Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday March 3, 2016

So that happened. No matter where you reside on the political spectrum, watching the drama unfold Tuesday night had you on the edge of your seat as an intrepid, trail-blazing woman tried to hold her own against a consortium of powerful men had you mesmerized… But enough about the Agent Carter finale! This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’ll eagerly take up the American political discussion again, and mix in the promised dissection of last week’s Ontario Budget. We’ll also talk about the latest developments in Syria, and take a time trip to Guelph’s General Hospital to look at an emergency room emergency situation.

This Thursday, March 3, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Super Tuesday! America continued its slow decline into Mad Max -like post-apocalyptic hysteria this week with a Tuesday vote so special it’s called “Super!” The Final Five on the Republican side of things tried to take each other apart as Donald Trump’s inevitability was tested by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio in a last ditch effort to stymie the billionaire’s populist rise. Meanwhile, amongst the Democrats, Hillary Clinton wanted to seal the deal with the American left, but Bernie Sanders remains a formidable opponent. So was their a Knockout? A Knighthood? A Kingship? We’ll also talk about the elephant in the room.

2) Budget Bomb! The Liberal government in Queen’s Park announced the new budget last Thursday and revealed a surprise move for the province’s post-secondary students: a consolidation of the loans and grants program that will allow low-income students more accessible tuition fees. On the other hand, Premier Kathleen Wynne is now backpedaling on a plan to raise deductibles on prescription drugs for seniors to decrease the cost to low income families. And all the while, pundits are left wondering if Ontario’s still going to meet that 2018 deadline to get rid of the deficit. We’ll look at the good news/bad news of the 2016 budget.

3) 911 in the ER! A report from the Waterloo-Wellington Local Health Integration Network says that the emergency room at the Guelph General Hospital is being brought to a standstill because it’s ill-equipped to deal with people who have mental health concerns. According to the report, 95 per cent of patients with mental health distress that arrive at the E.R. on Saturday, are still there on Monday. As city council looks for ways to fund an expansion of the hospital’s emergency room in the next five years, is there a more pressing crisis already at hand?

4) Syria Success? After months of negotiations, Syria began a ceasefire between most (not all) of the sides involved in the now five-year long Civil War that has seen hundreds of thousands killed, hundreds of thousands more displaced, and contributed to the rise of I.S.I.S. As an unsteady peace settled on Syria, Canada welcomed its 25,000th Syrian refugee just before the March 1 deadline, but while Canada continues its welcoming ways, Europe struggles with its own political situation, as borders get tighter, and the people just keep on coming. Is there a light to the end of the tunnel, or are we being too optimistic that there’s still a practical solution here?