Guelph Politicast

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. This Thursday, October 23, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: 28 Days? Later! That's how long this legislative session is scheduled to last at Queen's Park, and only three days in there's no shortage of controversy from the misuse of the Skills Development Fund as an apparent reward to certain party friends to the introduction of legislation to fire a couple of very specific school board trustees. We will talk about all the style and substance of these first few abrasive days in the Ontario Legislature's fall sitting. Top of the Rock. Last week's provincial election in Newfoundland and Labrador delivered a very interesting result: Despite a popular incumbent Liberal government, the Progressive Conservatives were able to eek out an election win with the 21 seats needed to secure a majority. To say it was won on the margins is something of an understatement, so is there anything new that this election can tell us about the national political picture? Klassen Your Seatbelts! It's going to be a bumpy ride as the City of Guelph enters its annual budget confirmation cycle! Joining us this week is Ward 2 City Councillor Carly Klassen who's going to talk to us about once again rising to the challenge, balancing affordability with the needs of the city, and the ongoing strangeness of the Strong Mayor Budget. Plus, we will talk about the changes coming to downtown, and why she wants Guelph to take the Elect Respect pledge for next year's campaign. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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: What Else Have We Been Watching? We're almost at the end of October and the movies are coming fast and furiously. A lot of films are seeking a potential awards berth, and some are just seeking some box office revenue, but we can only do one movie at a time on this show, so we're going to take a moment to do a kind of lightening round. We will talk about some of the other stuff we've been watching lately, and maybe why you should watch it too! REVIEW: Good Fortune (2005). Deal with the Devil? How about a deal with Keanu? In the new comedy Good Fortune, Reeves plays an angel that decides to get personally involved in the life of a gig worker played by Aziz Ansari. When Arj switches places with a venture capitalist played by Seth Rogen, Reeves' angel hopes they'll all learn a valuable lesson, but this is not It's a Wonderful Life. Ansari's latest directorial effort was good enough to get him a spot at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, but is it good enough for the discerning tastes of this movie show? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 Guelph Lab, which is now marking 10 years of existence, is a “catalyst for research, collaboration and experimentation. It brings together the University, City and community partners to create innovative solutions for shared challenges across Guelph.” They decide what projects they want to pursue and select from a roster of community partners and experts for each specific assignment. It's like Mission: Impossible but for municipal policy nerds. The work of The Guelph Lab has been multifaceted; they looked at what areas of the city are more marginalized in terms of road safety, and they've also guided the refresh of Guelph's advisory committees of council. All these projects took months or years of research to complete, but how does The Guelph Lab work? How do they choose the projects they pursue? Is its work academic, or is it meant to come up with actionable suggestions that the municipality will follow? To answer these, and other questions, we're joined by Dr. Elizabeth Jackson, Director of the Community Engaged Scholarship Institute at the University of Guelph, and Jodie Sales, GM of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Relations at the City of Guelph. The two of them will also discuss the kinds of projects that they won't take on, the oversight of The Guelph Lab, working with other governments and groups outside the city, and what they're working on next.  So let's see what can be cooked up in The Guelph Labs on this week's Guelph Politicast! You can learn more about The Guelph Lab at their website. A report marking 10 years of The Guelph Lab will be shared on the City of Guelph's website as an information report to council, which are published every Friday. Just go to the council calendar page on the City's website and click the link when it's available. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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, October 16, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Peace at Last? A little over two years after the war began, peace came to Gaza this weekend as the last living hostages were returned to Israel, and humanitarian aid finally started flowing into the Strip. U.S. President Donald Trump took a victory lap in Egypt on Monday, and many world leaders joined him, but this is just the beginning of a process, not the end. What happens now to rebuild Gaza? Is there still a path to a two-state solution? And can Israel rehabilitate its global image? Orange on a New Track. The federal NDP leadership race is now underway, and there are five declared candidates so far including a sitting MP, a city councillor from B.C., a scion of the party, a labour activist, and a regenerative farmer. The question before all of the candidates is whether they have the right mix of talent, policy and organizing to bring the party back from the political wilderness, and on the brink of the first debate and the six-month countdown to the convention, we will consider the odds. Clancy That. Next week, the Ontario Legislature will sit for the first time since the beginning of June and what can we expect? The passage of Bill 33 and the changes to oversight of school boards and a new bill eliminating all speed enforcement cameras in the province. What is not on the agenda? New ways to tackle homelessness, any response to the climate crisis, and a plan to tackle youth unemployment. Kitchener Centre MPP and Deputy leader of the Green Party Aislinn Clancy will talk about her ideas for those topics and how she's ready to help set the agenda. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 Tim Phillips will discuss: The SCTV Cast Movie Draft. Like a lot of very famous, and very funny people, John Candy got his start on SCTV. A group of young comedians from Second City Toronto including Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, and Andrea Martin were all recruited and in 1976 SCTV went on the air and into infamy. Before talking about Candy, we will talk about the movies from him and all is SCTV colleagues as we draft the best ones. REVIEW: John Candy: I Like Me (2025). A true Canadian success story if there ever was one, John Candy made his way from the stages and clubs in Toronto, to SCTV, and then on into movie stardom as one of the most reliable comedic actors of the 80s. You may think you know John Candy, but the new documentary John Candy: I Like Me dares to ask, maybe you don't(?). The new doc that opened this year's Toronto International Film Festival arrives on streaming Prime Video, and we will decide if we like I Like Me and the way it tells John Candy's story. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 council the “Guelph's Community Call to Climate Action.” It was not a good news story.  According to this report, the City of Guelph has made “moderate” progress in its greenhouse gas goals, so staff opted to lay out a way that they could engage the broader community to join the effort; from building more energy efficient low carbon buildings to using more sustainable transportation options. Then, September's “Draw the Line” protest tried to centre climate action along with peace and poverty as the crises of our time, and the Community Climate Forum 2025 next week will try to follow up on that with a formal event bringing together activists, politicians, experts and regular folk on the best ways to really cut down our carbon footprint. Can Guelph get green again? That is the question we will put to Donna Jennison, a member of the Guelph Climate Action Network. On this week's pod, Jennison will talk about the state of climate activism in Guelph, and the goals of the climate conference. She will also discuss how we make climate change a priority issue again, how we reclaim Guelph's position as an environmental leader, and why climate action is something everyone can do. Finally, she will talk about why we don't need to wait for upper levels of government to take action, and what keeps her hopeful while taking on this fight.  So let's talk about making climate action a priority again on this week's Guelph Politicast!  The Guelph Community Climate Forum will take place on Sunday October 26 from 1:30 to 4:30 pm at the Italian Canadian Club. You can learn more and register to attend the event for free on the website for the Guelph Climate Action Network. If you want to do your homework first, check out the Community Call to Climate Action on the City of Guelph website here. