Canadaland once said of Kurt Phillips that he was hunting Nazis online before it was cool. Experts in online hate like Phillips have been very busy lately following the developments of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, which has now launched several branch convoy protests, including the most recent one on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. How did it get this far? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #310 – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
This month, there are Winter Pride events in Guelph, and Pride events are all about promoting visibility and acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. But while the Pride movement’s come a long way, there’s still a long way to go for complete equality. Consider healthcare. We like to think our healthcare system in Canada is barrier-free here, but the barriers for trans people can be immense. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #309 – Healthcare for Trans People Doesn’t Just Happen”
Think about this for a second: Where can you go in Guelph if you want to use your French language skills? Seriously. This is a bilingual country, and unless you have friends or family that speak French or live in an area with a lot of French speakers, where do you go, and who do you talk to, if you want to speak French? That maybe about to change. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #308 – Une maison de la francophonie à Guelph”
As of January 1, 10C Shared Space took over the management of the Guelph Farmers’ Market. The goal is simple: turn an underperforming asset that’s only open five hours a week into a new economic hub and accelerator that ties together food security, sustainability, local markets, and opportunity development. Getting there is an ideal challenge for Guelph’s community changemaker. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #307 – New Year, New Market”
With all things COVID back on the front burner, it’s easy to temporarily forget everything that happened in the last few years around fighting systemic racism and embracing social justice. The City of Guelph is trying to make progress towards a more equitable and representative system seriously, but let’s ask the person who knows best: Is the City of Guelph making real progress on tackling issues of systemic racism? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #306 – Taking the System Out of Systemic Racism”
City council gets back to business next week, but before we open the book on 2022 we need to sign off on what happened in 2021. Picking up where we left off in episode #286 of the Guelph Politicast, and the last meeting of council before summer break, we start in September and follow the blow-by-blow of every fight around the horseshoe. There were even some non-fights. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #305 – …The Rest of the Year at Council”
This is the last episode of the podcast for 2021, and in the spirit of the season we’re going to access our memories from the last 12 months. This was a long hard year, nothing went the way it was supposed to, and it threw a lot of roadblocks in our way, but now, at the end of the year, we will take stock of all that’s happened, and how it might affect us in the new year. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #304 – Guelph Stuff (2021 Year in Review)”
In less than two weeks, we enter the year 2022, and that’s an election year in Ontario. In the spring, Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservatives will aim to make a case that they should be re-elected for a second term, but the knives will almost certainly be out for them. But what about the one Green MPP in the legislature? What kind of year will 2022 be for him? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #303 – Christmas With Mike”
One of the first episodes of the Politicast this year was a conversation with Councillor Leanne Caron about heritage issues in the City. It would kick- off a year with a lot of heritage issues on making the front page, from discussion about inadequate communications to the controversy around the demolition of 797 Victoria Road North. So the year ends how it began, with a discussion about Guelph’s heritage issues. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #302 – A Heritage Moment”
It’s not often you pick up a copy of the Globe & Mail and see your sister and her family on the front page, but it’s also not everyday that a town somewhere in Ontario almost blows up. Around dinner time on August 26, two buildings in Wheatley’s downtown area exploded. The source, apparently, is a gas leak, but nobody’s sure and dozens of residents were relocated for safety. One of them was my sister. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #301 – The Town That Dreaded Sundown”
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