Guelph Politicast

End Credits #263 - September 14, 2022 (Glorious)

This week on End Credits it's about to get spooky. Yes, we're about half-a-month early when it comes to the official start of Halloween season, but we're jumping the proverbial gun with a little end of summer tribute to horror and scary things. We're talking about some of our favourite (recent) scary movies, and then we will see if Glorious is worthy of that list.
This Wednesday, September 14, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Scared So Good. In the last 10 years, the horror genre has gone from something enjoyed by a small but very dedicated group of film fanatics to one of the most well received genres that constantly delivers both in quality and box office. To begin this week's show, we're going to count off a few of our favourite horror movies from the last 10 years. If it was made good and scary between 2013 and today, we just might talk about it.
REVIEW: Glorious (2022). So you're heading down the highway, you're getting tired, and you need a pit stop. You pull into some out of the way truck stop in order to use the bathroom, and - BOOM! - you're confronted by an non-corporeal god-like entity that enlists you in a game to determine the fate of all humanity. Those Lovecraftian vibes are apparent in Glorious, a new horror film streaming on Shudder starring True Blood's Ryan Kwanten and Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, but are those good vibrations or bad vibrations? This review will tell.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #339 - Too Beautiful to Fail

For 20 years, the fate of the old Ontario Reformatory Lands have been a matter of some question, and the answer to that question is complicated by the tangled web of ownership. As successive governments have worked to untangle that web, all that residents and history buffs have been able to do is plan, advocate and educate, but what happens now that we’re so close to revealing the final fate of the OR Lands?
In 1909, Provincial Secretary for Ontario William Hanna began a progressive program for prison reform in Ontario, and the Ontario Reformatory in Guelph was perhaps the finest example of his idealism. There is a certain irony in one of the most beautiful places in Guelph being a prison site, but that’s only because the inmates of the time made it so; from the prison building to the landscaping and the man-made lake.
But the OR closed in 2002, all the inmates were moved to other accommodations, and aside from the occasional film or TV production, the OR lands have largely been reclaimed by the people. It’s a great place that you can almost never stop exploring, but it’s about to change in very big ways with almost 600 acres sold to Fusion Homes and a Heritage District study currently underway. What's next for the Ontario Reformatory Lands, and whose vision will be better represented?
On this week's podcast we're joined by Alex Smith, who is on the board of directors of the Yorklands Green Hub, to talk about the goals of the Hub, and the reasons he's involved. He will also talk about the ownership of the property, and whether all the stakeholders are on the same page in terms of the efforts to preserve the OR Lands’ heritage value. And finally, he will talk about encouraging public access to the lands right now, and whether or not they're getting the right amount of attention this election.
So let's go back to the OR Lands, maybe for the first time, on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Yorklands Green Hub at their website. The Hub will be holding a Tree Festival on the OR lands on Saturday September 24 from 1 to 3 pm and you can find that information at the YGH website. For something more formal, there will be an in-person open house about the Heritage Conservation District (HCD) Study on Thursday September 29 at 6:30 pm at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #234. The City also collecting your feedback on the review until October 13.
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 #391 - September 8, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're heading back to the campaign trail, which is essentially where we're living for the next several weeks. So we've lined up another quintet of municipal election candidates; five down and a great many more to go. So join us once again as we put politically active people in the spotlight and ask them to tell us - and you - why they want to be a city councillor working out of 1 Carden Street.
This Thursday, September 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 2. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we’re spending the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five more of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here’s who we’re talking to this week:
Linda Busuttil, Ward 4
Chidi Nwene, Ward 1
Raymond Sartor, Ward 2
Hitesh Jagad, Ward 4
Phil Allt, Ward 3
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #262 - September 7, 2022 (Official Competition)

