Guelph Politicast

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we get really super-sized! Come for one regular hour of the show and you will get a second bonus hour of the show for no extra charge. What are we doing? We're put together a slate of interviews with candidates running in the riding of Guelph, and to kick things off we've got a well-known character from the show, and a brand new friend making her first appearance! This Thursday, April 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Crimson Dominique. You probably already know Dominique O'Rourke pretty well, especially if you live in Ward 6 where she's still one of your city councillors. Now she's seeking higher office. O'Rourke is looking to make a move to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP, the fourth Liberal representative that Guelph has had in the last 30 years plus, and a few months ago that might have seemed dicy but now...? O'Rourke will join us to talk about why she wants to go back to the House of Commons (you'll see) and why she thinks Mark Carney is the man

This week on End Credits, we're on our phones. No, we're not being rude and using our phones in the movie theatre - we're not savages! - but this week's movie is about what happens when bad guys spend too much time on *your* phone. Don't meme yourself because we're checking out Drop and in that spirit, we're going to talk about other times tech has gone wrong!  This Wednesday, April 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: Tech Gone Bad. This week's movie features a premise where a smart phone is used to taunt a woman into doing something sinister. Technology can be used to do great things, but it can also be used to do some very bad things and in honour of the release of Drop we will drop other titles where technology leads to some very bad outcomes for both people and the world at large, and we're not just talking about horror movies or Terminators! REVIEW: Drop (2025). First dates are hard enough, but imagine being a widow on your first date after your husband's untimely (and unnatural)

We’re at the end of another school year, and while some students are looking forward to summer, they’re also looking forward to next fall. Or perhaps even stressing over it. Housing is a big issue in Guelph, and it’s somehow even bigger when it comes to student housing. Last summer, the largest first-year student enrolment ever weighed on students and the greater Guelph community, but relief may be coming if city council doesn’t get in the way(?). So what, city council doesn’t want student housing in Guelph? Let’s just say it’s complicated. This is about phase two of the Alma, which is on the site of the former Holiday Inn at Stone and Scottsdale. The renovation of the old hotel was phase one, and phase two will add another nearly 600 beds, but there's a snag and it's whether or not Forum Asset Management has to pay over $15 million in development fees. The Ontario government has made student residences exempt from DCs, but there’s some question about how you define “student residences”; does that apply only

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got bonusing! In our grand effort to cover all the candidates in Guelph and Wellington-Halton Hills North this election, we will be hitting your ears at the above average length of 90 minutes so you can hear from three of the dozen or so candidates running for the two local federal offices, our first interview with a Guelph candidate and two more for Wellington-Halton Hills North! This Thursday, April 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Swack and Field. In their first election, the People's Party secured over a thousand votes in Guelph. In their second election, it was over 3,000 votes, which was nearly 2,100 votes less than the fourth place Green Party. So what about 2025? This time, the PPC flag is being hoisted by Jeffrey Swackhammer, a 23-year-old Guelph resident who, like a lot of young people, has a lot of concerns about housing and affordability, so does he have what it takes to make it rain purple in this election? Stiles and Substance.

This week on End Credits, we're on stakeout. We're going to go back in time and ride shotgun with FBI agent Jude Law as he takes down the bad guys in the new movie The Order, which might be classified as a political thriller. Say... That would be an interesting topic to tackle at the beginning of this show, so let's do that!  This Wednesday, April 9, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: Things Get Political. What makes a political thriller? Well, it's got to have, at least, some action, there has to be some mystery component, and it was to have a politically-motivated plot or characters. Sometimes there based on actual events, sometimes they're just inspired or are else completely made-up, but they otherwise forego the usual boring lawmaking of politics for something more deadly. We'll talk about some prime examples. REVIEW: The Order (2025). You may have heard about David Koresh or Timothy McVeigh, but what about Bob Matthews? In the 1980s, he started a terrorist group of White Supremaci

