Happy Canada Day, boys and girls! Let’s talk about Greece, and the United States. This week’s episode of Open Sources Guelph will take you abroad to sunny Greece, home of democracy and home to the first developed country to ever default on its IMF loans. Then we’ll go back to the U.S. of A. to bask in a rainbow of openness and [some] bigotry. Back here in Canada, we’ll look into the merits of making the wallets of those earning minimum wage thicker, and we’ll check in on what’s turning into the election that will never end (and it hasn’t even really started yet). Our present for Canada’s 148th birthday? The best of topical political discussion.
This Thursday, July 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Emergency Grexit? Greece took its ball and went home, only to be forced to wait and see if that home is foreclosed on. The deadline for Greece to accept the EU’s terms and get another bailout payment came and went, which means they technically defaulted on their loans from the IMF. All eyes now turn to Sunday’s referendum and whether the country will pull out of the Eurozone entirely, but Greece’s leaders are also signally that they’re willing to make concessions. What will happen next?
2) SCOTUS Giveth (and Taketh Away). Barack Obama had a very good week in front of the Supreme Court of the United States, achieving handy victories for the Affordable Care Act and countrywide legalization of gay marriage. Basking in the glow of those two victories, one could understandably miss Monday’s news that the Supreme Court threw out the Environment Protection Agency’s limits on mercury emissions from coal plants. Despite that setback, observers are wondering, is the typically conservative United States flirting with greater liberalism?
3) Maximizing the Minimum. Alberta is making moves to be the first province in Canada to approve a $15 minimum wage, one of a number of cities, states, and provinces to consider the idea in order to help close the growing disparity between the rich and the working poor. The Guelph group 15 and Fairness will be having a meeting at the Shelldale Community Centre later this month to discuss the matter, but is a $15 minimum wage the key to help reverse income inequality, and what will the impact on businesses big and small be?
4) Is it Election Day Yet? In the last seven days we’ve seen Dean del Mastro walked out of court in irons like a common thug, a Conservative spokesman claim that his party’s advertisements are more truthful than the news, HarperPAC coming and going, Justin Trudeau rolling out his environmental policy, and Tom Mulcair being accused of nearly becoming a Conservative if the price was right. All this is making us ask, is it Election Day yet?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
Open Sources Guelph 