Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #357 – The New Kids on the Block Part 2

Next week, council will have their meeting to confirm the 2023 budget, which, on the surface, seems like a relatively ordinary and straightforward procedure, but it may be a pretty big hint at the challenges that are coming for the members of city council, old and new alike. In terms of the new, and the challenges they’ve already been facing, this seems like a good time to get to know a few more of the new council players.
So we kick off the second part of a two-part recap featuring recent interviews with the new councillors with Carly Klassen of Ward 2. She will talk about standing out in the very competitive Ward 2 race in last year’s election, and her first few weeks as the sitting councillor. She also talked about the emergence of Bill 23, how that’s impacted the job description and responsibilities of being a city councillor, and the recent renaissance of root cellars in the Ward.
We’ll then talk to Ward 4 Councillor Linda Busuttil, who will chat about transitioning from the school board, improving the representation of Ward 4 at City Hall, and the ways she wants to change the job. She also talks about her thoughts around Bill 23 and its impact on council business, how the legislation doesn’t tackle the affordability issue, and how it also undermines the proverbial toolbox for city council to solve problems.
And last, but not least, we’ve got Ward 6's Ken Yee Chew who will talk about the campaign strategy that led to him upsetting the near-certain re-election of an incumbent, and the political make-up of Ward 6. From there, he talks about Bill 23 from his perspective as a councillor and as a municipal planner, and why the legislation will create as much stress among City staff as it will in the community. Also, he'll talk about his concerns about the separation of South Guelph from the rest of town in the new Federal riding maps.
So let’s talk to some our new council friends – again – on this week’s edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear new interviews every week with Guelph councillors and other government newsmakers on Open Sources Guelph, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. Also, keep visiting Guelph Politico for all the latest coverage about all the latest city council meetings.
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 #409 - January 12, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got déjà vu, or should we say, "déjà coup". A lot of people have made that joke, so let's talk about the very serious issues behind that with some concerning recent undemocratic events in Brazil. We will also talk about one of Scotty's favourite issues, rich people having too much money! In the back half of the show, we're going to talk to the man who might be the most obsessively environmental person in Ontario politics not named Mike.
This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Breakin' 2: Electric Coup-aloo. A president unbound by reality or the rule of law, backed by rich and nefarious far-right forces, calls an election fraudulent and his followers storm the capital in a shocking act of political violence on a January afternoon. Sound familiar? The setting this time was Brazil, and though Jair Bolsonaro's been in self-imposed exile in Florida, the threat to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his behalf had a lot of echos from January 6, 2021 in Washington D.C. Are far-right insurrections now global?
All the Money in the World. Just after the start of the second work day of 2023, Canada's richest CEOs had already made as much as money as most of the workers will all year. A new report from the Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives fanned the flames by announcing that the 100 highest paid CEOs in Canada were paid a staggering 243 times what the average Canadian worker took home last year. As moneyed sources warn us constantly about a recession, we'll talk about the real sources of inequality.
50 Tirades of Gray. The Ontario Legislature won't be in session again until after Family Day, but the adversaries of Premier Doug Ford aren't taking a break. One of those adversaries, Environmental Defense executive director Tim Gray, joins us this week to talk about his group's push to investigate the Greenbelt deal with developers, their new lawsuit defending the council approved municipal boundaries in Hamilton and other environmental fights that Gray's group is taking right to Ford's front door.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #279 - January 11, 2023 (Hollywood Stories)

This week on End Credits, we're going to talk about the movies. Of course we do that every week, but in this week's special post-holiday edition of the show (sorry, we're still on an advanced winter break) we're going to talk about the movies about the movies that came out in 2022. From one actor's fake story, to a filmmaking story, to an embellished true Hollywood story.
This Wednesday, January 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Chew Hollywood Stories. As we continue our break, we turn our retrospective lens this week to tales from Hollywood. First, we will consider the not so true story of Nicolas Cage's hilariously action-packed overseas adventure in the improbably named The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent. Next, we will go out to 1970s Texas for another film massacre with X. And finally, we will go into Hollywood's past with the highly controversial yet strangely mesmerizing Marilyn Monroe bio-pic, Blonde. Hooray for Hollywood? Maybe.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #356 – The New Kids on the Block Part 1