These are busy days at Politico HQ. There's a federal election on right now, and Guelph has become so big that it's spread over two ridings with so far a dozen candidates vying to be the next Members of Parliament. If one candidate in particular is successful then that means there will be a vacancy on Guelph city council. What happens then? In the rare event that the City of Guelph has to fill a vacant council seat in the middle of a council term, for whatever the reason, the City Council Vacancy Policy goes into effect. It sets out the options for what the mayor and council should do if the there's an empty seat at the council table, or what a council should do if they suddenly find themselves without a mayor. This week's episode of the podcast is dedicated to a reading of the City Council Vacancy Policy. Consider it an educational experience, and what can be more essential as we battle misinformation and look to resolve long-running blind spots in our civic awareness because while we love to complain about

This week on Open Sources Guelph we begin the difficult juggling act of covering two federal ridings at the same time! This week, we'll start by heading not to Guelph, but the new riding of Wellington-Halton Hills North, which includes South Guelph, where we will hear from two of the candidates hoping that a new riding means new opportunities for any candidate not named "Chong". This Thursday, April, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Stuck in the Centre With You. Tired of partisan politics? Wishing people could come together and build consensus more? Then you might be interested in what Ian Smith has to say. The Erin-based businessman is one of several people across Canada running for the new Centrist Party of Canada in the hope that people want more than in-fighting and three-word slogans, and this week he will lean on his experience in housing management to talk about why the missing middle in politics might be the Centrists. A Man of Acton. The last time Andrew Bascombe ran for fed

This week on End Credits, we're hitting the high notes! We know that this show is not necessarily high brow, but this week we're going to the opera with the new Atom Egoyan film Seven Veils. Along with that, we're going to look at the film's star, who's enjoyed a successful and varied career, and talk about all the times she's made an impression.  This Wednesday, April 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: Mandy! This week's movie stars Amanda Seyfried, who is an actress that's been around for nearly 20 years now after her first big screen appearance as one of the titular Mean Girls. Since then she's done drama, she's done action, she's done scary, and she even got an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but before digging into her new role in Seven Veils, we're going to talk the best of Amanda Seyfried. Seven Veils (2025). In Atom Egoyan's latest movie, a theatre director is called back to the opera company where she go her start at the request of her former mentor a

These are some heady political times. We’ve already made it through one election this year, and we’re now in the midst of another. As we’re going to air, the consumer carbon tax is gone, the major parties are duelling to see who can be the most moderate, and it appears that things like environmental stewardship and compassion are just not affordable. Maybe it’s time to re-calibrate. Let’s talk about the last few weeks at city council for a moment. This week’s Committee of the Whole meeting tackled the new Private Tree Bylaw and the potential use of the Drill Hall as an art and cultural centre, which the staff report made it clear that these are things we can’t fully afford now. And last week, the Public Space Use Bylaw was amended so there’s definitely message emanating from inside the halls of city hall: We’re now in a time of austerity. It’s a dirty word that activists don’t like hearing, especially if they’re on the progressive side. Not wanting to get lost in the mishegoss of the federal election happeni

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we are so back! Back on the campaign trail that is!! Yes, there's now a full-blown federal election across Canada and to kick things off on this show, we're going to talk about the opening moves by party leaders, the opening faux pas by a provincial leader, and how this election is going to look very different for all the voters in the Royal City no matter what riding they're in (?). This Thursday, March 27, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: April Election Showers. Wrapping up his first couple of weeks as Prime Minister, Mark Carney decided that he's done everything he needed to do get the party election ready and visited the Governor General to start one. The date is April 28, and the first five days of the campaign have already been action-packed; from questions about conflicts of interest and potential election interference, plus the efficacy of Canada's third-tier political parties. What should we make of Campaign 2025: Week #1? Ms. Smith Goes to F

