Category: Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #392 – Caution’s Creek Part 1: The Past

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This is one of those episodes that’s based on events that predate many of us that have come to call Guelph home in the last few decades. It’s also a story about land issues, and the desire to protect sensitive land from development. It’s had a lot of names over the years including the Kortright Waterfowl Park, the Niska Lands, and the Hanlon Creek Conservation Area, but the story around this property is just as complicated to sort out. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #392 – Caution’s Creek Part 1: The Past” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #391 – A National Park (If We Can Keep It)

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Since it closed in 2000, the Ontario Reformatory, and the 108 hectares that surround it, have been the source of much conversation, optimism and fantasy. We got the Guelph Innovation District Secondary Plan, we’ve got a Heritage Conservation District Study, and now we’ve got a project to turn the area into a national park. Is creating a national park the end game for the OR Lands we’ve been looking for? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #391 – A National Park (If We Can Keep It)” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #390 – How to Cover a Protest in 2023

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For years, Guelph has been a hotbed of protest, a very politically inclined city on a variety of issues including climate change, poverty, workers rights, equality, Black Lives Matter, and the systemic abuse of Indigenous peoples. Last Wednesday, direct action was on display again as people gathered in Market Square, but this was a protest completely unlike any other in a number of ways, and we need to take a moment to unpack things. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #390 – How to Cover a Protest in 2023” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #389 – It’s In the Code

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Have you heard there’s a housing crisis? It’s pretty much all anyone can talk about, which is understandable, and the causes of the crisis are many. But have you thought about the Building Code? Chances are you haven’t, but this important document meant to govern our health and safety indoors might have some holes in it, and it might be causing complications that are getting in the way of desperately needed new units. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #389 – It’s In the Code” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #388 – Book Sale: The Next Chapter

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It’s one week till the Big Book Sale, the annual event that the Friends of the Guelph Public Library was created to administer over 15 years ago. It was a fundraising project launched to show that Guelph had an appetite for a new main library building, and after years of banking all the funds raised, the endgame is finally in sight nearly 20 years later. So what happens when the Friends have achieved their goal? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #388 – Book Sale: The Next Chapter” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #387 – Trade Kraft

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This year, Guelph Public Library CEO Steve Kraft is celebrating 40 years as a dedicated employee of the Guelph Library, rising through the proverbial ranks – or is that stacks – from the counter in the children’s library to the chief executive’s office. As Kraft’s library career in Guelph turns 40, the system he runs is turning 150, and as the Guelph Public Library marks its sesquicentennial in 2023 it’s in the middle of very big transitional period. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #387 – Trade Kraft” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #386 – Alan’s Box (A Labour Day Special)

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This weekend is Labour Day, and boy is there labour activity these days. From the Canadian Media Guild workers at TVO to employees at Toronto area Metro grocery stores to municipal workers in Cochrane Ontario, it’s been non-stop labour action in 2023. Our podcast this week isn’t about any of those strikes, but it is about someone who held deeply the cause of advancing workers rights. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #386 – Alan’s Box (A Labour Day Special)” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – The Ongoing Paramedic Stress

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It happened again on the August long weekend. Offload delays at the Guelph General Hospital created some long line-ups for ambulances, and a couple of days before that there was another Code Red. The story has been repeating itself for over a year now, too many ambulances lined up at the hospital and not enough available in the community, but how do the paramedics themselves feel about the pressure they’re under? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – The Ongoing Paramedic Stress” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #385 – The Year at Council So Far…

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In August, there’s usually no council business to talk about but there are unusual times so on the same day the annual mid-year council recap goes live we get a super-unusual August council meeting. In this very busy first year of a new council term, perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that council business would burst over the side and flood the vacation months, and it all comes down to a single word: housing. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #385 – The Year at Council So Far…” →

GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – Counting Down to (Net) Zero

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“Hot enough for ya?” A charming conversation starter in summers past, but here in August 2023 it seems more like a damning curse. Last month was the hottest month on the planet in a few hundred millennia, forest fires rage out of control in several provinces, smog from those fires choke cities in the south, and now there’s the threat that the Gulf Stream may be gone by 2025. What can we do on the local level in the wake of all these developments? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – Counting Down to (Net) Zero” →