Guelph Politicast

Adam A. Donaldson
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The home of Guelph Politcast, Open Sources Guelph, and End Credits

  1. 1D AGO

    GUELPH POLITICAST #511 - Gab Fest and Scrambled Eggs (feat. The Breezy Breakfast Gang)

    Breezy Breakfast has been one of the primary venues for local political discussion and information for the last 10 years. Now, not everyone can take time out first thing in their busy day to have a sit down breakfast and chew the fat about the doings at city hall, so presented here thanks to the miracle of digital recording tech is all the hot goss and chit chat that you missed when maybe you were on your way to work, or were maybe already there... To put this succinctly, the guest of last week's Breezy Breakfast was some guy named Adam A. Donaldson. The point was to offer some thoughts on Mayor Cam Guthrie's recent State of the City speech, but that was only the beginning of the conversation. In the course of about 60 minutes, we touched on the State of the City, the state of the coming election slate, trying to go behind the curtain of closed meetings of council, the water capacity issues in Waterloo and what it means for Guelph, and the still lingering questions about what went down with the daytime shelter issue over the holidays.  So let's grab some breakfast, and politics, on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!  There will be another edition of Breezy Breakfast this Thursday at 8 am at the Uptown Grill, and the special guest will be Guelph MPP Mike Schreniner. You can learn more about Breezy Breakfast by following them on Facebook, where you can find a link to sign up for the newsletter. You can also get more information by email at breezybullhorn [at] gmail.com.  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.

    59 min

  2. 3D AGO

    Open Sources Guelph #557 - February 19, 2026

    This week on Open Sources Guelph there's tragedy and triumph. First we will head out to B.C. to separate fact from fiction when it comes to events in Tumbler Ridge, which is something we can do thanks to a liberal arts education that the Ontario government is now making more difficult to attain. As for triumph, that's a local matter. We will talk to the newest member of Guelph City Council about some good news stories. This Thursday, February 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Tumbler Ridge. There was tragedy in northern B.C. last week when 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar killed nine people and injured 25 others in the worst school shooting in Canadian history. A lot of the controversy has focused on Van Rootselaar's gender orientation, but there's been little focus on her deeply rooted mental health issues, or the limited resources to deal with such things in small communities like Tumbler Ridge. Are we missing the so-called forest for the trees here? Taking the 'Fun' Out of Funding. You can't say that the provincial government isn't working because still over a month before their inevitable return to Queen's Park, they announced changes to funding for post-secondary institutions in Ontario. Say "Hello" to more money and "Goodbye" to the tuition freeze and an OSAP formula were students get more in grants than loans. Doug Ford says you'll be fine if you don't major in "basket weaving", but will we? Waterfowl Play. Last week at Guelph City Council tackled two big deals, one was the re-designation of the old Kortright Waterfowl Park on Niska Road and the other was the final vote to designation the Ontario Reformatory Lands as a heritage district. One of the people trying to make sense of it all was Ward 6 City Councillor Katherine Hauser, and in her Open Sources Guelph debut she will talk about deliberating on these difficult files, and the questions about how much city councillors should be paid. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

    57 min

  3. 6D AGO

    End Credits #429 - February 18, 2026 (The Rip)

    This week on End Credits, we find a good Rip. In fact, it's a Rip of a Rip, one of the greatest Rips you will ever see. Boy howdy, are we using the word "Rip" a lot in the new Netflix movie The Rip, which is the title were reviewing today. In other news, we will continue with our celebration of Black Heritage Month by doing a deep dive on another great Black director.  This Wednesday, February 18, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss: Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of Antoine Fuqua. We've done the legend, we've done the indie darling, and now we're doing the populist. Antoine Fuqua started in music videos and graduated to features with the little-seen The Replacement Killers, but his breakthrough was Training Day, which scored Denzel Washington his second Oscar. Washington, one of Fuqua's regular contributors. also led the other move we'll talk about, The Magnificent Seven. REVIEW: The Rip (2026). Based on a true store about Miami cops that found $20 million in drug money hidden in the walls of a home, The Rip takes things in a decidedly dingy direction, a morality play in the best tradition of Narc filmmaker Joe Carnahan. In this one, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon lead of a team of overworked, underpaid cops who find $20 million in a wall, and then all hell breaks loose. Who can they trust? Can they trust each other? A low stakes, high drama crime movie is the epitome of a "Dumpuary" classic, but can The Rip get us there? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