This week on End Credits, we get bad. Cue the Inner Circle music because we're heading back to the Halcyon days of the mid-90s to revisit a couple of bad boys. And then, in the here and now, we're going to talk about people behaving badly in the name of patriotic service with the new spy thriller Black Bag. God save the King and the movie-going audience!  This Wednesday, March 26, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: Bad Boys at 30! Could you have imagined that when Bad Boys came out three decade ago that we'd still be cranking out Bad Boys movies in the 2020s? Probably not. Bad Boys didn't look like a movie that would stand the test of time, another dumb buddy cop action movie, but it launched Will Smith to superstardom, Michael Bay to blank cheque status, and it became a franchise of surprising longevity. Today, we go back to the beginning. REVIEW: Black Bag (2025). What if Steven Soderbergh took Mr. and Mrs. Smith seriously, but not, like, too seriously...? That kind of seems like the

In six days, the doors of Guelph’s Consumption and Treatment site will close for the last time. Unless a Charter challenge in an Ontario court succeeds, the Ontario government’s mandate to close a dozen different CTSes and replacement them with new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment, or HART, Hubs. Or at least that was the plan. Either way, what happens on April 1? It was kind of a surprise last summer when the Ontario government announced that they were closing several consumption and treatment sites. The justification? Safety. Any CTS within 200 metres of a school or daycare has to close down and in their place is a HART Hub, which will provide primary care, mental health services, shelter and transition beds, supportive housing and more. Looking at the numbers, the success of the Guelph CTS is clear; 41,000 visits, 1,000 referrals to primary care, 44 people per month referred to treatment, 311 drug poisonings reversed - only 12 requiring a follow trip to the hospital - and zero fatalities. While

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got Canadian Tire money to burn. Like Justin Trudeau! Who spent the first day of the first week of the rest of his life pretending he's a normal guy. As for his successor, he was going stuff this week, while south of the border there's this guy that keeps talking smack about Canada, and now he's rounding up people who are using their voices to be critical of foreign powers. This Thursday, March 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Arctic Blast. Nearly wrapping up his first week as the Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney did a whirlwind tour of France, the U.K. and Iqaluit where he announced a deal to buy a new radar system from the Australians to insure northern security. Meanwhile in Ottawa, the Conservatives are trying any and every strategy to get something on the new PM as his numbers keep going up and theirs keeps going down. So how is Carney doing after six days? 51st State of Play. Since U.S. President Donald Trump started talk about a

This week on End Credits, we're going out to the farm. Everyone yearns at some point for a more simple life on the land, and it looks like one of them is Tom Green... so he made a film about it. On this episode we're reviewing This is The Tom Green Documentary, and we will also take the unusual step of critiquing the critics and the rare times they've got it wrong. This Wednesday, March 19, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: Wrong Turns. The subject of this week's film is Tom Green, who once made Freddy Got Fingered, which was declared by one critic as "quite simply the worst movie ever released by a major studio in Hollywood history". Hyperbolic? Probably, which reminds us that sometimes critics are wrong, or at the very least over-the-top in their negative assessment of a movie, so to begin this week, we will talk about some critical misses. REVIEW: This is The Tom Green Documentary (2025). At the turn of the century a simple man made a splash on Ottawa cable access TV with his out-th

Maybe you don’t remember, or want to remember, but it was this time five years ago that the world closed down as COVID-19 became so virulent that it required us to be sequestered for months or else keep six feet apart while wearing a mask or other PPE. Many of us have memory-holed those events, some have re-written it as an overreaction or, even worse than that, a conspiracy, but perhaps the time has come to face our trauma about the pandemic. Here are some of the headlines from the March 20, 2020 edition of the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet newsletter: “All City of Guelph facilities are now closed to the public including City Hall", “The two remaining city council meetings for March have been cancelled”, and “The Guelph General Hospital, as well as other area hospitals, have initiated more stringent measures on who can visit the hospital and when”. There was a lot going on, and no one knew how it was all going to shake out in the end. It may not seem like it, but on this fifth anniversary of the pandemic, COVID