This week on End Credits, we're all about the movies. Seriously though, when are we not about the movies? But this week, we're reviewing a movie that's about movies, a good old fashioned comedy about the absurdities of the film business. On this show, we're reviewing the satire Official Competition, and we're also talking about some of the movies that never happened.
This Wednesday, September 7, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
The Never Wases. The movie business can be hard and fickle, and for every movie that does somehow make it to the light of the movie screen, there are tons of movies that were never meant to be. Before this week's review, we're going to scour all the lost scripts, urban legends, and crazy production rumours to talk about the greatest movies never made, from an action star's turn as a famous poet, to a famous ghost's tropical adventure.
REVIEW: Official Competition (2022). From Toronto to Venice, film festival season is upon us. It's the time of the year that we start getting all the important movies, even if they're just self-important. In this spirit, we're introduced to the three main characters of Official Competition: A movie star trying to be taken seriously, a serious actor trying to find some mainstream acclaim, the avant garde director that's brought them both together to adapt a popular novel and feed the ego of a rich producer. It's a Hollywood story ripe for satire, so just how ripe is it?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #338 - The Quest for Healthy Young Minds

Young people across the country are heading back to school this week, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure; pressure to get back to normal, pressure to catch up on lessons after pandemic hiccups, pressure to succeed in a world full of uncertainty… It’s no wonder that four out of five local young people between the ages of 12 and 26 say they’re in need of mental health assistance.
The Grove has quickly emerged as an authoritative voice for advocacy and support in the growing realm of youth mental health. According to the Grove, as of June 2022, the demand for child psychology services has increased 96 per cent, the need for counselling and treatment services has increased 146 per cent, and family support has increased 56 per cent since the start of the pandemic.
You can’t really ignore those numbers, right? Our young people are still living in a pandemic world, there’s also issues of equity from economic concerns to social justice, and there’s the pending existential crisis of climate change, which is definitely going to change their world. Clearly, young people across our region need a hand, and sometimes it’s not a clinical hand, but that’s where the Grove comes in. They're trying to catch mental health crises before they become full blown emergencies.
With all that in mind, Cyndy Moffat Forsyth, the executive director of the Grove youth wellness hub, joins us to talk about the outreach the Grove is doing right now, how they’re trying to make mental health an important issue in this election with the #GetReal campaign, and what she hopes to get out of the youth mental health forum next week. She will also talk about the growth of the Grove, their track record for success, and how people of all ages can help out with the Grove and its initiatives.
So let's dig into the concerns around youth mental health on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the Grove at its website. The Grove will also be taking part in the Youth Mental Health Forum on Tuesday September 13 at 8 am at the Frank Hasenfratz Centre of Excellence in Manufacturing and you can buy tickets at Eventbrite, and you can learn more about the #GetReal campaign here.
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 #390 - September 1, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we start September with a countdown to another Election Day. For the next several weeks, we will be highlighting the people running for office locally, which is good news for you, the listener, because you're going to hear less from Adam and Scotty. Joking aside, there are some serious questions this election, and we hope to get some serious answers starting... Right. Now.
This Thursday, September 1, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
The Running Men and Women, Part 1. The municipal election is on Monday October 24, and we're going to spend the weeks from now till Election Day bringing you the voices of the people running to be a part of the next city council, and, starting in October, the people who want to be mayor. So this week, we will hear from five of the brave souls who want to be a part of local government, and, depending on where you live, they all want to get your vote. Here's who we're talking to this week:
Dan Gibson, Ward 1
Kevin Bowman, Ward 3
Denese Renaud, Ward 5
Erin Caton, Ward 1
Dominique O'Rourke, Ward 6
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #261 - August 31, 2022 (Prey)

This week on End Credits, we're back! We barely made it out our summer camp excursion, but it's right out of the frying pan and into the fire considering the first movie back is about a monster from space. So this week we're reviewing the new movie Prey on Disney+, and to take our nerves down a notch, we're going to talk about some of the different movies coming this fall.
This Wednesday, August 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Better Call Fall. It may be the last week of (unofficial) summer, but this week, we're already looking ahead to the fall. Traditionally, it's a time when movie studios and streamers start rolling out the award-ready movies, but fall brings a lot of different movies to our various screens, from blockbusters to the art house and everything in-between. We will look ahead to some our most anticipated picks, from a murder mystery to two different films about the same puppet.
REVIEW: Prey (2022). The setting is 1719 in the Great Plains of North America, and Comanche warriors hunt to feed the tribe and protect it from area predators like bears and mountain lions. Enter a very different kind of hunter. One from the sky. Prey is the fifth movie in the Predator series (seventh if you count the Alien Vs Predator films), but it does something entirely different by focusing on one Comanche woman who has to outwit, outplay and outlast the Predator in an 18th century battle of wills. So is Prey an answer to our prayers for a good Predator movie?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #337 - An Election Preview!

