It’s not every day that your get raise of over $2 per hour, but that’s what happened on January 1 of this year when the Ontario government’s mandated minimum wage increase went into effect. All those greedy fry cooks and stock boys will now be driving their sports cars and taking European vacations on the back of the small business owners that drive our economy, right? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #109 – Sheila Block, Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives”
Not to alarm you guys, but there’s a municipal election in October. There is certainly anticipation for this event in local democracy, and there’s already a working list out there about who on the present council is running and who is still just a maybe. But let’s forget the horse race for a moment, and talk about the job itself. More than that let’s talk about what the job looks like after doing it for the last three years. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #108 – Gibson and MacKinnon on Being a Councillor”
So I think many of us feel like the last month went by in a blur, there were a lot of big issues, big discussions, and a lot of consequential decisions made by council. So before diving into a new year with new issues and new decisions, let’s revisit what happened in the tired and true format of the clip show. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #107 – Best of OSG: Budget and Hydro”
Before we wrap up 2017, let’s review the year that was at city council. That’s 12 months of decisions and debates on all matters of local governance from big items like merging hydro, to smaller items like approving sign bylaw variances. To take this one on, I needed a team. A group of people that observe city hall as closely as I do. Let’s assemble Guelph’s Crooked Media. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #106 – Guelph’s Crooked Media”
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Yes, there are sex workers in Guelph. Any time the topic is bridged in the corporate media, it comes with this strain of shock that such a thing is happening in our own backyards. Of course it is. Perhaps that’s why sex workers find themselves particularly vulnerable to violence. Hear no evil, see no evil, right? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #105 – Sarah Wilmer, Women’s Community Development Co-ordinator, ARCH”
There were 21 speakers on public delegation night for the 2018 Tax-Supported Operating Budget, and over half of them were there to support the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition. That’s 11 people, who all showed up to speak with the backing of a room full of supporters, either representing themselves, the coalition, or partner agencies that work with the coalition like the Guelph Police Service, and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. What kind of organization drives such passion? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #104 – Brendan Johnson, Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition”
“Gone Guelph.” The very name sounds almost self-defeating. But what began as a kind of memorial to beloved Royal City institutions that are no longer with us, has become a one of a kind collectable that’s brought joy to more than a few Guelphites over the last year. Gone Guelph t-shirts are the toast of the town, and Jenny Mitchell is back, just in time for Christmas, with this year’s new line-up.
It’s often true that simple ideas become wildly popular, but when Jenny Mitchell first had the idea of putting artistic renderings of old store fronts on silk-screened t-shirts she made herself, it didn’t exactly take off. A few months later though, in fact about this time last year, people started hearing about her apparel tributes to Macondo Books, the Trasheteria, and others (including her father’s own Family Thrift Store), and they began selling like proverbial hot cakes.
One year later, Mitchell is back with an all-new line-up of shirts including the Arena, the Guelph Mercury, Cafe Aquarius, and the Boxed Meat Revolution. She’s even got a shirt that’s not a gone business, but a gone mural; an ode to the “Vote for Nobody” piece that was once on the side of what’s now the Making Box, which was reproduced with the permission of the original anonymous artist. Mitchell, an artist and musician by trade, has made nostalgia haute couture in Guelph.
So for this edition of the podcast, we get into the wayback machine with Mitchell and talk about her inspiration for the shirts and their surprising success. We talk about her artistic process in creating each design, and how Mitchell isn’t always necessarily going for photo realism when she interprets old photos onto the t-shirts, and we also talk about the process in choose those images and the sometimes slim pickings in trying to find an image. On top of the mechanics, we also talk about the limits of nostalgia, and maybe if we’re remembering the past with rose-coloured glasses.
So let’s get a cup of coffee from Apollo 11, or some fried rice from Sun Sun’s, or take a seat at the Carden Street Cafe, and listen to this week’s Guelph Politicast.
You can see all the shirts and order them from the Gone Guelph Facebook page here. There’s an early bird special on now if you order before November 25, and, need we say it, they make a great Christmas (or non-denominational December holiday) gift.
The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.
Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday’s episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.
Now that Halloween is finally out of the way, we can focus on the holiday that really matters: Black Friday! Kidding aside, retailers across town are eager to begin the busy Christmas shopping period, but the holiday season is supposed to be about more than just spending, it’s also supposed to be about giving. To that end, efforts are already underway at the United Way. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #102 – Emma Rogers, United Way Guelph-Wellington-Dufferin”
There’s no doubt that there are people in Guelph of limited means that desperately need help, but for every person that knows what need looks like, there are others that see someone poor and sees someone that just hasn’t pulled up their own bootstraps far enough. But seriously, how can someone in the middle class or otherwise upwardly mobile understand the plight of people in poverty? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #101 – Mayor’s Dialogue on Poverty”
It took six long years to get here, but the day has finally arrived. Welcome, to the 100th episode of the Guelph Politicast! To celebrate this auspicious occasion, I wanted a surprise guest. Someone my dedicated audience might never have expected, but nonetheless would enjoy hearing from. In the end, there was only one person I could think of. For 100 episodes you’ve heard Guelph speak, well now you’ll hear from the guy that does “Guelph Speaks”. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #100 – Gerry Barker, Guelph Speaks”
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