On Open Sources Guelph we talk to all members of city council regularly, so it seemed fitting to kick off this new council term last fall by talking first to the five new councillors. For the next couple of weeks on this podcast, we’re going to collect those initial interviews starting with the new reps from the odd number wards in Guelph as we get to know the new players at the council table.
Both Bob Bell and June Hofland, the previous Ward 1 and Ward 3 city councillors respectively, were elected in 2006 and they left some pretty big shoes to fill in terms of experience and longevity at City Hall. The new councillors for those wards, Erin Caton and Michele Richardson, join council at a time of unique challenges even before the provincial government really piled it on in the weeks between the election and the inaugural meetings of the new term.
So with that in mind, we talked to Caton last fall on Open Sources about the things that made a difference for her in the election campaign, developing working relationships with her fellow councillors and increasing representation for people with disabilities on council. She also talked about some of the initial moves she was planning for her first weeks on council and how provincial directives might interrupt the well laid plans she campaigned on.
We also talked to Richardson, who told us about how she, as the one woman running in Ward 3, was elected over several male challengers. She also talked about being thrown into the deep end with Bill 23, and whether the agenda she ran on as a candidate is in danger because of big provincial changes to council business. Also, Richardson discussed how she’ll manage her day job at Wellington County with her new duties plus she talked about some recent development news in her ward.
So let's talk to some our new council friends - again - on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can hear new interviews every week with Guelph councillors and other government newsmakers on Open Sources Guelph, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. Also, keep visiting Guelph Politico for all the latest coverage about all the latest city council meetings.
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 #408 - January 5, 2023

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're back at work! That was a nice holiday break but the news doesn't stop, even though we do (for a time). So on this show, we're catching up with the crazy politics of the United States, which did not take a holiday break, and we will catch up with the War in Ukraine because there was no holiday break there either. For the interview this week, we will finish up our round of interviews with the new city councillors by chatting with the new guy representing Ward 6.
This Thursday, January 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Kevin Can Wait. As dawn arrived on January 3 for the start of the new U.S. Congress, the odds were still long that Kevin McCarthy would achieve his life's goal and become the Speaker of the House, at least on the first vote. It's a big flashing red sign that House Republicans are not ready for prime time, including a holiday scandal about a new New York Congressman who apparently ran for office on an entirely imaginary CV. We will talk about the GOP drama in this first week of the new Congress.
300 Days of Longing. The Russian war in Ukraine, at least the full invasion portion, is rapidly approaching the end of its first year. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a successful visit to the United States before the break that resulted in more military support, but Vladimir Putin has been increasing the bombardment, started calling the war a war in public, and appears to be considering the launch of another invasion through Belarus. What's coming in 2023 for the people of Ukraine?
The Man Who Chew Too Much. Before the break we were working our way through the new Guelph City Councillors, and we finally come to the end of that list. Last, but certainly not least, we're talking to Ken Yee Chew, the new councillor from Ward 6, for this week's show. Chew is one of the youngest members of the new council, and he's going to talk to us about defeating an incumbent, the challenges coming in 2023, and the potential changes to the Federal riding maps that might split off the south end from the rest of Guelph.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #278 - January 4, 2023 (Animation Domination)

This week on End Credits, we're still recovering from some holiday cheer, so we're settling into the new year as we think about the challenges and movies ahead. In the meantime, we're going to bring you some of our insights from the year that just ended, including this episode that might well be a preview for this year's Best Animated Feature Oscar. Are these three in contention?
This Wednesday, January 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Animation Domination. To begin the new year, we're going to revisit some of the greatest hits from the last year, and we're lining them up by themes. This week, we're going to look at how 2022 was a great year for animation with some of the best examples, and they might even be up for Oscars. On this episode we will re-cover Pixar's Canada-set Turning Red, Richard Linklater's space age Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood, and the charming stop-motion mockumentary Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. Let's have some fun to start 2023!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #355 - ...The Rest of the Year at City Council

