Guelph Politicast

This week on End Credits, we're going to raise the dead. Sounds serious, but it's not. It's funny! Our main review this week was thought dead on arrival when it was released in theatres earlier this year, but all movies can live again on VOD and today we're going to see if there's some life left in Lisa Frankenstein. As for the rest of the show, we go full zombie with a modern classic!  This Wednesday, April 17, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: Shaun of the Dead at 20. In 2004, Edgar Wright did something remarkable: He made a zombie movie that was funny. Forget that this was a time when the business wasn't making a lot of zombie movies, the idea of taking the trappings of that genre and making it a laugh? Impossible! Well, Wright proved them wrong, and on the 20th anniversary of Shaun of the Dead's U.K. release, we will talk about why the movie still slaps after two decades of zombie overkill. REVIEW: Lisa Frankenstein (2024). The year is 1989 and Lisa is not like the other girls.

Doors Open Guelph is one of dozens of similar events across Ontario that celebrates local history and heritage by throwing open the doors to buildings that are typically pretty inaccessible to the general public. There’s no shortage of history and heritage nerds in Guelph who all have their favourites so how are the sites chosen, why are they chosen, and why are these buildings on the 2024 tour? The Ontario Heritage Trust started organizing Doors Open events around the province in 2002 and Guelph started doing it’s own a few years after that and it’s been a regular appointment every April. Well, almost every April. You might recall that there was a pause in going to strange places four years ago with the COVID-19 pandemic, and while that means there are still no tours of private homes that doesn’t mean there’s no shortage of juicy stops on this year’s tour! On Saturday April 27, a dedicated group of community volunteers will be ready to receive you at nearly dozen different places around Guelph. You can go fr

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're still recovering from eclipse fever! More earth-bound matters are our concern this episode, and that means talking another trip to the Middle East to talk about the war inside Gaza, but it also means acknowledging that we've got defence problems closer to home too. In the back half of the show, our concern is going to be about work, and the people coming here to work. This Thursday, April 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: 180 Days. It's now been a little over six months since Hamas fighters launched a terrible terror attack on Israel, but in that time any sympathy seems to have faded due to Benjamin Netanyahu's disproportionate counteroffensive. Even U.S. President Joe Biden seems ready to put conditions on aid as sources inside the Israeli government says the date for the invasion of Rafah has been set. So what now? The Two Per Cent Solution. The Government of Canada this week announced billions in new defence spending, but despite that we

This week on End Credits, it's the Year of the Monkey! Well, technically it's not the year of the monkey for another four year, so maybe it's the week of the monkey, and a year for revenge!! On this show, we're going to review the new action thriller Monkey Man, which is all about revenge fights, and we're going to take a moment to talk about the best movie revenge fights so far! This Wednesday, April 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: Best Served Cold. Monkey Man is a tale of revenge, but so are a lot of movies. They say that the best revenge is living well, but most of the time it seems that the best revenge is fighting as many guys as possible between you and the source of your betrayal. Before getting into Monkey Man, we will talk about other movies were the best revenge is not served cold, it's served with a kick-ass fight and lots of over the top and sometimes gratuitous violence! REVIEW: Monkey Man (2024). Rescued from the ash bin of the Netflix algorithm by Jordan Peele, De

We’ve heard a lot about tiny homes lately as the housing crisis has gotten worse, but they’ve been a thing for a while. Somehow, it’s both a niche real estate trend, and a new innovation in accommodating Canada’s unhoused population, but it’s the latter that we’re interested in today because we're going to talk about one of Guelph's two tiny home projects meant to tackle homelessness. In Kitchener, there was this idea called A Better Tent City. In 2020, various community partners teamed up to turn an industrial lot into a community of tiny homes that would offer low barrier housing with access to hygiene and sanitation facilities, and connection to services and healthcare on a path to stable housing. It also gave the opportunity for shelter to people who have partners, or companion animals, neither of which are allowed in your typical, traditional shelter. Kitchener’s success with Tent City has been an inspiration for communities around Ontario and across Canada, and that includes Guelph. Mayor Cam Guthrie u

