We’re back! It’s back to business as usual this week on Open Sources Guelph as the team re-unites to tackle the latest issues of the day. We’ll kick off with the circus south of the border, which promises get even more circus-y now in the final two-month stretch of the campaign. Up here in Canada meanwhile, the Ontario PCs have won a beachhead, but can they use it to build a coalition for 2018, and at what cost? Another Conservative, one trying to win federal party leadership, has encountered trouble of her own making, and a beloved Canadian moose news anchor announces the date of his final broadcast.
This Thursday, September 8, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
1) Cough Drop? They say that after Labour Day, the campaign really begins, but what does that look like in the Trump era? Well, it apparently begins with a post-long weekend bump in the polls for the GOP nominee, who is now statistically running neck and neck with Secretary Hillary Clinton even though he can’t articulate a coherent immigration policy, his signature issue. Clinton, meanwhile, had a bit of a cough Monday, a fact unlikely to dissuade conspiracy nuts who think she’s hiding health issues. The polls seem to be panning out that the email issue is hitting Clinton hard, even though the smoke has yet to yield fire. We’ll try and make sense of this campaign week that wa… But wait, the luggage!
2) St. Patrick’s Day. The Progressive Conservatives did what was once thought impossible, they won the riding of Scarborough-Rouge River last week in a provincial by-election that marks the first time since the riding’s creation in 1999 that it didn’t go Liberal red. But to what to we owe this breakthrough? Is it ennui with Liberal governance? Did the incumbents get caught with their pants down not putting more effort into campaign in the dog days of summer? Certainly there are many in the PC Party who are hoping that it wasn’t a letter from leader Patrick Brown that promised to repeal the new sex-ed curriculum. That’s the sort of dead weight social that could cost someone the premiership. We’ll look at the angles.
3) Kellie Disservice. The Federal Conservative leadership race took a hit to its own attempt at Sunnier Ways last week when the campaign of Ontario MP Kellie Leitch sent out a survey that asked the question if there should be some kind of “Canadian Values” test for new immigrants. Coming from the woman that’s still trying to live down what could easily be the worst campaign idea of modern political times, the Barbaric Cultural Practices phone line, Leitch should have known better since she was there when they announced the BCP line and got politically hung for it. With every Conservative basically throwing her under the bus for the questionnaire, is Leitch’s leadership ambition over? And have the Conservatives turned a corner in terms of indulging its nativist leanings?
4) Petered Out. In a surprise announcement, Peter Mansbridge told Canada that he would be stepping down as host of The National come next summer. Many of us have noted that Mansbridge has been mostly checked out for some time anyway with Fridays and summers off the last couple of years, but to hear that he’s hanging up his anchor hat after over 25 years as lead anchor for CBC is still a kick to the nostalgia bone. We’ll look back on Mansbridge’s career, his nearly $1 million per year price tag, and whether celebrity anchors matter in modern news gathering as we kick off the one year countdown to a “Canada Without Mansbridge” (trademark pending).
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
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