Here's the first episode of the podcast for the year, and what are we talking about? Stuff that happened in the year that just ended! Before we let 2022 go for good, we're going to go around the horseshoe, the one in the council chambers at 1 Carden Street, one more time. There weren't that many council meetings between September and December, but that doesn't mean nothing interesting happened.
There were exactly a dozen meetings at Guelph City Council between the time councillors breaked for summer and the time they adjourned for the year in December. Obviously, there was an election in between, which meant there was a mid-season cast shake-up. We said goodbye to five of our favourite council characters and we said hello to five new ones!
In terms of the substance (the storylines?) there were some surprises this fall, but not all of them came courtesy of the councillors themselves. The Government of Ontario cast a very big shadow on these last dozen council meetings with their rapid and massive changes to planning policy and the governing rules of council. There was also the spectre of ongoing internal friction when it comes to heritage matters.
Those are just two of themes that will stick out on this council recap episode of the podcast. We will re-visit pre-election conundrums around a massive redevelopment on the old Days Inn property and an emergency re-work of the single-use plastic policy. Post-election, we dive into the repercussions of Bill 23, the heritage versus homes debate around Fife Road, some big changes to a couple of key City advisory committees, and so much more!
So let's cover the small number of highly impactful council meetings from Fall 2022 in this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
The 2023 slate of council meetings begins on Tuesday January 11 with a workshop and a Committee of the Whole meeting. To see those previews, and to stay up to date with the latest developments, keep visiting 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. #407 - December 29, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we come to the final episode of the year. As fans of our show know, when the time comes for the last show of the year, then it's time for the awards. The campaign is completed, the votes are in, and the trophies have been polished and stamped. So put on your tux, book your limousine, and pop the champagne as we usher in the new year with the OSGenies (Thoughts on the name?).
This Thursday, December 29, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Worst Politician of 2022. The proverbial pickins are never slim in this category, and 2022 has once again been an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the worst people in politics. From across the ocean and a record setting tenure in terms of a premiership, to someone closer to home who just got hired to be as crazy as they want to be (it seems), our first award goes to the worst of the worst!
Good News Story of the Year. Good news? In 2022? Sure, you can find some if you look hard enough. Actually, you don't have to look that hard, and neither did we. It turns out that the bad news stories might be a source of good news depending on how people are reacting to them, and at the same time things didn't get as bad as they could have thanks to the most basic sort of activism: Voting! It's all good news!!
Dumpster Fire of the Year. Oh yeah! We didn't start the fire, but we certainly warm ourselves from the flames, and 2022 was no exception with this fan favourite category. Many dumpsters were set ablaze this year, and we have narrowed it down to two, whether that's the one that affects us everyday, or the one that got way out of control earlier this year in locations all around the country.
Best Politician of 2022. For everything, there is an equal and an opposite, and if there is a Worst Politician of the Year then there must also be a Best Politician of the Year. Yes, there are a few political people in this blessed world who appear to be as good as their word, and are putting some solid effort into trying to make the world a better place, from a leader literally in the middle of a war zone to some folks closer to home!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #277 - December 28, 2021 (Top 5 of 2022)

This week on End Credits, we come to the end... of the year! That was a close one, but so was the race to the number one spot in our 2022 Top 5 lists. Yes, since it is the last show of 2022, we will all be joining you this week to talk about our picks of the best films of the year, why they're the best, and why you should be checking them out over the new year!
This Wednesday, December 28, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Best of 2022. Like every year, the last show of 2022 is dedicated to not just one movie, and not just some movies, but the Best Movies of the Year! The entire panel is here, they have prepared their lists and checked them twice, and they are ready to lay out what - in their learned opinions - are the Top 5 movies of the year. From a Viking legend to a sci-fi western, from a tale of a shell to the tale of one of the most famous actresses of all time, we will run down the lists, which may also included an unexpected trip through the multiverse.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #354 – 2022 Year in Review

There were good news stories, bad news stories, and some very bad news stories. Progress was made in some quarters, and there was regression in others. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was a long 12 months in some ways, but they all seemed to pass by very, very quickly in the grand scheme of things, so what is there left to say about the year 2022? We’re going to find out!
So there were two elections this year, but both sets of elections were stymied with much lower voter turnout than our worst case scenarios had envisioned. And speaking of worst case, how about that Bill 23? It was announced the day after the municipal election, and probably caused worse hangovers than any of the celebrating done by the election’s winners - or losers - the night before.
Remember when we had another lockdown first thing in January? That was quickly added to the justification for the Freedom Convoy, and support for that was pretty strong locally. Those protests would peter out by the spring, but some people would try to turn their anti-mandate activism or other far-right ideology into electoral candidacy in the fall. In the end 2022 created a lot of concern for members of the community who are part of marginalized groups.
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg on this week’s edition of the podcast as Open Source's Guelph co-host Scotty Hertz joins us to offer some last words about this election year, and some opening thoughts about the new council term. We will also talk about why the homelessness issue became easier to see in the last year, plus cyber attacks, healthcare issues, local hate crimes, and the changing of the guard at various Guelph organizations in the last several months.
So let's talk about 2022 one more time on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
Reminder: you can listen to Open Sources Guelph every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca. If you miss hearing the show on terrestrial radio, you will be able to catch it on the Guelph Politicast channel as usual on Monday. And stay tuned for more new episodes of this podcast and other shows as we kick off 2023 this Sunday.
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.