While there will be council business to discuss in a couple of weeks, the main thrust of local political issues lately can be summed up in one word: “Election.” The municipal election takes place here, and in municipalities across Ontario, on October 24. Nominations closed nearly two weeks ago, so the ballots are set, and all that’s left is the vetting, which begins with this week’s episode of this podcast.
This episode doesn’t really need a lot of set-up as we're just just going to go over the ballot and talk about who’s running in each of the wards and then who’s running for mayor. Guelph is at a crossroads.  We're rapidly approaching 150,000 people and we've been directed by the Province to grow to over 200,000 by the halfway point of the century. The challenges are substantial, and the solutions are difficult to find. 
Into this political climate are 40 candidates running for the 12 council seats and six people looking to be the new mayor. Three of the four councillors retiring this term have been on council for 12 years or more, and while that may be a loss of institutional knowledge, it does open council up to new ideas and new experiences. Frankly, if you’re interested in local politics and the future of Guelph, then this might be a good moment to get involved.
You can consider this an election primer: Who is running, who has an interesting story to tell, and who has an inside track to be a part of the next council? Graeme McNaughton, the city hall reporter for the Guelph Mercury Tribune, will joins us to go down the ballot from Ward 1 through Ward 6, and then look at the mayor’s race to see if any of the five challengers have any hope to unseat Mayor Cam Guthrie.
So let's consider the odds on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can follow Graeme McNaughton's election coverage and other city news at the Guelph Mercury Tribune website. You can obvious go to Guelph Politico for my election coverage, including the candidate questionnaires, and we’re airing short interviews with all the council candidates starting this Thursday on Open Sources Guelph. Finally, for all official election information, including important dates, go to the City of Guelph’s election 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 #389 - August 25, 2022

This week on Open Sources Guelph things get extreme. What's more extreme than war? On Wednesday, it was the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, how's that going? Closer to home though, trans people are almost fighting a war of their own and we will talk about one victim from London. And finally, our guest chased the not-Queen of Canada out of Peterborough on her scooter and she'll talk about it.
This Thursday, August 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Deep Six Months. Ukraine Independence Day is this week, and so is the six-month mark of Russia's invasion of the county. For both these reasons, plus the mysterious death of the daughter of a key Putin ally, the expectation is that the Russians will launch a vicious attack on Ukrainian targets. Who would have guess back in February the war would have gone this long, but where's it going now?
Some Like It SWAT. It was just a normal Saturday morning when there was knock at the door belonging to Clara Sorrenti and her fiancé. Sorrenti, a transwoman who is the Twitch streamer known as Keffals, had been swatted by anti-trans bigots, and they're not done yet, but it does raise a few questions: How did London Police miss the clues that a death threat against city councillors was fake, and what's next for Keffals?
The Fake Queen and I. A couple of weekends ago, the so-called Queen of Canada rolled into Peterborough with her official RV and her entourage to help some local followers arrest members of the Peterborough Police Service, and then turn them over to military custody. It did not go as planned. This week, we're joined by Toronto lawyer and Romana Didulo chronicler Caryma Sa'd, who has been following the not-Queen for a while (but not like that), including her recent appearance in Peterborough.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #REPEAT - August 24, 2022

This week on End Credits, we're on vacation. For the next two weeks, actually. We're getting back to nature, you see. We found this charming little summer camp in New Jersey with a sterling name. Sure, there's some local legend about a boogeyman living in the woods, but what are the odds any of that stuff is true? Now where did I leave my hockey mask?
Camping Out! There's a legend around here. A movie review show on community radio buried, but not dead. A curse on CFRU, a silly curse. End Credits' curse. They say the show died in the pandemic (along with theatrical presentation), but it keeps coming back. Few have seen it and lived. Some have even tried to stop it... No one can. People forget it's down there, waiting... for the end of their annual August break. We'll see you in a couple of weeks after a much needed summer vacation, so for the time being, enjoy some End Credits' classics!
*Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on Wednesday August 31.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.