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 covering it. This Thursday, October 9, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: West Coast Debenture. There is some interesting things happening in the B.C. legislature. While Premier David Eby is fighting trade wars and Alberta's desire for a pipeline to the coast, the new BC Conservative Party is fighting, well, each other. Despite almost winning power one year ago, John Rustad's insurgent party is now experiencing growing pains. Meanwhile, the Green Party has elected a 25-year-old to lead them at this critical time. We'll get into the wild west. Wildrose Lessons. Right now, Alberta's teachers are on strike. It's the first time the teachers have been on the picket line in 23 years and their issues are no unfamiliar: Not enough pay, not enough teachers, not enough resources... It should come as no surprise then that Alberta, which has been using schools as fronts for American-style culture wars, is having troubles with teachers, so has Danielle Smith finally bit off more than she can chew? Covering the War. Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel that started a war on Gaza that's still in progress. In the course of this war, there have been a number of disturbing things, but one of the most concerning is the 237 journalists who have been killed so far, which is to say nothing of the ones still alive and fighting starvation even as their fighting to get the story. This week, we will be joined by Palestinian journalist Walid Batrawi, who has over 30 years of experience covering the region, to talk about what his colleagues are facing, and what we get wrong covering the war here in Canada. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 discuss: Animation Domination. This week we're re-entering the realm of animation, which is a filmmaking style we do occasionally get into, but perhaps not as often as we like. So in honour of the movie we're reviewing, we're going to talk about some of our favourite underappreciated animated movies, from the best of Don Bluth to maybe the most accessible movie from an upstate New York underground animator. Not quite Disney-free, but close... REVIEW: KPop Demon Hunters (2025). It is the biggest phenomenon of the year! It's topped the box office charts, the streaming charts, and the music charts simultaneously, and it just broke another record on its own platform this weekend. It's KPop Demon Hunters, the story of a girl group who use their music to protect the Earth from demons, who then turn around to fight fire with fire by creating a demon boy band. KPop Demon Hunters is the movie no one saw coming and this week we will arrive late to the party and see if we can squeeze onto the bandwagon. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 ago there was another cycling fatality on the roads of Guelph, a 37-year-old man had been riding his bike near Elmira and Massey when he was killed after being struck by a garbage truck. It's getting dangerous out there, and while we have the City of Guelph's Vision Zero initiative trying to make an impact, people are still being killed and injured on our streets in vehicle collisions. Perhaps then this is the perfect time for a Bicycle Mayor! Andrea Bidgood has been a part of  various community building initiatives, and now, as the Bicycle Mayor, she will next take part in the Guelph Transportation Summit next week. As one of the featured speakers, Bidgood will talk about the ways that transit and cycling work together to create attractive alternatives to our car-centric streets, but first, she will face the tough questions on this podcast! Bidgood will talk about the role of Bicycle Mayor, why she wanted to wear that hat, and how her own personal experiences with on the mean streets of Guelph as a cyclists made her want to be more active. She will also talk about the different cycling demands across the city, why she leads from the idea of safety first, whether the onus for road safety is put on the backs of cyclists more than car drivers, and what role the Bicycle Mayor might have when we elect the actual mayor next year. So let's catch up with the Bicycle Mayor on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!  You can follow Andrea Bidgood on Instagram and you can subscribe to her newsletter on Substack. You can learn more about the Guelph Community for Active Transportation at their website, and the Guelph Transportation Summit will take place on Saturday October 18 at 10 am at Dublin Street United Church. You can find the itinerary and a link to reserve your free ticket here. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 the birds... This Thursday, October 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: 33 and Me. The Notwithstanding Clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was a necessary compromise in getting the Constitution approved in 1982, but is there a chance that it's being abused by provincial governments who don't want the bother and hassle of judicial oversight? That is the question the federal government wants answered after they entered the chat with a factum in the case over Quebec's Bill 21, but is this a question we need answered? The Birds. There were a lot of eyes on a B.C. ostrich farm last week when it was announced that the 300 some-odd birds there would be allowed to live until the Supreme Court here's the full case. On the one hand, this seems like a silly news story, but when you dig a little deeper there's actually a lot driving this case from anti-government sentiment to fringe healthcare influencers. Get you shovel out as we go behind the ostriches (so to speak). More to Chew On. Guelph City Council has dealing with two pretty big planning files a couple of weeks ago, one concerned the redevelopment of a popular corner in the south end and one concerning the block plans for the Guelph Innovation District property. The two projects have big questions that require big answers, and to get them we host Ward 6 City Councillor Ken Yee Chew this week to get his perspective as a planner and a politician. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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: Showgirls Vs. Seven. On the weekend of September 22, 1995, two very different movies opened wide at the North American box office: one is a stylish film noir about cops searching for a serial killer, and the other is a lavish Las Vegas satire about a dancer trying to climb the ladder to fame and fortune. To start the show, we will talk about the life and legacy of Showgirls and Seven and how these two very different movies launched at the same time. REVIEW: One Battle After Another (2025). One of the most anticipated movies of the year, Paul Thomas Anderson finally teams up with Leonardo DiCaprio for a timely story about balancing revolution and parenthood. DiCaprio plays a retired resistance fighter trying to protect his 16-year-old daughter as government troops lead by Sean Penn search for them. A lot of praise has been showered onto Battle, and PTA has a lot of eager fans in the film bro community, but is this movie on track to be the Best of 2025, or, for that matter, can it possibly live up to the hype? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 meet Nisha Jagtap and Will Snyder, two of the hundreds of college support workers on strike and are about to enter their third week on the line. Both sides released statements on Monday saying the other is prolonging the strike, but that's what is going on at the high level. What's going on at Conestoga College's Guelph campus? Jagtap and Snyder will share their thoughts from the picket line, how students are being affected, and what they want from a new contract.  Next, we will rewind to Thursday September 18, which was the annual commemoration of Take Back the Night. Cindy McMann, public educator at Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis, spoke at the event and talked about why recent events prove that it's still hard for women who are the victims of sexual violence to get justice for themselves in an outdated and restrictive justice system and the ways we can work towards systemic change. And finally, we will go to Shelldale last Friday and hear from some of the people who take part in the f.u.n. Fridays program, which stands for "Food United Neighbours". The f.u.n. Fridays initiative is an effort to improve food access for the Onward Willow neighbourhood, and Guelph MP Dominique O'Rourke announced new funds for the University of Guelph that will allow the f.u.n. Friday partners to expand into Centre Wellington and bring similar improved access to quality healthy foods to the Fergus area. So let's get into some real audio news on this week's Guelph Politicast! You can learn more about the programs at Shelldale at their website, and f.u.n. Fridays takes place every Friday in the Shelldale gym and you can learn more about them on social media. You can access the programs of Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis or learn how to donate and volunteer at their website, and you can learn more about the efforts to change the justice system here. And finally, you can learn more about college support workers strike here. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: UNGA for Carney. While another typically unhinged Donald Trump speech seized much of the attention, it seemed like Prime Minister Mark Carney was the proverbial belle of the ball at the United Nations General Assembly this week. Carney seemed to be putting points on the board, from dealing with the Chinese Premier to recognizing the State of Palestine, so is Carney able to do abroad what he's been unable to do at home: Be a uniter? Opposition Research. In the last two weeks, Ontario's two major opposition parties have had leadership reviews with two different results. Bonnie Crombie is out as Ontario Liberal leader and the Grits are now kicking off the third leadership race since 2018, and while Marit Stiles is still the head of the NDP it was only after barely meeting the threshold required to successfully be re-acclaimed as leader. With all this tumult in the ranks, how do the NDP or the Liberals hope to make a stand against the Ontario PC Party? They Drew the Line. Last weekend, there were over 70 different protests across Canada under the banner "Draw the Line". Essentially, the protest combined concerns about poverty, peace and the environment into one massive community event, and hundreds showed up in Guelph to take part... including the hosts of this show! We will talk about our thoughts on the protest and whether it was a real breakthrough for left-wing activism or if the organizers were just singing to the choir. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 Phillips will discuss: Remembering Robert Redford. There are movie stars and then there's Robert Redford! The multi-talented actor, director and activist passed away last week at the age of 89, and he leaves a tremendous legacy of wonderful movies he made both in front of and behind the camera. But beyond his own films, Redford, as founder of the Sundance Film Festival, has fostered the talents of hundreds more. We will talk about Redford's multifaceted legacy. REVIEW: Friendship (2025). What if Fatal Attraction was about a suburban dad who becomes obsessed with his neighbour, the cool TV weatherman who has a band? That's essentially the logline for Friendship, a new dark comedy starring Tim Robinson as the dad and Paul Rudd as the weatherman, and it promises to make you cringe as hard as it makes you laugh. Friendship comes at an interesting time as we talk about the loss of male friendships in real life, so is the perfect movie for our time, or is it daring you to stay in front of your screens? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 professor David Siegel once wrote, “CAOs can make a mayor and council look exceptionally good (or bad). They can be a source of great pride and motivation among the staff of the municipality (or not).” In that context, it's no wonder that people would want to hear a CAO's unvarnished takes on something like Strong Mayor Powers, which was the one part of this year's CAO Survey that made the most noise. But municipal life is bigger than Strong Mayors, and it's just one of 14 chapters in the 2025 survey. When you read the report, which features contributions from 32 unnamed CAOs from around Ontario on issues like housing, finances, community safety and wellbeing, the impacts of climate change, and the impacts of the Trump administration's trade war. Stacy Hushion is one of the people responsible for putting this together every year, and today she will share some of the things that surprised her. On this week's podcast, Hushion will tell us how this report comes together, and how honest the CAOs get when they're providing their input to the survey. She will also talk about the ways Strong Mayor Powers put CAOs in a jam, why CAOs are mixed about how proactive the Ontario government has been, the issues keeping CAOs up at night, their concerns about who might get elected next year, and the ways they're trying to break the political and jurisdictional logjams.  So let's get into the mind of a CAO on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can read more about the work of StrategyCorp on their website. Obviously, that includes all 109 pages of this year's Ontario Municipal Chief Administrative Officer Survey, or you can follow this direct link. Guelph City Council will be back in session for Committee of the Whole on Tuesday October 7 at 2 pm. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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, September 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: The Aftermath. Last Wednesday, conservative organizer and provocateur Charlie Kirk was killed on the campus of a Utah college, and what followed was recriminations on political violence, calls to sanction certain left-wing groups on a whim, the cancellation of people who dared to quote Kirk's rhetoric, and the search for a connection to someone in the trans community so that they can take the blame. Can this get any worse? Board to Death. In the last few months, the Ontario government and Minister of Education Paul Calandra have sought to undermine public trust in the school board system. The Magic 8-Ball says to expect some big changes to the administration of Ontario's schools when the legislature returns next month, but while we can all agree that trustee trips to Italy are an extravagance, is the government thinking about efficiency or are they thinking about politics? Shades of Rae. Speaking of the Ontario government, they've got a lot on their plate these days; from the ongoing economic impacts from the Trump Trade War that continues to affect Ontario workers, to the needs of all sectors for more support from the arts to healthcare. From the government benches this week, we will be joined by Perth-Wellington MP Matthew Rae to talk about those issues, and working across party line to move progress forward on Guelph's new hospital. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 Lepage will discuss: The Halloween Challenge. Halloween Month is nearly upon us, but for some people it starts in August. Like Candice. To open this week's show, we will talk about Candice's 100 movies in 92 days challenge, how she chooses the ones she watches, and how you can get started if you're interested in taking up your own movie challenge. Dystopia! Before we dive into this week's movie, we will pause to recognize all the crappy futures we've dwelled in during our movie lives. From living among monsters both literal and figurative, to authoritarian governments and tech gone wild, we will talk about what brings us back to bleakness. REVIEW: The Long Walk (2025). One of Stephen King's earliest works finally makes its way to the big screen at what may be the worst (or best) possible time. The story takes place in a dystopia America where 50 young men compete to win riches and a chance to have their wish granted. The game? Walk for as long as you can until you're the last man left. Everyone else is killed when they can't walk anymore. Much has been made about the implicit messages of the film, but can we keep pace with this latest glimpse at our pessimistic future? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 who got a new job, and then they got into the issue of placing a daytime shelter, and whether or not that should go downtown. Downtown was a pretty big area of interest in the middle three months of meetings this year, from the upcoming big dig on Upper Wyndham and St. George's Square to the possibility of holding the Memorial Cup at the Sleeman Centre in 2027. The biggest story though might have been that council vacancy. There were times that the even number of council representatives caused some difficulties on close votes, including on the vote to appoint a replacement for Dominique O'Rourke. The appointment process was a tremendous source of drama but so was, surprisingly, the pace of new heritage designations that have been brought to council for approval over the last several months.  This is just a taste of some of the council business that took place between May and July of this year. Some issues were more complicated than others, some issues turned out to be not issues at all. Council sat as a shareholder, and as a tribunal. They met for some special orientation meetings, and they had a planning matter come to a regular meeting through Strong Mayor Powers. It's a lot to cover in a little over 30 minutes, but this week we will give it a try.  So let's get into the middle part of this year at city council on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can see all the council meeting agenda and find videos of all the council meetings on the City of Guelph website. Or you can get all those details with the council previews, recaps and post-views on Guelph Politico. Also, subscribe to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet on Substack and get your council recap on Thursday morning, directly in your inbox. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we celebrate old times, and new times. From the past, there's someone we kind of forgot about but who wants to be remembered again, which could also apply to Parliament Hill where the leader of the opposition is back in the House and ready to deliver stinging rebukes to a PM under pressure. More locally, we will talk to one of Guelph city's councillors about some recent big decisions. This Thursday, September 11, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Fall Back. Next week, MPs from across Canada will return to Ottawa for the fall sitting of the House of Commons. This time, Pierre Poilievre will be able to lead Question Period and look Prime Minister Mark Carney in the eye. But while the new PM might be feeling the heat, he's still on that proverbial honeymoon even as he looks down the barrel of mixed expectations, budget austerity and a tricky economic picture. What can we expect from the feds this fall ? What's the Story, Morning Tory? Just when you thought it was safe to get into Toronto politics, John Tory is back! Though he left office in disgrace nearly three years ago, the former mayor is thinking about re-writing the end of his political career by throwing his hat in the ring again. But more than beating his own bad press, Tory's got to beat the current mayor, Olivia Chow, who has some pretty steady support. Will 2026 be a mayoral rematch in the 6ix? Dan The Builder. It's been a busy week at city council, even more than usual. There were two different meetings and they each dealt with massive construction projects featuring hundreds of new housing units and other mixed-use buildings. One of those projects is in Ward 1, and by sheer coincidence we will be joined by Ward 1 City Councillor Dan Gibson who will talk about the pressures on him and and his colleagues while making these big decisions and what to expect at council throughout the fall. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, we're here to make you think about death and stuff. We will perform last rights over the final chapter of a favourite horror franchise with The Conjuring: Last Rites, and we will leap off that ending to talk about some of our favourite final entries in long-running movie franchises, even if those movies were not the last word.  This Wednesday, September 10, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: The End? The Conjuring is the second most successful film franchise in Hollywood history spanning about 10 different movies over the last 12 years, and Last Rites is supposed to be the final chapter. Over the years, there have been a lot of endings to a lot of movie series, and not all of them have been permanent endings. In any event, that is where we will start this week's show, at the end! REVIEW: The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025). Horror is not dead, even if this franchise now might be. The number one movie at the box office last weekend is supposed to be the final entry in a series of movies based on the ghost hunting investigations of Ed and Lorraine Warren, and it promises to be their biggest, most consequential hunt (haunt?) yet. Ed and Lorraine's past literally catches up with them at a haunting in a small Pennsylvania town in 1986, but are we ready to say goodbye to our favourite (straight-faced) ghost busters? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

Out of 27 perspective candidates for Ward 6 city councillor it came down between Katherine Hauser and Rebecca Adam, and after a show of hands vote ended in a tie, Hauser got the gig in a literal luck of the draw. It was her name that came out of that big orange box, and it's now up to Hauser to make as big an impact she can before council rises one year from now for the next municipal election. What does she do now? Now normally we interrogate city councillors on Open Sources Guelph, but we thought that with the tremendous pressures for Councillor Hauser to get the job and then hit the ground running, we would ease her into the world of Guelph politics with a more relaxing Politicast segment than the 22-minute egg-timer on OSG. True, there was the August recess that allowed her to get acclimated, but city council business is a fast moving object. Hauser is, of course, not unfamiliar with the job of representing Ward 6. Her last gig in politics was serving on the Upper Grand District School Board as the trustee representing Guelph's Ward 6 and Puslinch. In her statement of qualifications, she said she wants to “advocate for Ward 6 with empathy, insight, and the same integrity” she's brought to all her roles, and today she will be tested again on this podcast. Katherine Hauser will join on this week's edition of the podcast to talk about the reasons why she wanted to make the jump to city council, how she feels about the process that brought her to council, and how she's been building relationships with the six members of council that didn't vote for her. She will also talk about the learning curve, what she thinks she can accomplish in the next year, and why she's already thinking about next year's election.  So let's get to know the newest member of city council on this week's Guelph Politicast! You can reach out to her by email at katherine.hauser [at] guelph.ca and you can follow her on Instagram. You can stay up to date with all the latest agendas and developments with city council at the City of Guelph website under the “city government” tab, or by following meeting previews and recaps at Guelph Politico. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we catch up on our reading. In this all-news edition of the show, we will learn about the current condo crisis in Canada, and while we're learning about alliteration, we will talk about literature. In Alberta, they're taking more lessons from the MAGA movement by making a list of books they hate and checking it twice, and speaking of MAGA, their figurehead may or may not be dead depending on the day. This Thursday, September 4, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: The Long Condo. The condo market in Toronto and Vancouver is crashing, new units built are empty, and units waiting to be built have no buyers. In the midst of a housing crisis, this may be the worst development of all because for years now condos in our biggest cities have been a good place to park investment money for Canadian and foreign interests, but what happens to the market when there are more condos than people who want to buy them, and what do we do now? Book 'Em, Danielle! For the last few months, the Alberta government has been dabbling in the library sciences, or to be more precise, what books should or shouldn't be in school libraries. As usual though, the process has been confusing, haphazard, and driven by the same far-right, homophobic ideology of MAGA and groups like of Moms For Liberty, and this week Premier Danielle Smith was forced to call a time out. Why is Alberta, land of the free, embracing censorship? The President's Health is Missing. Last weekend, Donald Trump decided to take some downtime for the Labour Day weekend, and that's where the trouble started. The U.S. President's startling silence for days led to a lot of internet speculation, which was fed by weeks of apparent health issues from cankles to bruised hands to being more misunderstood than usual. Even if he's still alive, what are we meant to do with all these unanswered questions about Trump's health? Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, it's crime time! We will get caught in the movie theatre to see Caught Stealing, but be assured that we have paid for our tickets. It's the last official summer movie we'll review this year though because the next thing on our to do list is to check out the fall movies and on this episode we will preview some of our top picks! This Wednesday, September 3, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillip will discuss: Fall Movie Preview. Although it's technically still summer, in movie terms fall is here! Film festivals in Telluride, Venice and Toronto are rolling out all the flicks that are the basis for our great expectations for cinema in the months ahead, and to begin this week's show we're going to talk about some of our favourites. From the return of PTA and Shakespeare, to the greatness of Eleanor and The Boss, we will look at what's next! REVIEW: Caught Stealing (2025). The year is 1998. Hank is a New York bartender and washed up professional baseball prospect, but when his neighbour asks him to look after his cat for a few days, his whole life comes apart as he's chased by mobsters, corrupt cops, and his own guilty conscience. It's a crime thriller, and a dark comedy, and it comes to us from the man who gave us Requiem For a Dream, The Wrestler and mother! so can Darren Aronofsky be a populist for once and make a real crowd pleaser by taking a bite out of crime? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

We've been told that Artificial Intelligence is coming for all our jobs, that it will create fake news so real looking there will be no room for doubt, and in the worst case scenarios it will supplant human beings as the dominant lifeform on planet Earth. It's scary stuff, and yet our fate depends on the same tech bros that have turned social media and the internet into a few concentrated monopolies. Is there still time to rein in A.I.? In the movies, artificial intelligence is almost always bad, but here in real life, we've seen the best and worst of A.I. development. On the one hand, you have Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is using A.I. to collate and organize huge data sets, and on the other you have criminals using A.I. videos of real people to rip off victims with elaborate crypto scams involving cryptocurrency, and none of this deals with any of those existential concerns we see in the movies. But there's at least one person who's thinking about that future and he's from Guelph. Christopher DiCarlo is the author of the new book Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, which outlines a short history of A.I., the current concerns about its development, the extreme concerns about the people doing the developing, and the ways we still have time to properly regulate A.I, and use it to make the world a better place for all people and not just tech billionaires. DiCarlo will be taking part in this weekend's Eden Mills Writers' Festival to talk about some of those ideas, but he's going to make one stop before that... this podcast! He will talk about why he's so concerned about A.I., his long quest to raise the alarm about its development, and the ways we misunderstand the dangers and opportunities of the technology. He will also talk about the difficulties trying to regulate A.I., how we overcome big tech's resistance to regulation, and if it's all bad news when it comes to this technology. So let's talk about building a God on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can buy his book, Building a God: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Control It, wherever you buy fine books, and you can see him discuss his book and the issues around A.I. this Sunday at the Eden Mills Writers' Festival. You can find information about the festival or buy tickets here. You can also learn more about his advocacy and research into A.I. through Convergence Analysis at their website. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, just in time for the last weekend of summer, we're taking a trip. We join our prime minister as he's taking the world by storm, or at least parts of Europe anyway, and then we're heading to Gaza again where nobody is taking a vacation because the war continues and its costing more lives. The stakes aren't as dire closer to home, but there's controversy up the road in Wasaga Beach that we need to discuss. This Thursday, August 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Mark Carney Vs. The World. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was touring though Europe this week, and he's been making some news like when he said in Ukraine that troops from Canada could be part of some future peacekeeping force there after the war. Closer to home meanwhile, government reps are trying to get that trade deal with the U.S. even if if means scaling back on retaliatory tariffs. How's the Carney government doing on the world stage? They Bomb Journalists. Oh yes, there's still a crisis in Gaza and it only ever seems to get worse. This past week there was a two-fer when five journalists were killed along with over a dozen other people in an air strike on a hospital in Gaza; Reuters photographer Hatem Khaled was wounded. Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "tragic mishap" but it's not the first time, and it seems to be further entrenching the international community against Israel. How much worse can it get? Son of a Beach. Wasaga Beach is one of Ontario's favourite tourist destinations, and home to a wonderful provincial park that takes up much of the beachfront on Lake Huron. And yet, the Ontario government is planning to offload much of that land to the local government for redeveloped, which has many environmental activists concerned about the fate of sensitive flora and fauna. Environmental Defence executive director Tim Gray joins us to talk about the stakes of this project and the Ontario government's overall approach to environmental protection. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, we're back! Summer vacation is over for us, even though there's still technically one week left, so we will say goodbye to summer by talking about the last great movie from the Summer of 2025, the new horror mystery Weapons. Also on the topic of saying goodbye to summer, we will talk about our summer movie memories. This Wednesday, August 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: The Best Summer Movie Moments of 2025. It's been a long summer, at least in movie terms. We've seen a lot of different films, with varying levels of quality, but with fall almost here we have to make our choices for our favourite summer movie moments. From the lessons of Eddington to robots and super men we will mark the memories we'll take with us from the Summer of 2025, or, as it's been known, #PedroSummer! REVIEW: Weapons (2025). It may be the biggest movie of summer in a very real sense, and it's a story about how a community comes apart when (almost) all the children from one grade 3 class disappears from one public school. The new Zach Cregger movie is part Twilight Zone and part ensemble drama in the tradition of Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson, which is almost the antithesis of what makes a late summer movie a success, so what is it about Weapons that has hit so hard, and did it hit us too? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

We return to work at the Politicast just in time to mark Labour Day next Monday, the unofficial end of summer, and the official day to mark the sacrifices and accomplishments of workers and labour leaders. We talk a lot about how work is changing with the impact of technological change and the rising cost of living, but policy has to change too, and that's where activism comes in. This year's commemoration of Labour Day is especially well-timed just a few weeks after a major labour victory: Air Canada flight attendants went on strike and won despite the federal government trying to force them back to work and the efforts of management to turn the public against them. A happy ending? Maybe, but it should not come as a surprise that in the year 2025 that people are siding with the workers and not the managers. To be clear though, one victory does not a movement make. As the trade war and other economic pressures persist, our governments are going to be tempted to start cutting back on bureaucracy, and sometimes those pressures are coming from within their own house like with Prime Minister Mark Carnery looking for a seven per cent cut to the public service. So this Labour Day, we're going to focus on labour activism, and the brand name for that work in Guelph is Justice For Workers.  Lou Thompson and Waida Mirzada will represent Justice For Workers on this week's podcast to talk about the group's mission, their thoughts on the flight attendants' strike, and what lessons they took from the union's success that can be applied to labour organizing. We also talk about why you can't separate social justice issues from labour issues, why we need to use political power to humanize people, and what's driving the difficult job search in Guelph. Plus, what is Justice For Workers planning next? So let's get into some pre-Labour Day labour chat on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can learn more about Justice For Workers Guelph at their website, or on social media on Facebook or Instagram. The team from Justice For Workers will also be at the Labour Day Picnic hosted by the Guelph and District Labour Council in the red pavilion of Riverside Park on Monday September 1 from 11 am to 2 pm.  The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're back! After taking a midsummer break, we come back with some of your favourite characters from this past season including the buffoonish U.S. President, and our oafish Ontario Premier, and in the third topic, just in time for Labour Day, we'll have some genuine labour news to get excited about! We might have taken some time off for the last couple of weeks, but the new sure didn't!! This Thursday, August 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Dark Skies. Flight attendants from Air Canada went on strike last weekend, and they looked to be on strike for the long haul until the two sides reached a deal on Tuesday. Despite pressure from the federal government and the courts, the CUPE represented workers remained defiant after spending years doing, on average, 30 hours of unpaid work every month. Meanwhile, workers and average folk are showing incredible solidarity on this issue, so is this the Labour (Day) revolution we've been waiting for? "A Little Poke." That's what Premier Doug Ford says he wants to give the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. In Ottawa for AMO this week, Ford looked to secure his bonafides as "Captain Canada", but back at home he's still getting hit hard for school infrastructure funding, benefiting the friends with the Highway 413 route, and new concerns about the finances of Ontario Place anchor tenant Therme. Is Ford the one that needs poked? Baked Alaska Summit. For the first since he ordered a full-scale invasion into Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin was on U.S. soil and gratefully received by President Donald Trump. Three hours later, the leaders announced that they had *not* reached a deal to end the war that Russia started, and scuttlebutt says members of Team Trump were shook by what they had seen behind closed doors. Since then, Trump met with European leaders, including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but did any of this Nobel Peace Prize baiting get tangible results? Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, there is no End Credits. Well... there's going to be a show, but it's going to be an episode of End Credits that you've heard before, or probably heard before. Yes, if you've seen the calendar lately then you know it's time for our midsummer break. As usual, we're taking a couple of weeks off for August so that we can enjoy some summer sun! See You at the Beach! It's been a busy year at the movies; we sinned with Sinners, flew with Superman, and we caught up with at least half of #PedroSummer. So we're pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, decided to take a couple of weeks off so that we can enjoy some time away from the screen, big and small. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. End Credits, as you know, means "friendship". See you in a couple of weeks! Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 27. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