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're feeling hungry... Hungry for the news! To begin with we will look 75 years into the past to when the last piece of Canada fell into place, and speaking of piece, we'll talk about the people who get the bigger parts of paycheque pie. It's going be no piece of cake for the people that fight forest fires in Ontario this summer, but there could be a sour lemon in the U.S. election.  This Thursday, April 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Diamond Jubi-Newfie. Exactly 75 years ago last Sunday, Newfoundland and Labrador became the 10th and (so far) final province to join the Canadian confederation. It wasn't an easy process, and the people of Newfoundland only voted to join after two referendums, and by a bare majority. We'll talk about why there still seems to be a debate about whether those voters in 1949 made the right call. Let the Sunshine In. Last week, the Ontario government released the annual Public Salary Disclosure, aka: The Sunshine List.

This week on End Credits, we wanna fight! Now this is typically a collegial show where the hosts get along, so when we talk about fighting it's usually in relation to a movie, and this week we're watching all the fighting with Road House. Now this movie is a remake, and while he was a lover *and* a fighter, we will pay tribute to the star of that original Road House movie. This Wednesday, April 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: Saint Patrick's Day. In 1989 Patrick Swayze starred in the original Road House, which was an interest role for him coming out of his then-recent hit playing sexy and graceful and romantic in Dirty Dancing. It's hard not to think about either Road House or Dirty Dancing when it comes to Swayze's greatest hits, and though he tragically passed away fairly young in 2009, he still stands pretty tall as one of Hollywood's most interesting modern leading men. We will talk about his greatest roles. REVIEW: Road House (2024). The larger points are pretty much the sam

HIV/AIDS Resources and Community Health, or ARCH, suddenly announced its closure last week. Losing ARCH impacts a wide variety of people in Guelph and area, whether that’s HIV prevention and care, needle exchanges and harm reduction, or gender affirming and trans healthcare. For these people, ARCH has been the first and only place they could turn for help, so who's going to fill the void? The short answer is a team-up of the Guelph Community Health Centre and the AIDS Committee Of Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo and Area, otherwise known as ACCKWA (pronounced "aqua"). They have big shoes to fill because ARCH was a pretty big part of the local healthcare picture for decades, emerging at a time when there was not just a tremendous stigma for people diagnosed with HIV, but when an HIV infection was almost certainly a death sentence. ARCH was radical at the time of its inception, inclusive, sex-positive, anti-oppressive, and focused on harm reduction as a first line of defense. And for members of the queer communi

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're all about the bling, bling! Money matters matter to us this week as we tackle the debate around the carbon tax and the follow-on debate about confidence, and then we will talk about the updated fiscal picture of Ontario and our brand new provincial budget. Also, w will get some straight dope about current political conditions in Guelph direct from city hall. This Thursday, March 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Wax on Axe the Tax. Last week, the federal Conservatives tried to bring down the governing Liberals by forcing a repeal of the carbon tax increase on Monday, which naturally failed. At least in the short term. The political trends seem to indicate that Pierre Poilievre is going to win the next election, and it's on the back of the carbon tax he's going to do it, but do voters have a firm sense of the situation? Red Ink Tories. The Ontario budget for 2024 was released on Tuesday, and it was big. The amount of money that the Government o

This week on End Credits, we ain't afraid of no ghost... busters movie review. In the spirit of Easter and themes of rebirth and rising from the dead, we head to movie theatre to check out a terrifying return in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Along similar lines, we will go back in time to the year 1984 to look at two movies and an open weekend paradox that crosses the streams! This Wednesday, March 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: The Battle of '84. On the same weekend in June 1984, two similar but very different movies opened in theatres everywhere; one was Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters and the other was Joe Dante's Gremlins. Both have elements of horror and comedy, but perhaps the films slide more to one side or the other, and yet one thing is clear: Two major releases this similar would never get released on the same weekend in 2024! So we will decide, once and for all, who's superior. REVIEW: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). For 40 years now, we've been asking. "Who you gon