    57 min

  4. FEB 18

    GUELPH POLITICAST #510 – The Unknowable(?) History of the Waterfowl Park (Real Audio News)

    Last week’s discussion at city council about the City of Guelph buying a portion of the old Kortright Waterfowl Park lands on Niska Road captured a lot of attention from the community and community activists. No one’s going to debate the need for more parks and open space, but it's hard to get a full sense of the history of *this* because it goes back before the internet, so can we ever really have a firm sense of that background and the stakes? We're going to try harder this week with a Real Audio News segment. In this one, you will first hear delegations from the September 22, 2023 and June 28, 2024 Grand River Conservation Authority board meetings where they discussed the Niska Land Management plan. After that, you will hear the delegations from the July 16, 2025 special meeting of Guelph City Council where the land management plan was discussed in connection to the Strategic Plan. And finally, to wrap up, you will hear a portion of this week’s Open Sources Guelph interview with Ward 6 Councillor Katherine Hauser about where the work to protect the waterfowl park goes next.  For some supplementary reading, you might also want to check these links out:  Niska Land Holdings 2023 Draft Management Plan Dr. Hugh Whiteley's timeline of the site A 2016 community editorial piece by Susan Radcliffe. Let's get into the Wayback Machine on Niska on this episode of the Guelph Politicast!  You can hear the whole interview with Councillor Hauser on Open Sources Guelph on Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU. You are encouraged to check out the further reading linked to above, and a final decision about the rezoning of the property as open space/parkland should come back to council sometime in June or possibly July. You can also hear the two part Policticast pods about the Niska lands by clicking here and here. 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.

    1h 5m

  5. FEB 16

    Open Sources Guelph #556 - February 12, 2026

    This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're walking our beat. To begin with we've got eyes on potential corruption in Toronto-area police services, and then we'll be taking a couple of our biggest political leaders aside to see how much they're colluding together to get us back to the polls. And speaking of polls, we will talk to someone presently running for office, in fact, you might say that they want to be a leader. This Thursday, February 12, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: Cop Rocked. Last week, York Regional Police announced a massive bust that included charges against seven current and one retired officer in the Toronto Police Service. The alleged crimes are numerous and quite concerning in their implications, and now Ontario's new inspector general on policing is looking at every police service in the province to make sure their officers are acting above board. Will this lead to any real changes in policing? Marked for Election? A Globe & Mail article painted a picture of an interesting political alliance: Ontario Premier Doug Ford is advising Prime Minister Mark Carney to call an early election and secure the majority he needs to bring economic stability to a trouble land. The polls say that fortune may be in Carney's favour, but it does raise some questions about why Ontario's Conservative premier is making strange bedfellows with the Liberal PM. What's the political calculation? Pick Heather? While some people are getting ready for another national election, the NDP are looking to elect a new leader, and one of the candidates in that race is Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson. With less than two months to go before the membership make their final decision, McPherson will tell us how the NDP needs to rebuild for tomorrow, and the next election, and why their next leader has to lead from inside the House of Commons. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

    55 min
  6. End Credits #428 - February 11, 2026 (Whistle)

    FEB 14

    End Credits #428 - February 11, 2026 (Whistle)

    This week on End Credits we will hear the call... of death! What a movie choice for Valentine's Day week as we blow a whistle calling for a painful and excruciating end in the new horror movie Whistle, which you can now see in a theatre near you. Also, we will talk about our latest entry in marking great Black directors for this Black Heritage Month!  This Wednesday, February 11, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss: Black Heritage Month Special: The Movies of Kasi Lemmons. Black Heritage Month marches on, and this week we get to our indie pick. Kasi Lemmons started her career as an actress, usually as the white female protagonist's best friend, and then transitioned to a career behind the camera. This week, we will look at two of her films, the one that started her directorial career, Eve's Bayou, and a recent historical epic she made, Harriet. REVIEW: Whistle (2026). If you found a creepy Aztec whistle in your locker - which used to belong to a dead boy - on your first day of school, would you blow it? If you would, you might be in a horror movie! In Corin Hardy's Whistle, five photogenic high schoolers find themselves in just such a predicament, unaware that whoever hears the whistle blows will end up being hunted down and killed by their own death. Creepy? Absolutely. Whistle is the kind of 80s-style crowd-pleaser horror that they just don't make anymore. Is it good, or does it blow? End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

