Author: Adam A. Donaldson

When he’s not the main/only contributor to Guelph Politico, Adam A. Donaldson also contributes to GuelphToday.com as their city hall columnist and co-hosts a political and current affairs show on CFRU 93.3 fm called “Open Sources Guelph" as well as the movie review show "End Credits."

RECAP: Board of Health is Back and Talking Diseases! (And Other Stuff)

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Even though it’s February, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health had their first meeting of the year, and since it was their first meeting of the year there was a lot of housekeeping to do right off the bat. In the meat of the meeting, there was some discussion about the impact of certain diseases in the community, the health needs of priority populations and, naturally, feedback about public health itself. Let’s recap! Continue reading “RECAP: Board of Health is Back and Talking Diseases! (And Other Stuff)” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #454 – On Overthrowing “The King” (feat. Jacquie Wells)

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ACORN is on the frontline of fighting the housing and affordability crises for low and moderate income people and in Ontario they’ve invested a lot of attention lately on one bad guy, Michael Klein. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the so-called “King of Renovictions”. Last week the two sides came face-to-face, sort of, at the Landlord Tenant Board, but don’t think this is the end of the fight! Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #454 – On Overthrowing “The King” (feat. Jacquie Wells)” →

RECAP: Committee of the Whole Meeting for February 4, 2025

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It’s February, and you know what that means: audit and public services (apparently). You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: Committee of the Whole Meeting for February 4, 2025” →

This Week at Council: Six Minutes and Five Seconds

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So it was a short city council meeting this week. Really short. Good thing then that we have some unfinished business from last week’s council business, the Local Boards and Shared Services budget for 2025. The actual business of passing the budget was, itself, brief, but there was a lot explaining about what the budget is paying for, especially in the case of social services, the library, and the police. So let’s dig into two meetings for the price of one. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Six Minutes and Five Seconds” →

POLICE NOTES: A.I. Nudes, Fake RCMP, and Two Break-Ins in 24 Hours

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There are 145,000 stories in the Royal City, and this is some of them. Looking at a week’s worth of media releases from the Guelph Police Service, there’s a lot going on in our little city crime-wise speaking, so let’s run down some of the charges, issues, and requests for information from the Guelph Police Service over the last seven days. Continue reading “POLICE NOTES: A.I. Nudes, Fake RCMP, and Two Break-Ins in 24 Hours” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the February 11, 2025 Planning Meeting?

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This month’s planning meeting features no new developments, but it does lay the potential ground work for future developments. Coming up at this meeting is the first phase of how high we can go downtown, and another new community improvement plan. We will also hear about two objections to two different heritage designations, and, for a change of pace, we will talk about trains (on the same night as the GJR shareholder meeting)! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the February 11, 2025 Planning Meeting?” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the February 11, 2025 Shareholder Meetings?

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A shareholder meeting? In February? Has the world gone topsy-turvy?! Not really. While it’s true that the shareholder meeting for both Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. and Guelph Junction Railway is in June, there’s a kind of small but important piece that city council needs to do as the shareholder for both these organisations before they close out the fiscal year. Let’s get into it! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the February 11, 2025 Shareholder Meetings?” →

MEETING PREVIEW: Board of Health Meeting for February 5, 2025

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As usual, the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health is getting a late start to the year, and for their first meeting of 2025 they will get themselves sorted before they get this month’s public health concerns sorted. The Board will play musical chairs, and then they will dig into quarterly and annual reports that will address the current health condition in the region and the current status of some of your favourite diseases(!). Continue reading “MEETING PREVIEW: Board of Health Meeting for February 5, 2025” →

Ontario Election Officially Begins!

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With the Lieutenant-Governor Edith Dumont dissolving the legislature at the request of the Premier Doug Ford, the surprise, though not-surprising, 2025 Ontario general election has begun! If you’re wondering about the election basics like when to vote, where to vote, or how to vote, Elections Ontario has provided this information as we formally begin the countdown to Election Day on February 27!! Continue reading “Ontario Election Officially Begins!” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #453 – The Changing Food Bank (feat. Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy)

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It’s hard to think of any aid agency busier these days than the Guelph Food Bank these days, and to prove it, they went to city council last November during budget delegation night to ask for help. It might come as a surprise to learn that the Food Bank has never received any government funding, but it’s proof that food insecurity is now outside their control, and it’s the reason for changes that they’ve started to undertake. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #453 – The Changing Food Bank (feat. Carolyn McLeod-McCarthy)” →