Open Sources Show Notes for Thursday November 3, 2016

This is almost over, folks. Not Open Sources Guelph, of course! The show will go on for the forceable future, but when it comes to our first topic of the week, it will, mercifully, be almost over. We’ll look at the last days of the 2016 presidential election, which had at least one last good twist for the final week of campaigning. We’ll also catch up with all the latest from Guelph City Hall as things have been heated lately and look to get even more heated over the next several weeks. From there, we’ll consider the federal scene and whether our government is acting inappropriately in raising political funds, and then it’s off to North Dakota where there’s no end in sight for the protests there.

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

1) The Final Countdown. To the relief of people across the planet, the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election will be over on Tuesday. That relief will be short-lived if Donald Trump ends up the 45th President of the United States, but the polls seem to to indicate with less than a week to go that Secretary Hillary Clinton still has a comfortable lead in many of the key states. Only one thing stands in her way now: Email. And FBI Director James Comey. And a constituency that’s terminally convinced that Hillary likes to hide things. Unfortunately for everyone with a stake in this thing, we have no idea what the FBI is investigating or who, but one thing’s for certain, in a couple of days this will all be over. Probably.

2) Gyrings and Firings. Last week was a contentious one at City Hall as a shareholders meeting about Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. devolved into an airing of grievances about which councillors supported actions that resulted in millions of lost investment and when. On top of that, Transit General Manager Phil Meagher was fired under suspicious circumstances, or at least down low circumstances. Considering that the annual budget deliberations are beginning, a time of year that always wears on intrer-council and staff relations, it seems like an odd time to start sewing new resentments. We’ll take a look at all the recent doings at City Hall, and look ahead to just how raucous the budget deliberations this year will be.

3) Angle and Cash. The Justin Trudeau Liberals are in trouble again, and the issue is cash-for-access fundraising. Once again, the press and opposition are looking at fundraisers for cabinet ministers with top-level (read: rich) donors with a critical eye. Trudeau says there’s nothing to see here because the donation limits are so small that its not nearly enough for people to buy influence, but many people are not so easily convinced, especially since this is the second time this year that this very issue has come up. If donors with deep pockets aren’t getting preferential access, they why hold the fundraisers, and even if they are getting preferred access, hasn’t this the way politics has always been run?

4) Standing Rocked. When you’ve got the Avengers and the Justice League working against you, you’ve got to wonder what side you’re on… This is the state of the protest of the Standing Rock Sioux and allies, and those constructing the North Dakota Access Pipeline they’re so dead set against. On Friday, private security started assaulting protestors in a move that immediately garnered widespread condemnation, and then the U.N. stepped in and said that the U.S. Government should stop all construction until the matter can be resolved. Monday revealed the possibility that the local police were using Facebook to identify protestors, which started a wave of people checking into the protest sight to start skewering the alleged surveillance. We’ll talk about the latest goings on, and whether this situation is any closer to reaching an end.