Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday July 28, 2016

After taking a week off, we have a lot of politics to catch up on with this week’s Open Sources Guelph. First, we’ll go to Philly where history was made as the first woman to win a major party nomination accepted with the trepidation of some in her party. It was serious stuff, the kind of stuff that make you want to take a trip to the circus. The Republicans threw one last week in honour of coronating their 2016 nominee, the orange-coloured ego man. Hopefully, this is something that will not be repeated next year when the Federal Conservatives and NDP choose a leader here in Canada. Speaking of circuses, the Canadian senate is hoping to go back to relative anonymity now that its members have all been cleared of criminal charges. It would be a crime to miss this week’s episode.

This Thursday, July 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) Fun in Philly. After the apocalyptic vision of modern America offered by Donald Trump and the parade of disgruntled GOP politicians and C-list celebrities called the Republican National Convention, it had to be smooth sailing for the Dems right? Not so fast… Even before Wikileaks info-dumped emails revealing that the DNC was in the tank for Hillary Clinton, and way before it was revealed that Russian hackers may have been behind it, discord was in the air. The so-called “Bernie Bros” weren’t prepared to cede the race to Secretary Clinton even though things have lined up in her favour, and, you know, it was kind of the point of the convention. With all the talk about disunity amongst Republicans, is the real party of disharmony the Democrats?

2) The Carnival in Cleveland. The Republican National Convention featured a procedural meltdown, demands to send the Democratic nominee to prison, birtherism, plagiarism, racism, misogyny, and a moment that saw the presumptive nominee phone in an interview to Bill O’Reilly as coverage of the major speeches began at his own convention. And that was just the first night! The GOP meet up in Cleveland was just as fractious and demented as predicted, but in the end, everything seemed to come up Trump as the now anointed Republican Presidential nominee rallied everyone around the fire of America’s ruin and promised that he, and only he, can cancel the apocalypse. With Trump and his running mate Gov. Mike Pence experiencing a post convention bump in the polls must we consider the possibility that – sigh – President Trump might be one stop closer to a reality?

3) Business as Usual. It seemed like only yesterday that the names Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallen and Patrick Brazeau were akin to ‘mud’ in the Red Chamber of Parliament Hill, but now free of any legal entanglements, it seems that bygones are bygones between all the members of the upper house. Just last week, Brazeau was back at work after being cleared of criminal charges relating to senate fraud, and Duffy re-hired two prominent staffers who were embroiled in the cover-up of his alleged misclaimed expenses, and told the senate we won’t be paying back that last $17,000. So all’s well that ends well, right? Hugh Segal even says the trio deserve an apology for their treatment. So what’s going to happen in the Senate now that everything is back to normal, no one had to accept any consequences, and nobody seemed to learn any lesson?

4) Oh No They Aren’t! Last week Tony Clement threw his hat in the ring to be the next leader of the Federal Conservatives, a road he’s hoed twice before without success. Still, Clement is probably the most high-profile and well-established name that has yet to nominate himself for the Conservative leadership race. Clement joins Michael Chong, Kellie Leitch, Deepak Obhrai and Maxime Bernier on the ballot, but what of the big names like Peter MacKay, Lisa Raitt, and, heaven forbid, Kevin O’Leary? Some are saying the all-stars are waiting out the inevitable electoral defeat to the Liberals in 2019 before committing, and if that’s true, will that be the excuse of some potential NDP leadership candidates? That race still has only one declared candidate. We’ll update both races.