This week on Open Sources Guelph, we’ll be ping-ponging between matters at home and abroad. In Canada, the leader of the NDP will finally be back in the Commons after winning one of three contentious by-elections, and in Ontario, controversies continue to pile up for the provincial government. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, two world leaders are meeting to accomplish something, while “something” seems to be exactly what we got from the Vatican’s meeting on sex abuse last week. Yay! More good news!!
This Thursday, February 28 at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Singh for the Moment. After a hard-fought campaign with more than a little controversy, Jagmeet Singh finally gets the chance to join the House of commons after winning Burnaby-South. Will a seat in the House mean that the NDP can start building momentum leading up to the Federal Election? And speaking of momentum, the People’s Party candidate got a strong 10.6 per cent finish in that riding, what does that say about the party’s long odds? Meanwhile, in Outremont, the Liberals took the seat once held by Tom Mulcair. So what does all this add up to looking ahead to the fall vote?
Kim’s Convenience. North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met again in Hanoi, Vietnam this week for goals that are, at best, nebulous. Trump wants to be seen doing presidential stuff, and win himself a Nobel Prize, and Kim wants to be seen as a world power player by meeting with the U.S. president, but neither of those things lead to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. Meanwhile, Trump is burning the candle at both ends as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, testified in an open session of a Congressional committee Wednesday. We’ll catch up with a busy news week in the States.
Spaghetti Uh-Ohs. When we last left the Ford government, they were dealing with the fallout of changes to autism funding, which took another turn when it was confirmed that Lisa MacLeod, Ontario’s Children, Community and Social Services minister, had ordered a freeze on expanding services to make the wait list longer, and that she misquoted a Windsor parent to support the government’s plan. Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, the PCs held a $1,250 per plate fundraising dinner even as their fundraising so far for 2019 far outpaces all the other parties combined by about six-to-one. So what’s next at Queen’s Park.
Church and Hate. Pope Francis called everyone to the Vatican last week to discuss an urgent matter that’s been at least 20 years in the making, the sexual abuse of women and children by priests. While victims appreciate the attention, they walked away feeling less than assured that the leaders of the Catholic Church are going to take action and deliver long-term consequences to abusive priests. Case in point, an Australian court last week convicted George Pell, the Vatican Treasurer, of child sex abuse, the highest ranking member of the Catholic clergy to be convicted so far. So is this the start of a new age of reconciliation for the Church, or not?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.
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