Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #287 - Why Not 50 More?

Jim Estill has been a successful entrepreneur, innovator and investor building a number of successful businesses around Guelph, but the thing that made Estill a national figure had nothing to do with business. Through Estill’s generosity, hundreds of Syrian refugees have made a new home in Canada, and now he wants to do it again for 50 families fleeing the resurgent Tabliban in Afghanistan.
Flashback to 2015 for a moment. It was also the time of a Federal election, and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made a bold promise: If elected prime minister, he would welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada. One of those people prompted to act was Jim Estill who was watching the humanitarian situation half-a-world away and felt he could do something. He put up $1.5 million of his own money and pledged to sponsor 50 Syrian families.
Estill rallied aid organizations in Guelph including numerous churches, social service organizations, and businesses, and with their help nearly 500 Syrians were resettled in Guelph and area, and that, as they say, was that. Or it was until the Americans announced that they were pulling out of Afghanistan and a new refugee crisis was created in the wake of the Taliban retaking the country. Last week, Estill announced that he now wants to help bring 50 Afghan families to Canada.
This week on the podcast, Jim Estill joins us to talk about when he decided to help more refugees, what the process looks like, and how COVID-19 has changed things. He will also talk about his experiences with the new Canadian he’s sponsored, and what he thinks about people who push anti-immigrant sentiments. And finally, he will discuss his ethics as a businessman, how he feels about all the positive press he’s received, and what sort of help he’ll be looking for when people start arriving from Afghanistan.
So let's talk about the refugee assisting business on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Stay tuned for a call out for assistance as the Afghan refugees begin arriving again. For now, you can check out to Estill’s blog here, and you can follow him on Twitter @jimestill.
NOTE: You can hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm or cfru.ca! For interviews with candidates from Wellington-Halton Hills, tune into special editions of the Wellington-Halton Hills Politicast here on Saturdays.
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, 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 #340 - August 26, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! Did anything happen last week while we were gone? JK. We will play catch-up this week by talking about the fall of Afghanistan and what comes next, plus the current state of COVID in Ontario and what comes next there. As for that election, we will begin our regular series of candidate interviews this week with a familiar face for both the show, and for local activism.
This Thursday, August 26, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Withdrawal Remorse. The last time we talked about Afghanistan, the government there was still holding on to some territory, but the Taliban have now retaken the whole county, and time is running out to get western allies and other people threatened by the Taliban's return out of the country. Still, political knives are out, and they're out for U.S. President Joe Biden for ending a war that no one wanted to fight anymore. Seriously?
Mile Pry Club. This week, the Government of Ontario released it "last mile" strategy to reach the last 20 per cent of eligible people in Ontario who have yet to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Still, with the increasing number of cases driven by the Delta variant and that fact that it's just over a week until school starts, people are concerned that the government isn't doing all it can to protect us from a fourth wave. What's the latest?
Commie Dearest. Kicking off our 2021 Federal Election coverage, we're pleased to begin our candidate interview series with the Communist Party's Tristan Dineen. It's the centenary year for his party, and Dineen is going to talk about that history (which started in Guelph), his party's platform on education and the environment, and trying to navigate identity politics when you're running as the local Communist candidate.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

WELLINGTON-HALTON HILLS POLITICAST 2021 - Ran Zhu, Green Party Candidate

Michael Chong won Wellington Halton-Hills in the 2019 election with 47.4 per cent of the vote. The only way he could have been defeated was if the combined Liberal, NDP, and Green Party vote had gotten behind one candidate. The word "untouchable" would not be an overstatement, but there's a new kid in town that hopes to catch everyone, and Chong, by surprise.
We kick-off this new (election season) of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast with Ran Zhu. If you’ve interacted with provincial politics in the last few years in Guelph then you’ve likely met or talked to Zhu who has been the constituency co-ordinator for Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner. Now, Zhu wants to be an elected representative for the Green Party himself, but he's got to beat Chong, who's running in his seventh election, to do it.
In 2019 election, with another easy Chong victory, the election story in Wellington Halton-Hills was the rise of the Green Party. In 2019, Ralph Martin increased the Green Party's share of the vote locally by nearly nine per cent to finish third with 12.7 per cent. The watch word is “momentum”, and it looks like the Greens have got some in this riding. The question is, can Zhu capitalize on Martin’s success in 2019, or has the moment passed?
Zhu will talk about all that and more on this week's podcast. We will discuss running in an election as a young person, running as a Green, and running in a riding with a very tough incumbent candidate. He also talk about how climate change can be made a priority in this election, and whether it's the sleeper issue among the electorate during this campaign. And finally, he will discuss why he’s excited about Annamie Paul’s leadership, what he’s learned working for Mike Schreiner.
So let’s talk about Ran's run on this edition of the Wellington Halton-Hills Politicast!
To learn more about Ran Zhu's campaign, you can visit his website here.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every 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, 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. 