This week on Open Sources Guelph we order a side-helping of change and economic concern. The new prime minister and the new-old premier met this week to talk about their common enemy: the crazy person currently occupying the White House. For the other half of the show, we will look to more local concerns with one of the members of city council from the first (in numerical order) ward! This Thursday, March 13, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Carney in Charge. It wasn't exactly a horse race and in the end it seemed like a rocket ship, but Mark Carney is now set to be the next Prime Minister of Canada... but for how long? The once long odds for the Federal Liberals now look better with many polls showing a statistical tie between them and the Conservatives, and Carney already looks like a man of action even without yet being sworn into the role. Can Carney complete the greatest political comeback in Canadian history? Ford Tough? Two weeks after winning his snap election call, Doug Ford

This week on End Credits, we're still having February thoughts. Although it's March now, we're going to revisit Valentine's Day with the rom-com/horror mash-up Heart Eyes, and because we can't escape the ramifications of what's going on everyday in the White House, we will talk about how Canadian cinephiles can do their part in the trade wars.  This Wednesday, March 12, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: Trade War Movies. You may have heard that there's a trade war happening. Anger at the U.S. President has extended to all things American, including streaming sites like Netflix and Prime Video, which people are cancelling in frustration. So in that spirit, we will start this week with some trade war programming. We will talk about where you can find some great Canadian movies on some great Canadian streaming sites. REVIEW: Heart Eyes (2025). Two genres that play by their own well-established rules: rom-coms and slashers. Two great tastes that taste great together? That's the question

When we talk about the affordability crisis, you sometimes hear the term “legislated poverty”, meaning the state of social assistance rates like Ontario Works and ODSP that assure people can never get ahead because the amounts paid never cover all the real costs of daily life. That’s why Mike Morrice decided to act when he was elected to the House of Commons in 2021, but like all great quests, it hasn’t ended up the way he envisioned. Can one person make a difference? This is the question when you elect anyone, but without a party whip or a legislative agenda, an MP pretty much has to follow their own north star and Kitchener MP Morrice followed his star to a private member’s bill called the Canada Disability Benefit Act. The goal was to offer low-barrier, additional assistance to people with disabilities to help get them out of legislated poverty, but as always happens, reality couldn’t live up to aspirations. When finished, the act proposed that people with disabilities in Canada will receive *up to* $200 p

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're coming down from election fever, and maybe get ready to catch it once again...(?) Yes, the time has come for a new Liberal leader to be selected, which is its own drama, but nothing compared to the drama in the White House, which is exactly how its main occupant likes it (and the rest of us hate). For the interview this week, we've got a two-for-one special! This Thursday, March 6, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Garbage Disp-Oval. There's been no doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump is hostile to continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, but even by those standards what happened in the Oval Office last Friday was a disaster. A gathering in the U.K. on the weekend sought to buttress the rest of NATO in supporting Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the bigger question is whether we can any longer be called the "Leader of the Free World". Carney of Won? At the end of this weekend, we will know who the new Liberal leader and Prime Minister

This week on End Credits, we can't stop doing the monkey! Not the dance, but the movie of the same name that has been winning fans at cinemas all around the country these last couple of weeks. So yes, we're talking about The Monkey, and we're also going to be talking about the life and movies of another Hollywood icon!  This Wednesday, March 5, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: For Gene. While the circumstances of his passing still has many unanswered questions, there's no doubt that Gene Hackman is one of the greatest actors ever to grace the silver screen. From The French Connection to Unforgiven to The Royal Tenenbaums, Hackman's legacy has been secured, and that's not bad for the guy his classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse called "least likely to succeed". To start this week, we honour Gene. REVIEW: The Monkey (2025). The Monkey represents a horror trifecta: It's based on a story by Stephen King, produced by James Wan, and directed by Longlegs filmmaker Osgood Perkins. Perkins' su