The CAO position is the highest ranking official in local government that doesn't have the job title of either mayor or city councillor, and it's the only staff position at city hall that's hired by a committee made up of the mayor and councillors. So yes, it's a pretty important job, and it's not like there's any shortage of issues or needs for the new woman in charge as she nears the end of her first year in charge. In January, we got a chance to sit down with City of Guelph CAO Tara Baker. At the time, she was just coming off a difficult budget confirmation process and prepping for a year that was going to be focused on housing development. Now there have been some hiccups on that second one, despite the fact, as you'll hear, Baker has a daily reminder in her office about its importance, and Baker has the experience to know what's important to Guelph. Before becoming the CAO, Baker had spent 13 years at Guelph city hall, including the last eight as the City Treasurer and the General Manager of Finance. If the emphasis is to be put on affordability now, as it was with the last budget she worked on as Treasurer, it puts even more pressure on Baker as she's managing all the spinning plates in her new office. On this edition of the podcast, she told us what comes next. Back in January, Baker joined us to talk about why she wanted to be the CAO, why she thinks she stood out from the other applicants and the changing role of the CAO position after the introduction of Strong Mayor Powers. She will also talk about the search for a new City Treasurer, and the greater emphasis on affordability when it comes to City business. Also, she will discuss the changes she's making to the job, and what she wants her legacy to be when it becomes her turn to retire from the role. So let's get the 4-1-1 on the current CAO on this week's Guelph Politicast! You can see Baker's plan for goals and objectives that were presented to city council earlier this year here, and you can just learn more generally about the CAO office here. And speaking of podcasts, you can check out Baker's latest appearance on Breezy Breakfast from April and you can find that pod on whatever platform you listen to his one on. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify. Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 before it catches up to us again. Be Normal. Welcome to summer vacation! We've made it through a lot in 2025 so far including two month-long elections, and the daily deluge of insanity from the present occupant of White House. There's been the start and stop of the trade war, the nonstop wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and some general anxiety about global crisis coming down the pipe next. Bad news is inevitable, and there will surely be more of it, but for the next two weeks tune in, drop out, and bring on some outdoor activities. See you in a few weeks! *Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 21. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

This week on End Credits, there is no End Credits. Well... there's going to be a show, but it's going to be an episode of End Credits that you've heard before, or probably heard before. Yes, if you've seen the calendar lately then you know it's time for our midsummer break. As usual, we're taking a couple of weeks off for August so that we can enjoy some summer sun! See You at the Beach! It's been a busy year at the movies; we sinned with Sinners, flew with Superman, and we caught up with at least half of #PedroSummer. So we're pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, decided to take a couple of weeks off so that we can enjoy some time away from the screen, big and small. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. End Credits, as you know, means "friendship". See you in a couple of weeks! Programming Note: End Credits will return with new episodes on August 27. End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

Guelph loves its cultural heritage! As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the city in 2027, we're seeing more and more of a focus on our local history, but there's something else happening in 2027... the elimination of the heritage registry. Any property listed, but not designated, on January 1, 2027 will be deleted. The stakes, and the workload, have never been this high! That's the primary reason why it seemed fitting last fall to talk to members of heritage planning staff. Since the passage of Bill 23 in 2022, they've been in a mad scramble to preserve as much heritage as they can, as quickly as they can with a record number of approval already for 2025 and the year is only half over (at least in council terms). Coming up in the fall? Even more approvals and further progress on key files like the three heritage conservation districts.  But since recording this pod things have gotten more complicated. Several designations have faced delay or deferral after objections brought to council based on the additional onus placed on the property owner due to the designation, and what seems to be a misunderstanding about the limitations of those designations. This may change in the fall as heritage planners pass more voluntary designations, but for now, is there a growing sense that they're doing too much, too fast?  Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon, who are heritage planners at the City of Guelph, joined us last December to talk about what kind of year it's been for heritage, the status of all the heritage conservation district studies and the special controversy around the recent presentation about the OR Lands HCD. They'll also talk about public engagement, why development is not a bad word, what's coming up in 2025, and why we maybe need to start loving architectural brutalism(?). So let's dig into the very busy heritage file again on this edition of the Guelph Politicast! The next scheduled meeting of Heritage Guelph is on September 4, and in the meantime you can visit the heritage planning page on the City's website to get the lowdown on various plans and strategies. For your information, you can see the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties here, and stay tuned for future engagement opportunities on the OR Lands, Downtown and Ward West Heritage Conservation District studies. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify. Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 before it catches up to us again. Be Normal. Welcome to summer vacation! We've made it through a lot in 2025 so far including two month-long elections, and the daily deluge of insanity from the present occupant of White House. There's been the start and stop of the trade war, the nonstop wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and some general anxiety about global crisis coming down the pipe next. Bad news is inevitable, and there will surely be more of it, but for the next two weeks tune in, drop out, and bring on some outdoor activities. See you in a few weeks! *Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will return with new episodes on Thursday August 21. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 Salmon will discuss: The Happy Madison Movie Draft. Adam Sandler is a movie-making machine. His production company, which is named after his first two movies, has been cranking out hits for himself and others for decades, and not just comedies either. In honour of the latest Happy Madison entry, we will talk about some of the best and brightest that they've put out over the years, from the regulars to the perhaps even the rare dramatic turn. REVIEW: Happy Gilmore 2 (2025). Thirty years ago, a would-be hockey player became a golf sensation in the first of many big comedy successes from the House of Sandler. Now Happy is back on the links courtesy of the Sandman's long standing relationship with Netflix, but does he still have it? And by "it" we mean mass appeal and anger management issues. The usual collection of Sandler regulars and family members are all here for the mighty return of Happy, Shooter and all their friends, but will the audience come back for more? Programming Note: End Credits will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Wednesday August 13 and 20. We will back with new episodes on Wednesday August 27.  End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 Guelph Fringe is a can't miss event for theatre fans and the theatre curious. First, we will talk to Bridget Cann from Staccayto Staccato, the Toronto-based musical comedy troupe who staged last year's Guelph Fringe "Big Buzz Award" winner, Make Up! The Musical. It's a musical comedy show that's completely made up! Using suggestions from the audience, they come up with a whole one hour musical with improvised characters, plots, places, and, of course, music. Then, we will talk to Christel Bartelse, a Toronto-based actor/storyteller, comedian, and director and educator. Her show is A Woman of My Age, which Bartelse both wrote and performs, is her seventh solo production after ONEymoon, Chaotica and All KIDding Aside which have toured to fringe festivals all across Canada, and the U.S. and also to Edinburgh, the largest fringe festival in the world. And finally we will talk to Julie Lyn Barber and Michelle Dvoskin. Turbulent Architect, written and performed by Barber and directed and dramaturged by Dvoskin, offers a candid, heartwarming, and hilarious guided tour of the chaotic inner workings of Barber's mind. Barber is an actor, singer, director, choreographer, musical director, and the Head of Musical Theatre at Purdue University Fort Wayne while Dvoskin is a director, intimacy choreographer, performer, playwright and an associate professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance at Western Kentucky University. On this week's episode the four of them will talk about their shows, their inspirations, and the challenges in staging their production. We will also talk about their backgrounds, what makes a show “fringe”, and what they hope the audience will leave with when the show is over. So let's talk about some of this year's shows at the Guelph Fringe Festival on this week's Guelph Politicast! The Guelph Fringe Festival runs from Thursday August 7 to Sunday August 10. You can see the full schedule and buy tickets at their website. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday. Programming Note: Guelph Politicast will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Wednesday August 13 and 20. We will back with new episodes on Wednesday August 27. 