End Credits Repeat - August 25, 2021 (200th Episode)

For the next few weeks on End Credits, we're on a break. While we get the most out of the last few weeks of summer, we're going to dig some stuff out of the archive to keep you occupied. In ye olden days, these were called reruns, a way for people in the time before streaming to catch up on episodes they may have missed, or episodes they previously enjoyed. Here's hoping that you enjoy hearing again these old episodes of your favourite local movie show!
This Wednesday, August 18 and 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Top Five of the First 199. Earlier this year, we celebrated the 200th episode of End Credits! It’s all down hill from here. For the second repeat in our summer vacation break, we will stop again and take account of the first 199 episodes with our Top 5 of the show so far. Each panelist, choosing only from the movies they’ve reviewed on the show, will reveal again their Top 5 of End Credits. From Adam Sandler’s Oscar-worthy acting to a killer clown in the sewer, from art and romance in 17th century France to art and romance in 20th century Atlantic Canada, let’s toast our favourites from the first four years of the show!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #286 - The Year at Council So Far...

Before we unlock the future we must first find the keys to the past. As we await the return of city council in their first meeting of the fall after Labour Day, we're going to take a few moments to remember all the work that council did in the first seven months this year. There were some laughs, some friction, and more than a couple of marathon meetings. In this new edition of the podcast we go back in time!
If you're a regular reader of Guelph Politico, then you are probably in the loop about much of what went down around the virtual horseshoe in the last seven months, but on this week's podcast, we're going to give it all to you in 45 minutes or less. From the controversy around the Cultural Heritage Action Plan, to the controversy around the Baker District Urban Master Plan, it's been a very contentious few months, but it's also been a very consequential few months too.
So let's together recap the year at city council so far on this week's Guelph Politicast!
The next meeting of city council is the Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday September 7, and the agenda for that meeting will be posted on the City’s website on Thursday August 26. You can find the full recaps for these meetings in the city council section on this site, and you can get council recaps directly into your inbox when you subscribe to the Guelph Politico newsletter.
NOTE: You will be able to hear interviews with all of the Federal election candidates running in Guelph every Monday on the podcast version of Open Sources Guelph, and every 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, 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 #REPEAT - August 19, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we were so overcome by the vapors, and this past Sunday’s election, that we needed to take a week off and regroup. Well, actually, we had planned to take this week off, and we decided to anyway despite the last minute interference from Justin and his majority dreams. This week, it’s a re-run! Two news topics, and an interview with Guelph’s mayor, which we’re replaying from last month.
This Thursday, August 19, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will re-discuss:
Intolerable Cruelty. Last week, the Toronto Police Service and City staff cleared a couple of homeless encampments from parks with, well, let’s call it “extreme severity.” For added authoritarian shades, the police tried to keep protestors and media out of the area, and a Canadian Press photographer was even among the people arrested. Why the use of force, and is this really how John Tory wants to handle homelessness?
Iron Mandate. As the Delta Variant ravages unvaccinated populations in the United States and around the world, governments are now flirting with vaccine mandates. It’s the same thing here in Canada. Even though the rate of people who are fully vaccinated continues to grow, there are certain areas where politicians and advocates want 100 per cent of people to be vaccinated, and they have to mandate to do it. So why not?
Summer of Cam. Guelph City Council went on summer break last week, which means that the mayor now has nothing better to do then appear on this show. Joking aside, there are some serious issues to discuss with Mayor Cam Guthrie, including the development of social housing, the use of MZOs, and the upcoming conference of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). We’ll talk about all that, and how the mayor feels about being called a tyrant over COVID measures.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits Repeat - August 18, 2021 (Steven Spielberg)

For the next few weeks on End Credits, we're on a break. While we get the most out of the last few weeks of summer, we're going to dig some stuff out of the archive to keep you occupied. In ye olden days, these were called reruns, a way for people in the time before streaming to catch up on episodes they may have missed, or episodes they previously enjoyed. Here's hoping that you enjoy hearing again these old episodes of your favourite local movie show!
This Wednesday, August 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson, Tim Phillips, Candice Lepage, and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Uneven Stevens (The Whole List). Last summer, we produced a multi-part list where we organized all 33 films of Steven Spielberg's films from worst to best, and it's no mean feat covering nearly 50 years of one of the most successful and influential filmmakers of all time. With his next film, the remake of West Side Story, coming out later this fall, we will use this week’s repeat of the show to put every Spielberg film, from Duel to Ready Player One, in its proper place.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST REPEAT - The Family Health Team Story

