Guelph Politicast

It was about this time two years ago that former Guelph CAO Scott Stewart told city council in an open meeting that there needed to be a new deal for Ontario municipalities; that they were trying to solve 21st century problems with 19th century rules. As Guelph tackles another difficult budget season, one regional councillor is putting this issue in stark terms: Ontario’s councils are “on the verge of life support”!

In a recent let...

This week on Open Sources Guelph we work hard, but not as hard as the Ontario government, which is trying to do a year's worth of legislating in seven week or (likely) less. And since we're talking about provincial politics, we will head out east where there's a new Progressive Conservative government in charge for the first time in a decade. Closer to home, we will welcome a local councillor who's warming up her calculator app.

T...

This week on End Credits we seek divine intervention, and one week till Devil's Night at that. For the movie this week, we will pray to Keanu Reeves who will deliver us from the gig economy in the new film, Good Fortune. And in the first part of the show, given the bounty of new movies we've received, we will talk about some other choice flicks! 

This Wednesday, October 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:

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You might not have heard of The Guelph Lab, but you’ve definitely seen the fruits of its research. From food insecurity to public washroom access downtown, The Guelph Lab highlights s unique partnership between the City of Guelph and the University of Guelph by taking academic research power and applying it to problems facing our municipality. This week, we’re going to take a peek under the hood to learn how they do it...

The Guelp...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're eating news leftovers. First, we will catch up with the latest develops in Gaza where there's now a precarious peace, and we will also talk about the early phase of the race to find a new leader for a federal party. For the interview, we engage in another annual fall tradition, the late return to Queen's Park for another truncated sitting that solves none of our problems.

This Thursday, Octo...

This week on End Credits we eat leftovers... from the Toronto International Film Festival. We will talk about this year's opening night film, John Candy: I Like Me, which you can now stream on Amazon Prime Video. And speaking of Candy, we will talk about the work he did along with some other very talented people who got their start on a seminal Canadian sketch comedy show.

This Wednesday, October 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and T...

Climate change, despite the inference, is not a hot topic, politically speaking. We had two big elections this year and you can probably count on one hand how many times the environment came up in conversation. Perhaps the time has come for a re-examination of our priorities: Can Guelph still be a climate leader in a political time when no one wants to talk about climate change?

Back in May, City of Guelph staff presented to counci...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're thankful that dysfunction is a national phenomenon. We will head out west where there is inter-party friction in British Columbia's official opposition, and then we will look at a dispute between teachers and a provincial government in an entirely different part of the country. In even more serious news, we will mark the second anniversary of a devastating war by talking about the people cove...

This week on End Credits we're ready to rock! Of perhaps we should say we're ready to Kpop. You know it, and maybe you love it, but this week we will finally catch up on the phenomenon called KPop Demon Hunters, which you can now watch on Netflix in regular and sing-along versions. Also, we will talk about other great animated movies you should see. 

This Wednesday, October 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will disc...

It seemed like we had turned a corner on making cycling a true equal partner when it comes to road share, but like a lot of progressive policy now we’re in the midst of a blowback. The Ontario government voted to tear out bike lanes last year, and now they have their sights set on pulling down all automated speed enforcement cameras. Perhaps, the time is right for the a new kind of Guelph mayor... A Bicycle Mayor!

Just a few weeks ...

This week's Open Sources Guelph is going to the birds! Both of our main topics this week intersects with the Supreme Court of Canada, which is presently tackling the extent of federal and provincial separation of powers and whether or not food inspectors can do their job when it comes to animal control and infectious disease. In non-court news, we will talk to a city councillor about planning in Guelph, and whether that's going to ...

This week on End Credits, our plans go awry. Or to put it another way, it's One Battle After Another. We will catch up with Paul Thomas Anderson who's new movie just dropped to rave reviews, but how do we feel about it? You'll learn that in due time after we flashback to 1995 and a wild weekend of strippers and serial killers at the movie theatre!

This Wednesday, October 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:

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Sometimes information gathering doesn’t happen in the perfect audio conditions of a studio or the Zoom link, you have to occasionally get out there and find the news. To that end, we will visit a picket line on Speedvale Avenue, attend an annual event that reminds us that there’s still some ways to go when it comes to eliminating gender-based violence, and hear about a program fighting food insecurity in the west end.

First up we m...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to meetings. There's a big one at U.N. headquarters in New York this week, and Canada sent the new kid to dazzle everyone. Meanwhile, closer to home, Ontario's opposition parties have been having meetings and in some cases, they're shaking up the guest list. Even more closer to home, we don't do meetings, we do protests and marches on a Saturday.

This Thursday, September 25, at 5 pm, S...

This week on End Credits, we're making friends. This may be harder that it looks, or at least it seems like it is with this week's movie, which is called Friendship. You can watch that on video-on-demand or by streaming it on Paramount+, and while you're making a watchlist we will talk about other movies featuring a legendary movie star who has sadly passed away.

This Wednesday, September 24, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phi...

StrategyCorp puts out a report every year called the Ontario Municipal Chief Administrative Officer Survey. The CAOs profiled have some strong feelings about Strong Mayor Powers, intergovernmental relations, housing, growth, financing, and and more, but what’s interesting is not what the CAOs had to say, it's the fact that they said it. What are CAOs thinking when they're given the cloak of anonymity?

A retired Brock University pr...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got news overload. It was a tough call determining what to talk about on the show today, but first and foremost we have to separate the wheat from the chaff on the killing of an American pundit. After that, we're going to dig into more local drama by asking what the recent push against school boards is about and then we're going to talk to the MPP from a neighbouring riding.

This Thursday, S...

This week on End Credits, things get creepy. Again. In the last four weeks, we've reviewed three horror movies and the latest is The Long Walk, the last adaptation from the *King* of horror. That's a dystopia, so we're going to talk about that, and as we're creeping up on October, and our latest Halloween movie draft, we will talk about other movie challenges! 

This Wednesday, September 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Le...

School kids and teachers aren't the only ones that get a summer vacation. City council, and those that cover them, also get a summer break, at least when it comes to the monthly meeting schedule. We now have a couple of weeks of meetings under our belt since August ended, but for this week's podcast we're going back in time to business at council before summer vacation.

We will start in May when council said goodbye to a colleague...