controversy's been all about Chinese government election interference. But good news! Joe Biden came to town to save the news cycle with some life-affirming North American camaraderie. For the interview this week, we're pleased to talk to someone who pays more attention to federal and provincial budgets than we do.
This Thursday, March 30, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Dong Turn? Since last we talked about this issue, former-Governor General David Johnston was named the rapporteur on alleged Chinese election interference, and Liberal MP Han Dong has resigned from the party after a Global News report that alleged he gave advise to Chinese diplomats on the detainment of the Two Michaels, which Dong has denied. He's now suing Global News for what he calls "false reporting" by the way. We'll talk about where the scandal sits now.
One to Joe On. U.S. President Joe Biden made his way to Ottawa for his first official visit to Canada since becoming the head of the American government. There was substance, like a new agreement on controlling the flow of immigrants at Roxham Road, and there was some style like the moment in the House of Commons when Biden burned politicians that won't prioritize gender parity in their cabinet. So what are the takeaways from Joe's 27-hour tour de force in this nation's capital?
Squeeze Play. It's been a busy budget week. At Queen's Park last week, the Ontario government revealed its budget and then on Tuesday the federal government revealed theirs. So many details, so much money, and so little time to cover it all, so we called in a stringer. This week, we're joined by Dr. Paul Kershaw, the founder, lead researcher and executive chair of Generation Squeeze. He's going to tell us about what the budgets mean for young people, and others in Canada looking some government relief in an expensive world.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #290 - March 29, 2023 (Scream VI)

This week on End Credits, we catch up with old friends, and newer old friends. We had to wait a whole year, but we finally get a new entry in the retooled Scream franchise, which means we're heading to New York (via Montreal) for Scream VI. And sticking to the horror realm, we're going to play a game and dive deep into horror's golden age in the 1980s.
This Wednesday, March 29, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The 1980s Horror Movie Draft. The Scream franchise began as a kind of satire of slasher films, which came to prominence in the 1980s in what was probably the greatest film era of horror movies until very recently. But which horror movies from the 80s are draft worthy? To start this week's show, we're going to play another draft, and choose the best horror flicks in categories like "Franchise", "Fantasy", and "Creature Feature".
REVIEW: Scream VI (2023). It took eight movies for Jason to make to his way to New York City, but Ghost Face has done it in six! The latest entry in the Scream franchise sees the new characters introduced in last year's re-quel head to the Big Apple as a way to prevent their lives from becoming another horror movie, but Ghost Face has moved to New York too and he's still interested in making the Carpenter Sisters the stars of another franchise entry. Were the directing team of Radio Silence able to capture again the magic of Scream?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #366 - The Other James Gordon

James Gordon decided last year that eight years on city council was enough and that he would step away to return to his first love, music. Of course, Gordon never really left music to take part in local politics; all the while he was on council he was still touring and still releasing new music as a city councillor, but can he now quit politics so easily? We're going to find out...
Before his successful elections to Guelph City Council in 2014 and 2018, and even before his first political run as the local NDP candidate in 2011, Gordon was an accomplished singer, songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist. He was also a successful activist and community organizer; he co-founded the Hillside Festival, the Canadian Songwriters’ Festival, the Guelph Civic League, the Guelph Arts Platform, and Wellington Water Watchers.
Last May, Gordon announced that his formal career in politics was at an end. He wanted to make more space on council for a new generation of leadership, which meant embracing his musical career again, the Other James Gordon as it were, and this week he’s having an official launch for not just one, but two different books. So is this the official relaunch of Gordon the musician. It could be, but has he really been able to leave politics behind?
On this week's podcast, we’ll learn if Gordon still feels compelled to keep an eye on council business, and how it feels like to be on the outside again after all those years on the inside. He will also talk about picking up where he left off with his music, being on the road again, and how he’s been able to cope with the changes to the music business in the age of streaming. Plus, Gordon will talk about his new activist work abroad, and whether he's done with politics for good.
So let's talk to the other James Gordon on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can find links to Gordon’s music and other projects, as well as a list of upcoming tour dates on his website. Gordon will be holding his double book launch tonight at the Bookshelf Cinema starting at 7 pm, tickets are $10 at the door. If you’d like to learn more about the efforts to build a health clinic in Ciruko in the Democratic Republic of Congo there’s a GoFundMe page where you can learn more.
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 #418 - March 23, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we mark a grim milestone. You see the smiley, happy man with the thumb up in the picture above, well he's responsible for what might end up being the biggest foreign policy debacle of the 21st century, and the century was barely three years old when it happened. On this episode, we're marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, and we're also going to talk about other fights closer to home, like housing, and we've got a city council guest to talk about it.
This Thursday, March 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Iraq at 20 (Part 1 and 2). Twenty years ago this week, the United States with the United Kingdom and a small "Coalition of the Willing" launched a war on Saddam Hussein and his authoritarian regime in Iraq. We were told Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, he had connections to terrorists, and he was a clear and present danger to the Free World, and two months after the war begin, George W. Bush declared that the mission was "accomplished."
But it wasn't, and the reason for the mission was a lie. Two decades later, the Iraq War is now understood as a disaster, destabilizing the whole Middle East and undermining the global leadership of the United States. We will spend the first part of the show this week talking about how Bush et al were allowed to get it so wrong and why we're still haunted by it.
Goller Back! Back at the beginning of the year, Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller posted to social media that he had a tiny house built in his backyard that he was looking to rent out. There was more than a little controversy around that, but as you will hear, it gave him some personal insight into the housing issues facing Guelph from multiple sides. That's only the beginning of our latest discussion with Goller as we tackle questions about the housing pledge, NIMBYism, and the fate of 90 Carden Street.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #289 - March 22, 2023 (The Whale)

