Guelph Politicast

This week on Open Sources Guelph, things get heavy. We've got back-to-back interviews today with two different guests, both of who are going to get into topics around sexual violence and need to do more for survivors. First, we will talk to an advocate who wants to give survivors more options to get justice for themselves aside from the court system, and then we will talk to a provincial politicia...

Centre Wellington is the largest municipality inside the county, and it includes Elora and Fergus. In the literal and figurative middle of Wellington, representing it around the council table, unsurprisingly, is a two-person job. From this vantage point, they must have a unique view of relations between the city and county, and one of those councillors has an even bigger vantage point then that? D...

This week on End Credits, we get international. The review today comes from Spain, with a universal take of family dynamics that just so happens to be in Spanish in 53 Sundays, which you can now stream on Netflix. Along similar lines, this entire show will be about a language other than English, at least so far as the movies are concerned!  This Wednesday, May 13, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Ti...

Is there a bigger political lightning rod when it comes to the City of Guelph budget than the police budget? For some people, we spend too much on the police and at the expense of expanded funding for social services, and for others we don’t spend nearly enough on the police. As we look to the next term at city hall, what challenges around policing will be presented to the new council? In their 20...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're straining to do some explaining. How can you make sense of the news when the news barely makes sense? This is going to be really put to the test this week as we get into the ups and downs of the War in Iran, and then we will turn our attention to this race to referendum in Alberta. Maybe things closer to home will be easier to understand and we have a guest...

This week on End Credits we're listening. For the movie review today, we will get into a movie you don't just have to watch because it's also a listening experience. Yes, we are going to talk about the new horror movie Undertone, and speaking of not-so-easy listening, we will continue on with our "6 For '76" series with a story about love and music! This Wednesday, May 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldso...

Sure, it's an election year, but that doesn't mean that the current city council is coasting in their last year in office. The council calendar has been pretty busy these first four months of 2026, and some of the things that have kept them busy might surprise you. This week, if you don't follow the news, or subscribe to this website, or have heard about it somewhere else, you will get your chance...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, it's a lot. There was another disaster involving guns in America, but this time the target was some of the most powerful people in the country. Here in Canada, the Premier of B.C. seems to have stepped in a deep puddle with Indigenous people, but perhaps we can find some salvation with a good economy news story? Out special guest this week will help us make sense...

This week on End Credits, things get real, which is to say that we're going to put the best face on reality. The prime example this week is the new music bio-pic MIchael, which is about the life of Michael Jackson and getting darts and laurels depending on what side you're on. There's no doubt that Michael is going to be a big hit, but good news, we are entering a season of big hits! This Wednesda...

Near the end of every council term, we invite the rookies who were elected in the previous election onto this podcast to talk about their experience. This time it’s different because one, there were so many new councillors in 2022, and two, in this case, we have two people who’ve decided that one term is enough. How can just four years on Guelph city council possibly be enough? The day after Munic...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going to have our dessert first. Predictably, we have some thoughts about the Premier of Ontario going plane shopping, but more seriously then that there are some serious issues in the province's jails that we need to talk about. Speaking of talks, there's one being hosted at the Kitchener Public Library on kids and tech, and we will have two of the panelist...

What does it mean to review movies today? How do professional critics stand apart from the pack between Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd? Does a film critic even matter when measured against social media publicity and influencers? In this new monthly side series, we will talk to critics, vloggers or podcasters about the state of modern film criticism, why they do it, and why it still matters indeed!...

This week on End Credits, we grow up. The movie this week is another coming of age story about a young person finding themselves but the twist is that it's a Canadian movie about a Canadian in Canada. We will review Mile End Kicks, which you can now (and should) see in theatres everywhere, and we will also talk about *that* festival in France!  This Wednesday, April 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson...

Today is Earth Day if you’re listening to this promptly on Wednesday, but it’s hard to think of a time in the last 30 years where it seems like the environment has been less of an issue. Despite the increasing frequency of dangerous weather events, the rapid loss of farmland, and concerns about ground water, environmental issues seem less and less to be a priority, and few people know that better...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, the winds are changing. There's a lot of hot air about the result of three federal byelections this week and what that means for Canada, and there's some good news from eastern Europe where some other election results might paint a positive picture. Closer to home, we will talk to a member of city council about working collaborative with other governments and an e...

This week on End Credits, things are going to get dangerous! For the movie this week, we get hardcore with ballerinas that kill as five young women have to take out a bar full of bad guys in Pretty Lethal on Amazon Prime. We will also mark Earth Day (or is it month now?) by talking about some of our favourite environmentally-themed movie... except for the obvious ones. This Wednesday, April 15, at...

It’s an interesting time for someone new to take on the reins of this organization, and not just because of the housing crisis. This is the 25th birthday of Habitat for Humanity in Guelph and Wellington, so it’s a time of celebration, along with a time of tremendous challenge. In the overwhelming crunch of the crisis, how does the brand name in affordable housing celebrate its silver anniversary?...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we recover from the Easter weekend. See the guy in this picture with the Easter Bunny? He made it very hard to relax with some very vivid saber-rattling over the pointless war he started in the Middle East. Closer to home, we will talk about trains and plans for trains, plus the attack on the newest federal leader that might indicate a greater degree of confusion...

Wellington County's Ward 9 is the Town of Erin, the eastern most end of the county and it faces a number of issues that might sound kind of familiar to politically tuned in Guelphites. How much do we have in common with our friends from Erin? That is a one of the questions that will guide this first entry in a brand new side story of the Guelph Politicast adventure as we start digging into the pol...

This week on End Credits, things get dramatic. We will skip the blockbuster of the week for the more nutritious meal in the form of the star-studded indie The Drama, which you can, and should, see in a theatre near you. We will also talk about the phenomenon of the video game movie, a kind of sequel itself from our last conversation on the subject nearly eight years ago! This Wednesday, April 8, a...

Campus and community radio stations are under pressure from all sides: provincial governments, student governments, activists, advertisers and big tech. There’s a growing spectre of doom for campus media, and the people charged with supporting radio stations across Canada are looking to bolster themselves with help from a newly fiscally prudent federal government. So has time run out for your camp...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're trying to go for the under-reported stories. First, we will journey to Cuba where somehow things have gotten even worse for the people that live there even without a war (yet). Then, we will consider an important court case out of the United States that might start to generate some accountability for the harms of social media. For more physical harms, like h...

This week on End Credits, we're got hope and pessimism. The former comes from a new movie in theatres everywhere about a literal one-man quest to save the world, but with some alien help in the new sci-fi adventure Project Hail Mary. As for the latter, we head half-a-century into the past for the start of a new series about a big movie year and some of the most consequential releases.  This Wednes...

There’s no escaping just how crushing the increasing cost of groceries is, and it’s even been affecting the people we might consider affluent, so how tough is it for the organizations we depend on who are trying to level the playing field, and can they overcome those same economic pressures themselves? On this holiday week, we tackle the essential questions on local food security with two people w...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we go federal again. It's been a busy week for three of the country's main parties, and there are busy times to come in at least one case. On this edition of the show we will look ahead to this weekend and one party's crucial vote, we look back at a federal leader's busy itinerary abroad making new friends, and we will consider the last year under Canada's first-t...