The City of Guelph has two goals, one to be a net zero community by 2050 and the other to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy at the same time, and while 2050 is still a good 26 years away, it’s going to get here sooner than we think. This week, we're going to go over the climate action report card, how is Guelph doing as we're trying to turn the tide? From the moment Guelph city council established their net zero and 100 per cent renewable goals in 2021, local climate activists have been asking to see a plan and interim goals. Guelph has a reputation for being one of the most environmentally-friendly cities in the county, but the devil’s in the details and people have been wanting City Hall to do go beyond bike lanes and electric vehicles.  There’s also a matter of logistics. City hall has been trying to help us out with things like the Guelph Greener Homes program, which offers interest free loans to homeowners to make environmentally-friendly renovations, but that’s only going to help about 600 hou

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's starting to feel like the bad guys are winning. It's certainly true that a bad guy won in Russia this week, and he has a friend in the United States who he wants to join him in all the winning, but that's still be determined because that guy's got bigger problems. In terms of the smaller problems, we'll have a guest on to talk about solutions. This Thursday, March 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: The Totally Vlad Show. In an election outcome that was assured long before a single vote was cast, Vladimir Putin has secured a fifth term as the President of the Russian Federation, which means he'll be in charge for a period longer than even Joseph Stalin. While Putin secures his continued dominance in the Kremlin, countries in eastern Europe are preparing for war so where does Russia go from here? "Bloodbath" and Beyond. Donald Trump did it again, threatening America with violence in the event that he doesn't win the U.S. presidential election th

This week on End Credits, we're going to get swoll! Prepare to enter the exciting world of bodybuilding and queer romance in the late 1980s with the new neo-noir movie Love Lies Bleeding, and for all the K-Stew fans out there, we will pay tribute to your favourite actress' career by talking about some of her greatest hits! This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: The Taming of the K-Stew. Kristen Stewart has been in the movie-making business for the 25 years now, and while most people know her from the big stuff like the Twilight films, and her Oscar-nominated turn in Spencer, she's actually had a lot of different roles in a lot of different kinds of movies. Before we get into Stewart's new film, we will talk about some of her old ones, which Stewart performances are among her best after her first quarter-century in the biz? REVIEW: Live Lies Bleeding (2024). Not to be confused with Drive-Away Dolls, another period movie about lesbians caught up in some criming, Love

The last few weeks have been busy news weeks, so on this edition of the podcast we're going to lift the veil of news gathering and take you behind the scenes to see how the sausage the media gets made. To do that, we're going to talk to an Ontario cabinet minister about promises, hear from local fire officials about safety, and discuss how best to not get scammed. First up, we will go back to last Thursday when Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra was in Guelph announcing that we were receiving $4.68 million for our progress in achieving local housing targets. While Calandra was here, he was asked about the premier's past comments about Guelph and our own desire for the provincial government to take a housing pledge. Hear how he answered. On that same day, there was a media availability in front of a house on Edinburgh Road South. It was the site of fatal fire last week that cost two people their lives, and it seemed to happened because there was a definite lack of smoke detectors in their

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we throw ourselves into international drama. From civil unrest in Haiti, to the ongoing disaster that's still unfolding - and might yet get worse - in Gaza. Also, there's a princess missing in England, and can you believe that's going to be the *last* segment?! Also, closer to home, we've got another great government attempt to regulate the internet to discuss. This Thursday, March 14, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Know Haiti. For the last few weeks, a coup d'état has essentially been in progress in the Caribbean country of Haiti. This week, Prime Minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign once a transitional council is in place after gangs seemingly took control of vast portions of the county, including the capital Port-au-Prince. Is Haiti finally about to turn a corner, or is this just more chaos as Haitians pay the price for centuries of colonialism? Rafah on the Brink. The holy month of Ramadan has begun, but the full blown assault on the Rafah area

