Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday October 20, 2016

This week on Open Sources Guelph, good news! After waiting and hoping that things might heat up for the Conservative leadership race, we have several more people to consider after a week of moves and announcements. In more good news, it seems like one of the world’s biggest employers has gotten the message: investing in people pays, and meanwhile in North Dakota, press freedom scored some kind of victory because a judge decided there wasn’t enough evidence to jail a reporter for doing her job. And finally, a grumpy old man decided if he can’t win the house, he’ll burn it down and salt the earth. Three out of four ain’t bad.

This Thursday, October 20, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:

1) The Raitt Stuff or Erin to Run? After a fairly light summer of developments in the effort to succeed Stephen Harper as the next leader of the Conservative Party, there have been several new moves in the last week. Lisa Raitt stepped down from the shadow cabinet, seemingly with an eye to throw her hat into the ring, and former veteran affairs minister Erin O’Toole hopes to do for the party what he did for that beleaguered ministry when he took it over. Two men from British Columbia are also looking to sign-up, while Tony Clement signed off with his latest desire to the lead the Tories. So it seems like things are heating ahead of the party’s leadership vote in May, but is that enough to overcome Justin Trudeau, who’s still beloved after a full-year in power, in 2019?

2) The Wage Master. For decades now Walmart’s been known for it’s low prices and big profits, and the only way they knew how to get there was by cutting staff wages and hours. The result of that philosophy, much to the boardroom’s surprise, was an overworked, under compensated, and less loyal staff, and the results were having a negative effect on the chain’s bottom line. After a year-long experiment investing in its own people, Walmart is showing promising results, which got us thinking, if a company like Walmart has suddenly discovered the value of paying people what they’re worth and are getting good results from it, will the rest of the business community follow?

3) The Goodman Escape. CFRU listeners enjoy the daily reports of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, but if the State of North Dakota had it’s way, she’d be known as the future host of “Imprisoned Now!” Fortunately, Goodman will not be trading her studio for a cell anytime soon, as a judge did not find probable cause to justify riot and trespassing charges pressed against her while covering the protests by North Dakota’s Indigenous people against the construction of a controversial pipeline. Goodman’s win represents a rare victory for press freedom, but the fight is far from over, especially considering the opining of some people that the media is part of rigged system…

4) Trumpy Old Man. After a week that saw several women come forward to accuse Donald Trump of doing everything he said he did on a leaked Access Hollywood tape, the Republican nominee for President took a different tact. As his wife went on TV to say “boys will be boys,” Trump was burning down the house in a figurative sense claiming that the whole world is against him, and if he does lose the election, it’s because the system has been rigged. It’s a dangerous place to stand, and even his fellow Republicans are trying to talk him off the ledge, but don’t think that stopped The Donald, the most put upon rich, white guy in the history of the United States. And now they’re trying to take Pepe the Frog away from him too. In the meantime, we’ll try to squeeze in some time for poor Hillary Clinton.