For the second part of our two-week break here on the Guelph Politicast, we're going to reach back to this past spring. Since the start of the pandemic, the local medical officer of health has been regular guest on the podcast with six different appearances, but there has been someone else whose contributions to the local COVID fight needs to be acknowledged, and he appeared on the podcast in March.
On the one-year anniversary for the start of the pandemic locally, it seemed right to mark the contributions of the Guelph Family Health Team. They were the ones that quickly set-up and managed Guelph's COVID-19 testing site, and when the vaccine started rolling out, they helped establish clinics at the University of Guelph and the Linamar/Skyjack facility on Woodlawn Road.
Basically, the success of the local vaccination has had a lot to do with the Guelph Family Health Team, and in the last few weeks they've been standing down those vaccination efforts with the closure of the two mass vaccination clinics they were running. While the threat of the Delta Variant is real, Guelph and area have been almost supernaturally successful at the quick distribution of vaccines. But how did we get here?
This repeat of the podcast features Ross Kirkconnell, the executive director of the Family Health Team, and he will talk about how the team got involved in pandemic planning, how they’ve been balancing that with their primary patient care. Kirkconnell will also talk about how Guelph’s good social fabric helped make the pandemic response easier, and how it’s proving why integrated healthcare matters. And finally, he will discuss the vaccine rollout, and what lessons we should learn from the events of the last year.
So let’s talk again about pandemic management on this week’s repeat of the Guelph Politicast.
You can learn more about the Guelph Family Health Team at their website and you can also find them easily on social media. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is winding down their mass vaccination clinics this month, and the remaining clinics including the West End Recreation Centre, will close on August 20. If you still need a first or second shot, you can show up at any one of those sites without an appointment.
***The Guelph Politicast will return with new episodes on August 24.
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 Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, 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 Credit: The Guelph Family Health Team's Twitter.

Open Sources Guelph #339 - August 12, 2021

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still waiting for the writs, but that doesn't mean there isn't any news. It's another four-topic week as we mark the passing of an Ontario political giant and more dire warnings about climate change in the first half, and then, in the second half, we're going to look internationally with the new authoritarian superstar, and more Olympic politics as we switch from summer to winter.
This Thursday, August 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Bill Davis. Former Ontario Premier Bill Davis passed away on the weekend at the age of 92. He was one of Ontario's longest-serving Premiers, and when he stepped down in 1984, he was still exceedingly popular. Davis governed over a highly consequential period of Canadian history, and we'll talk about his long list of accomplishments from the expansion of GO, the creation of the Ontario Science Centre, and the launch of TVO.
Your Final Warning. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their latest, and most damning report about the current state of climate change, and the prognosis is not good. Phrased as a "Code Red", the report affirms that climate change is human caused, affecting us now, and it's not a matter of stopping climate change, but how bad it will get. We'll talk about whether here, at the end, people will listen.
Hungary Man Dinner. There's something rotten in the state of Western democracy, and it's Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary. For certain right-wingers in the West, Hungary is where it's at, and by "it" we mean authoritarianism grounded in white supremacy, and it's catching especially after a full week infomercial on Fox N*ws with Tucker Carlson. How concerned should we be?
30 Seconds and We're Over Tokyo. The 2020 Olympic are finally over, and while the circumstances weren't great, there was no great COVID disaster movie. So instead we'll look ahead to the next disaster, the 2022 Winter Olympics in China. Will COVID still be as pervasive when February rolls around? And what about the politics? The call is out for Canada to boycott the Winter Olympics, so should we do it?
***Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be taking next week off but return with new episodes on Thursday August 26. This may change if/when there's an election call in the next week.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits - August 11, 2021 (The Suicide Squad)

This week on End Credits, we're getting ready to go on vacation. Before leaving though, we've got one more movie to review, and in order to do it, we have to go back to the movie theatre for the first time in a year. This week, we're reviewing the new superhero flick The Suicide Squad, and we will wrap up our summer movie season revival by going back to 1995. 
This Wednesday, August 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer Lovin’ Part 12: 1995. In the last part (for now) of our look back at summer movie seasons of the past, we go to the Summer of 1995, which was kind of a weird one. Batman came back with nipples, Clint Eastwood embraced romance, and the internet was the bad guy in no less than three movies. There was also a friendly ghost, a water world, and we died hard again but with a vengeance. Was there anything better than the Summer of '95? I guess we'll see.
REVIEW: The Suicide Squad (2021). A strange confluence of events in the universe sent the director of Guardians of the Galaxy to cross-town rival DC, and they gave James Gunn carte blanche to revamp an underperforming asset. This week, we go back to the movie theatre for The Suicide Squad, the bloodier, funnier, and more profane reboot/sequel to the 2016 David Ayer film of the same same (sans the "The"). If you're familiar with Gunn's pre-Marvel work then you're likely to enjoy his take on DC's supervillain team of reluctant heroes, but did we enjoy it? Tune in and find out.
Programming Note: End Credits is going on a brief summer break for the next two weeks. We'll be back with new episodes on Wednesday September 1!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.