News and Politics with a Local Voice
This week we get an Open Sources before Open Sources. In this special, additional hour of the show this week, Open Sources Guelph will wrap up our one-on-one interviews with council candidates before getting into our last interview of the election season, which will be live from the studio. Continue reading “Open Sources “Bonus-sode” Show Notes for Thursday October 18, 2018″
After the Liberals won election last year, some civic minded web builders thought, “Hey, Justin Trudeau and his party made a whole lot of promises in this campaign, why don’t we measure their success?” There’s been so much talk lately about promises broke, and promises seeming like they’re bring broken, I decided to check out the TrudeauMeter, and the score is 90 not started, 68 in progress, 37 achieved and 28 broken. It’s easy to understand the compunction. It’s only natural that we want to measure things according to their success or failure. It’s another way of saying something is good (successful) or bad (failure), but should be using something as subjective as campaign promises to be the judge of a government’s success? Continue reading “The Weekender: When is a Promise Not a Promise?”
About three people sent me the link in quick succession, and by the end of the day I had talked to maybe another three people in person about the fact that Gerry Barker was being sued by one of the City of Guelph’s upper managers. Barker, the erstwhile creator and provocateur of Guelph Speaks, has made it his business to talk smack about anyone at the City of Guelph, he thinks, make his taxes too damn high. Frankly, given his acid tongue and one-track mind, it’s a wonder that this is the first time someone’s taken Barker to court, but to be honest, as good as it feels to see him sued for half-a-million dollars, this isn’t the way to do it. Continue reading “The Weekender: Why Are You Making Me Side with Gerry Barker?”
Last year, Open Sources Guelph hosted Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie for a full-hour of discussion after only just six months since his 2014 election to head of the Royal City’s government. It was a tremendous success, and it was thanks i to you, our beloved audience, who gave us such great questions to ask the mayor live on air. So in the grand Hollywood tradition of doing things so right the first time that we have to do it again for a second, get ready for #AskMayorCam Part 2: Electric Boogaloo! Continue reading “Get Your Questions Ready for #AskMayorCam Part 2!”
If you pay attention to the goings on at Guelph City Hall, it would not come as any great surprise that a high level position’s been vacated this week, but the part that was surprising was just how quickly and quietly it was done. Two paragraphs, buried on the city website with no notice sent out to the media, revealed that Transit Manager Phil Meagher had been terminated “without cause” after over three years at the helm of Guelph’s bus fleet. Subsequent reporting revealed that Meagher’s departure also meant the end to the possible implementation of the Transit Growth Strategy that he had helped shepherd for the last two years. With the budget process about to begin, I think we know what that means… Continue reading “The Weekender: Transit Cuts Are Coming. I Guarantee It.”
It was announced last week that city council will be setting aside a whole Monday night on November 7 to let the public have it, a rake out against Nestle and water-taking from local and area aquafers for bottled water that is. Considering that a council motion to basically say just that, along with a preceding protest in front of City Hall, gathered hundreds of Guelphites together, it was a shrewd move on the part of council and the mayor to answer community interest in the issue by giving it a platform. Only one thing is standing in the environmental lobby’s way to give Nestle the swift boot out of town, and that’s the mayor himself, Cam Guthrie. Except, yeah, he’s really not. Continue reading “The Weekender: Guthrie Ain’t the Water Boogeyman You Want Him to Be”
It’s a constant, valiant and mostly thankless struggle to keep a city’s infrastructure working properly. The only time people notice it is when it fails or is getting replaced. York Road looks like a war zone these days but when it’s finished, it will be a showpiece. In about a month, everyone will marvel at the freshly paved tree lined street with a bike lane that will score a perfect 10 on the Guelph Factor scale. What they won’t see are the tons of new water pipes for both supply and waste below the surface. The only visible change for the sewers will be that each cast iron drain lid has a fish stamped into it. This will hopefully prevent those who are tempted to dump liquid waste down a street grate from doing so, keeping it out of our various bodies of water. If caught, you will immediately be…
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