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 education conversation going with this week's guest. This Thursday, July 31, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: "The Worst Case Scenario of Famine..." Just when you think thing couldn't possibly get worse in Gaza, they do. The famine is now undeniable, to the point where even U.S. President Donald Trump couldn't deny it when asked. Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile says there is no famine, and this despite the fact that people on the ground in Gaza note that not only are people starving to death, they're being killed while trying to get what little food that's coming in. Is this finally enough? 33 and We. Before breaking for summer, the Ontario government revealed Bill 33, which will give them more power over school boards, universities and colleges and even children's aid societies. People have noted the shades of the Student Choice Initiative, which an Ontario court said was unconstitutional, but it also undermines local democracy (again) by overriding the authority of elected school boards. Is this the next great Ford government scandal we're not talking about yet? Fife's Out. We haven't heard about long-term care in a while, but one MPP has been working on one part of that file for almost seven years now. Catherine Fife is trying again to pass a private member's bill to keep senior couple together in long-term care, which sounds simple but has become a year's long project. We will talk to Fife about it, and we will also talk to her about issues around post-secondary education, and how Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles talked about it during her leader's tour stop in the region this week. Programming Note: Open Sources Guelph will be running previously enjoyed episodes on Thursday August 7 and 14. We will back with new episodes on Thursday August 21.  Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: The Best of 2025... So Far! So we're a little late with this given all of our 400th episode festivities earlier this month, but it did buy us an extra month to take stock of the movie year so far. How are we doing? Well, we will dig into that very question by talking about some of our early contenders for the "Best of the Year" so far including something Canadian, something action-packed, something funny, and something sexy! REVIEW: Superman (2025). It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... a reboot! James Gunn has flown the relative safety of Marvel (where he made the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy) and has taken on the massive task of creating a big, better DC Universe starting with Superman. This Man of Steel is less serious and dour than its predecessor, but Gunn's still injected a surprising amount of real world relevance. Plus, there's a super dog! There's a lot riding on Superman, especially as the comic book movie bubble is bursting, but can we still believe a man can fly? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 Guelph. What will be impact when Trump slaps 35 per cent on tariffs on Friday? On the other hand, maybe Trump will initiate another pause on implementing new tariffs. Does it even matter at this point? Businesses big and small depend on stability because if things are stable, you make reasonable predictions for the future in regard to planning, growth, marketing and hiring.  Andy Veilleux arrived in the president's office at the Guelph Chamber the day after Trump retook the White House, and when we say “arrived” we mean from outside of town. His most recent job was as Director of Policy & Government Relations at the Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, a community similar to Guelph in some ways, but very, very different in others. There's a lot on Veilleux's desk, so what does he intend to do about it while also adapting to life as a new Guelphite? We will dig into all that and more on this week's edition as Veilleux discusses his background and experience, why he made the move to Guelph, and what he's learned about life in the city so far. He will also talk about the present business challenges, and why the Chamber of Commerce is about more than just business interests. Plus, he will discussthe importance of the University of Guelph to the city's overall economic health, and what he wants his tenure at the Chamber to be about.  So let's talk about business on this week's Guelph Politicast! You can follow him on social media @andyveilleux on Twitter and Instagram, and you can check out his poetry at his website. He will also be speaking at the Rotary Club of Guelph in their monthly meeting on Friday September 19 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can register at the Rotary Guelph website. For more information about the Guelph Chamber of Commerce, you can find them at their website or on social media on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 say in by taking two different levels of government to court. Can't we all just get along?! This Thursday, July 24, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Fifty Trades of Grey. At a meeting in Huntsville this week, Canada's First Ministers met with Prime Minister Mark Carney to talk about - what else? - the trade war with the United States. Donald Trump has made another one of his famous proclamations, 50 per cent tariffs will be put on Canadian goods starting August 1, but what can Canada do about it? That's a question no one can answer. Is there any way out of this mess, and is inter-provincial trade really the answer? Battle River Front. As Carney looks at getting one over on Trump, Pierre Poilievre is looking to get back into the House of Commons. His route back to the chamber is through a by-election in Battle River-Crowfoot, a riding the Conservative candidate won in April with 83 per cent, so easy, right? Not so fast, because about 200 people are crowding the ballot for the August 18 vote, and Poilievre can't show weakness before a January leadership review. Can Pierre take his perch back? Kill Bills. Last week, nine Ontario First Nations launched a constitutional challenge to both Bill 5 in Ontario and Bill C-5 nationally. The two omnibus bills make legislative short cuts for massive infrastructure projects, and they were passed without any consultation with First Nations leaders, who are now forcing the issue. This week, we're joined by one of those leaders, Chief Todd Cornelius from Oneida Nation of the Thames east of London, about the goals of the Constitutional challenge and the state of reconciliation in Canada. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: Back to Back to the Future... at 40! So for the first episode of our four-hundreds, we're going back to where it all started, the 80s! This month marks four decades since the release of Back to the Future, the time travel adventure comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, and we will start this week's show by doing a deep dive into why the affection for this movie spans generations. REVIEW: I Know What You Did Last Summer (2025). Speaking going back in time, this week's movie takes us back to the 90s. Sort of. Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. return along with a new generation of hot young people who make a big mistake one summer night and start paying for it one year later... with extreme severity. Before we get the hook, we will head back to legacy town where we will learn again that while we might be through with the past, the past is not through with us. And neither is the guy with a fishhook! End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 the wake of the growing number of encampments downtown council adopted the Public Space Use Bylaw to restricted them to certain areas, and then early this year they restricted them further with an amendment to bar encampments in parks near schools and daycares. Then, the Ontario government passed new laws to allow the swift removal of encampments last month, which is all meant to appear that there's progress on dealing with homelessness.  In reality though, it has just made life for people living in encampments a lot harder. Seeking help could be an invitation to getting yourself, and anyone else in the camp, evicted, and then where will you go? In this situation, there are very few people you can trust, but one of them is Danny Liu, who was a pharmacist in Guelph for years but now spends his days visiting the people in greatest need in all the places they've tried to make some kind of home. Today, he's going to talk about how things are going.  Lui joins us on this edition to talk about the current conditions in encampments around Guelph, the kinds of issues he's seeing, and the barriers they're currently experiencing when it comes to getting the help they need. Also, he will talk about the impact of the closure of the safe consumption site, and why self-medication is sometimes the only relief that unhoused people can get.  He will also share his insights about the ways that Wellington County social services is falling short. So let's learn about the current state of encampments on this week's Guelph Politicast! Both the City of Guelph and the County of Wellington have pages on their websites about how they assist residents who are currently unhoused. If you're looking at ways you can help out with donations or volunteering your time, you can talk to Stepping Stone, Guelph Community Health Centre, and Stonehenge Therapeutic Community. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 about Guelph stuff (no lie). This Thursday, July 17, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: G.I. Jerks. Last week, the RCMP arrested four people in Quebec on the pretty serious sounding charges around a plot to commit an act of "ideologically motivated violent extremism," and, as an unexpected bonus, three of them are presently active duty members of the Canadian Forces. It's been a concern for a while that the ranks of our military include members with extremist sympathies, but this is the first time anyone's been taken into custody for them. How concerned should we be? Working the Jeff. In 2019, financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in federal custody. Or did he? The fate of Epstein, and any damaging information he might have had on other alleged sexual predators, has been the subject of much conversation, speculation, and a traunch of conspiracy theories, including ones submitted by several MAGA luminaries. But now Donald Trump has declared that there's bigger fish to fry, which is tearing MAGA apart with internal fractions. Is this the beginning of the end of the red-hatted cult? Ward Three's Company. Just because it's July, that doesn't mean that things are not busy inside the council chambers at Guelph city hall. This week there were two meetings, and there are two more next week, including the all-important meeting to choose a new representative for Ward 6 out of 26 potential candidates. What will make a good city councillor is a decision that will be left up to all the other city councillors, and this week will be joined by one. Ward 3's Michele Richardson will join us to talk about her thoughts, plus the tricky balance on heritage designations and the local housing crunch. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 pm, Adam A. Donaldson Tim Phillips, Peter Salmon and Candice Lepage will discuss: The 21st Century Movie Draft. Leave your stupid comments in your pocket, it's time for the event you've been waiting eight years for, End Credits 400th episode! There have been a great many movie bangers in the last 25 years and this week we will remember approximately 24 of them. From hobbits to serial killers, and from dog shows to Martin Scorsese's Oscar, we will talk about why the movies of the 21st century have been tearing us apart, in draft form! End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 currently stand with the first six months of 2025 behind us? To help us, we're talking this week with Mike Ashkewe, who wears far too many hats in our community to be listed briefly here. Now Mike doesn't just comment on the news, he sometimes makes the news. Back in April, Mike was one of several members of the former Accessibility Advisory Committee who walked away in the middle of their last meeting due to the unwillingness of city council and staff to give the AAC members the autonomy they were seeking.  The sudden departure of the AAC has cast a big shadow on the way that the City of Guelph handles accessibility issues, but no one talked about it last week at Committee of the Whole as council talked about putting new temporary ramps around Guelph, especially downtown. Of course, that wasn't the only topic at that meeting that had to do with Downtown Guelph including future construction and the Memorial Cup bid, and if accessibility and the Storm are in the news then it makes sense to talk to Mike! So Mike joins us this week to talk about the construction issues coming to downtown, why there needs to be more variety in the core to develop a sense of community, and how hosting the Memorial Cup might generate more of that downtown. He will also address the mass resignation of the previous AAC, and what he thinks the City of Guelph learned from that protest. Also, why is Guelph's subreddit such an infinitely interesting place for discussion?  So let's talk about summer in this city on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can follow Mike Ashkewe on the socials @BirdmanDodd on Twitter, and Instagram, and follow him at birdmanguelph on Blue Sky. You can listen to Mike and sometimes me every week on the This Week in Geek podcast, which you can find on all major podcast platforms. And if you see Mike out and about and you have a dog, let me pet your dog… The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 Thursday, July 10, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Prison Dilemma. A class action lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners inside Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton has raised questions about the abuse, specifically a December 2023 incident where nearly 200 inmates in an entire unit were stripped, searched and forced to sit with their hands zip tied behind their back in the hallway for hours. With four-out-of-five inmates being people awaiting trail, and not yet convicted of a crime, are we ignoring civil rights violations because of a presumption of guilt? 'Shroom Boom! Have you seen these FunGuyz locations around Ontario? A mysterious entrepreneur is funding a chain of stores selling magic mushrooms, and while the government is more open now to the potential benefits of psilocybin, it's still a highly controlled substance in Canada and very illegal to sell. And yet, why are there storefronts all over the place selling mushrooms for cash, and why are police so wildly inconsistent in shutting them down? On the Downtown. It's a busy month at Guelph city council as the members and staff count down to summer vacation, but there's a lot of business to get done between now and August and we're already seeing some of that work out. This week, council tackled massive construction coming to downtown and a Memorial Cup bid, and coming in a few weeks they will choose a new Ward 6 city councillor. This week, we go a little north to Ward 5 in order to ask Leanne Caron what she thinks about all these doings in the Royal City. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss: 21st Century Oscars (Not a) Draft. For our last warm up before episode #400, we're going to tackle Oscar winners in the 21st century. As the famous golden statue approaches it's own century mark in a couple of years we've seen a lot of changes and milestones, like the first Black woman to win Best Actress, or the first woman to win Best Director, or all the provocative snubs that still sting. This week we draft (not draft), our favourite Oscar winners. REVIEW: F1 (2025). Professional car racing has never really yielded a great movie - think about Rocky and boxing, or Field of Dreams and baseball - but has that changed? Joseph Kosinski has followed up Top Gun: Maverick with a tale as old as movies about sports: a seasoned veteran on the cusp of irrelevance (Brad Pitt) takes on a confident but untested protege (Damon Idris) for an underdog effort to become champions despite how the odds are stacked against them. Sounds simple, but has F1 won the summer movie season anyway? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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 playing field? There's been a lot of calls for action when it comes to grocery prices, but the issues actually go deeper. A 2021 report from the federal government found a lack of consistency and formality in the way that retailers were dealing with suppliers in Canada's grocery chain. Mike Von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph told the CBC last year that this is due to the concentration of power in the five major retailers in Canada: Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco. That's why the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct was created. It's meant as a conflict resolution device that will create more transparency and reliability in the way that the stores deal with their suppliers, and also create a more level playing field for smaller, independent grocery retailers in Canada, but what it's not meant to do is directly impact grocery prices. It does start to address a long-standing need for some standardized set of rules for doing business, and that's not nothing. Karen Proud, the president and adjudicator of the Office of the Grocery Sector Code of Conduct, joins us this week to talk about what the Code will do, and yes, what it won't do. She will also talk about what role members of the public will have in its functioning, the timeline, and how they will report their work once it's fully implemented in the next year. Also, how might the Code might tangentially create lower prices anyway, and why did Proud leave a good gig as CEO of Fertilizer Canada to do this work?  So let's decode the Code on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can learn more about the Code of Conduct and get updates about implementation at their website. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

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 awards show? This Thursday, July 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: The Mid-Year Awards Show. A new tradition? Maybe. As many of us relax and recreate this Canada Day week, we will sorta join them with this effort to put the first half of 2025 in some kind of context. If you've listened to the show over these last 10 years, then you know about our annual awards show on or around New Year's Day and it's been very successful. So when something's a success, you spin it off, and this week we will bring our first summer awards segments with new categories, but the same cynicism and wit! Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

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 Peter Salmon will discuss: 21st Century Franchise (Not a) Draft. We will continue our countdown to the 400th episode this week by talking about the movie trend that has affected movie making in the 21st century the most: Franchises. This week we will look at some of the various franchises that proved so popular (and lucrative) in the last 25 years, from action hits to series based on young adult books, animated flicks, and, naturally, superheroes! REVIEW: 28 Years Later (2025). In 2002, Danny Boyle brought back the zombie subgenre with a story about a man who wakes up from a coma and walks out into the apocalypse. That was 28 Days Later, but now it's 28 Years Later. In this long-awaited sequel, Boyle returns along with screenwriter Alex Garland to explore the world of Great Britain 30 years after the end of their world and the outbreak of the Rage Virus. It's the first of a planned trilogy, so does 28 Years leave us wanting more, or have we finally had enough with the undead? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

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, but we need to be in this for the long haul! A couple of weeks ago staff unveiled their plan to proceed with the electrification of transit at a special workshop meeting of council, which was well received but without much interest on the part of council. One of the people that noticed council's seeming lack of engagement on transit matters is a member of a local transit advocacy group who has some ideas that he wants to share some on the matter. On the housing file, some good news broke a few weeks ago when Michael Klein, pejoratively referred to as Ontario's “King of Renovictions”, withdrew the N13s issued to residents of three apartment buildings on Brant Avenue in Guelph. It was a true David Versus Goliath story, and per the legend David ended up winning…. This time. The Brant Avenue residents won the battle, but now they're wondering if they have won the war? So this week, Steve Petric, head of advocacy for the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph, will join us to talk about the lessons that council has not learned about transit planning from our municipal neighbours and the over-reliance on buying new EV buses. Then, Daniel Kaufman, who is one of the people who organized residents at the three Brant Avenue apartment buildings, will discuss  the lessons other tenants in Guelph can take from their example and the current state of things on Brant Avenue. So let's dig into buses and Brant on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can learn more about the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph at their website, or you can visit them at the Guelph Farmers' Market on Saturday morning. ACORN is doing a lot of organizing against Michael Klein, and you can check out their 12-page report into the so-called King of Renovictions at their website. If you need help as a tenant, or any legal advice really, you can reach out to the Legal Clinic of Guelph and Wellington County at clinic [at] gw.clcj.ca or 519-821-2100. The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify . Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.