Guelph Politicast Adam A. Donaldson

This week on End Credits, we're doing endings and beginnings. On the subject of the latter, we're talking about a new movie that officially marks the first release of the Summer Movie season, a little - but big - movie called The Fall Guy. As for those endings, we will talk about the current state of the franchise that used to launch every summer, and why it's struggling.
This Wednesday, May 8, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
The Blame Endgame. It's been five years since the release of Avengers: Endgame, the pinnacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. No Marvel Studios movie has every been as successful, before or since, and while some of that blame can fall on the pandemic and the strikes, part of it is probably a loss of direction since the series reached it's natural conclusion in Endgame. To begin this week's show, we'll start with the End and everything after.
REVIEW: The Fall Guy (2024). Summer begins with  throwback,  a good, old-fashioned action movie with an emphasis on stunts and practical effects, plus it's got romance and humour. It's also self-referential and takes place against the backdrop of the movie business, and it's based on an cult favourite 80s TV show. It's also got the star-power of Ryan Gosling, newly minted as "Kenough", plus his fellow 2024 Oscar nominee Emily Blunt as his partner in crime, but with so much going for this movie, how can it possibly deliver, and why does it still manage to deliver?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

Earlier this year, Statistics Canada reported that there has been a five per cent increase in positive responses in the proportions of adults who reported excellent or very good mental health, a strong sense of belonging to their local community, and a high level of life satisfaction between 2021 and 2023. And yet, considering that still less than three out of five adults report excellent or very good mental health, we still have a long way to go.
If you’re listening to this on Wednesday, then we’re halfway through Mental Health Week, which is an annual commemoration by the CMHA to promote better overall mental mental health in communities across Canada, and boy does that need some promotion. The theme of this year’s Mental Health Week, and yes there is a theme, is “Be Kind.” Meaning that we're focusing on "the healing power of compassion" and appreciating that "kindness is equally intrinsic to our humanity."
It’s hard to think of a better time to send out a message about kindness and compassion. Have you been on the internet lately? To say that there’s a lot of anger and hate and vitriol seems like an understatement. Then we’re seeing online hate and disgruntlement affect us here in the real world as more politicians are seeing anger and division as powerful campaign tools, and foreign governments see dividing a people against each other as a way of achieving their own transnational goals. 
It really feels like we need to call a time out and ask each other sincerely, "Are you okay?" which is what Helen Fishburn is here to do this week on the podcast. She's the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association Waterloo Wellington and she's going to discuss the overall mental health condition of the Guelph community right now, what it means to have “mental health literacy”, what the various levels of government could be doing to lend a hand, and how you can work to improve your own mental health.
So let's talk about getting better, mentally speaking, on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can see all the programs and events that the CMHA has planned for Mental Health Week at their website. If you do find yourself in immediate crisis you can call the Here 24/7 helpline 1-844-HERE247 or 1-844-437-3247 for one-stop access to 11 different local agencies that work in mental health and addictions, and you can also call the Suicide Crisis Helpline at 9-8-8. If you feel like you need help, do reach out and ask for it. 
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we reconnect with our roots. It's been a busy week for student protests and campus shutdowns, and it's not escaped media attention, but getting less media attention is B.C.'s move to re-criminalize drugs, which may be a big step backwards. As always, this media is focused on local, and we will talk to a city councillor that maybe making a move from local to national.
This Thursday, May 2, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Shock and Quad. Pro-Palestinian protests are nothing new to university campuses, but they've blown up in the last few weeks do to clashes between police and students at Columbia University in New York. Solidarity protests have popped up on other campuses, and now there's a political game being played about free speech and the cultural wars, but is the coverage missing the point of these protests in the first place?
Re-Criminal Minds. In a shocking move backwards, the provincial government of British Columbia has decided to re-criminalize the use of drugs in public spaces. Many are seeing this as a pre-election move by Premier David Eby to seem tough on crime, but activists are concerned about hitting rewind on hard fought progress on harm reduction strategies. Has the pendulum swung back to policing our way our of the addictions crisis?
O'Fork in the Road. A couple of weeks ago, reps from Guelph and Wellington County met at the third session of the Health and Housing Symposium, and one of them was Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O'Rourke. On this week's show, she will tell us what she got out of the symposium experience, and we will also talk about O'Rourke's new political endeavour, a play to take her skills and experience to Ottawa as Guelph's next MP!
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

