Guelph Politicast

This week on Open Sources Guelph, you are here, but we are not. The time has come for our annual summer sabbatical. Unlike certain former prime ministers we still have work to do, so we can only afford to take a quick two-week break before coming back with what will surely be a drama-packed fall schedule of scandals, near-scandals and straight up crises. So let's take a break from the craziness be...

This week on End Credits, we're hitting the links. Well, we're not hitting the links, at least not yet, but we will watch other people hit the links in the sporting sequel comedy Happy Gilmore 2, which you can now stream on Netflix. And since we're back in the realm of Adam "Sandman" Sandler, we will talk about the empire he built!  This Wednesday, August 6, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Sa...

The Guelph Fringe Festival unfolds this weekend with 10 companies performing in three different venues over four days in downtown Guelph with 100 per cent of the ticket prices going back to the artists. These shows are experimental, personal, and unlike anything you will ever see anywhere else, and this week’s show is going to highlight three interviews from three different shows to tell you why G...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're getting ready to go on summer vacation, but before that we've got some serious business, and in the case of one topic we mean really, really serious. We will once again tackle the ongoing tragedy in Gaza before coming back home to Ontario where education is on the menu again, from your local school board to post-secondary education. Also, we'll keep the educ...

This week on End Credits we are faster than a speeding bullet and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Get ready to pump iron, or make that steel, with the cinema's newest superhero in the bright and cheerful Superman. But is it one of the best movies of the year? TBD, in the meantime though we're going to talk about some other contenders! This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donald...

Donald Trump’s return to the White House promised economic disturbances if not outright challenges, and this is on top of the challenges that already existed like supply chains, wages, turnover, and the high cost of housing and real estate. It’s also worth noting that these are not Guelph-specific challenges, but that's okay because the new president of the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is not from G...

This week on Open Sources Guelph everybody is fighting! Our national and provincial leaders are gathered to strategize and fight back in a trade war, while the leader of the opposition (in exile) is fighting for his political life so that he can get back into the national debate. Meanwhile, we will talk to an area Indigenous leader who's helping to lead the fight against legislation they got no sa...

This week on End Credits we're nostalgic. Not for our own past now 401 episodes in, but for our collective movie past. First we stop in the 80s and talk about everyone's favourite movie about accidentally getting seduced by a parent after travelling back in time, and then we will go to 90s where someone will always know about what someone else did last summer! This Wednesday, July 23, at 3 pm, Ada...

It’s been almost a year since Guelph City Council approved the Public Space Use Bylaw. You may not see as many tents as you once did, especially in the open in places like St. George’s Square, but don’t think that they’re gone. There are still many people in Guelph who are unhoused, unwell, and are still searching for help that’s hard to come by, and this week will talk to one of the helpers. In t...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're going down the rabbit hole. In Canada, and down into the United States, it seems like a lot of people are losing their minds and some of that might be dangerous. We will looking at a quartet arrested in Canada for terrorist activity, and the clash over conspiracies in the MAGAverse, plus, for something a little more normal, we will talk to a city councillor...

This week on End Credits, we reach another milestone! We've been coming to you every week on CFRU for the better part of a decade, we've have a laughs and we've seen a lot of movies (at least 400), and every now and then we play a game. To mark our fourth centenary, we will put our collective heads together to consider the century, or a least the first quarter of it. This Wednesday, July 16, at 3...

As we all now ease into summer vacation mode - even if we’re still working at our many labours - we’re taking stock of this busy year so far. We’ve made it though two elections and some long nights at council with at least a couple of more long nights to come before city council takes August off. (Or will they, given that there’s been a special August meeting the last few years?) So where do we cu...

This week on Open Sources Guelph we're doing a Law & Order riff. With political barbecue season underway, we look to the police beat by talking about potential civil rights violations in a major Ontario prison and the province-wide chain of stores that apparently can sell an illegal product with (near) impunity. Don't worry, we've still got some political chat for you... local politics! This T...

This week on End Credits, we're off to the races! Get on your mark, get set and get ready to watch a movie about guys driving cars in a circle dozens of times, which is actually much more exciting than it sounds when you're watching the new film F1 in a theatre near you. We will talk about that, and we will also talk about Oscar winners from the last 25 years! This Wednesday, July 9, at 3 pm, Adam...

The grocery industry in Canada is the epitome of monopoly; the Competition Bureau in 2023 reported that 75 per cent of all grocery purchases are made at one of the five major chains in Canada. In the wake of high grocery prices, which has been one of the pinchiest of pinch points in the post-COVID economy, people have wanted to see changes in the industry, so does that start with a more level play...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're hung over. Not from imbibing too much over the Canada Day long weekend, but from all the news we had to process in the first six months of 2025. We survived two elections, the creation and implosion of DOGE, a million different micro-scandals both stupid and corrupt, and, yes, some good news. How are we supposed to make sense of any of this? How about an awa...

This week on End Credits, we're going back to the end of the world. It's been a long time since we tackled a zombie movie, whether the heightened or regular horror variety, but today we're going top shelf with the latest entry in Danny Boyle's series, 28 Years Later. Fitting since the topic this week has to due with the F-word, "franchises."  This Wednesday, July 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and...

There’s no rest for the weary on this Canada Day week, especially if you’re engaged on housing and transit, and there has been some interesting news on those fronts in the last couple of weeks. No matter your holiday status this week, we’re not going to load you down with a policy deep dive, but we’re going to stop with two special guests to re-calibrate ourselves and remember: Progress is slow, b...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, our hats are on our heads, not in our hands! Our glorious premier stuck his foot in his mouth again, just in time for National Indigenous Heritage Month, and speaking of foot in mouth we'll talk about the ongoing and confusing state of developments in our newest Mideast quagmire, and in the interview we will talk to an old guest about her new job! This Thursday, J...

This week on End Credits we're once again celebrating #PedroSummer! (Patent pending.) The movie this time is a supposed romantic story that a lot of people are watching and having big discussions about. We're going to check out Materialists, and we're also going to start counting down to an other milestone episode with our favourite gimmick! This Wednesday, June 25, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and...

There's an interesting process underway in Guelph's south end. One of the two Ward 6 city councillors, Dominique O'Rourke, has moved on to a new job in Ottawa as you might have heard, which leaves her old seat at city council vacant. Nature, and local politics, abhor a vacuum, so next month O'Rourke's former colleagues will choose her successor. At least until next year's municipal election... Las...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're trying to keep all our paper's straight. Once again, it was a busy news week as the world came to Canada, or at least the heads of the biggest and most powerful countries did. Also, we get to talk about a new war, apparently because we've run out of things to say about the old wars while closer to home, we'll go back to the Quatro and talk to a member of cit...

This week on End Credits, we flirt with danger. We've never had to survive a plane crash - or six - but we have survived nearly that many Wes Anderson movies together, and on this episode we will survive another. Probably. Tune in today as we decode The Phoenician Scheme and as we talk about a slightly older, and slightly more controversial movie from the past.  This Wednesday, June 18, at 3 pm, A...

The City of Guelph is a system, a system that's built on rules. Or policies, procedures and protocol to be more precise. Some of those systems dictate how city council functions, some of them lay out how local government should engage with the community, and some of them tell you what flags you can fly and when they should be lowered to half-mast. It's time again to play roulette with the policy w...

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we've got fighting words. People are riled up here in Ontario about some more bad bills, and people in the U.S. are riled up about another week of living in Trumpland including his most dangerous moves against civil liberties yet. If you're a Canadian concerned about these things, you might want to listen to this week's guest because he has some ideas on how to fi...