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: Guthrie Tells Chamber to Just Say “No” to More Provincial Downloading at Budget Breakfast

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On Thursday morning, Mayor Cam Guthrie and Chief Administrative Officer Tara Baker took part in the second annual budget breakfast with the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. If you’ve been following along, there was maybe not a lot of new information about the budget itself, but there was some new commentary from the mayor especially about provincial priorities and why the City of Guelph and other municipalities need more help from Queen’s Park. You can dig into the full recap below! Continue reading “RECAP: Guthrie Tells Chamber to Just Say “No” to More Provincial Downloading at Budget Breakfast” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #495 – Civic Advocacy Still Works! (feat. Ken Thompson & Susan Watson)

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If there’s a reason that Guelph City Council opted to proceed with a vacant home tax a few weeks ago, at least some of that credits goes to Get Involved Guelph who have been raising concerns for years about the number of houses in the Royal City staying empty, especially in the midst of a housing crisis.  Well, the City of Guelph finally agreed that it’s time to act, so what does Get Involved Guelph do for an encore? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #495 – Civic Advocacy Still Works! (feat. Ken Thompson & Susan Watson)” →

RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 18, 2025

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This meeting is all about you and your thoughts about the 2026 budget! 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 during the meeting on Blue Sky or recap the complete thread after the meeting below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 18, 2025” →

This Week at Council: Back to Baker and a Parking Permit

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It was a pretty low-key planning meeting this month at Guelph City Council, and the one bit of friction had nothing to do with the one big planning project that was on the agenda. Yes, parking it always a sore spot in Guelph, but this week it was even a bigger sore spot than usual when the debate came down what was good procedure and what was fast and easy to achieve. Also, we had back to the north side of the Baker redevelopment. Let’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Back to Baker and a Parking Permit” →

POLICE NOTES: Looking for Suspects, Another Crypto Scam, and No Stranger Danger at WECC

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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: Looking for Suspects, Another Crypto Scam, and No Stranger Danger at WECC” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 25, 2025 Meeting?

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It’s going to be a big week for city council with two meetings, but this may not be the biggest one with the other one being about the budget. Still, council will likely have some additional thoughts on a couple of big reports from Committee of the Whole, and they then they will dig into some items concerning the joint committee that the City of Guelph collaborates with the county on. So let’s dig into all the non-budget business in this meeting preview! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 25, 2025 Meeting?” →

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 26, 2025 Meeting?

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The time has come for some budget decisions. The final countdown is underway and zero hour is this particular Wednesday morning when council sits to confirm the 2026 municipal budget! At stake is the difficult balancing act between affordability, maintaining service levels, and coping with the growth of the city, and there will be no easy answers for the ones voting in the council chambers. Let’s look at the long odds in this preview… Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 26, 2025 Meeting?” →

RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 12, 2025

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Let’s start planning, one day later than usual! 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 during the meeting on Blue Sky or recap the complete thread after the meeting below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 12, 2025” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #494 – Electoral Reform? It Could Still Happen (feat. Kevin Bowman)

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It was about 10 years ago this time that Justin Trudeau strode up to Rideau Hall and made history being sworn in as Canada’s 23rd prime minister. There was a lot of hope about what the future of Trudeau’s premiership held, but perhaps no other constituency were hit harder by the political realities of the Trudeau-mania hangover than electoral reform activists. Can changing our voting system still possibly get a fair hearing? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #494 – Electoral Reform? It Could Still Happen (feat. Kevin Bowman)” →

This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!

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It was a big meeting of Committee of the Whole, and one that’s been long anticipated. The topic on this day concern’s a proposed renoviction bylaw and a new vacant home tax. The latter was kind of a foregone conclusion because staff were recommending its creation, but the renoviction bylaw… That was going to be another story. But which version of the story was the committee going to want to tell? Find out in this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: A Renoviction Bylaw Now (or Soon)!” →