Every year, four or five people are plucked from Guelph’s sporting history and are immortalized for all eternity on the walls of the Sleeman Centre, but one doesn’t spend a life in local sports to be immortal. It’s a passion that can span a lifetime, which is what decades of Royals might say about Paul Ante, who has been one kind of Guelph Royal or another for the last half-century.
Paul Ante been a part of the Guelph Royals Intercounty baseball team for over five decades as a player, coach, manager, and administrator. He's helped lead the team to championships, and he runs baseball clinics every year to help even younger players to develop their skills. Imagine all the lives that Ante has touched in 50 years being involved with the Guelph Royals and Guelph baseball.
And Guelph history is so indelibly tied with the sport of baseball. The Guelph Royals organization has existed in one form or another since 1861, and it even roped in George Sleeman in the 1880s who invested big in order to bring American talent to Guelph. The Royals are such an institution that they also survived their own near-death experience in 2016, and that's owed to the dedication of people Ante, who will once again be at first base on opening day later this month!
Ante took time out from getting ready for the 2024 baseball season to join us on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast to talk about his life and career in baseball in Guelph, how he feels about getting into the Hall of Fame, and what he thinks is the secret to his success in baseball. He will also talk about the difference between being a coach and being the boss, what to look out for in the upcoming season, and the role that sports has played in shaping his life and career.
So let's play ball on this inaugural edition of the Guelph Sportscast!
Paul Ante will be inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame at the Induction Ceremony & Kiwanis Sports Celebrity Dinner on Wednesday May 15 at the Italian Canadian Club, and you can find info on tickets and other inductees here. The Guelph Royals 2024 season home opener is on Saturday May 18 at 1 pm at Hastings Stadium. You can get all ticket information at the Royals' website.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.

This week on End Credits, we work on our serve. Summer is here, so we have thoughts about getting outside and getting involved in sports, and romance (?) The two are combined in the new film Challengers, which was the number one film at the box office last weekend. And speaking of summer, it unofficially begins this weekend in theatres. Stand by for a preview!
This Wednesday, May 1, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
Summer 2024 Movie Preview! For the first time since 2006 (excluding the pandemic), the summer movie season begins with a film that's not a Marvel movie. The Summer Movie Season officially begins this Friday with The Fall Guy, a straight-up action comedy starring Ryan Gosling, which is emblematic of what might the most uncertain movie slate of any summer in decades. Still, it looks like there will be some bangers, and we will seek them out!
REVIEW: Challengers (2024). Is Zendaya a movie star? Sure, she's a BFD to the Disney Channel set 10 years ago, and then she graduated to big franchises like Spider-Man and Dune, but can she hold court (heh) as one point in a romantic triangle in a big, old-fashioned Hollywood love story. The answer is in Challengers, the latest movie from Luca Guadagnino. Set against competitive world of tennis, Challengers followers three players caught between love, sex, ego, money, competition, and status. It's a capital 'S' star vehicle for Zendaya, but do we want to take the ride?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

As we count down to the 200th anniversary of the Canada Company settling Guelph in just three years, you can expect to hear more about how we’re honouring our history in Guelph, both pre- and post-settlement. Between that moment John Galt cut down that first tree and this moment listening to this podcast, there’s been a whole lot of Guelph history, and one man has published a new collection about some of those lesser known bits that you should definitely know.
This week, we're joined by Ed Butts, a local author and historian. Butts has dedicated much of the last decade inspecting all of Guelph’s nooks and crannies, looking at all the forgotten tales, the forgotten celebrities, the newsmakers and royals who came to town, and all the times that no one liked what was in the headlines. Butts has taken all this and woven weekly adventures through Royal City history for Guelph Today, and the Guelph Mercury before that.
Now, Butt’s collected some of those tales in a new booked appropriately called Guelph Stories. From the origin of certain Guelph landmarks, to all the mysterious and still unsolved crimes in Guelph’s underbelly; from that time after World War II when Guelph City Council banned midnight movies to Anne Jamison who lived in Guelph between her birth in Ireland and Hollywood fame on the radio, Guelph Stories is 300 pages of local character that money can’t buy (although buying a copy of the book will cost you $30). 
On this week’s podcast, we will go behind the pages, as it were, to talk to Butts about how the book, and the history, came together. He will tell us about how his Guelph Story started, how he seeks out the history he tells and how, sometimes, the history comes to him. We will also talk about how he knows when he’s found a good story, and how he separates fact from legend when he’s doing research. Also, which local history nerd would win a round of Jeopardy! that focuses on Guelph history?
So let's dig into the story behind Guelph Stories on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can get your copy of Guelph Stories at The Bookshelf independent bookstore downtown, and at the gift shop of the Guelph Civic Museum. You can also email Butts about getting your copy by sending your order to edpbutts [at] yahoo.com. You can also stay up-to-date, so to speak, with all of Butt’s latest insights into Guelph’s rich and varied history by reading his weekly column at Guelph Today.
The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, TuneIn and Spotify.
Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.