This week on End Credits, we search for perfection. It's hard to find, difficult to describe, and different for everyone, but if there's one thing that many critics can agree on, it's that the new film Perfect Days is pretty close to perfection. We will let you know if we agree with that assessment, but also under the topic of perfection, we will revisit another blast from our 80s past. This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: This is Spinal Tap... at 40! Forty years ago this month, a small movie was released and while it didn't hit so hard at the time, it ended up having a huge impact in the long-term. Rob Reiner's first film, This is Spinal Tap, introduced the concept of the mockumentary, a documentary-style movie about a subject matter that's made up, in this case the British hair band Spinal Tap. This week, we will talk about the lingering effect of The Tap and take our nostalgia all the way up to 11. REVIEW: Perfect Days (2024). What initially began as a tourism

As listeners familiar with the work of Guelph Politico are aware, improved transit is a pretty big part of the mission, and more often than not, we’re talking about local transit. But did you know that transit can take you to places outside of Guelph’s urban boundaries? This is somewhat tricky because regional transit, both to and from Guelph, is lacking, and we're not alone. That’s where a new advocacy group wants to make a difference. Before looking at the pan regional picture, let’s look at what you have when it comes to getting out of Guelph on a bus or a train. First, you’ve got the Kitchener Line GO Train. Then there are several GO bus routes including ones to Toronto, Milton, Mississauga, Hamilton and Waterloo. There’s also RideWell and the Guelph Owen Sound Transit but almost all those options don’t run on the weekend. What’s weird is that the demand is clearly there for more service. The Hamilton-Waterloo bus was an immediate success, and social media is littered with pictures of packed bus platforms

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going back to the 80s. The 18th Prime Minister of Canada passed away last week and we will talk about his impact between then and now, and speaking of the 80s, we've also got to talk about Trump again. In the back half of the show, there was good news about the pharmacare, and we will try and find some good news for the women out there in advance of their day. This Thursday, March 7, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Life of Brian. Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney passed away last week and he will be honoured at a state funeral on March 23. But what will Mulroney be honoured for? A lot of people have pointed to his successes fighting acid rain and apartheid while others have pointed to his constitutional failures, neo-liberal economic policy and the collapse of his political party once he retired. Will the real Brian Mulroney legacy please stand up? Super Tuesday's Child. This past Tuesday was Super Tuesday in the United States as 16 states

This week on End Credits, the movies are back! Obviously, they never went away, but after a fairly dry year at the movie theatre so far, boy we're we back last weekend with the arrival of the the long-awaited second chapter of Dune! If that's not exciting enough for you, there are some huge movie awards being given out next weekend, and we're very excited to talk about them! This Wednesday, March 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: Flight of the Awards. The Oscars are coming! The 96th annual Academy Awards ceremony is this weekend, and it almost goes without saying that this is going to be a big weekend for Oppenheimer. All the odds-makers are saying it's a good bet that Christopher Nolan's hit about the father of the atomic bomb is the one to beat, and it's been pretty unbeatable this awards season indeed. We'll talk about whether those odds will hold and the other bets around this year's Oscars. REVIEW: Dune Part Two (2024). When we last left Dune, Paul Atreides and his mother had f

It's rare these days to work in the same place for over four decades, but when you go to the Guelph Public Library this week you may notice that one long-time face is no longer around. Maybe you didn't notice because you were so obsessed with the thought of heading into the DVD stacks to find more Denis Villeneuve flicks, high on the hit from Dune: Part Two. If any of this sounds right, this podcast is for you! First, we will insert a little End Credits action into this show by replaying the definitive ranking of Denis Villeneuve movies pre-Dune from September 2021. The Quebec-born director has risen through the ranks from being the darling of homegrown Canadian cinema to being a major Hollywood filmmaker, but American reviewers ignore those quirky first Canadian flicks. We don't! After that, we will re-play our interview with now former-Library CEO Steve Kraft from last September where he talked about his career, why he wanted to become a librarian in the first place, and how technology has changed what a l