    57 min

  7. FEB 11

    GUELPH POLITICAST #509 – Pulse Check on the HART Hub (feat. Melissa Kwiatkowski)

    This time last year, we were in the middle of a provincial election, and that made a lot of things complicated, not the least of which was a delay in funding for the Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment, or HART Hub. But almost one year later, and after a recent announcement about funding for expanded service, do we need to ask the question: Is the HART Hub actually working? To recap, let’s talk about what the HART Hub is. The goal is to provide care, housing, and treatment for people in the community with the most complex needs including people experiencing complex mental health and/or addiction challenges, housing instability or homelessness. For Guelph and Wellington area Community Health teamed up with CMHA Waterloo Wellington, Stonehenge, Wyndham House and Homewood and despite provincial disarray, they opened on time last April. How did they do it? As you will hear, a lot of the work at the CTS that went beyond the provision of a safe space to use substances, made it easy to convert to the HART Hub model. Then last week there was news that might definitely indicate its working when the Hub received funding to support an additional 150 people through enhanced housing stability and clinical supports. So is the HART Hub experiment a success, or is it still too soon to tell? Melissa Kwiatkowski, the CEO of Guelph Community Health Centre, will joins us to discuss the progress made in the last year, pivoting to prevention, and how the additional funding will complement the current services offered at the Hub. She will also talk about the ongoing effects from the closure of the CTS, the difficulty in measuring success of its programs, how the HART Hub will grow next, and whether they're able to do any long-term planning so far as provincial funding is concerned. So let's take the pulse of the HART Hub on this week's Guelph Politicast!  You can learn more about Guelph Community Health Centre at their website, or you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram. You can learn more about the HART Hub specifically here, and if you’re looking for help for yourself, a friend, or family member you can call Here 24/7 at 1-844-HERE247 (437-3247), or call the Wyndham Street office directly at 519-821-6638, and press option #3. 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.

    30 min

  8. FEB 9

    Open Sources Guelph #555 - February 5, 2026

    This week on Open Sources Guelph we have doubts. In Alberta, we're really skeptical about the ability of the ones that want to separate, and in the U.S. we're have regret about writing off some people as cranks in the wake of some very scandalous revelations. For the interview, we have doubts that anyone is thinking about the most vulnerable students in Ontario and our guest this week thinks so too. This Thursday, February 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss: #Wexit By the Grift Shop. Since last summer, there's been a growing separation movement in Alberta, and it got mega-charged last weekend with the federal Conservative policy convention in Calgary and news that political organizers are meeting with the Trump administration for support. There are still an awful lot of hoops to jump through, including an actually referendum, so is the Wexit movement getting ahead of their skis or is it all just a show? Was QAnon Right All Along? The release of over three million emails by the U.S. Department of Justice in the case of deceased serial human trafficker and sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein show a man with all kinds of relationships and liaisons among business leaders, academics and politicians, some of which looked innocent and some of which very much not so innocent. Have we been too hard on those conspiracy theorists this whole time? Not Cool In Your School. The recent move by the Ontario government to take over schools boards is having an impact on students, but some students are feeling the impact more than others. David Lepofsky of the AODA Alliance was already in a fight about the lack of action at Queen's Park over a report to improve accessibility, but now the school board takeovers might exacerbate those problems. Lepofsky will join us to talk about why disabled students are getting left behind even more than before. Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

    56 min
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About

The home of Guelph Politcast, Open Sources Guelph, and End Credits

Information

  • Creator
    Adam A. Donaldson
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    300
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2013 Adam Donaldson. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Guelph Politicast