This week on End Credits, there's more here than meets the eye. Are we transforming? No, but we're here to talk about transformative performances and we'll start with the one that just won the Oscar for Best Actor. On this show, we're reviewing winner of two Academy Awards, The Whale, and we're going to talk about other actors who did more for a part than get a haircut.
This Wednesday, March 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Transformers. Sometimes it's not the cloths that make the man or woman, sometimes its more basic than that. In the history of film, actors have found great performances and great characters by losing a lot of weight, or gaining a lot of weight, or having to fake it with state of the art make-up effects. Before our movie of the week, we're going to take a minute to remember other actors who found their characters by changing themselves.
REVIEW: The Whale (2022). Most Darren Aronofsky are ensemble pieces built around one great performance, and The Whale is no exception. Brendan Fraser achieved a rare comeback after years away from Hollywood to deal with personal matters, and took centre stage, and an Oscar, for playing Charlie, man literally eating himself to death. Fraser's pathos and humanity shine through the layers of prosthetic make-up, but what about the dark and occasionally disturbing world built around him by Aronofskey. Is The Whale deserving of its biggest asset?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #365 - The State of the Arts

We've always thought of Guelph as a uniquely artsy place, but is that still the case? Like with just about every aspect of life, COVID-19 had an effect on the arts; it’s hard to get out and see a band, or a local theatrical production, or to take part in a local festival when there’s no going outside. But as we recover from COVID we’re learning that the pandemic is not the only pressure point on the arts and local artists.
This is where we talk about the ubiquitous housing crisis because the average income for an emerging artist is, well, not a lot. If it’s hard for someone who makes a good living to find somewhere to live in Guelph, imagine how hard it is for someone who works part-time so that they can spend much of the rest of their time on their craft. Of course, but it's not just about a place to live either, what about cheap rehearsal or studio space?
The issues around physical space are one of the things that are having an effect on local arts and artists, and as we head into prime festival season in the spring and summer, it makes sense to take account with an expert. This week, we will engage the expertise of  Paul Barson, who is a quadruple threat as a member of the Downtown Theatre Project, organizer for Guelph Fringe, lead singer of the Vanishers, and a director on the Guelph Arts Council’s board.
Barson sits at the intersection of local music, the performing arts and arts administration so he's the perfect person to have an honest discussion about Guelph’s arts scene. We’re going to talk about how far back the present challenges to local arts go, and how much of the blame for those challenges goes to COVID-19. We will also talk about the role of the arts council, whether or not there needs to be a combined advocacy from Guelph’s arts groups, and whether we’re on the verge of a local arts renaissance.
So let's talk about the state of the arts on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The next performance of the Downtown Theatre Project is Venus in Fur from May 24-28 at the Red Brick Cafe and you can learn more about the group here. The Guelph Fringe Festival will return on August 10-13 and you can learn more the festival here. You can listen to the music of the Vanishers on Apple Music and Spotify, and you can subscribe to the Guelph Arts Council newsletter at their 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. #417 - March 16, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're going to run on the bank like it's 1929! We shouldn't joke, people's livelihoods are at stake, but we're once again seeing high-risk banking causing big problems, and that's one of things that we're going to be talking about on this week's show. In other news, we will talk about the Canadian government's face-off with Facebook, and to mark the COVID-19 pandemic's third birthday, we're joined by the woman atop our public health planning.
This Thursday, March 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bank the Kool-Aid. Last Thursday, clients of the Silicon Valley Bank, reacting to some scary sounding scuttlebutt, tried to withdraw about $40 billion in assets at the same time. You might understandably start having some flashbacks to the financial crisis of 2008, but this time the circumstances are different in terms of impact even though they're still kind of the same in the fine print. Once again, bankers are behaving badly and we will talk about why the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Greed 'Book. There's legislation presently in the Senate that will make social media companies like Meta, which owns Facebook, and Alphabet, which owns Google, give some of their profits to Canadian news outlets who's advertising income has been gutted by these companies. But neither Meta nor Alphabet are taking that lying down and are threatening to no longer carry Canadian news on their platform. So who's going to blink in this multi-million dollar Mexican stand-off?
Mercer Mission. This week marks the third anniversary of the unofficial start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, which is another way of saying that three years ago this week we all went into lockdown for the first time. This week for the interview, we're going to be joined by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer, who's going to talk us through where we are right now in the pandemic, how best you can still protect yourself, and if holding steady with the number of COVID cases is the best we can do now.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #288 - March 15, 2023 (Creed III)

This week on End Credits, leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet's get ready to rumble!!!!! Of course there will be no real rumbling, unless there's some violent disagreement about the quality of this week's movie, which is about boxing obviously. We're reviewing Creed III, and in honour of the recently completed Oscar cycle, we will re-write history to fix some historic wrongs.
This Wednesday, March 15, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Comic Gold. The Oscars were handed out last weekend, and a lot of the trophies went to Everything Everywhere All at Once, and while there are some comedic (zany?) elements to that movie, you can't really call it a comedy. It's a truism that if you want to win an Oscar, you're probably not going to make a funny movie, but what if life were a little more fair? What if they gave out Oscars more often to comedies? This week, we'll re-balance the scales.
REVIEW: Creed III. In Creed, Michael B. Jordan played the son of original Rocky adversary Apollo Creed, a man struggle to break free of his father's shadow and create his own legacy, and by the start of Creed III he's done it! But look out, because the past comes back to haunt the new Creed in the form of Jonathan Majors, an old friend who's boxing career was waylaid by two decades in prison. Jordan not only stars, but he takes over the directing duties too, which is doubling the pressure on this franchise and its star so did Jordan knock it out, or did he get knocked out?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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.